Thanks Java. Im looking at it and have some what an idea.

Take a look at my steps:

Create AAR Group

Create AAR CS/PT

Create Translation Pattern for translating site code to PSTN

Reorder the PT in the CSS so the AAR CSS for translations is lower. (meaning the line will first try the Route Pattern to the WAN, if no luck, go to next pattern in the CSS which is the AAR Translation pattern)

Im playing with the called party transform mask to make this work.

To make matters more confusion, I have a remote location, that is the first of many of this cluster. All site codes will go through one h323 gateway, then off to other h323 sites PBX. So Im not sure if RSVP will work with this correct? Im wondering if I should simply not use AAR and CAC and just use CSS/PT, translations and Route patterns to accomplish this correct?

Java summed it up in his post, but i will add a few more notes.

To use AAR, make sure the external mask on all destination DNs is configured. This is what the originator uses to make the call through the PSTN.

Make sure the AAR groups and prefixes are configured. Create an AAR dial plan to reroute the calls through, just as you would a normal route, you may also use an existing dial-plan.

Make sure that locations are configured, upon bandwidth overutilization, determined in locations, AAR kicks in.

Make sure the Alternate routing CSS is configured on the device.

I am not sure why you are configuring a translation patter, there is no need to unless performing "AAR/SRST" which is a pain to begin with.

Your last paragraph is a bit confusing. If you plan to gatekeepers, then you can use RSVP.

The last sentence is a bit more confusing, "...simply not use AAR and CAC and just use CSS/PT, translations and Route patterns to accomplish this correct"

Is any case, you must use CSS to determine the allowed destinations. The AAR dial-plan must be part of that CSS.

In order to use AAR, you must use "CAC" or locations. You need "CAC" tp reroute calls, otherwise, there is no way for CUCM to determine if there is enough bandwidth available.

It is a bit more complicated, look up the CUCM SRND for more information

Thanks for the reply, I will take a look more at the SRND again.

Though, looking at this setup, because the calls are primarily going through an h323 gateway to get to another site, if the site's wan is down or the primary h323 gateway is down, but the phones are connected to CUCM, i had to make a work around.

Basically what I did was I created a Route pattern for each site, then create a route group for each site. Created a route list.

In the route list, I put in the H323 gateway as first try. Next try is the Route list that had the local PRI in it and transformed the number to it's PSTN number. This seem to work fine during our tests. Of course, it's a pain, but the customers requirements to have this was critical.

If all my sites were on CUCM, built it out with locations, regions, RVSP, etc... then AAR would work..... but being that RVSP can not calculate bandwidth with h323 (without a gatekeeper), then I back to the basics.