The “How of UC” - Simplifying Voice IP Connectivity

The real UC implementation challenge for every business organization is how to selectively and gracefully migrate existing telephony technologies to a new UC environment without disrupting existing operations. That applies not only to internal communications, but also to all forms of contact with external business partners and customers.

Integrating Enterprise UC Software With Telephones and Networking Hardware

There is a fundamental requirement for UC software servers to access the hardware of both existing telephony networks as well as new wired and wireless IP Telephony services and devices. With location independent UC, communication connectivity has to be device, application, and network independent to work effectively.

There is also general agreement that UC and IP Telephony must be evolutionary and selective, geared to the priorities of each organization’s specific operational needs and priorities. That means that the network infrastructure with VoIP hardware (SIP trunking, IP Phones) for cost-efficient IP Telephony within a UC framework will be an important consideration for UC migration planning.

A variety of operational requirements will typically dictate an organization’s decision about IP Telephony and which VoIP hardware to use in conjunction with any UC implementations. These requirements include:

• Interoperability with existing/planned telecom infrastructure

• Remote office support and survivability

• Security

• Call processing performance

• Special routing and administration needs 

The migration to enterprise IP Telephony should be viewed as part of a UC migration, so it is important to integrate implementation planning for both.

UC Servers, the PSTN And SIP Gateways

Because IP Telephony and SIP networking will be evolving slowly, the PSTN will remain an important network link to business contacts outside the organization and to remote organizational locations that have not replaced their legacy telephony systems. However, UC functionality can still be exploited selectively through the use of VoIP networking - SIP trunking, SIP-based voice switches, and SIP Gateways.

VoIP hardware technology will be very useful and cost-effective for selectively migrating legacy telephony operations to UC.

When Microsoft Users Are Ready To Do UC – NET Has Gateway Switches

Many organizations are looking at Microsoft’ Office Communications Server (OCS) capabilities as a next step in migrating to telephony-enabled UC. I met with one of Microsoft’s partners, NET, which offers VX Series and Quintum Series Gateway/Switches, designed to enable Microsoft UC implementations for both legacy and IP Telephony. These products can help enterprises leverage OCS, and as NET notes, “minimize implementation challenges and enable companies to fully leverage Microsoft UC’s rich functionality for maximum business benefit.” NET’s VX Series and Quintum Series switches and Gateways are different from commodity VoIP gateways in ways that make them particularly suitable for the challenges associated with Microsoft UC implementation. According to NET, key attributes of the VX Series solution include:

• Diverse Telephony Environments: The Any-to-Any MultiPath architecture (along with its built-in SIP to SIP mediation) provides full connectivity between Microsoft UC users on an IP network and any other telephony infrastructure – including PBXs and IP PBXs – without requiring additional hardware or reconfiguration of existing devices. A “single box” solution for interoperability between IP, SIP, H.323 and TDM-based systems centralizes the needs of large, distributed enterprises with mixed environments – allowing all calls for the PSTN, IP-PBXs, conventional PBXs, and SIP trunks to be routed on the same node.
• Remote Office Survivability: NET VX switches include built-in SIP survivability functionality that ensures continuity of basic calling functions on SIP phones in remote offices even in the event of an Office Communications Server failure – or in the event that IP network connectivity to a UC server in a central location fails. This protects critical voice network connectivity across the enterprise from any single point-of-failure, although not from failure of PC desktop endpoints with Microsoft UC clients.
• VoIP Security: VX Series switches provide security for all aspects of VoIP. They implement a broad range of encryption protocols, including TLS for signaling security and SRTP for media security – as well as IPSec, SCIP, and MD5 Auth. VX Series switches also encrypt at wire speed and provide “rogue packet” ejection that detects, ignores, and immediately reports malicious streams.
• Active Directory Integration: allows programmable call control to be driven by telephony data from Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP servers. This gives IT administrators a single point-of-control for user moves, ads, and changes. AD integration opens up new possibilities for rules-based call routing – including the programming of fail-over scenarios that redirect calls to users’ cell phones in the event that LAN/WAN connections to UC desktops are down. It also allows the VX switch to determine whether a call should be routed directly to a user’s phone or via an OCS Server to a UC desktop. It identifies internal callers by displaying the names of Microsoft UC callers on non-Microsoft phones, and enables business cell phone calls to go UC mailboxes for voice messages.

NET VX and Quintum Series switches provide many other capabilities that make them especially suitable for Microsoft UC deployments to selectively maximize the benefits of UC to different end users and to simplify IT’s responsibilities in implementing and supporting IP Telephony under UC.