Teams Direct Routing / Teams DR

Teams Direct Routing or Teams DR is a functionality released by Microsoft 365 to connect your PBX/SIP Trunk directly with Microsoft Teams Application. There by replacing the need of physical hard phones at your desk and Teams Soft Client becomes your Phone Devices

Now let us understand the below diagram in detail.

In Microsoft 365 we have the users hosted in the Microsoft Cloud with the respective Licenses assigned to the user accounts. These users have the Microsoft Teams Feature Functionality and they can use the Full Fledge Teams Feature with out PSTN Integration. For doing a PSTN Integration there two methods Microsoft is offering which are as below: -

1.     Microsoft Calling

2.     Teams Direct Routing

Microsoft Calling Plans: - I have already discussed the same in my other Two Article what are the permutation and combination this can be used for Microsoft Teams + Calling Plans. Here is the Reference for the same

Microsoft Teams Calling Plans - SMB Segment

https://networking-talks.blogspot.com/2020/01/skype-for-business-onlinemicrosoft.html

Microsoft Teams Calling Plans - Enterprise Segment

https://networking-talks.blogspot.com/2019/09/skype-for-business-online-phone-system.html

Now we would be discussing about Microsoft Teams Direct Routing today in this article. Teams Direct Routing Feature is now available for all the customer from SMB Segment till the Enterprise Customers in around 70 Countries where Microsoft is currently able to offer Cloud PBX/Phone System Licenses.

Here is the Link which you can use the check if the Feature Functionality is available in your country or not.

Countries for the Availability of Cloud PBX/Phone System Licenses

https://products.office.com/en-in/microsoft-teams/voice-calling

Components of Teams Direct Routing

1.     Cloud PBX Licenses/Phone System Licenses

2.     Session Border Controller (SBC) or Voice Gateway

3.     SIP Trunk/PRI Lines with the DID (Direct Inward Dialing) Numbers

4.     Fax Lines (If any)

·        Cloud PBX Licenses/Phone System Licenses

What is the feature or functionality of Cloud PBX Licenses/Phone System Licenses? What do they provide me and why are they required? This is a Traditional Question that comes in the mind of Telecom Admin or the IT Admin of the Organization.

Cloud PBX Licenses/Phone System Licenses basically is required to enable your users with the PSTN Calling Capability. Once you assign the license to the user account the standard functionality of PSTN is enabled for the Users. Below Feature the customer gets

1.     Assigning the user with the DID.

2.     Making a PSTN Calling from the Teams Client

3.     Music on Hold

4.     Call Parking

5.     Call Transfer

6.     Call on Hold

7.     Voice Mail

Let us understand the Cost of the Cloud PBX Licenses/Phone System at the time of writing the article the cost of the Licenses was 8USD per user per month (PUPM). This are the List Cost for the Services available from the Microsoft 365 Portal.

·        Session Border Controller (SBC) or Voice Gateway

Do we require to have SBC at all my Offices? Doesn’t this make my Capex Cost Increased? Do I need to have a separate Team to manage the SBC? What are the Supported Vendors for the SBC? Do we have a choice to skip the SBC?

This are the Traditional Question which we get when we discuss the Teams Direct Routing/Teams DR Solution with any organization. Here are the answers to all the questions.

Session Border Controller (SBC) or Voice Gateway are your medium that acts as a connectivity between Microsoft 365 and PSTN environment. Ex User A of Tenant contoso.com wants to make PSTN Call. Now to make that PSTN Call needs to be send to the PSTN environment and bridging the two environment is the function of Session Border Controller (SBC) or Voice Gateway. Below Images gives you the clear picture.

  

Now do we require SBC at all my offices. The answer is No. We can have centralized SBC at one location as well for all the countries which are called as Unregulated Countries Example United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Switzerland. In all this country we can have centralized SBC supporting the centralized SIP Trunk or the PRI Lines which ever the organization chooses to go ahead.

In Regulated Countries Like India, China we need to have SBC at all the offices. As this are more regulated in terms of the Local Regulation in the market. Hence, we need to have SBC at each office for this country.

The Supported SBC Vendors List are mentioned below

Support List of SBC Vendor with Microsoft 365 Teams Direct Routing

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/direct-routing-border-controllers

Now the last question can we skip the SBC for Teams DR?

Yes, for the regulated countries the organization can reach out to any of the Telecom Providers available in the market and they can offer the SBC hosted by the Telecom Providers in region with redundancy capability on their Network. This would help the organizations save the cost as well as retain the full PSTN Functionality at the same time.

·        SIP Trunk/PRI Lines with the DID (Direct Inward Dialing) Numbers

Organization can opt for SIP Trunks or the PRI Lines whichever they prefer both the services can be integrated from the Technology standpoint. SIP Trunks are more flexible in terms of scaling as compared to PRI Lines. But there are locations in the world where SIP Trunks are still not available. Hence integration with both the services are available with Microsoft Teams Direct Routing.

Note: - My personal recommendation would be to proceed with SIP Trunk as this gives you the flexibility as well as the cost savings.

DID are assigned to the user account which is displayed to the Called Party when the call is made through Microsoft Teams. Generally, one DID is assigned with one specific user account.

·        Fax Lines

If there are organization who are still using the Fax Lines, we can always integrate the same with the Analog Gateway. For all the offices whether in regulated countries or non-regulated countries we need to have Analog Gateway at each office for integration with fax lines.

Using all the Feature and Functionality we would be able to integrate your existing services with Microsoft Teams using the Teams Direct Routing or Teams DR.

Some additional topics will be covered in additional article in the coming weeks.

Step by Step Configuring Teams Direct Routing

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/direct-routing-configure