2. Unified communications platform
• Lead UC Architect for Capita IT Services
• Role solely focuses on Microsoft Lync and Enterprise Voice
• Pre-Sales, Architecture Design and Solution Delivery
• 21 Years consultancy experience working for Global SI’s and Telco’s
• Previously : Technology Consultant – KCOM & Affiniti
• Formerly : Technical Consultant - Capgemini
• Lync Voice P-TSP on behalf of Microsoft
• Partner Technology Solutions Professional
• Extension of the Microsoft Lync TSP team
• From the North East of England
• Marske By The Sea
• 3 Children
• Keen Motorcycle Rider
• Sometimes follow Middlesbrough Football Club
Web : northernucusergroup.co.uk - Twitter @northernucuserg
3. Challenge the use of Group Call Pickup
• Supported in Lync 2013 since CU1, but unwieldy for both users and administrators
• Use SEFAUtil to enable a user for Group Call Pickup and assign a pickup number
• Call Park application – New-CSCallParkOrbit cmdlet to create call pickup number ranges in the call park orbit
table and assign the pickup ranges the type GroupPickup
• Response Group / Delegate Calls / Team Calls / SimRing Calls cannot be picked up using Group Call Pickup
Before Lync
• Sue calls Bob, Bob isn’t at his desk (Sue wouldn’t have know this as there’s no presence )
• Paddy can hear Bob’s phone ringing and uses a feature code **3 / *31 to answer Bob’s phone
• Paddy leaves a message on a “post-it note” for Bob to call Sue when he’s back.
After Lync (Without Group Call Pickup deployed)
• Sue calls Bob, Bob isn’t at his desk (Sue knows this as he’s showing away, but decides to call him anyway)
• Scenario 1 - Bob has enabled SimRing to his mobile, Sue’s call is forwarded to Bob’s mobile and the call is
connected
• Scenario 2 – Bob hasn’t enabled SimRing and instead Sue’s call is forwarded to his voicemail
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4. Prior to a deployment
• Identify “function champions” – i.e. a user from Finance, a user from Payroll, a user from Admin etc.
• Work with the function champions to help them distinguish between calling a person and calling a function
• If I want to speak to the “Finance Department” I’ll call the relevant RSG
• An available agent of the Finance Department RSG will answer the call
• If I want to speak to Bob I’ll call Bob
• If Bob’s not available the inbound call will be handled however Bob has chosen the call to be handled
• There’s no need / business benefit to leaving messages on post-it notes for an individuals missed call
Once a legacy PBX users mindset has been changed to one of a UC “way of working” there
shouldn’t be a business need for Group Call Pickup
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5. Pool Quorum
• For a pool that is running, at least 50% of the FE servers need to be online to achieve quorum state
• For a pool starting from a cold boot 85% of the FE servers need to be online to achieve quorum state and for
FE services to start
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# of FE Servers in the pool # of FE Servers that must be running for pool to be functional
1-2 1
3-4 2
5-6 3
7-8 4
9-10 5
11-12 6
6. Replica Set Quorum
• Not related to Pool Quorum, Used by Routing Groups
• Each Routing Group is assigned a Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Front End Server
• Windows Fabric allocates the copies of the routing groups to different servers, ensuring a single server only
contains one copy of a routing group
• Windows Fabric also relocates routing groups if a Front End Server goes offline containing a primary copy
• Users are automatically assigned to a Routing Group when the user account is provisioned
• Lync 2010 hash algorithm no longer used
• Routing Group information is held in AD (msRTCSIP-UserRoutingGroupId)
• Routing Groups must maintain Quorum, if more than 1 server from a Routing Group is lost at the same time
service will be lost to users belonging to the failed Routing Group
• SBA’s / SBS’s get their own Routing Group however, all users assigned to the SBA/SBS will be serviced by this
Routing Group
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7. Hypervisor
• Microsoft SVVP Program lists supported hypervisors for Lync
• Disable Hyper-Threading on the Hosts
• Dedicate CPU Cores to Virtual Machines
• Reserve RAM to Virtual Machines
• Use 10Gb interfaces if possible
• VMware DRS / vMotion – Hyper-V LiveMigration not supported
• VMware SRM not supported, use Pool Pairing for DR in Lync
Virtual Server Placement
• 1 Front-End Virtual server per host
• Split the SQL Virtual Servers across multiple hosts
• In a Pool Quorum voting scenario only the principal SQL server is used to vote
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8. WAN Accelerators / Optimizers
• Riverbed Steelheads / Cisco WAAS
• Mitigate the impact of low network bandwidth and delay
• Data compression
• Caching
• Protocol optimisation
• None of these ^ apply to UC
• Lync Voice / Video Codecs already “self-optimised” and non-cacheable
• Can impact on remote users
• Previous known issues where Riverbeds have reset TCP traffic for STUN/MSTURN
Crypto Appliances
• Usually a mandated requirement for PSN or Official / Secret / Top Secret environments
• Crypto encryption adds latency to already encrypted media
• Business needs to accept the risk if a mandated requirement – i.e. NSA Suite B compliance
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9. Certain scenarios may require an additional solution to a Lync deployment
• Self contained phone solutions that must have “dial tone” to designated handsets
• No dependency on underlying network or infrastructure services
• Police Command Centre
• Ambulance Control Room
• Nuclear Site License Requirements
• HSE obligations to edge sites that are either on a non-resilient LAN connection or have no local UPS
• Typically manufacturing environments
• Must be able to provide dial tone in the event of:
• Network outages (Planned and Unplanned)
• LAN / WAN / SIP Trunks
• Loss of Network or Power to none UPS protected edge sites
• Unforeseen circumstances
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10. Certain scenarios may require an additional solution to a Lync deployment (cont)
• Sim-ringing mobiles will not be sufficient in these scenarios
• Lack of signal
• Mobile phones will not be allowed in Secret / Top Secret areas
• In the event of a Nuclear Emergency the cellular network will be taken down by the Police
Potential solutions could include
• Analogue gateways registered in Lync (network planned downtime needs to be carefully considered)
• Qualify length of cable runs required to support, anything over 5,000 meters will be a challenge!
• Understand limitations to supporting analogue devices in Lync
• Analogue Gateways connected to DEL’s with handsets connected directly to the Analogue Gateway
• Self contained PBX only providing analogue services
• Finding a resilient PBX that doesn’t require IP Services will be a challenge
• SBC’s connected to ISDN circuits in addition to SIP Trunks
• Still has a reliance on the underlying network and infrastructure being available
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11. Two commonly deployed models as part of a Lync solution
• Sonus SBC1000
• 3 DSP’s
• Supports 160 concurrent transcoded SIP sessions
• Single PSU
• Sonus SBC2000
• 6 DSP’s
• Supports 600 concurrent transcoded SIP sessions
• Dual PSU’s
• Release Update specifics
• From release 3.2 and above
• Each DSP can support 200 concurrent sessions
• SBC’s can be shipped fully loaded and only need licenses to enable features
• DSP’s are not user serviceable parts, need to be preloaded prior to shipping
• Release 4.0 and above – Java is no longer required client-side
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12. Deployment specifics
• Use a naming convention that won’t confuse troubleshooting call flow issues
• If enabling MTLS ensure PTR records exist in the reverse lookup zone for the SBC and the Lync FE
• If deploying SBC’s without using the wizard and connecting to ISDN, configure Q.850 to SIP Override
• Default RTP/RTCP Port Pairs may need increasing
• IP call leg to TDM call leg = 600 calls, SIP call leg to SIP call leg = 300 calls
• To support more than 300 concurrent SIP to SIP calls the Number of Port Pairs will need increasing
• Configure SNMP on SBC’s and send SNMP traps into existing monitoring solutions
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13. Option 1 (least preferred)
• Place SBC and Lync behind existing PSTN Presentation / Legacy PBX
• Typically connected to the legacy PBX by a QSIG connection or SIP Trunk
• Disadvantages
• Legacy PBX still has control of inbound / outbound routing
• Enabling of EV for Lync users requires ongoing PBX changes
• Lync project team will not be able to fully manage call control without assistance from the PBX engineer
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PSTN
14. Option 2 (preferred)
• Place SBC “in-line” between PSTN and legacy PBX
• Still connected to the legacy PBX by a QSIG connection or SIP Trunk
• SBC can cache msRTCSIP-line user attributes from Active Directory
• Inbound PSTN Call
• SBC performs lookup for msRTCSIP-line
• If the msRTCSIP-line is matched
• Inbound call is routed to Lync
• Lync performs a RNL for SIP Address
• Endpoint Rings
• If the msRTCSIP-line isn't matched
• Inbound call is routed to the legacy PBX
• Advantages
• Enables a controlled migration from legacy PBX to Lync
• SBC / Lync has complete call control for inbound / outbound PSTN calls
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PSTN
15. RCC – Remote Call Control
• Enables users enabled for Remote Call Control to use the Lync 2013 client to control a legacy PBX handset
• Only useful when a computer is tied to a desk
• Requires a Plus CAL
• Requires a CSTA Gateway eg. CUPS/AES (and relevant licenses)
• Deprecated in Skype for Business with the introduction of Call via Work
• CvW – Enterprise Voice for legacy PBX Users
• Leverages Direct SIP connectivity between legacy PBX and Skype for Business
• Users can make voice calls using any PSTN phone, including existing PBX endpoints
• Skype for Business dials out to the PSTN or a desk phone to connect the user, then connects with the far-end
destination
• Presence update and call control from Skype for Business client
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16. Client Side Plug-ins
• CUCILync / Avaya ACA
• Plug-in to Lync client controlling Cisco / Avaya PBX
• Allows the use of Lync for IM&P but uses a legacy PBX for call control
• Avaya ACA disables video within the Lync client by default
• Cisco recommends disabling everything apart from IM&P features within Lync Client
Both Solutions
• Vendors will state how good this solution is – It’s not!
• No EV configuration will apply, normalization will use company_phone_number_normalization_rules.txt
• Confusing user experience
• Unable to leverage Edge Services
• Unable to use Lync Audio/Video Conferencing
• Unable to use Remote User and Federation Audio/Video
• Additional software to manage / Additional training requirements / Additional licenses may be needed PBX side
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17. QoE
• Collects usage and QoE data for communication sessions
• Important Role – Should be deployed as part of any EV deployment
• Records information about each session
• Who called who, endpoints that were used etc.
• Uses MOS values to report on the perceived quality of the session
• MOS-LQ – Quality of audio for listening purposes only, doesn’t take into account delay, echo etc.
• MOS-CQ – Quality of audio in each direction, including bidirectional effects
• Provides MOS scores for:
• Listening MOS-LQ (stream played to user)
• Sending MOS-LQ (stream being sent to user)
• Network MOS-LQ (stream being played to user, including codec used, packet loss, jitter etc.)
• Conversational MOS-CQ (prediction of the narrowband audio stream being played to the user)
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18. KHI – Key Health Indicators
• Performance counters with thresholds aimed at revealing user experience issues
• Used in addition to standard Lync monitoring tools
• Creates a Excel based scorecard to determine server health within a Lync deployment
• Run included PowerShell script on each Front End Server
• Creates a performance monitor data collector and polls every 15 seconds by default
• After collection period complete the KHI Excel Spreadsheet
• Compare the results in the scorecard to the recommended thresholds
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