Best Practices for Integrating Lync with Your Avaya Environment

Best Practices for Integrating

Lync with Your Avaya Environment

Presented by Certified Lync Masters Keenan Crockett & Jason Sloan

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Unified Communications Experience

Certified

Gold Certified Lync Voice

Gold Certified Lync Messaging

Member of the Microsoft Lync Partner Advisory Council

2 Lync Certified Masters

Full team of Lync Certified Consultants

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Experienced

Integrations with Cisco, Avaya, Siemens, Nortel, and Shoretel

Hundreds of thousands of Lync seats deployed

Dozens of PBX Integrations

Extensive Voice and PBX Knowledge

Our Speakers

Jason Sloan | Lead Technical Consultant

• Microsoft Certified Master - Lync Server, over 5 years of IT consulting experience

focused on UC, has deployed Lync for some of the largest global companies with

upward of 140k seats

• Responsible for design and delivery of Unified Communication solutions

• Co-organizer of the Kansas City Lync Users Group

• Avid contributor in the Lync Community, active on Twitter and Perficient Microsoft blog

Keenan Crockett | Lync Team Lead & Senior Solution Architect

• Microsoft Certified Master - Lync Server, over 9 years of IT consulting experience

focused on UC, has deployed Lync for some of the largest global companies

• Responsible for selling and delivering UC solutions for complex business environments

• Supervises all Lync team members and provides architecture, escalation and oversight

for large and complex UC projects

What We’ll Cover

• Goals & Requirements

• Comparison of Lync 2013 & Avaya Voice Components

• Avaya Integration Best Practices

– Open Interoperability Program (OIP)

– Lync 2010/2013 & Avaya Qualifications

– Use of Session Boarder Controllers

– Example Call Flows

– Call Quality and Prioritization Planning

– Audio Conferencing Planning

– Voicemail Planning

• Considerations & Integration Challenges

– Softphone/Hardware phone options

– Simultaneous Ringing

– Remote Call Control

– Avaya Agile Communication Environment (ACE)

– Call Admission Control Overview

Goals & Requirements

• What are your business requirements?

• What are your business goals?

• What are your technical requirements?

• What are your technical goals?

• What are your technical limitations (TDM only, no Session Manager or SBC)?

• Have you documented and tracked these goals and requirements?

• Have you communicated these goals and requirements with global stakeholders?

Goals & Requirements

Define the user experience!

Lync can be integrated into Avaya numerous ways:

– Direct SIP (Enterprise Voice)

• A user can be enabled for Enterprise Voice and use the Lync

client to make and receive telephone calls between other Lync

users, Avaya stations, and to the PSTN.

– Remote Call Control (CSTA)

• The Lync client acts as a remote control for the Avaya phone. All

media streams are kept within the Avaya framework.

• Only signaling is sent between Lync & Avaya.

– Client Side Plug-In

• Avaya provided client side software.

Microsoft Microsoft Notes Avaya Avaya Notes

Certified Voice Gateway Provided by certified third

parties (AudioCodes, Sonus,

etc.).

Provides TDM, analog, and

IP related telephony services

GX50 Media Gateways Provides TDM, analog,

and IP related

telephony services

Lync Front End Server Provides PBX and

conferencing MCU

Aura Communications Manager Provides PBX and

conferencing MCU

Lync Mediation Server Provides SIP signaling and

media transcoding to certified

third-party providers and

servers

CSTA signaling is not

provided by the mediation

role.

Aura Session Manager / SIP Enablement

Services (SES)

Provides SIP signaling

to third-party providers

and servers

Aura Application Enablement Server

(AES)

Provides application

programming interfaces

(APIs) and Computer

Supported

Telecommunications

Applications (CSTA)

signaling to third party

applications

Lync 2010/2013 client Avaya Client Applications (ACA) Third-party application

plug-ins

Comparison of Lync & Avaya Voice Components

Lync Mediation Server:

– Required for Enterprise Voice workload

– Required for PSTN dial-in conferencing workload

– Largely unchanged from previous versions

How Mediation Server is used:

– Allows connectivity to PBX’s, PSTN Gateways, SBCs or SIP Trunk

providers

– Similar to a Media Termination Point (MTP)

– Translates media streams

– Connects using TLS or TCP (UDP is not supported)


Mediation Server Construction:

– Can be collocated as a service with Lync Front End server

– Can be stand-alone server

– Can be pooled with additional Mediation servers

– Can be hardware or virtual

Mediation Server Sizing:

– Consider call volumes

• PSTN

• Conferencing

– Call volume differences

• Collocated: ~150 max calls/mediation service

• Stand-Alone: ~1100-1500 max calls/mediation service



• Avaya Codecs

– G.711

– G.729

• Lync Codecs

– Silk (peer-to-peer)

– RTAudio Wideband (peer-to-peer)

– RTAudio Narrowband(peer-to-peer & PSTN)

– G.722 (Conferencing)

– G.722 Stereo (peer-to-peer & Conferencing)

– G.711 (PSTN)

– Siren (Conferencing)

• Lync & Avaya Interop Codecs

– G.711

Avaya Integration Best Practices

Open Interoperability Program (OIP):

– Qualified vs. supported

– Qualified: The vendor has been independently qualified with Lync

– Supported: Vendor has not passed the formal UCOIP qualification

process, but sufficient internal testing has been performed by

Microsoft

– http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dn788945.aspx

– Avaya is not qualified, only supported* for Lync

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dn788945.aspx


Avaya & Lync 2013 Supportability

Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dn788945.aspx






12/3/2014 21



Use of Session Boarder Controller (SBC)

Q: Can Lync be directly integrated with Aura Session Manager?

A: Yes, absolutely. Take into account the limitations on the previous slides.

Q: What if I am not comfortable with the limitations outlined in the previous slides?

A: Deploy a certified voice gateway (TDM-to-IP or SBC) between Avaya & Lync.

The Avaya Session Boarder Controller for Enterprises (SBCE) is not certified with Lync.

Avaya CM Avaya

Session

Manager

Front End Pool

Avaya CM Avaya

Session

Manager

Front End Pool

Lync Certified

Voice Gateway


Inbound Call Flow with EC500

Avaya CM Avaya

Session

Manager

Front End Pool

Avaya Phone Lync User

1

2

3

4 6

7

8

5

PSTNExternal

Caller


Outbound Call Flow

Avaya CM Avaya

Session

Manager

Front End Pool

Lync User

7

6

5 4

3

2

1

PSTNExternal

Caller



Call Quality and Prioritization Planning

– Lync absolutely supports Quality of Service (QoS)

• With the correct planning that is…

– Audio

• Express Forwarding (EF) - Class Selector (CS) 5, DSCP 40

• Expedited Forwarding (EF) - Class Selector (CS) 5, DSCP 46

– Video

• Assured Forwarding (AF41) - DSCP 34

– App Sharing, File Transfer, etc.


Call Quality and Prioritization Planning

– To support the prioritization of audio, video, application sharing, and

file transfer traffic in Lync, the media port range should be modified

to align with the QoS policies and queues.

Component Port Range Port Count Transport Port use

Clients and Servers 16384-32767 16383 TCP/UDPAudio port range

(Minimum of 128 ports required)

Clients and Servers 32768-40767 7999 TCP/UDPVideo port range

(Minimum of 128 ports required).

Clients 40768-41767 999 TCP

Peer-to-peer file transfer

(Conferencing file transfer, clients use

PSOM. Minimum of 4 ports required)

Clients and Servers 41768-44767 2999 TCPApplication sharing

(Minimum of 128 ports required)

Clients7100-7102

(Default)

3

(Default)TCP

Client SIP Dynamic Port

(Control and signaling Information)

Servers

5060-5061

or

5067-5068

(Default)

2

(Default)TCP/TLS

Server SIP Port

(Control and signaling Information)


Audio Conferencing Planning

– How do you want conferences calls to ingress into the network?

• Through Avaya

• Through SBCs

• Direct to Lync

– Where will the Lync Front End and Mediation servers be placed?

– SIP Trunking

• Are you considering SIP Trunking?

• Compare core hubs to telco inbound local SIP Trunking service

• What is the amount of bandwidth reserved to SIP Trunking traffic?

• Does bandwidth need to be increased to support the Lync dial-in

conferencing workload?


Audio Conferencing Planning

– Is it cheaper to leverage Avaya + Lync for the conferencing

workload?

– Avaya Media Gateway

• What is the current utilization of the Avaya media gateway(s)?

• What is the current capacity of the Avaya media gateway(s)?

• Is Session Manager deployed?

• Are Lync certified third-party gateways required?

– Are support teams siloed?


Voicemail Planning

– Lync only supports Exchange for auto attendant routing and

voicemail deposit

– Simultaneous Ringing of an Avaya endpoint and a Lync endpoint

needs to be reviewed

Voicemail Backend Lync Supported Avaya Supported

Modular Messaging/Aura Messaging

Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging



Exchange Online

Telephony advisor for Exchange 2013: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee364753%28v=exchg.150%29.aspx

Considerations & Integration Challenges

Softphone & Hard phone options

– Too many to count… http://catalog.lync.com/

– Headsets: pay special attention to wired, wireless (Bluetooth vs.

DECT)

– Hard phones: pay special attention to Lync optimized vs Lync

compatible

http://catalog.lync.com/



• Simultaneous Ringing between Lync and Avaya

– Pulling calls back

– Presence between systems

– Sharing the same extension between both PBXs

– Inbound dialing vs. outbound dialing

– Voicemail deposit

• Aura Messaging vs. Exchange Unified Messaging

• Remote Call Control

– Doesn’t necessarily fit the “Unified Communications” model

– Problematic

– Pairing relationship is between the Lync client and one phone

– Not a good solution for the mobile/traveling worker


• Avaya Agile Communication Environment (ACE)

– Avaya’s client-side plug-in for the Lync client

– Similar to Remote Call Control functionality

– Attempts to keep audio and video controls within the Avaya

framework

• Ask yourself:

– How does this impact the end-user experience?

– Will this work remotely (no VPN or direct access)?

– What is the plan to maintain the client-side plug-in?

– What are the know issues/limitations with the client-side plug-in?


Reference: http://www.avaya.com/usa/documents/avaya-microsoft-lync-integration---uc7491-03.pdf


Lync Call Admission Control (CAC) Overview

– Used to manage voice and video limits

• Network congested sites can limit video and allow full audio

– Recommended to use in conjunction with QoS

– Reroute capabilities if calls are blocked

• Edge reroute of audio and video

• PSTN reroute

• Audio and video must follow same reroute path


Lync Call Admission Control (CAC) Challenges

– Lync CAC is application layer only

• Cannot be shared with Avaya CAC mechanisms

• Is not controlled at the switch

– Requires planning sessions

• Network team must know their network

– Backbone, subnets, utilized and available bandwidth

• Lync will “share the pipe” with Avaya

• Lync team enters the data provided by the network team into the Lync

CAC configuration


Lync Call Admission Control (CAC)

Challenges

– Cannot manage other data streams,

such as content sharing traffic

• Important for constrained sites with

heavy content sharing users

• QoS should be used to push data

streams to a lower priority

– Lync clients must be deployed

• OCS 2007 R2 clients do not support

CAC

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Server 2003 End-of-

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Best Practices for Integrating Lync with Your Avaya Environment