1-22
Cisco Personal Assistant 1.4 Installation and Administration Guide
OL-4590-03
Chapter 1 Planning for Personal Assistant
Intercepting Calls with Personal Assistant
When User 1002 dials User 1001, Cisco CallManager uses the calling search space of User 1002,
cssPhones, and finds that 1XXX, in the PA partition matches. Because Cisco CallManager looks for
the best match within the partitions of the calling search space, it continues to search and finds 1001
in the “none” partition. Cisco CallManager rings the phone of User 1001.
Why You Need a Partition for Personal Assistant Managed Phones
When you create the partitions needed for Personal Assistant, you create a partition that will contain the
phones that Personal Assistant will manage (in our examples, this partition is PAManaged). You also
create a partition that will contain the interceptor port route points (in our examples, PA). This section
explains why you need both partitions.
Recall how Cisco CallManager routes calls:
1. Cisco CallManager identifies the calling search space assigned to the extension from which the call
is made. For example, if User A calls User B, the calling search space of the phone of User A is used
to complete the call.
2. Cisco CallManager tries to find the best match for the called extension, searching top to bottom in
the list of partitions contained in the calling search space. If the first match uses wildcards (for
example, 1XXX), subsequent partitions are searched in an attempt to find a better match. If an exact
match is found, it is used, even if a wildcard match exists in a partition higher in the list of partitions
in the calling search space.
Because you are going to use wildcards when you create interceptor port route addresses, you must
prevent Cisco CallManager from finding exact matches to use in place of the interceptor addresses.
Consider an example of a call between non-Personal Assistant users:
• The PA partition includes 1XXX as the interceptor route points.
• The NonPAManaged partition includes the extensions of User 1001 and User 1003.
• The cssEmp calling search space includes the PA and NonPAManaged partitions, in that order.
• The extensions of User 1001 and User 1003 use the cssEmp calling search space.
Now, when User 1001 calls User 1003, Cisco CallManager first checks the PA partition, and finds a
match: 1XXX. However, because this match uses wildcards, the search continues to the NonPAManaged
partition, where an exact match, 1003, is found. Cisco CallManager then routes the call to the extension
of User 1003, found in the NonPAManaged partition. Thus, Personal Assistant has no role in the call.
Now, consider the case of a phone in the PAManaged partition:
• The PA partition includes 1XXX as the interceptor route points.
• The NonPAManaged partition includes the extension of User 1001 and User 1003.
• The PAManaged partition includes the extension of User 1002.
• The cssEmp calling search space includes the PA and NonPAManaged partitions, in that order.
• The extensions of User 1001, User 1003, and User 1002 use the cssEmp calling search space.
In this example, when User 1001 calls User 1002, Cisco CallManager first checks the PA partition, and
finds a match: 1XXX. Again, because this match uses wildcards, the search continues to the
NonPAManaged partition, but this time, an exact match is not found because the extension of User 1002
is no longer in the NonPAManaged partition. Cisco CallManager routes the call based on the 1XXX
route point found in the PA partition. Thus, Personal Assistant intercepts the call, and applies the call
routing rules of User 1002 to it.