About VoiceConnect PSTN SIP trunks
VoiceConnect (PSTN)
Last updated September 27, 2018Integration with a PSTN SIP trunk, known as VoiceConnect, provides inbound and outbound calling to and from the global telephone network for your organization. This gives your organization:
- direct-dial numbers for inbound and outbound calling for StarLeaf room systems
- direct-dial numbers for individuals for inbound and outbound calling
- direct-dial numbers for hunt groups in your organization
- telephone numbers that can be set as the caller ID for outbound calls (and these can be set as a site default and/or organization default or per user or room system)
- the ability to choose a specific SIP trunk for outbound PSTN calls on a per site basis
You will use a SIP trunk provider to connect your StarLeaf organization to the PSTN. StarLeaf Cloud supports SIP trunk providers across the globe. The StarLeaf Portal provides pre-configured templates for each supported provider making it simple to configure.
You will need to choose a SIP trunk provider and set up an account with that provider before configuring your StarLeaf organization with the details of that provider and your account.
Direct-dial numbers are also known as DID (Direct Inward Dialing) in the US and DDI (Direct Dial-In) in Europe and elsewhere.
When you configure a PSTN SIP trunk through the Portal, all users in your organization will be able to make PSTN calls from their StarLeaf app. If you have more than one PSTN trunk configured, you can control how a user’s calls are routed by the configuration of your sites and trunks.
Integrating PSTN SIP trunks with your StarLeaf organization
It is worth considering how you will integrate PSTN connectivity with your StarLeaf organization before you configure any sites or PSTN SIP trunks. For example, is there more than one geographical location in your organization with different requirements; do you have or need hunt groups; do you have homeworkers calling to the PSTN; do all, or some, users need a direct-dial number? Or do you want to enable StarLeaf room systems for telephone calling?
Example one
This deployment example is an organization that needs to provide PSTN connectivity to StarLeaf meeting rooms.
Every meeting room system is allocated with a direct-dial number. The above diagram shows a small organization with only one site and only one PSTN SIP trunk. However, this is a scalable solution which can be deployed across meeting rooms in multiple sites.
There is one site configured, the default site:
There is one trunk configured, the Xampleco trunk:
Xampleco have purchased five telephone numbers and assigned one to each of their five room systems:
Example two
Example two is a small organization with only one site and only one PSTN SIP trunk. There is a receptionist who has a direct-dial number. The receptionist receives all incoming calls from the PSTN to that direct-dial number and where necessary transfers calls to the relevant person, room system, or hunt group. All outgoing calls to the PSTN from all users will use the same trunk and will use the direct-dial number as the caller ID.
There is one site configured, the default site:
There is one trunk configured, the Xampleco trunk:
Xampleco have purchased one telephone number and this is assigned to Richard Cory (the receptionist):
The telephone number is also the Organization default which means that all outgoing calls (from every user and room system) will use this trunk and have this telephone number as the caller ID.
Example three
Example three is a medium-sized organization with a head office, a warehouse, a regional office, and some remote homeworkers.
Direct-dial numbers are allocated to the following:
- The receptionist (Richard Cory) at the head office
- The receptionist at the regional office
- The hunt group
- Two executives
- One room system
There are two sites configured, the default site (UK) and Scarsdale (US):
There are two trunks configured (one for the UK and one for the US):
Xampleco have purchased five telephone numbers on the UK trunk and one for the US trunk.
The telephone number is also the Organization default which means that all outgoing calls (from every user and room system) will use this trunk and have this telephone number as the caller ID.
Outgoing calls from homeworkers will be routed to the trunk that is configured to be the Site default for the US site(the US PSTN SIP trunk in the example), with the caller ID for outgoing calls to be the receptionist’s number.
Outgoing calls from the warehouse will be routed to the trunk that is configured to be the Organization default (the UK trunk in the example), with the caller ID for outgoing calls to be the receptionist’s number.
Note that where a user or room system is not allocated with a direct dial number, any outgoing calls will be routed via the Site default if there is one, or the Organization default.
