About Dynamic Extensions

Dynamic Extensions are artificial telephone numbers that Vocera associates with users automatically, on an as-needed basis, if they need a number to enable a paging call-back on the badge.

You can use dynamic extensions in either of the following situations:

Use the Telephony - Dynamic Extensions configuration section on the Add/Edit Facilities page in the Manage section of Vocera Platform Web Console to enable and configure dynamic extensions. Vocera determines which of the following two situations apply based on the Extension Range you enter:

Tip:

If you are using DID, set the dynamic extension range to be the same as the DID range. If the dynamic extension range is a subset of the DID range, some DIDs will not be used.

If you enter a range of numbers that include both DID numbers and non-DID numbers, Vocera still distributes all of them on an as-needed basis, starting from the beginning of the range. However, users may unpredictably have DID numbers some times and non-DID numbers other times. Vocera recommends that you avoid this configuration unless you need to use it to solve a specific communication problem.

You do not need to keep track of which users have which dynamic extensions; Vocera automatically tracks and allocates all numbers in the dynamic range. For example, if a user is deleted from the system, Vocera automatically returns that dynamic extension to the pool of available extensions.

If a user already has a desk extension or a Vocera extension, Vocera will never assign him or her a dynamic extension. Instead, Vocera will use the Vocera extension or the desk extension for paging or DID. In a mixed environment where some users have desk extensions and others don't, Vocera assigns dynamic extensions on demand to anyone who does not have either a desk extension or a Vocera extension.