VBVoice Station Set support provides the ability to generate calls to directly connected telephone sets, using a station set card such as the Dialogic MSI card. You can build your own PC-based PBX or call center, eliminating the requirement for a PBX and increasing the speed at which incoming calls can be routed to agents or extensions.
Station Set support also introduces the concept of dynamic voice resource allocation to VBVoice. This is principally to allow Station Set interface cards which do not have built-in DTMF detectors or voice processing to allocate voice resources on demand for playing prompts, Collecting digits, and playing tones. This capability may also be used to share voice resources amongst digital lines in applications such as conferencing where the lines do not need voice resources for the total duration of the call.
Changes have also been made to the CallQueue control and the LineGroup to accommodate queuing of stations in the CallQueue control, and dynamic resource allocation in the LineGroup control.
Ring stations
Detect station off-hook (in the LineGroup control)
Connection of calls to a station set from another station set or a trunk line. Provision of dial tone to the caller while waiting for digits and ringback tone while the set is ringing
Incoming calls on trunk lines can ring, and be connected to, local station sets
With the station set support, you can extend a VBVoice application to create a PC-based call center or PBX. Each Station Set card can connect to a number of local station phone sets. Each local station set is assigned a unique digital identifier, called dialing number(DN). Users can use these DNs to call a specified local station. A dialing plan translates the DNs into the station sets.
The Dialing plan is defined under the section [Station Addresses] in VBVOICE.INI. If you have Station Set cards in your machine, VBVoice will automatically create the Dialing plan if one is not found. VBVoice detects the number of stations available and assigns a default dialing number to each station.
The format is as follows:
[Station Addresses]
Station1 = 6211
Station2 = 6212
The default dialing number starts from 6211. You must make sure that each dialing number is unique in the dialing plan. Any changes will not take effect until the VBVoice application is restarted.
If a Station Set card is installed and the one call flow method is used in the application, an additional section [Resources] is needed which is used to define the channels on which outbound calls can be made by the Dial control on a station set.
[Resources]
Outlines1=1-4
This means that station sets can make an outbound call on channel 1 to 4 if they are available.
If the two call-flow method is deployed in an application, this section can be ignored because VB code determines the channels from which an outbound call is made.
VBVoice Station Set uses the Ring control, which manages the station set interfaces, and three Resource Allocation controls, which provide a generic resource allocation capability.
Resource allocation is required to provision digit detection, play, and record services on station set cards, such as the Dialogic MSI, which do not have built-in voice processing support.
This control provides the capability to start a call-flow when a station set goes offhook and also to ring a station set.
Groups resources together for the purpose of allocation
Used in the call-flow to add a voice processing resource from a designated group when required.
Used in the call-flow to release a previously allocated resource.
The Station set features add the ability to wait for a station to go offhook. The call-flow can then provide dialtone and wait for the dialed digits. There is ResourceChannel property in the to the LineGroup control.