Strange BCM400 problem.

[pleskuk]

Hi all, I've experienced a strange problem with my BCM400.
I have BCM400 with 37 2002 & 2004 IP phone infrastructure. All users are in the same LAN (no VPN conn.)Everything was fine since yesterday when we started receiving complaints about:

1. No Dial tone, and/or
2. Cannot Hear the other side but, the other side could hear
them.

And these problems are kinda cyclic and periodical. Once you have dial tone and everything works fine, the other minute don't and after that fine again.

While checking the BCM monitor I noticed we have 100% utilization of DSP resources and probably this could be a problem. I just don't understand why it happening now. We got the BCM400 for a month and its same infrastructure since, we haven't attached more stations or something, and it was working all fine since yesterday.

Second, we suspected lack of resources on the BCM. we do have full FAX licenses but we don't use them. Doesn't the BCM allocate resources, that goes waste in our case?

At last we checked the network for possible problems, congestions etc. but all was fine.

What do you thing guys? Is this a problem of resources?
Did someone came across similar situation?

Thanks,
Ivo

 

[acewarlock]

What is the BCM Split 3/5 or 2/6?

How many PEC's do you have?




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Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[pleskuk]

Hi,
BCM split is: 3/5 and we have 4 PEC's, so I don't think that would be the problem.
The strangest thing is now everything seems fine. We got 1 whole days of problems like I stated in my previous post, and since yesterday everything works just fine.
I just don't understand.

 

[DBrewsky]

Have you checked to see if the resources are set correctly? Maybe there was a high volume that day?

 

[rj21]

I have had the same problem:

On a BCM400 with 35 x IP1120e sets, 1 GASM8, 1 DTM E1

System ran fine for three months then 1 way speech started on particular phones but only sporadically.
Users could hear far end but couldn't make themselves heard (RX only, no TX).

Upgraded the system to SU008 and reset all handsets.
Forced Cisco to 100Mb Full duplex and left handsets AutoSensing, negotiated fine.

[highlight]Do we have the ability on 1100 series sets to tag the voice packets with a QoS metric, say 1 or 2?[/highlight]

Client created VLAN on Cisco Catalyst switches and prioritised the voice ports with QoS (they said they had at instal, but have only just done so...ho hum)

My worry is that the sets will start to lose TX again if all this doesn't cure it; I've built system on a 3/5 split but am ignorant of PECs. [highlight]Should I be adding some PECs to the system and if so how many?[/highlight]

 

[pleskuk]

Hey rj21, it is very strange problem indeed, and I've got same worries like you, In case it happens again. I have same 3/5 split and - 4 PECs (which by Nortel is more then enough for our configuration - 35 IP phones and few digital and analog).
We use Nortel switches and our first task was to check the network status and prioritize the voice traffic with QoS. When we just about to do so, the problem gone away, and everything seems to be working fine now. But we are little sketchy because of not knowing what caused the problem. Our internal network is rock solid so i doubt that was the problem.

How many PECs do you have?

 

[rj21]

This was my first BCM400 installation and I have to admit my knowlege of PECs is 0%, I'm guessing they're the memory strips at 256MB each, in which case I have one PEC...

Never had this on BCM50 BTW.

 

[acewarlock]

PEC are on the MSC card and you can have a max of 2 on a BCM 200 and a max of 4 on the 1000 and 400.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[rj21]

I have no PECs; this comes from only using the task based guides - no cred to me.

 

[acewarlock]

The system won't work without PEC's, the install Doc's are on the BCM that you can read. just search on PEC's.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[endlesswinter]

Will any MSPEC work in a BCM 400 4.0 Or do I need to get them from Nortel? I have a 400 system with 2 pecs and will be increasing ip sets soon.

 

[acewarlock]

Yes the 400 system's 2pec's should work.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.