What is a Hunt Group?
In Computer telephony, a Hunt Group refers to a group of extensions that are organized to process specific calls. Upon answering a call, the PBX ACD may transfer the call based upon the caller’s DNIS or ANI or extension. Likewise caller identification information (from an IVR) may be used to direct the call to a particular group of agents. The term is derived from the concept that the PBX is programmed to “hunt” for the next available agent within in a specified extension group.
Hunt Group Example
Example 1:
Extension 100 is programmed that when a call is presented it is to look up what to do with it. its programmed to ring 200 then 201 then 202 then 204
Exten 200 is busy jumps to next
Exten 201 rings – is unanswered so times out and jumps to next
Exten 202 rings – answers call
Exten 203 is free
Example 2:
Extension 100 is programmed that when a call is presented it is to look up what to do with it. its programmed to ring 200,201,202 and 204 all at once
Exten 200 rings – is free
Exten 201 rings – answers call
Exten 202 rings – is free
Exten 203 rings – is free
Modes:
1. Ring all extensions in bank
2. Ring recursively from numbers in a bank
3. Ring Priority extension then recursively in a bank
How I use this:
On an Ericsson, MD110 talking to Ericsson Onebox Voicemail
Its number is programmed to 499 to get your voicemail but the system has 4 analogue lines to talk to on box 5000-5003, it hunts for a free line starting from 5000 and only ever chronologically and the call gets answered.
Implementation:
This is a lot easier then you might at first think. You simply need to use the Dial command in the extensions.conf file to define who to ring. So:
exten => 1,1,Dial(SIP/001&SIP/002&SIP/003)
will dial SIP users 001, 002 and 003 simultaneously, the first who picks up wins the call
exten => 1,1,Dial(SIP/001, 10)
exten => 1,2,Dial(SIP/002&SIP/003)
will dial SIP user 001 and if no answer then dials SIP users 002 and 003 simultaneously.
Advanced Hunt Group
Although hunt group is a powerful feature, it can be very confusing on several environments to hunt calls when you are receiving several calls at the same time, or when you do not have information on the display of the phone about the source of the call. In order to avoid this problem, it is possible to do advanced scripting on phones that have browser features, so the user may get information about the call to hunt on the display. Some of those examples of scripting for *advanced hunt group. on phones are available through *Asterisk Arena community.
March 2, 2023
Phone System 