On-demand DID provisioning from another PortaSwitch

This chapter provides instructions for how to provision DID numbers from DID suppliers – other PortaSwitch owners on-demand.

Before you proceed with the configuration steps, make sure to obtain from your DID supplier:

1. Per-minute prices applied to you that will be specified in the tariff.
2. Credentials that will be specified in the vendor settings:
   • Host – the IP address of the server, where your account is created.
   • User name – your login to the self-care interface to connect to the DID provider’s server via API.
   • Password – the password to the self-care interface to connect to the DID provider’s server via API.

1. Configure the PortaSwitch owner as a vendor
   • Create a tariff for incoming DID costs
   • Create a DID supplier vendor
   • Define a vendor connection
2. Configure the DID pricing parameters
   • Create pricing DID batch
   • Assign the pricing DID batch to a customer
3. Provision a number
   • Add an alias on the customer self-care interface

In the PortaBilling system, the DID supplier must be configured as a “vendor.” The per-minute rates negotiated with the supplier should be put in the vendor tariff. The system will then calculate the cost for incoming calls, and this information can be used for reconciliation.

1. On the navigation menu on the left, select Service catalog and click Tariffs.
2. On the Create tariff panel, fill in the tariff details:
   • Name – a short name for the tariff, e.g., EasyDIDs tariff.
   • Currency – choose the currency in which the vendor charges you.
     The currency for the tariff may be chosen only once and cannot be changed later.
   • Service – select Voice calls.
   • Applied to – select Vendor.
   • Routing – leave this option disabled, since the calls will not be routed to this vendor, i.e., the vendor will be sending calls to your network.

     

3. Click Save.
4. Open the Rates tab and enter the rates applied to you by the EasyDIDs provider.

1. Navigate to Infrastructure, then select Vendors.

   

2. Click Add and fill in the vendor details. Please refer to the instructions provided in the Create Vendors chapter of the Basic Residential VoIP Service section for a detailed description.
3. Click Save & Edit details.
4. Go to the General configuration panel and select DID provisioning to configure on-demand provisioning of phone numbers.

   

5. On the DID provisioning panel, turn on the On-demand provisioning toggle to enable on-demand provisioning and fill in the information obtained from your DID supplier (EasyDIDs in our example):
   • DID provider – select Another PortaSwitch carrier from the list.
   • Host – specify the hostname and port of the DID provider’s server, e.g., the IP address of the server, where your account is created;
   • User name – specify the login to connect to the DID provider’s server via API, e.g., your login to the self-care interface provided by EasyDIDs;
   • Password – specify the password to connect to the DID provider’s server via API, e.g., the password to the self-care interface provided by EasyDIDs.
   • Vendor DID batch – either select one of the existing ones or provide a name for a new vendor batch. It will be automatically created in your DID inventory.
   • Incoming costs tariff – select the tariff created in the Create a tariff for incoming DID costs step to describe your incoming DID costs, e.g., EasyDIDs tariff.
   • Vendor should send calls to – select your PortaSIP node here, where the DID supplier should send calls to.
6. Click Save.

To create a connection:

1. Open the Connections tab.
2. Click Add and fill in the connection details:
   • Description – type in a short description for this connection (e.g., “Voice calls”).
   • Service type – select “Voice calls”.
   • Type of connections – select “PSTN”.
   • Direction – select “From vendor.”
   • Tariff – select the vendor tariff that you created at step 1.1.
   • Active – leave this toggle enabled.
   • Node – select “PortaSIP”.
   • Capacity – this mandatory field is used to indicate the maximum number of concurrent calls. Specify a reasonable value expected in the near future to monitor the number of concurrent calls made by your subscribers.

To provision DID numbers to your customers and charge for their usage, it is necessary to create a pricing DID batch and define your DID markup within.

1. On the DID inventory panel, select Pricing batches.
2. On the Create a pricing batch panel, fill in the pricing batch details:
   • Name – type in a short name for the pricing DID batch object.
   • Applied to – select Customer, since this is the batch that will be used for charging customers.
   • Type of DIDs – select On-demand from external vendor option.
   • Vendor – select the vendor providing DID numbers for this batch (EasyDIDs in this example).
   • Pricing – select Fee-paying.
   • Pricing parameters:
     • Currency – select the currency to be charged for DID usage. Note that this batch can only be assigned to customers who use the same currency.
     • Additional activation fee – type in 5 here.
     • Additional recurring fee – type in 8 here.
     • Recurring fee markup – specify a configurable increase of the DID cost (charged by the DID provider) included in the recurring charge in addition to the actual DID cost.
     • Decimal places, number – specify the rounding pattern to obtain “marketable” figures. This will specify the last “pre-set” digits in the figure.

       

3. Click Save.

To assign DID numbers to your customers, do the following:

1. On the Customer panel, select Personal, then General and go to Additional info panel.
2. On the Additional info panel, select a previously created pricing DID batch in the Auto-provision DIDs via batch field. Click Save.

   

Similar to on-demand DID provisioning from external providers like DIDWW or DIDX, a DID number can be provisioned as an alias to an existing account.

Please refer to the How to handbook for instructions on how to add a DID number as an account alias from the administrator web interface.

Alternatively, you can add a DID number as an account alias on behalf of a customer using the customer self-care interface.

1. Log in with the customer’s web access login and password.
2. On the Cloud PBX tab, select DIDs.
3. Click the Add DID button.

   

4. In the Add new DID number dialog box, filter the DIDs by country and area and select a number. Click OK.

   

5. Associate the DID number with the phone line:
   • Click the Edit icon.
   • Select the account from the Assigned to list.
   • Click Update.