Howto:Multiple Emergency Calls

In the scenario there are one or several extensions being called in case of emergency.

In emergency situations a simple procedure is an advantage, and therefore an emergency call should work calling always the same number. Example airport: in an emergency situation one or more users try to call the tower. It is important that all those calls of the authority are immediately connected, having priority over eventual normal calls.

Here the other request:

The emergency calls must have a priority over eventual other existing calls.

If the called extension is busy the far party must go automatically in a hold status and should not participate to the emergency conversation.

At the end of the emergency call the previous caller should be connected again if the called user like that (and in the meantime the call has not dropped).

A called extension could also have activated a call forking, for example to a mobile device. Even in this case priority should work.

If an emergency call is up and a second emergency call is done to the user also this call must be connected immediately. More calls could be added.

The feature should work on busy and idle user, the caller has to dial always the same number.

All that can be done just ding the correct setup in the innovaphone PBX, no external SW is necessary. The only thing to take in mind is the availability of DSP cannels, see relative chapter.

Here how it works.

Applies To

This information applies to

Version 10 ((should work even with version 9, not tested)

More Information

What the system should do is described in the preamble of this article. To realize it you have to do a specific setup in the innovaphone PBX.

Define a prefix for this feature and create for any emergency extension a BCconf object.

Example: Emergency extensions “123” = Tower, “234” = Police, “345” = FireDep. The prefix for emergency is “99”.

Create a BC conf object for “99123”, “99234” and “99345”.

The simple instruction for the user is “to call in emergency dial 99 followed by the extension”.

Of cause if each extension should be reachable in emergency (not realistic case) you have to create such a BCconf object for each extension. Not a Problem for the PBX, more for your fingers.

Now assign a group to each BCconf unit and make it active, assign then to the user the same group (not active). For example assign “Group123” to the user “123” and the BCconf “99123”.

Observe that you have to enable in the BCconf object the option “Call always as Announcement Call”, Type “Direct” and “Disconnect last remaining user” and in the Phone Setup under “Preferences” “Outgoing allow”.

The behavior is as described, it work even if a forking is done on this user. At the end of the story the secret is just using the well-known priority announcement in combination with an emergency conference.

That forking works also in this situation is cool as well that more emergency calls in the same moment can be done.

Good for simple instruction: it is not necessary give different instructions in case of free or busy, the number to dial is always the same.

As known a free set will be ring called immediately if called from an emergency conference.

DSP

Each emergency call require a free DSP channel, even the called emergency user requires one.

So if for example 4 user calls in priority the Tower, 5 free DSP channels (4 caller + 1 the called one) are required.

Remember that in critical situations things should work: so to be Shure that emergency works always it could be a good idea to dedicate DSP channels, for example using a dedicated IP1060.