Citel 4100IP with MICS

[nws2002]

We have a customer who just opened a satellite office and we installed a Citel 4100IP PBXGateway and remote.

Calls sound very choppy. I've tried adjusted both the jitter delay and packet size, but it has not helped much. I also tried moving from G.711 to G.729A but that just made it worse.

On the MICS side of things I tried plugging a set into the ports we are using and the voice quality is fine.

I have had limited experience with these units, but the customer really wanted to extend the full phone system features without spending a lot of money on a new IP system. I originally suggested using 2 POTS lines at the new office for the 1 person who will be there, and then leaving the set at the main office forwarded to it. They want the remote worker to be able to assist with answering and transferring calls though.

Any ideas?

 

[curlycord]

Suggest to get some help with the QoS to see if the network can even handle voice.
Otherwise Citel used to have pretty good suppot if you call them.

From what I see the 4100 does not support Nortel yet but only Avaya platform.

Think you need the 4000 for Nortel remote users.

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curlycord

http://www.curlycord.com

 

[nws2002]

There was an option for Norstar during setup and according to this link they are compatible:

http://www.citel.com/Products/Resources/PIBs/4100_handsets.asp

FWIW I tried calling Citel today and was told all of their techs were out of the office, I will try again tomorrow.

We have QoS set to the highest priority on both ends. I also tried removing any QoS restrictions and just letting it operate as a best effort network. That didn't seem to help or hurt so I returned QoS to the previous settings.

My original thought was a bandwidth issue, so I switched the compression to G.729A. Bandwidth measurements though indicate we have more than enough to handle the voice traffic of one remote telephone call with G.711.

After messing with the jitter delay, packet size, line signaling, and compression type for a couple more hours it seemed to clear up mid-afternoon and we had perfectly clear calls internall, on a landline, and on a cell phone. I ended up using G.711, a jitter delay of 60, and packet size of 2, and line signaling of 2. That seems to work for this network combination, it seems like it just takes a few days of tweaking things to figure this out. I'll be there in the morning testing it again, and will instruct the user to call me ASAP with any issues.

Probably should've mentioned that I'm an IT guy, not a telephone guy. The current phone vendor refused to assist with installing the Citel system. His vote was for the POTS lines like I said at first or a Nortel VOIP adapter at both ends and a CICS for the single person at the remote office. That seemed overkill to me when Citel had these little boxes that seemed to fix the problem. When I presented the Citel boxes to he wanted nothing to do with them. I asked why, he simply said he didn't know anything about that stuff. I figured we could learn together, and he would have another option for his clients in the future too, guess not.

I know quite a bit about actually using the Norstar system, can change the time, assign lines, move features around on a set, setup VM boxes on a CallPilot, and all the other basic admin stuff. I'm far from being an installer though, so I usually rely on the phone guys to take care of their end.

In the end the setup seems to be working for now. It was a PITA to get it working, but it is really neat that they can answer calls, park, page, transfer, and send calls to VM just like they are in the office. I hope it keeps working, and I'm going to call Citel anyways, just to see if they have any other ideas.

 

[nws2002]

Should've added, we chose the 4100 over the 4000 for two reasons.

1) The analog port. We were having a POTS line installed for a fax anyways, and I wanted to give the user phone service even if the internet service was down. Also liked having a true 911 service instead of having to give the correct address. If you dial 4 instead of 9 you can use the analog line.

2) Two digital ports. Right now we just have an extra phone sitting on a table, but we wanted room to move another user to this office if needed.

 

[curlycord]

That link above seems to be an update stating they are now compatible which i didnt see.

We have had line issue cause this kind of stuff too...
Wonder if the user takes it home as a test to see if line quality is an issue and also maybe dial into a differnet line at the PBX end.


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curlycord

http://www.curlycord.com