Scalability
The S8720 Media Server will be available
with increased capacities with the
launch of Communication Manager 4.0.
The S8720 server itself does not
change but will need to be configured
at installation or upgrade in an
XL configuration or CM Large Boot
Time Memory Configuration. Existing
S8720 servers with hardware duplication
that want the increased capacities
will require the new DAL2 duplication
boards. All new orders of the S8720
with hardware duplication and CM
4.0 will ship with the new DAL2.
The increased capacities below are not
available on the S8700 and S8710. They
are only available on the S8720 when
it is configured at installation or upgrade
in an XL configuration. Additionally,
the S8500 will have the increased capacities
only when used as an ESS/LSP behind a
main server that is an S8720 in an XL
configuration. The increased capacities
are not available to an S8500 as a main
server.
- Trunks from 8,000 to 12,000
- Tone
detectors from 1,200 to 8,000
- System
announcement from 3,000 to 9,000
- VAL
boards from 10 to 128
- Attendant groups
from 28 to 414
- CLAN Board from 64
to 106
- EC500 Enhanced CLID Support
from 54,000 to 108,000 off-PBXstation-mappings
The
increased capacities in Communication
Manager 4.0 below do not require XL
configuration.
- Announcement files per VAL board
from 256 to 1,024 on the S87XX, S8500
and S8400 platforms.
- Attendant groups
from 28 to 128 on the S87XX and S8500
platforms.
- Attendant groups from 28
to 68 on the S8300B/C
Provides the required capacity increase
to support the large and dispersed
enterprise or Call Center customers
that are consolidating their multiple
Call Processing servers into a single
Call Processing server.
Stateful Server Duplication
Using the Avaya patented Memory
Shadowing, this feature is available
where only one S8700-Series Media
Server is running the entire system.
The non-active redundant server is
synchronized real-time (either
via a dedicated fiber or across
an IP network) to the active server,
providing imperceptible fail-over
in the event of major component
failure in the active server.
Not only are the calls maintained
during failover but call control
(ability to transfer a call for example)
is preserved as well as maintaining
any calls that may be queued in a
call center or even calls that are
being set up including the continuation
of processing digits being entered.
Dial Plan expansion
This feature enables enterprise
customers to flatten, consolidate,
and extend their networks seamlessly
without requiring changes to user
extensions and also minimizing the
risks of dial plan collision during
consolidation.
Supports up to 13 digit extensions
from the current 7 digits.
Supports up to 18 digit inter-switch
uniform dial plan
Provides users with a flexible dial
plan in a single server by allowing
different length uniform dial plan
for within a location and across
locations.
Dial Plan Transparency
This feature preserves a users
dialing pattern when the system goes
into ESS or LSP mode. From a user’s
perspective, the originator of
the call should not have to do
anything special or different to
dial the extension in most instances
when ESS or LSP fragments exist.
Note: The Dial Plan Transparency
feature does not support certain
ATM configurations in which customer
uses Fiber-PNC connectivity to support
several Port Networks connected together
via Center Stage or ATM.
Preserve the user’s dialing
experience whether the system operates
in normal mode or survivable mode.
ESS Auto Return to Main
This feature permits the automatic
return of control to the primary
server after a failover from an
ESS. There will be a timer associated
with this auto fallback to prevent
recovery to the main before the
network is stable. The return to
the primary server is predicated
by two options in Communication
Manager 3.0: scheduled and manual
Provide another option to allow
ESS to automatically return to primary.
CDR Survivability
Preserve the CDR records associated
with calls that occur while a gateway
is under the control of LSP survivable
processor. With survivable CDR,
the server saves the CDR information
in files that are stored in a special
directory on the local hard drive
until such time as they are copied
by the CDR adjunct and then removed
from the LSP. For security purposes
the special login used by the CDR
adjunct only has access to the
directory where the CDR records
are stored.
Provides a way to capture the CDR
records of those calls made from
the LSP survivable servers to minimize
the loss of CDR records until such
time as the main server and/or the
affected communications links could
be returned to operation.
Centralized Authentication of Administrators
With Communication Manager 4.0,
enterprises will be able to authenticate
Communication Manager and Linux-based
server administrative logins with
a centralized server on the customer’s
network. The RADIUS, Microsoft
Active Directory, or LDAP protocol
is used to communication with the
authentication server. Typically,
this server already exists in a
customer’s network and the
Avaya Linux-based media servers
and Communication Manager can now
take advantage of the logins ands
passwords defined for their network,
rather than local authentication
on the Avaya servers.
In addition, this new Communication
Manager capability will allow, through
an authentication server:
- Enterprise centralized control of
logins and passwords.
Enforcement of password aging,
minimum length, and reuse requirements.
- Avaya
media server adherence to the customer’s
corporate security standards regarding
logins and passwords.
- Reduced total
cost of ownership of the communication
network infrastructure.
- Provides
a centralized authentication of
administrators to conform to customer's
security standards.
- Provides security
functionality beyond that of the
Enterprise Linux operating system
to detect and expose unintended
changes to system files.
Enhanced CM Loggings
With Communication Manager 4.0, enterprises
will be able to authenticate Communication
Manager and Linux-based server
administrative logins with a centralized
server on the customer’s
network. The RADIUS, Microsoft
Active Directory, or LDAP protocol
is used to communication with the
authentication server. Typically,
this server already exists in a
customer’s network and the
Avaya Linux-based media servers
and Communication Manager can now
take advantage of the logins ands
passwords defined for their network,
rather than local authentication
on the Avaya servers.
In addition, this new Communication
Manager capability will allow, through
an authentication server:
- Enterprise centralized control
of logins and passwords.
- Enforcement
of password aging, minimum length,
and reuse requirements.
- Avaya media
server adherence to the customer’s
corporate security standards regarding
logins and passwords.
- Reduced total
cost of ownership of the communication
network infrastructure.
Increase the granularity of logging
of user activity and provide a single
place of customer choosing (external
server or Linux syslog) to store
the security logs.
SRTP (Secure Real Time Protocol)
support
Customers requiring interoperable
encryption and authentication for
secure voice-over-IP communication
can now take advantage of the industry-standard
SRTP protocol in Communication Manager
4.0. This can be used as a standards-based
alternative to the Media Encryption
option which has been available since
Communication Manager Release 1.3.
Note that SRTP includes both RTP
and RTCP authentication capability;
however in Communication Manager
4.0, only the RTP portion will be
encrypted using AES.
SRTP support will be available on
the Avaya One-X Desk phone Edition
R1.2 on the H.323 endpoints (9610,
9620, 9630, 9640 and 9650) and on
the Avaya One-X Desk phone Edition
R1.0 on the SIP endpoints (9620 and
9630).
Provide customers industry standard
secure protocol for authentication
and media encryption for Avaya VoIP
solution. This authentication provides
secure VoIP communication in addition
to the existing H.323 Signaling and
media encryption.
Global feature additions
The
following new telephony features
in Communication Manager 4.0 are
designed to meet the requirements
of the global enterprise customers.
- Ability for a team of individuals
to monitor and communicate with
each other via a Team (aka partner)
button
- Mask/block the CLI (calling
line identification) for internal
calls
- Enhance call forward to different
destinations based on busy/idle
status and internal/external call
- Lock/unlock
stations based on time of day/day
of week
- Treat locked off station
(e.g. IP terminal, PSA station)
as an idle station
- Maintain external
call ring indication after an internal
call transfer
- Provide Advice of
Charge information over a QSIG
network
- Ability for Communication
Manager’s
integrated directory to search
on extended Latin and Cyrillic
characters
Provides multinational customers
additional business telephony features
to meet their enterprise needs.
Increase H.323 Trunk members in
a Single Signaling group to 255
The number of trunks in a Signaling
Group was originally designed to
accommodate the actual number of
trunks supported over an ISDN PRI
E1 facility. However, with the use
of the IP network for trunking, 31
trunks in a IP Signaling Group is
too limiting and results in a more
expensive solution in terms of IP
addresses, CLAN circuit packs, and
administration.
- Simplified administration - one
IP Signaling Group to administer
versus up to nine IP Signaling
Groups.
- Better utilization of CLAN
circuit packs - With this enhancement,
each CLAN will be able to support
up to 255 trunks instead of the
current 31 trunks. This results
in up to a savings of 8 CLAN circuit
packs per system.
- Saves IP address
utilization - in direct relationship
with the number of CLANs required,
the number of IP addresses needed
is lessened as well.
- Lessens need
to increase number of signaling
groups - Communication Manager
currently supports up to 650 signaling
groups (IP and TDM). With only
31 trunks per signaling group,
some customers are reaching the
650 limit for signaling groups.
By increasing the number of trunks
per signaling groups, fewer signaling
groups are needed between two systems
when IP trunks are used.
Enterprise Mobility User
Enterprise Mobility User provides
users the ability to associate
the features of their primary telephones
to telephones of the same type
anywhere within the customer enterprise.
QSIG must be the private networking
protocol in the network of Communication
Manager systems. All servers must
be on a Linux platform running
on Communication Manager 3.1 or
later. The visited telephone must
be the same model type as the primary
telephone to enable an optimal
transfer of the image of the primary
telephone. If the visited telephone
is not the same model type, only
the call appearance buttons and
the message waiting light are transferred.
New enhancements in Communication
Manager 4.0 permit cross registration
between the principal and visited
phones, automatic deactivation of
the Enterprise Mobility Users feature
if there is no activity on the visited
station for an administered time
interval and enables users to activate
the "Extension to Cellular" when
at the primary station. Note that
this feature is also referred as
wired mobility and can be used for
DCP as well as H.323 phones.
The ability of users to move across
the enterprise while maintaining
consistent phone service.
Processor Ethernet (PE)
Prior to Communication Manager
3.1, an S8500 Media Server required
a CLAN board in a port network
to provide IP connectivity to,
H.323 endpoints, H.248 gateways,
adjuncts, and IP trunks. With PE
in Communication Manager 3.1:
- All
IP connected devices that required
a CLAN can now connect to the main
server using the PE interface.
- A
simplex Enterprise Survivable Server
(ESS) or Local Survivable Server
(LSP) can support alternate adjunct
link connectivity to CMS, CDR and
AESVCS.
- The S8500 Media Server can
be used as a main server in a pure
IP configuration and/or as an LSP.
- The
larger configurations where traffic
exceeds the capacity of the PE
interface or in a configuration
where a CLAN is already present,
the PE interface can be used in
conjunction with one or more CLANs.
Processor Ethernet is available
on simplex servers like the S8500,
S8400 and S8300. PE is also available
on a S8500 LSP, S8500 ESS and S8300
LSP. However, PE is not available
for the duplicated S87XX series
servers.
Processor Ethernet eliminates the
need for a G650 gateway, IPSI and
CLAN when connecting H.248 Gateways
(G700, G350 and G250) to a S8500
or S8400 Media Server. Results in
reduced footprint and lower cost
solution.
S8500 as an Local Survivable Processor
(LSP)
As part of the Processor Ethernet
feature, it is now possible to configure
an S8500 as a Local Survivable Processor
(LSP). The S8500 as an LSP positions
the S8500 Media Server as a higher
capacity LSP for larger remote sites
of a distributed enterprise and also
provides Enterprise Survivability,
similar to ESS, as it may serve as
a "regional" survivable
server for multiple H.248 gateways.
The S8500 Media Server can act as
a higher capacity LSP for larger
remote sites of a distributed enterprise
and also provides Enterprise Survivability,
similar to ESS, as a "regional" survivable
server for multiple H.248 gateways.
IP Media Resource Duplication -
TN2602AP
Avaya introduced the TN2602AP IP
Media Resource board with the launch
of Communication Manager 3.0. The
TN2602AP is functionally equivalent
to the existing TN2302 but has five
times the number of VOIP channels.
The TN2602AP allows for the bearer
traffic to be moved from the traditional
Center Stage Switch (CSS) or ATM
network to the IP network.
With Communication Manager 3.0, it
was possible to administer two TN2602AP
circuit packs within a port network
without enabling duplication. In
this scenario, bearer traffic will
be load balanced between two circuit
packs.
With Communication Manager 3.1, two
TN2602AP circuit packs can be installed
in a single port network for bearer
duplication. In this configuration,
one TN2602AP is an active IP Media
Processor and one is a standby IP
Media Processor. If the active media
processor, or connections to it fail,
the active connection will failover
to the standby media processor and
remain active. This duplication prevents
active calls in progress from being
dropped in the case of a failure.
The TN2602AP can be duplicated to
operate in an Active-Standby mode
for critical-bearer reliability.
Tripwire Replacement
The open source version of Tripwire
that is/was available with Red
Hat Linux 8.x is being captured
and modified by Avaya so that it
will run on Red Hat Enterprise
Linux going forward. Avaya will
supply the Tripwire RPM and own
the modifications necessary to
make it Enterprise Linux compatible
and also own the creation of security
updates for it as needed. Tripwire
is software that detects and exposes
unintended changes to system files.
Contributes to the overall Communication
Manager value proposition by providing
security functionality beyond that
of the Enterprise Linux OS. Key security-conscious
customers expect this functionality
as part of their overall Enterprise
security solution.
Software Duplication on the Avaya
Media Server S8720
With CM 3.1, the new S8720 Media
Server was introduced. The S8720
is the next generation of the S87XX
Series Server. The S8720 is sold
in two configuration options, with
hardware duplication (requiring the
DAL1 duplication boards) or with
Software Duplication (no DAL1 boards
needed). The software duplication
feature eliminates the need for the
DAL1 memory duplication boards in
duplicated S8720 servers. This feature
is only supported by the S8720.
Additionally, the S8720 Media Server
will be lead free and RoHS (Removal
of Hazardous Substance) compliant.
RoHS compliance will be a requirement
for communication equipment to be
sold in Western Europe beginning
in July 2006.
The S8720 Media Server provides
improved performance (BHCC) over
the S8710. The S8720 can be ordered
with software duplication, allowing
the customer to separate the duplicated
servers (within a campus environment
initially).
Enterprise Survivable Servers (ESS)
Enterprise Survivable Servers allow
backup servers to be placed at
various places in a network so
that communications can continue
in the event that a main server(s)
fails, or when connectivity to
the main server(s) is lost. Enterprise
Survivable Servers can be connected
to ATM, IP and Center Stage Switch
(CSS) connected port networks.
The IPSI card in the port networks
automatically obtains service from
an ESS server(s) if the control
signal to the main server is lost.
Deploying Enterprise Survivable
Servers at appropriate points in
a network provides flexibility in
how to plan against system failover.
Assurance of communications continuity
can be mapped to protect against
network failures or catastrophic
main server failures or both. Administration
for the ESS can be conducted in a
central point with automatic synchronization
to all ESS servers. ESS now provides
a survivability option for S8500
Media Servers.
Inter Gateway Alternate Routing
and Call Admission Control
Provides a means of alternately
using the PSTN when the IP-WAN is
incapable of carrying the bearer
connection for inter gateway calls.
- Allows calls to complete when
there is insufficient bandwidth
to complete the calls between gateways
or port networks.
- Ensure high quality
and availability of voice traffic
on converged networks.
Local Survivable Processor (LSP)
Preserves the bearer channel for
branch offices when control is
transferred from the primary server
to LSP and vice versa.
- Assurance of communications continuity
- Storage
location for CDR records until
main server is returned to service
Auto
Fallback to Primary for H.248 Gateways
This feature returns a fragmented
network, where a number of H.248
Media Gateways are being serviced
by one or more Local Spare Processors
to the primary media server in an
automatic fashion.
Allows the transfer of control of
H.248 gateways from Local Spare Processors
to Primary server without human intervention
that is needed today.
Connection Preserving Failover/Failback
for H.248 Media Gateways
This feature preserves existing
stable bearer connections in the
event of the migration of a media
gateway from one Communication Manager
server to another.
Provides customers at the branch
office uninterrupted communication
service when switching from an active/main
component to a standby/backup component
and vice versa.
Connection Preserving for Duplex
Servers
This feature preserves many types
of stable bearer connections during
an upgrade of duplex servers from
Communication Manager 3.0 to later
release.
Provides customers uninterrupted
communication service during an upgrade
of duplex servers from Communication
Manager 3.0 to later releases.
Safety & Security Enhancements
For safety, Communication Manager
allows making emergency calls from
un-named IP endpoints. For security,
Communication Manager provides
encryption support for the signaling
channel between the media server
and IP phones.
- Allows emergency calls to be
placed from un-named IP endpoints.
- Provides
increased security to IP Phones
and also prevents hackers from
eavesdropping a voice calls.
QSIG Support for Unicode
This feature extends the support
of Unicode across Communication
Manager servers.
Allows trunk calls to correctly
display in local languages for IP
Phones.
Redundancy for Announcements and
Music on Hold (MoH)
Enables customers to use any or
all of their gateways as local recorded
announcement sources and thus improve
the quality of the audio rendering.
This permits more than one source
to play the announcement and MOH
when the primary source is unable
to play the audio source. A selection
algorithm selects the recorded audio
source closest to the ingress point
of the caller.
Locally sourced audio can help:
- Improve the quality of audio
- Increase
the number of possible sources
for announcements, MOH and tenant
partition
- Provide MOH without an
analog media module.
- Preserve valuable
WAN resources by streaming the
audio source to the closest location
where the call came into the network.
Expanded Meet me Conference
The Expanded Meet-me Conference
feature enables users on Communication
Manager to create multi-party meet
me conferencing to support up to
300 parties.
Provides customers an inexpensive
basic "meet me" type conferencing
for up to 300 parties. |
