I'm embarrassed to say that despite my decades of working with Vodavi systems, I believe I've encountered a dilemma where I may be in over my head. I've supported plenty of these systems that are interconnected via IP, but none were from scratch. In this instance, the main system (hub) contains three fully-populated XTS cabinets, one virtual cabinet containing virtual station ports, and one remote site (node) using an XTSc cabinet, connected via a telco-provided point to point circuit in a remote building.

Adding to this mix, we are networked to a separate Ascom nurse intercom system also connected via a copper PRI circuit on-premises.

The hub system is maxed out at three cabinets providing 252 stations. Because the building being added is fed by a 300 pair copper cable, the most logical solution for expansion would have been to add a fourth cabinet to the hub and equip it with the appropriate number of digital station cards and just keep on growing. The problem is that the custom cable that is used to connect the MPB-E processor to new cabinet's LMU-E card. Yes, this would be an economical solution since there are plenty of available copper pairs next door. There are two major obstacles with this approach:

1. There is absolutely NO room left in the main telephone equipment room, as in ZERO.
2. To make matters worse, this custom interconnection cable is as rare as hen's teeth. It is made from "unobtainium",

The concept of the remotely-located cabinet being connected via IP networking seemed to be a no-brainer. As a matter of fact, it was a perfect solution to this dilemma. The concept worked well, at least on paper. We got the networking code from Vertical for the new node and connected 24 port VOIBE cards between them using dedicated CAT5e tie cable (crossed over). Again, it's been a long time since we've ever encountered such an undertaking. Not to mention that I've never built one like this from scratch. I have the networking tables built in both the hub and node systems, IP addresses assigned with one digit in the last octet different, etc. That's where it stops.

I have put a new block of 60 DID numbers into routing table 4, and the station numbering plan is established in order to keep the new and unique station numbers at the new site. Direct-selecting trunks from either system returns dial tone, but no dialing ever completes.

If this doesn't complicate things enough, I'm working blind from over 300 miles away. All of our seasoned technicians have long since retired, so we are relying upon a much younger and different breed of "technicians". They're not really able to do much thinking and troubleshooting on their own and don't offer much in the way of cooperation without argument. I spoke with one of our senior techs recently who has been out of the game for about five years now. He tried to offer some level of providing second opinion troubleshooting, but like me, his hands are tied without being on-site or at least in communication with one of the current more experienced techs.

Keep in mind that today's definition of a seasoned technician is one who knows more than four pair color codes and patch panels. Finding a technician who understands tip and ring is even a challenge. What I'm hoping for is to find someone here who may have encountered a similar situation who can offer some suggestions or better yet, some accurate notes from a prior experience along these lines. I'm truly desperate at this point, so any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Ed Vaughn, MBSWWYPBX