> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.orbit.devotel.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# PBX operations taxonomy: shared lines, call park, ring groups, paging, hot-desking

> The decision guide for the five SMB phone-system primitives Orbit ships under Voice — what each primitive is, when a team picks which, and when to graduate to a formal queue.

# PBX operations taxonomy

An SMB phone system has five group-distribution primitives, and Orbit ships a page for each under **Voice**. The confusion between operators is mostly vocabulary — "hunt group", "ring group", "paging", and "park orbit" mean different things on different PBXs. This page fixes one definition per primitive and sends you to the operator guide for the one you picked.

## 1. The five primitives

| Primitive                        | One-line definition                                                                                                       | Configure             | Guide                                                        |
| -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Shared Line Appearance (SLA)** | One inbound call rings every member's phone at once; the busiest-member call can move to another member's phone with Grab | Voice → Shared lines  | [Shared Line Appearance](/guides/shared-lines-appearance)    |
| **Call park**                    | Put a live call into a numbered slot; retrieve it from any other phone                                                    | Voice → Park          | [Work the Parked Calls lobby](/guides/voice-call-park-lobby) |
| **Ring group**                   | Fan an inbound call out to a list of destinations with a strategy (ring-all, sequential, round-robin)                     | Voice → Ring groups   | [Ring groups end to end](/guides/ring-groups)                |
| **Paging group**                 | One-way broadcast to desk-phone speakers or in-app page                                                                   | Voice → Paging groups | [Broadcast paging with paging groups](/guides/paging-groups) |
| **Hot-desking**                  | Agents sign in to shared desk phones; calls route to the person, not the desk                                             | Voice → Hot-desking   | [Hot-desking: shared desk phones](/guides/voice-hot-desking) |

The older term for "ring group" is **hunt group** — on legacy PBXs the hunt strategy (circular, longest-idle, sequential) is the ring-group strategy selector on Orbit. When a vendor asks for a hunt group, the answer is the ring group page.

## 2. Pick the right one per call shape

* **Receptionist / front desk / exec-assistant** — SLA. The line rings every member, anyone answers, and the answered call can be Grab'd onto another member's phone.
* **"Move this live call to a colleague somewhere else in the building"** — Call park. The lobby page reads held calls by slot so the recipient can retrieve from any phone.
* **" distribute inbound calls across the team fairly"** — Ring group. First available answers; a queue is only needed when calls must FIFO-hold.
* **"Announce to a room or broadcast a page"** — Paging group. One-way; no return channel, no ringing.
* **"More agents than desks, agents rotate"** — Hot-desking. The phone follows the signed-in agent, not the furniture.

Two appear in pairs often: the reception line (SLA) with a page group to floor-announce "call parked on slot 1".

## 3. When none of the five fit — graduate to a queue

A queue is the CCaaS routing layer with FIFO holding, skills-based assignment, SLA timers, and overflow policies. The five primitives above are live-call distribution; they do not hold callers in order. If your call center needs callers held in line, agents ranked by skill, or wrap-up time between calls, build the queue, not a bigger ring group — see the [ACD queue model](/concepts/acd-queue-model) and the [queues guide](/guides/voice-queues).

## 4. A 10-seat SMB without desks — worked pattern

A ten-person team where everyone floats:

1. **Hot-desking the phones.** Provision one shared SIP credential per physical phone; every agent signs in at the start of a shift and the phone routes as them. Walk-up sign-in covers most shifts; the reservation calendar covers booked seats.
2. **SLA the main number.** Point the main DID at a shared line so anybody with an open desk rings — no dedicated receptionist.
3. **Park overflow.** Calls that need a colleague outside the conversation move via park, retrieved from whichever desk the colleague signed in at.
4. **Page the floor.** A page group reaches all desk-speakers for "call parked on 1" without ringing.
5. **Ring group for a team.** The sales DID uses a ring-all strategy so the entire team's signed-in devices ring; hot-desking guarantees the right devices are live.
6. **Fallback to voicemail.** Every DID route carries a voicemail fallback so an empty roster never drops the call — the DID routing guide covers fallback wiring: [Pick the right inbound routing for a DID](/guides/inbound-number-routing).

The whole setup runs from the dashboard across the five Voice pages plus the Numbers routing page. No PBX hardware, no per-seat licensing, no provisioning trip per desk move.

See also: [Pick the right inbound routing for a DID](/guides/inbound-number-routing) · [Paging, ring groups & call park (reference)](/voice/paging-ring-groups-call-park) · [Hot-desking](/voice/hot-desking) · [Call park lobby](/guides/voice-call-park-lobby)