Avaya Aura H.323/SIP

[tacoma1]

What is the need for having both H.323 and SIP in the Avaya Aura environment? I understand that Contact Center cannot speak native SIP and that Session Manager is the routing engine but then, why the need for both SIP and H.323 phones?

SIP phones register and can have multiple registrations from the Session Manager and H.323 phones register to the CM, I get that.

 

[avayaguy23]

SIP is the "industry" standard. Everything talks SIP. A 9611G for instance can talk h323 or SIP depending on which firmware you use. The user interface is completely different as well.

 

[tacoma1]

Right, why have both H.323 and SIP though? Why not just make it all SIP?

 

[kyle555]

Backwards compatibility. Simplicity. SIP CAN do a lot more, but it also takes a lot more to make it do the basics.

If you were building out new today, sure, go SIP. But nobody's going to drag you kicking and screaming!

 

[Wanebo]

Why have both? Simple. If you had an installation of 1400 h.323 sets and you wanted to upgrade your Avaya PBX it simply would not be in Avaya's interests to only offer you SIP in the new PBX. If you have to chuck everything out the window come upgrade time you will be much more prone to explore other systems when you decide to upgrade. New sets are a significant cost for switching system vendors. Even if you had cross compatible sets flashing 1400 sets come the night of cutover would be a daunting task on top of all the normal cutover efforst.

BTW SIP should alleviate some of that. A SIP set (as long as it conforms to the SIP RFC) can work with any SIP PBX (as long as it conforms to the RFC). Interoperability between different manufacturers is one of SIP's greatest attributes. Sure, you can get more creature comforts if you stay Avaya SIP sets to a SM/CM due to using Avaya's PPM, but if tomorrow you wanted to replace the CM with a ShoreTel you could still reuse the sets for basic phone functionality.

 

[avayaguy23]

That is just asking for trouble. Good luck trying to get Avaya to support a 3rd party SIP IP set. Every vendor has their own version of SIP and if you run into issues Avaya will charge you at a rate of $300 plus an hour to work with the 3rd party to resolve.

 

[Wanebo]

Yes, it can be a headache, but it can be done.

Besides It seems like Avaya offers to charge any time you contact them lately whether you have maintenance or not. Their quoted rate lately is $360/hr for remote support.

 

[avayaguy23]

This is why you are better off staying with one Vendor. If you do decide to go 3rd party make sure you have the staff available who can troubleshoot SIP via wireshark and then research RFC's.

 

[jimbojimbo]

You don't have much choice. Even if you want to do SIP you MUST have at least some H.323 or Digital Endpoints. The Federal version of Kari's law requires not only 911 dialing, but for systems which are capable, you must configure notification. Avaya provides Crisis Alert Notification however in CM7 and below the notification stations can ONLY be H.323 or Digital. For customers on all IP Phones this means H.323.

SIP has a lot of hype which you need to sort through. SIP does NOT provide many of the features we take for granted on the Avaya systems. Avaya augments the standard SIP messaging which they refer to as AST (you'll see this in the endpoint registration of an Avaya SIP device on System Manager). For third party sets Avaya does provide Feature Name Extension (FNE) codes which can provide some of the feature gap. Before considering third party phones I suggest you become familiar with the SIPit19 and FNE capabilities then look at the feature gap and validate requirements with the business owners. Also you may want to test the endpoints with multiple users of multiple ages. You would be surprised on how many users are not happy with voice quality on different sets.

If you are not familiar with the Avaya Diagnostic Server SLAMON you might want to look at the capabilities. I like it as a diagnostic tool. Works with Avaya devices.

 

[avayaguy23]

This is why the organization should implement an E911 solution.....