VoIPNorm's Unified Communications Blog

VoIPNorm Updates and 2011 Year in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:39:00 +0000

VoIPNorm Updates

In case you haven't noticed VoIPNorm has changed a little. After some issues with archived pages loading (thanks Google) I thought is was time to give the blog a good once over. Most of the changes are surface changes with no real operational differences to the blog. The background change, although its only a off the shelf Blogger background, really caught my attention. I really like the old school look and feel of English telephone boxes. I am not going to get philosophical or anything like that I just think they look cool and it fit the theme.

I think a refresh once a year is a good thing and there is no better time than right now. If you have any feedback on the blog or things that would help make the blog more accessible I am always open to suggestions. I always review all comments (and spam) and reply when I can.

VoIPNorm 2011 in Review

2011 was a big year for the blog. My gold standard for monitoring blog traffic has always been Statcounter.com. From as far as I can tell it’s the most accurate tool for measuring traffic. Below are some of the interesting stats I have pulled together from Statcounter and some other snippets.

Most viewed post of 2011. Obviously there is a great deal of interest around Avaya ACE and how it integrates into Lync. With over 65 comments and 100 tweets the post titled “What Avaya is not telling you about ACE” got a lot of coverage and hits (3700+). Its still averaging over 200+ hits a week.

http://voipnorm.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-avaya-arent-telling-you-about-ace.html

Blog posts that disappointed. Overall I tried to mix it up this year and provide reviews of things I was doing or working on. Device reviews are generally not visited much. I am not sure if its because I suck at device reviews or people aren't that interested. Insert sad face here . For whatever the reason, suck or not, I will continue to review the latest Lync devices when I get them in 2012.

Most hits in one day. 926 hits and again it was the Avaya Ace post that was the cause of most of them. The comments seem to be the main reason people kept coming back. With Avaya execs, partners and customers all having their say it was an all in tech war. Even though it was a very short post it still managed to generate a lot of great discussion.

Greatest comments of 2011.

“A great bottle of white wine mixed with a wonderful bottle of red does not often yield even a drinkable rose.” – By Kevin Kieller

“I'm not sure why people are getting confused with what ACE actually is. It's not middleware” – By Joe Schurman (former Avaya exec)

“In my opinion there is currently no vendor in the marketplace today that can compete with Microsoft Lync on the desktop or Mac “ – By Joe Schurman (former Avaya exec)

Blog growth. The blog grew over 100% in popularity if hits is anything to measure that with. This is fantastic growth. I recently read another blogger complaining that Twitter did little to grow his blog traffic or his popularity. VoIPNorm’s blog growth was certainly aligned with my increased use of Twitter in 2011. The stats don’t lie. Along with multiple postings a week, Twitter helped see a surge in visitors to the blog.

The big spike at 4,046 was the Avaya ACE post.

Weekly traffic in 2011

Yearly view:

Thanks to everyone that read and commented this past year. I am sure 2012 will be filled with interesting stuff to blog about.

VoIPNorm

Adding CUCM Subscribers to Lync Topology Builder

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:23:00 +0000

I remember the OCS days when the Mediation Server would accept any inbound SIP session thrown at it. Those were the days. Okay, so maybe not really but it brings up an interesting item that I run across recently.

OCS and OCS R2 both had a similar restriction of, for every PSTN gateway you required a Mediation Server. There was a work around to this limitation though for inbound connections which was that the Mediation Server would accept any inbound SIP connection on the gateway NIC. Although this wasn’t a supported work around I know many that took advantage of this loop hole.

Now why am I talking about this. Well if you where to configure a SIP trunk in Cisco’s Communications Manager to connect to OCS you really only needed to define one of the CUCM subscribers in OCS as a outbound gateway (putting redundancy aside for a moment). Inbound all the CUCM subscribers that were a part of you CUCM group applied to your Device Pool for the trunk were able to send outbound connections to OCS and they would work. So basically you could kind of get away with only one Mediation Server and have some redundancy but only one way.

Fast forward to Lync 2010. The restriction of the one-to-one relationship of Mediation Server to PSTN Gateway is gone. So now you can have one-to-many but the work around of accepting inbound connections from random gateways is gone. This is a good thing. It greatly increases the security of Lync but at the same time means you must be aware of this when configuring your deployment to work with CUCM deployments.

When you configure CUCM for SIP trunking (direct SIP in Lync terms) you define a SIP trunk, including defining a Device Pool. The Device Pool sets up common resources for the trunk including the Communications Manager Group. The CUCM Group consists of up to three prioritized Communications Manager Servers. This is for failover, device registration etc. When registering devices this all makes sense and the server at the top of the list has all registered devices. SIP trunks on the other hand are a little different and outbound connections round robin between servers in the CUCM group. Basically the prioritization is not used in the case of SIP trunking, at least based on my experience.

Figure 1 : At the moment this device pool below is set at default but in a production configuration where you may have multiple CUCM groups a device pool specifically for you SIP trunk may be required.

For Lync this means that all CUCM servers in the Communications Manger group must be configured in your topology before Lync will accept inbound connections from each of the servers. Whether you use FQDN or IP addresses really depends on your policies on what to use but all CUCM subscribers have to be added to your topology otherwise un-configured subscribers will be unable to connect inbound. How do you know when you have this issue? Either every other call will fail, or every third call will fail, or two out of three will fail, depending on how many Subscribers you have in your Group. Remember the max CUCM Servers is three. At least when you have this configuration issue your inbound call failure rate is consistent which makes it easy to diagnose. Basically the un-configured CUCM servers will never be able to establish a TCP connection to your Lync Mediation Server. CUCM RTMT tool will never show a SIP trace because the TCP connection never establishes.

Figure 2: Notice the three gateways added below correspond to CUCM subscribers in a group of three. Depending on your deployment this may only have two per CUCM group.

Figure 3:Virtually this is what you are setting up with a three subscriber CUCM group when configuring a SIP trunk to Lync.Although you may be only setting up one trunk all three servers take part in signaling to your Lync environment. Unless all three servers are part of your topology inbound signaling issues will occur.

I know this may sounds like Lync 101 but if you were used to OCS or new to Lync you may not be aware of this behavior.

Comments welcomed.

VoIPNorm

Device Review: Sennheisier DW Office

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:43:00 +0000

Well another year has come and gone and new devices keep appearing all the time. I have had Sennheiser DW Office for about 4-5 months now and it is my primary headset when I am at home( FYI my home is my official office, I have no desk at a MSTF office. I am classified as a remote worker. The only MSFT real estate I have is a mail slot). I have been a little slow in writing a review for this device because its just sits on my desk and works which means I really don’t think about it to much.

Like any well built German product this headset just works. No fusing, no messing just works and I like that a lot. Sennheiser has a long history of building audio equipment so it really is no surprise that this is a well built product with some interesting style lines for the base. I thought the base was kind of strange when I first used the device but I can imagine an executive thinking it looks cool on their desk, which it does. The base also has plenty of weight in it which makes knocking it over pretty hard to do even when grabbing for the headset with one hand.

As with all Lync certified devices this works right out of the box. No additional software. The sound quality and device functions are as one would expect for a DECT headset with the added advantage of 350ft range. Although the range isn't exceptional for DECT the battery life is, with up to 12hrs of talk time or 100 of standby the longest of any certified wireless device.

I did have some issue with the ear hooks with this device and decided on using the head band. This isn't new for me as I have had similar issues with other devices from different manufactures before. I have odd ears or can’t work out how to use the ear hooks I am not sure which it is. Either way don’t let that put you off this very solid device. I also have customers using/testing this device and they, like myself, really like how solid this device has been.

The only issue I can possibly think anyone would have with this device is the cost. At $349 list this is on the high end for a headset but to be fair it is comparable to their competitors with similar products and going by list prices comes in a little cheaper than most.

As always here are the photos from my WP7 of the device I tested. Excuse the dust but at least it shows I didn’t pull it straight out of the package and it got some real air time

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/wireless-headset-dect-headset-504302

VoIPNorm

Ultimate Voice Online Webcasts Today

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:15:00 +0000

I am online all day today with the webcasts being broadcast as part of the Ultimate Voice Promotion. To join any of these sessions below please us the link below to register and join.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/6202.aspx

As part of the session I will also be on Twitter so please feel free to tweet me using @voipnorm.

Session # 2:

Subject: Lync Server 2010, More Than a PBX

Start Time: Friday, Jan 6, 2012 10:00 AM PST (1 hour)

SESSION # 3:

Subject: Simple User Provisioning with Microsoft Lync 2010

Start Time: Friday, Jan 6, 2012 11:30 AM PST (1 hour)

SESSION # 4:

Subject: Voice Resiliency with Lync Server 2010

Start Time: Friday, Jan 6, 2012 1:30 PM PST (1 hour)

SESSION # 5:

Subject: Flexible Dial Plans with Lync Server 2010

Start Time: Friday, Jan 6, 2012 3:00 PM PST (1 hour)

VoIPNorm

My Favorite Things from 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:59:00 +0000

Just like Oprah, I to have a list of my favorite things. There are a few exceptions, I don’t have a screaming manic audience and I am not going to give away everything in my list. Last year about his time I came out with my favorite things from 2011and just like last year I am going to expand my list this time way beyond Lync certified devices.

Kinect – Not really a UC product (yet) but I love my Kinect all the same. Still on the list 2 years running but still waiting for Xbox 360 interoperability with Lync. The future of Kinect seems endless with what’s coming out of the open source community now with full support from Microsoft, Kinect and any subsequent version have a long self life beyond just gaming.

Jabra Speak 410 – Another product that makes the list again this year, this is a neat USB speaker phone. A compact unit which comes with a soft travel case, finally. ***Note to vendors still*** -- if it’s meant to be portable no matter what the USB device have it come with a soft travel cover.

Plantonics Blackwire 435-M – Plantronics once again make the list with a slight variation on the 420. Another great headset from a great company and wouldn’t you know it they made sure it has a travel cover. Nice.

Windows Phone 7.5– On the list last year as something I was looking forward to. Well this time around I have it with Mango and Lync Mobile. Truly a unique device in the market and something I couldn’t live without. Thing I love the most is Facebook integration for uploading photos. I currently have the LG Quantum (I have a thing for slider keyboards).

Sennheiser DW Office – Look for a review coming shortly on this device. It is my office headset of choice right now and it is solid, very solid.

Polycom CX7000 – If you have seen one of these units demoed you know what I am talking about. I think it is one of the break through video conferencing units for companies looking to expand their Lync video conferencing deployments.

SkyDrive – I am using my Windows Live SkyDrive more and more and with integration into iPhone and WP7 it is a great cloud service. The service solved a lot of issues for me this year hence it makes the list.

AMC’s The Walking Dead – Zombies in a post apocalyptic world, need I say more.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds – I love to grow vegetables at home and a great place to go and get you spring seeds is Baker Creek. All seeds are GMO free . This is a great family run company preserving the worlds gardening heritage.

What’s your favorite or not so favorite things from 2011?

VoIPNorm

Post Update: RIP Umi to Consumers

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:32:00 +0000

Update: Cisco kills UMI Consumer Sales

I wrote this blog post back in November 2010 predicting that Umi was going to be a flop on the consumer side unless the start up and reoccurring costs changed. Well here we are in 2012 and as predicted sales to consumers has now ended for the Umi service. Even though Cisco lowered their service cost to $10 a month it wasn’t enough to save this service on the consumer side. You can still buy Umi devices at Best Buy in a fire sale, although the devices are useless to consumers unless you already have a service contract with Cisco.

Goes to show how hard it is to compete with free services like Skype in the consumer world.

http://www.businessinsider.com/looks-like-ciscos-dumb-alternative-to-skype-has-quietly-been-killed-2012-1

Post from 2010:

If you haven’t seen any of the press releases this last week around Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect launch the rock you are living under must have its own postcode. Seriously. Although I haven’t received my Kinect yet (its in the mail) I am looking forward to testing out the new video chat feature with Live Messenger 2011. I am a part time gamer but I also use my Xbox 360 for Netflix. So having a Xbox live subscription is something I already have. If you buy from Amazon you can get a Live Gold subscription for about $40 a year.

So when video chat was announced it made perfect sense. The fact you can connect with Windows Live Messenger 2011 made even more sense still. There are also some other scenarios that make sense that I am sure will come to light in the coming months.

Kinect Video and Live Messenger 2011

I can’t say the same for Cisco’s Umi. Even though it may have the leg up around video resolution with 1080p, the price tag is the least compelling piece of the Umi story. At close to $600 for the unit itself and $25 paid to Cisco a month to participate, it just doesn’t make sense from a consumer point of view. The fact that I can buy an Xbox 360 250Gb bundled with a Kinect ($399 at Amazon) and a yearly Xbox subscription ($40 at Amazon) for less than the price of the Umi may make Umi a nonstarter.

	Price	Subscription Fee	Video Res	Who Can You Talk To?	Other uses
Cisco ūmi	$599	$24.99 monthly subscription	HD	Google Talk users	None
Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360	$399.99 (Xbox 250 Gb + Kinect Bundle; $149.99 Kinect only)	Requires $49.99 per year Xbox LIVE Gold membership ($39 from Amazon)	VGA	Windows Live Messenger 2011	Gaming, Netflix streaming video, Messenger, ESPN

While Umi may be able to talk with Google Talk users I think the 330 million Windows Live users makes a much more compelling story. I was unable to find up to date numbers for Google which indicates to me that their overall market share is probably pretty low.

In the end, price and functionality are going to be the killer of Cisco Umi or any other at home Telepresence single function device for that matter. Video to other family members just isn’t that compelling from a consumer standpoint when there are free and low cost options such as Kinect, Live Messenger etc. Even the high end consumer is going to look pretty hard at what they are getting. I don’t think that there are that many reckless consumers in the market t that Umi is actually going to be around for very long in its current proposed format. Unless Cisco drastically change the startup or reoccurring cost I think their move into the consumer video market space is going to be a flop.

Video is certainly a big push at Cisco and for many companies video is seen as a cost saver and strategically important. But the consumer space is quite a different story with so many free options. The fact my Xbox will do video with Kinect is a bonus not something I specifically brought it for. Although I am excited about it, its not going to be the first thing I am going to try out. I think you get what I am talking about here.

In the end Kinect is just so much more compelling with sales expected to be in 2-5 million this Holiday season. Along with 40 million daily users of Windows Live and 34 million Xbox live subscribers there is already a large audience ready for Kinect Video. As for Umi, hmmm it does HD. Cool.

Comments welcomed.

VoIPNorm

Whitepaper: Running a Lync SBA on a Cisco ISR/SRE-V

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:56:00 +0000

I haven't seen to much chatter on Twitter about this whitepaper so I thought I would repost a link. I am sure there are companies that will consider this option but its not the most straight forward configuration.This makes me more inclined to recommend partners that have worked closely with Microsoft on their SBA design where implementation is going to be potentially easier. Anyway here is the link as promised:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=28555

VoIPNorm

Device Review: Plantronics Blackwire C435-M

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:12:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to get my hands on a new Plantronics beauty. The Blackwire c435-M is a great new form factor from Plantronics. I have previously reviewed the c420-M which I have been using for quite a while. The 420 is a great headset but any chance I get to lower the bulk in my laptop bag I go for it. The 435 is a great new form factor and as Plantronics did with the 420 it also comes with a great travel case.

What I didn’t like about the 420 was the headband. Its not that it was uncomfortable but it was pretty bulky and inflexible. The 435 completely removes this issue with over the ear style ear buds which means I can use both ear buds or just one. The ear buds are really comfortable as well. Plantronics are very well known for their great ergonomics and this product shows they know peoples heads and ear shapes. The ear buds come with some options to change the ear piece that sits in you ears. Not everyone likes the ear bud style as they can be uncomfortable if not shaped correctly but its not an issue I seem to have. I have more issues with the general shape of my ears and over the ear headset but this headset didn’t have any trouble. Sound quality is every bit as good as the 420.

Like all certified devices the 435 worked out of the box with no issue. A quick test call and it was ready to go. There is a lot to be said for that functionality in Lync. Of course this is the expectation for any Lync certified device so no big surprises.

The call control is also worth a mention. Its got big basic buttons. Very cool. I hate the call control dongles where your searching for buttons with little tiny symbols. Its slim, simple and functional and I like that.

Plantronics are doing a great job when it comes to headsets and they have kept their place in my laptop bag for quite a while now. With only the speaker phone position left, which is currently a GN product, I am waiting for Plantronics to come out with a slimmer design for their speaker phone to see if they can make a clean sweep in the audio department. I have a new motto when it comes to my laptop bag and that is less is more. If you can come out with a slimmer functional design for one of four peripheral spots (headset, speaker phone, handset and webcam) in my bag you win. A protective case is mandatory though.

Below are a few quick pictures I did with my WP7 camera. The case, the call control and the ear buds are all pictured below.

All in all a great new headset. I am looking forward to what Plantronics have coming out next.

Comments welcomed.

VoIPNorm

The Ultimate Voice Career Promotion

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:39:00 +0000

I wanted to let you know about The Ultimate Voice Career Promotion. Microsoft is now offering you a range of options for learning Microsoft Lync and the chance to win great prizes.

Through The Ultimate Voice Career Promotion, you can add a valuable new skillset to your resume and increase the productivity of your entire office. At the same time, you’ll be eligible to win prizes that include $150 Best Buy vouchers and a $5,000 Kinect entertainment system!

There are lots of ways to earn points:

· Bite Sized Training Videos—Watch Lync training videos on-demand

· Deeper Learning—Attend monthly web clinics

· Blog—Post a blog review about Lync

· Your Lync Story—Post a video about your experience with Lync

· Twitter—Tweet about your Lync experience

And lots of ways to win. Use your points to unlock chances to win prizes every month. Your points won’t expire until the end of June 2012. Also, any month you earn points results in an entry for that period’s grand prize.

The Ultimate Voice Career Sweepstake launches November 23^rd and the first 500 people to participate and earn points will receive an insulated lunch tote—so get started now.

Register at www.ultimatevoicepromo.com.

Avaya ACE Versus Lync Native Post Wrap-up–Stats, Tweets and Classic Comments

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:01:00 +0000

Last week was a fun week on VoIPNorm. It was the biggest response to any single post I have had on the blog and certainly generated some interesting comments. 65 comments to be exact, over 70 tweets and over 4000 page views for the week. I had to close down the comments this week partly because the time it was consuming was considerable and the conversation was becoming circular and not really moving forward.

So to all those that took part and commented I thank you.

Stats for the week (see week 46):

Classic Tweets:

Classic comments:

“you are afterall a MSFT-paid shill” - By Anon (Proof I publish all non-spam comments no matter how insulting)

“The "preserve a legacy deployment" comment about ACE isn't quite fair” – By Anon

“ACE is less about choice and more about preservation” –By VoIPNorm

“All integration options with Lync have pros and cons” – By Anon

“Issue is Avaya is not a software company and it never will be” – By Anon

“Avaya customers should ask themselves is how viable the company is” – By Anon

“What happens to call control if ACE is un-available but Lync is? Isn't that confusing to my end-users? Um, how about you pick up the phone and dial a number. It's what most every user does today.” – By Anon

“I came into Avaya noticing how reactive the organization was because their new set of services had not yet been released and Microsoft Lync was taking off like wildfire within each of their accounts, especially the large ones.” – By Joe Schurman

“what we should be focused on is providing consultation as a trusted advisor and advising the customer as to the appropriate vendor in a fit for purpose environment that will most definitely be multi-vendor, but suited with a best of breed approach and architecture that benefits the customer” – By Joe Schurman

“In my opinion there is currently no vendor in the marketplace today that can compete with Microsoft Lync on the desktop or Mac “ – By Joe Schurman

“It’s really a great solution because it does not interfere with the Lync end-user experience, provides the organization with protection on the investments they’ve already made in Avaya CM, SM, etc., and more importantly will allow users a choice of desktop and mobile solutions with Lync and One-X until Flare is available in mid-2012 to add to the mix” – By Joe Schurman

“At the core of this argument is this - that there is more value in Avaya voice than the voice capabilities in Lync, therefore a customer should buy and use ACE to hijack the voice portion " – By Anon

“I'm not sure why people are getting confused with what ACE actually is. It's not middleware” – By Joe Schurman

“the Lync platform is definitely innovative and provides a unique and innovative end-user experience” – By Joe Schurman

“ACE was always a good concept however it does not necessarily best address a specific customer's requirements.” – By Kevin Kieller

“Kevin Kennedy (Avaya President) & Scott Brown (Microsoft Voice VP) are leading wonderful companies, with wonderful solutions that can work very nicely, TOGETHER. Respectfully.” – By Bob Bluemer

“A solution is "good" because it meets the defined customer requirements. A solution is "better" if it meets more specific customer requirements.” - By Kevin Kieller

“The fact is ACE intention is to stall Lync Enterprise Voice deployments and better positions Flare later in 2012 ” – By VoIPNorm

“I'm elated to hear you reference Avaya's new open minded approach to Microsoft, as I have customers that have asked for Lync with and without ACE, also with direct SIP integration utilzing Exchange UM. To date I have not been able to service these customers without the threats and fear that Avaya is going to pull my "loyalty" bonus” – By Anon

“A great bottle of white wine mixed with a wonderful bottle of red does not often yield even a drinkable rose.” – By Kevin Kieller

“If Avaya is so customer focused on making multi vendor environments work, then why are they not part of the UCIF?” – By Anon

“Kudos to you if you now understand why some people are upset and feel betrayed with your FUD spreading, but to dismiss it on one hand and continue to do it in the other...seriously, how is anyone ever supposed to believe anything you say?” – By Thomas Kisner about Joe Schurman

“The telecom business is full of old foxes that want to protect themself rather than looking at the customers real needs and taking todays date and year into that account. “ – By Tommy Clarke

“I just can't see how architecturally, any middleware (ACE/Aura) can possibly keep up and expose the features of the rapidly evolving connected endpoints” – By Kevin Kieller

“If I were to stand the native Lync experience next to the ACE experience there is no comparison. ACE is rudimentary integration at best.” – By VoIPNorm

“Capabilities from both Microsoft and Avaya will certainly change over time. We should agree to meet back "here" six or twelve months from now and refresh the debate/discussion.” – By Kevin Kieller

“@joeschurman Wishing you a speedy recovery.” – By Matt Landis

And as Kevin suggested we will back in in six months time to check in.

Thanks again to everyone who commented.

VoIPNorm

What Avaya Aren’t Telling You About ACE

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:47:00 +0000

I have seen a lot of information or should I say misinformation recently around ACE about what it does and what it can save you when combined with Lync. Most of you know by now I have never been a believer in plugins, even before I started working at Microsoft I was never a fan. My first tests with plugins showed me just how disjointed a user experience they really are. Paired with that is the misinformation that vendors are spreading around licensing cost savings with being able to go back to Standard Cal for Lync because of a plugin that only does telephony which by the way is not free in it self.

So if you are a company running Lync and Avaya comes knocking with ACE here are a few questions to ask:

How does ACE support VPNLess access?
How Does ACE work with Lync Federation?
How does ACE tie in with my CEBP presence enabled applications?
How does ACE support video?
How does ACE support dynamic location aware E911?
What about dynamic bandwidth codecs on the internet?
Lync Audio and web conferencing support?
If I drop back to Standard Cal with Lync can I still use Lync audio, video and web conferencing?
Does ACE support media Encryption?
Is the ACE integration supported by Microsoft?
How long after a Microsoft releases a new version of Lync does ACE support become available?
If I use ACE, what is the conferencing experience like?
What additional components and costs are needed for Avaya’s conferencing solution?
Can I escalate a peer2peer voice session into a Lync data collaboration experience? How many steps are required?
What happens to call control if ACE is un-available but Lync is? Isn't that confusing to my end-users?

You will be surprised by just how many of these answers are no, breaking the UC experience or offering you limited support. I strongly encourage people to read my post on plugins versus native to see more of my insight as to why breaking the Lync experience to preserve a legacy deployment with a plugin is not as easy as competitors make out.

VoIPNorm

Lync Alternate Routing Configuration

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:45:00 +0000

I came across a couple of questions this week that I think most people might already know but its worth going over.How does Lync use gateways placed in a Route, Routes placed in a PSTN Usage and PSTN Usages placed in a Voice Policy to allow the correct alternate routing order? When I first started writing this post I thought it was going to be pretty simple but I soon realized without an example readers would soon get lost. So I spent way more time writing this than intended but hopefully it works.

Below is a pretty simple example of one site with multiple possible routes. Of course how you route calls will be very dependent on toll charges from your provider and how many alternate routes you have available to your organization. For instance your final route in your organization might be a provider that is different than you normal provider to offer more resiliency but you do not want to rely on for normal business because they are more expensive. Or as I have depicted below my final route is also a different location to offer more geographic redundancy as well as provider redundancy. The variations on requirements almost always relates to cost and resiliency but for this exercise I am using locations as a way to describe dial plan configuration and behavior not necessarily a best practice to avoid cost or reliance.

So I am going create my dial plan based on the example diagram above and talk about how the order is related to routing. What order you build the pieces in really isn't important here but more the relationship they share in alternate routing. The first column is our Voice Policy and in this case Seattle Local Access is how I want to allow my Seattle users to dial out to the PSTN for local calls. It also restricts those users that have this Policy to local calls only and in our example as you will see later only +1425 numbers. So I am being very restrictive for the sake of the example.

As you can see in my Voice Policy below I have my three PSTN Usages selected in the order I want them to be utilized. I have built a very extreme example here considering that I am only allowing access to one very small subset of numbers with more than two routes but as I said earlier this is really to make my point. So I have now made three Usages available and controlled the order they are accessed but what about SeattleBackUp which has two routes in the one PSTN Usage. How do I control the order with which those Routes are accessed to control my call flow?

When I take a look at my PSTN Usage it only shows us what Usages are configured and what Routes are available. There is no way to change the order of routes within the Usage from here.

The last mile so to speak. The Routes tab offers us the ability to change the order of access to the Routes which in affect changes the order of the routes within our PSTN usage. So in my example as I move through the different PSTN Usages and Routes I can see my SeattleBackUp Usage requires a particular order. In this case I use the order in the Routes tab to determine this. This can be difficult to get correct especially if you have Usage records that require clashing route orders. A better way to have more ordered routing is using more granular PSTN Usage records and relying less on the order of the routes within them.

As for gateways most of us are well aware that when you place multiple gateways in a Route, as shown below, that they are accessed via round robin. Placing them in a particular order has no effect.

Hopefully this was useful.

Did you spot the mistake in my configuration? My final route has only a wildcard entry so basically if all my other gateways became unavailable and calls started hitting the final route I could basically call any number out of my final route making my policy to only restrict to local numbers null and void. The chances of hitting that final gateway you would hope are slim but it’s a unintentional mistake I left in to see if anyone would notice.

Comments welcomed.

VoIPNorm

Interview with Damaka

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:50:00 +0000

This week I am doing my first interview on VoIPNorm. Having been inspired by Justin Morris and his “Interview with a UC Pro” series I have a short interview with Damaka’s Sales VP Bogdan-George Pintea. Damaka were one of the first partners to produce a mobile client for Lync (Xync) and are working hard to quickly release new features. If you haven't seen Xnyc its available on iTunes App Store and the Android Market.

How did Damaka get started ?

We started the company in 2004 driven by the vision of building a total software solution which is standards-based and secure for mobile Unified Communication and Collaboration, targeting Service Providers and Enterprises. Our team has a telephony background, having built one of the most popular softswitches in market, and we are very standards-centric. We made purposeful efforts to make video conferencing available broadly and we were the first company to release a commercial mobile video conferencing solution in 2007, on Windows Mobile 6.1.

What kind of early success has Damaka had with Xync?

We released an early version of the Xync product line to the App Store and the Android Market and reception has been tremendous. Individual downloads led to many enterprises testing Xync globally.

How does Xync connect back into the Lync infrastructure?

It is worth mentioning that Xync is the only native mobile client for Lync/R2 in market today, connecting directly to Lync servers, without the need for a gateway. The advantages of this approach include lower cost of ownership, ease of deployment and flexibility in feature development.

What OS's is Xync currently available on?

Currently we are targeting iPhone, iPad and some specific Android smartphones and Android tablet models, Symbian. We are eager to support Windows Phone 7.5 and we hope to have some good news soon.

Any upcoming features you can talk about?

We just completed a group of features that we are particularly excited about: the ability to join scheduled meetings (through Calendar integration), shared whiteboard, PowerPoint sharing and 4-party video conferencing initiated from Xync.

Thanks to Bogdan and good luck to Damaka with the Xync product moving forward.

Comments welcome.

VoIPNorm

Learning Plan for Deploying Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Voice

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:22:00 +0000

Learning Plan for Deploying Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Voice

This learning plan will provide you with the knowledge and skills to deploy a Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Voice solution. Lync 2010 Enterprise Voice provides the telephony features of a traditional Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) PBX system with rich presence, instant messaging, and conferencing to improve communication and lower costs.

VoIPNorm

Lync Native Features Versus Plugins: Where Does The Real Complexity Reside?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:30:00 +0000

The published API’s have opened up Lync and Lync Server to the developer world and allowed developers to extend the value of Lync. Even the development of the third party applications for VoIP are indeed proof of the flexibility Lync provides as a development platform. But in the same vein replacing elements of native features even though it is possible can raise questions of the value of doing so.

“We believe that the native functionality in Office Communicator provides a much better and more complete user experience …… is a less complex and more cost-effective integration technique than adding additional software to every desktop”. BJ Haberkorn, OCS Senior Product Manager.

BJ makes some interesting comments but what’s really going on in the back ground that makes adding a third party application for telephony more complex than native Lync features?

This particular post is describing all third party Microsoft Lync plugin applications that aim to remove native functionality and replace it with their own. Often competitors pitch this as a way to avoid paying for E-Cal or Plus Cal but you are losing much more than just telephony by dropping down to Standard-Cal licensing. When you look at UC platforms it’s important to consider what you are buying as a whole and not just one portion. Often when moving a portion of functionality to another system you are adding more complexity than first realized and in the long run more cost both in licensing and manageability.

Amidst the claims of lower costs and multiple dial plans, the end user experience when using the plugin is often overlooked. Native features are focused on bringing about the best user experience for a collaborative environment. Plugins on the other hand are by design focused on preserving legacy PBX systems where desktop usability and integration are secondary unless it is promoting other competitive services such as voicemail, conferencing or external web collaboration. Also, this often means deploying group policies or in extreme cases adding custom Active Directory attributes to get a plugin to register and function as desired adding to the complexity which its meant to be avoiding.

Third party application for telephony and video integration…

Versus

Native Lync telephony and video…

I wanted to paint a complete picture of what’s happening with this type of integration from a generic point of view. Depending on which vendor you choose the features may change somewhat and may even look more or less complex than is presented here. Remote call control has been omitted as most vendors are not providing it through this integration but through a separate CSTA gateway that is unrelated to the third party application for VoIP (see diagram 2). So from the top diagram:

1) LDAP information in some circumstance comes from direct integration from the client plugin.

2) SIP/TLS for IM and presence. Some vendors are recommending turning off all Communicator features other than IM and presence.

3) Call signaling flowing from the third party softphone integration to control call( either a soft switch or IP PBX)

4) API integration to pass presence and other desktop level integration

5) Video integration if available. This may or may not be the same application that provides telephony integration so it may require additional signaling depending on the manner in which it is deployed.

There is a lot going on in this diagram and most of it at the desktop. This is purely from separating out one service (telephony), two if you count video as well if it is supported by the plugin. If video is not supported then you are back to doing it with Microsoft Lync or another application. Most times though the vendor providing the plugin recommends disabling Lync voice and video even for peer to peer communications. Comparing the different end-user experiences with the plugin you will see various Lync menus greyed out and when using the plugin multiple windows for voice and video where with Lync you would see only one.

So stepping through each point for the native Lync experience:

1) SIP TLS encrypted call signaling when using Lync for IM, presence , voice and video.

2) SIP TLS encrypted call signaling Lync phone edition for voice and presence.

3) SIP Trunk to IP PBX or Soft switch much like any traditional tie trunk between two PBX’s.

4) SIP call signaling to the IP phone.

5) USB cable to enable Phone Control function of the Lync Phone Edition device with Lync 2010.

Things are significantly different between the two diagrams. The lower diagram presents a clearly server side integration. Using the SIP trunk between the two systems now allows Lync to be used as softphone. This removes the burden of desktop administration of the integration displayed in the third party application diagram. Even with including Phone Control in the native solution via tethering we have been able to greatly simplify not only the signaling required but also the deployment scenarios. Removing the second application from the desktop (third party softphone) has reduced software deployment dependencies and removed the need to disable native Lync features to avoid end user confusion.

Remote Access

In the first section I covered the basics of of a telephony plugin and how it interacts with Lync. In this second section I will present remote access and how the plugin changes the remote access options.

Third party application for telephony and video integration beyond the corporate firewall…

Versus

Native Lync telephony and video with remote access…

As you can see in the top diagram we are forced to run the third party VoIP application over either a hardware or software VPN separate from edge services that are available with Lync. We now have a more complex VPN setup having to spilt tunnel communication services and in some cases VPN services may not be designed to take large amounts of real time media traffic.

This setup also removes the use of RT Audio codec which is specifically designed for uncontrolled networks like the Internet to improve the user’s voice experience. With this setup they are more than likely only able to complete calls using G.711 or G.729 which are affected by network degradation of more than 1% whereas RTAudio will work acceptably with up to 10% packet loss.

Looking at the Lync native solution we begin to see some immediate benefits. First is an Edge specifically designed for real time communication traffic including voice, video, IM, presence and desktop sharing. The second point is that we no longer need to route media traffic back to our internal resources consuming vital Internet bandwidth when both users are remote to our internal network. If one of our users were internal the media would in fact flow through the Edge and not over a VPN service limiting reliance and lowering bandwidth consumption on VPN services. Lastly we have now removed the reliance on the desktop to complete our integration and instead have chosen interoperability at a server level.

Of course there are more reasons to enable edge services with Lync than just telephony. To me one of the most compelling reason to use the Edge has always been federation with business partners to better enable collaboration and lower communication costs.

Just to recap. Lync remote scenarios are designed to be secure and leverage the internet to allow peer to peer connections reducing bandwidth requirements and allowing Lync to scale to large enterprise needs. By removing the native functionality and replacing with a plugin not only have you increased desktop reliance but also made telephone dependent on VPN services to allow functionality. So when you consider what it takes to keep telephony control on a separate system through desktop integration there is much more to consider than just licensing and dial plans.

Comments welcomed.

VoIPNorm

Users unable to join Lync hosted conferences from Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.5

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:40:00 +0000

This is a great post by Jigar on Technet. Reprinting here to help spread the word around this issue and how to resolve it. All credit to Jigar and Tech Support at Microsoft for discovering this issue.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/jigardani/archive/2011/10/04/users-unable-to-join-lync-hosted-conferences-from-cisco-unified-communications-manager-8-5.aspx

In the past couple of months we have seen increase in DTMF issue relating to Cisco Call Manager v8.5 connecting to Lync Server 2010 (Lync). I worked on a few of these issues giving me an opportunity to dive deep into this integration. Cisco Unified Communication Manager (CUCM) v8.5 is supported with Lync Server 2010 only on minor build version 8.5.1.12900-7 as noted on Unified Communications Open Interoperability Program – Lync Server.

Symptom

Cisco phones and conference room endpoints, SIP Trunk terminating on CUCM en-route to Lync would not be able to join conferences hosted by Lync MCU's. You may experience that the user keeps getting prompted for entering the conference ID. Some of the phones which have a capability of RFC 2833 DTMF MTP Passthrough work just fine when that feature is turned on.

Cause

After code level investigation we found that CUCM, when transcoding DTMF digits does not send the digits in right format.

To identify the issue, you need to collect a network trace from the MediationServer of your Lync deployment. Then trace the attempt to login to a Lync hosted conference room. Below is one such trace (obfuscated from customer environment since I do not have a CUCM here), to see the packets of interest I set the wireshark filter to (udp.length != 24 && rtpevent && rtp.marker==1)

The lower window highlighted digits show the raw data captured for RFC 2833 RTP event.

I also captured a trace when a endpoint coming from CUCM was successfully able to login to Lync MCU. To trace these DTMF digits I set up the wireshark filter to (udp.length == 24 && rtpevent && rtp.marker==1)

Again I have highlighted the RTPEvent.

Basically we are capturing UDP packets with length not equal to 24, that are RTPEVENT’s (meaning DTMF) and have RTP marker bit set to 1 - meaning the first packet in the DTMF digit - which has all the information we need.

Event Duration 800 is signified by hex 03 20 raw data - the data 00 00 after that is basically Trailer for Ethernet II as you can see above. Similarly in the bad snapshot above the duration zero should have been represented by 00 00.
However, in that place we see some data after that –

We found that we could isolate all the good packets from bad packets by filtering for the right length. In this case udp length 24. So Why length 24?

A DTMF packet is – UDP header (8 octets) + RTP header (12 octets) + RTP Payload (RTPEVENT=DTMF) (4 octets) = 24 octets.

Here is what we should have for DTMF payload (RTP Payload) RFC 4733 –

Here is what we should have for RTP header (assuming no CSRC) RFC 1189 –

Here is what we should have for UDP header RFC 768 –

So the hex data beyond 24 octets is something that should not have been received by Lync in a DTMF digit. This is what causes Lync to ignore these digits.

Resolution

To resolve this issue upgrade to the supported CUCM version 8.5.1.12900-7.

TechNet Podcast: Deep Dive: Lync Server 2010 Edge Servers

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 21:30:00 +0000

Deep Dive: Lync Server 2010 Edge Servers

Understanding the details about how to set up and deploy edge servers is a key feature to allow the customer investment to include users--domain members, partners in a federated infrastructure, and customers--outside of the internal network in the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 experience. Edge servers provide external user connections to the Lync Server platform using the Lync 2010 client not leveraging a VPN connection.

VoIPNorm

Boise and Portland User Group Wrap Up

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:01:00 +0000

Last week I ventured to Boise and Portland to take part in the UC User Group meetings. They were great meetings with Altigen talking about their Max Mobile and ACD platforms and some great open discussions and networking. See above for the slide deck from the meeting.

VoIPNorm

Cisco IOS 15.1(2)T toll Fraud Feature Causing Lync Calls to Fail

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 20:51:00 +0000

So if you have upgraded you Cisco PSTN gateway lately you may have already run into this but for those that haven't this is something to be on the look out for. This was brought to my attention by a company I am helping move off their legacy PBX’s and on to Lync for telephony.

Cisco has added a new toll fraud feature into their ISR router code that blocks calls from untrusted endpoints. In the past you could point any mediation server at a Cisco ISR and as long as the correct outbound dial peer was in place it would route the call. This new feature now requires you to setup a trust list of servers or turn off the feature which is on by default.

“It is important to note that upgrading to 15.1(2)T will block all inbound VoIP call setups until the VGW is properly configured to trust these sources.”

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk652/tk90/technologies_tech_note09186a0080b3e123.shtml#t3

Having this feature on by default is not the greatest idea because I think it will catch a lot of people out but in all fairness someone should read the IOS release notes before deploying. As noted in the tech note provided by Cisco there are three ways to resolve this issue by either reverting back to pre 15.1(2)T behavior or embrace the new feature and configure it as designed.

Thanks to Eddie for mentioning this to me.

VoIPNorm

Publishing Updates from Lync to Twitter and LinkedIn

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 19:23:00 +0000

I have wondered when someone would create an application that updates Twitter from the Activity feed in Lync it seems to make a lot of sense. Well its finally here. Its free, its cool and best of all it works well. The folks over at PLA have done a great job at thinking through making it simple to install and use.

Here's how it works. After the you download and install LyncSocial you will need to start the application. Once the application is up the next step is to select what Social Networks you want to update from your activity feed in Lync. In my case I only selected Twitter since LinkedIn is updated from Twitter already.

Next step is to do your first post in your activity feed in Lync and have the application verify with Twitter which happens automatically. Once you post the Verifier Code in the LyncSocial application your on your way.

See below for my very first Tweet from Lync

Nice job PLA. Sweet app.

VoIPNorm

Lync Video Interoperability Whitepaper

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:43:00 +0000

This is a great whitepaper that explores the ins and outs of how Microsoft’s qualification program for video interoperability works. This is the first time I can remember such a detailed whitepaper on a Lync qualification program ever being published so its great to see.

Microsoft’s qualification programs aim at the highest level of interoperability to ensure that the companies deploying technology from partners and Microsoft know what to expect. This is mandatory reading for anyone working with Lync that plans to deploy video interoperability with Polycom, LifeSize, Radvision or Cisco/Tandberg .

http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2011/09/08/video-interoperability-white-paper.aspx

VoIPNorm

Portland and Boise UC User Group Meetings Next Week

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:30:00 +0000

Don’t forget to register for the User Group meeting in you respective town. Boise is happening on the 14th with Portland on the 15th next week.

Portland event registration here.

Boise User Group Website here and registration site here.

It looks like both are shaping up to have great attendance and topics so make sure you don’t miss out.

VoIPNorm

Volkswagen Group of America Test Drive Lync

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:36:00 +0000

Volkswagen Group of America is taking Microsoft® Lync™ for a test drive and you're invited to follow the story as it unfolds at TestDrivingLync.com. This is the first and only site that offers this kind of experience and insight into a UC deployment by any vendor. The tweets by the users are surprisingly very candid both good and bad and they don’t seem to be holding back. See below for more details on this great initiative.

Turn by turn
The site features the official Test Drive blog in addition to numerous video interviews with VWGoA participants from across the enterprise.

The power of Microsoft Lync
Lync is transforming the way work gets done, making communication possible from nearly everywhere, and boosting collaboration and worker engagement. For IT, the benefits are equally powerful, with a highly secure and reliable system that works with existing tools and systems for easier management, lower cost of ownership, smoother deployment and migration, and greater choice and flexibility.

Follow the Test Drive
I encourage you to check out TestDrivingLync.com and see how Lync is helping them achieve work-life balance and improve productivity. And at any time during the Test Drive, feel free to contact me to learn more about how Microsoft Lync can help power the future of your business.

VoIPNorm

Using Lync with Multiple Direct SIP Trunks to the Same Cisco UCM Subscriber/Cluster

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 21:58:00 +0000

I have known about this configuration for a while now but not had the chance to sit down and write about it. Its also documented on TechNet but with a more generic take. There are a couple of reasons to have multiple SIP trunks between Lync to the same CUCM subscriber or cluster. These are:

Remote site MTP control. For a remote site that has its own MTP resources keeping traffic local to avoid hair pinning and sending unnecessary traffic over WAN links. By creating a separate SIP trunk for a site you can control the alternate media IP for media bypass. This means that using a remote MTP doesn’t require any local Lync resources at that site. So no Mediation Server or SBA required at a remote site.
Calling Search space control on the CUCM side. Each trunk can have its own CSS so adding the ability of call authorization from the CUCM platform even though calls are coming from Lync.
Redundant SIP trunks with dedicated MTP resources.

The main hurdle with configuring multiple SIP trunks to the same gateway or in this case CUCM cluster is the ability to create multiple gateways with the same IP address in the Topology Builder. The simple work around to this issue is to use DNS records that resolve to the same IP address.

Pictured below is an example configuration without any local Lync Mediation or SBA resources at the remote site. This is not an uncommon approach to interoperability where survivability isn't a requirement or dual WAN links are used as way to overcome deploying more electronics. In this case we have two SIP trunks with each having their own dedicated MTP’s. With the inclusion of Media Bypass call media will stay local with requiring any equipment at the branch. This will however require some planning on the Lync dial plan side especially if there are a great deal of remote sites.

This configuration will still allow the use of local DID’s for the Lync site and local termination of PSTN calls at the remote site with no hair pinning over the WAN.

There are a couple of steps to getting this setup. I have outlined below what I did in my home lab:

Created 2 SRV records – cucmsip1.contoso.com and cucmsip2.contoso.com and pointed it to my A record that’s pointed to my CUCM VM server.
Created 2 new PSTN gateways in Lync Topology Builder called cucmsip1.contoso.com and cucmsip2.contoso.com. Also consider using different port numbers for each trunk along with configuring the alternate media IP for the MTP. Completed the route changes in Lync.
Under enterprise parameters in CUCM under cluster wide Domain Configuration-> organization top level domain – contoso.com
Under enterprise parameters in CUCM entered under cluster wide Domain Configuration->cluster Fully qualified domain name - *.contoso.com
Restarted my CUCM VM (this may be more of me being impatient than the update not working without it. You might be able to just restart the Callmanager service rather than a full restart of the machine).
It worked

The FQDN parameter in CUCM has a limitation of 255 characters so if you had a large deployment that wanted to point every branch at the same CUCM cluster you will have to use the wildcard function as it just wont scale for larger deployments without it. Of course you could tighten it up for security reasons and have a separate DNS domain for this function.

If you do not change this parameter in CUCM you will receive a SIP 404 not found message for DNS names in the SIP invite that are not valid CUCM cluster/Subscriber FQDN names.

Configuring CUCM and Lync:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/nexthop/archive/2011/07/17/integrating-lync-server-2010-and-cisco-unified-communications-manager.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff926525.aspx

Using Multiple Gateways on TechNet:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398971.aspx

VoIPNorm

Technet Webcast: Lync Server 2010 Edge Servers (Level 300)

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Norman) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:15:00 +0000