WLAN Handsets with BCM 400

[MSDI]

Hi Guys, I'm looking for help as I am completely lost here

We have a nortel BCM 400 and a bunch of Cisco Wireless Access points. I've setup a separate vlan on the AP for WLAN Phones only.

I see Nortel sells 2200 Series and 6100 series and I spoke with my Nortel and they told me I was needing a 2245 wireless controller with them.

I found out they are made by Polycom which sells a Spectralink 8000 SRV which seems to be the same thing as the Nortel 2245 controller...

Do I really need that controller ? I don't care about QOS/COS as it is a separated vlan with only voice calls on it. Nothing is more important that something else on this wireless vlan...

I spoke with a polycom rep who told me I was better with the Spectralink 8000 Telephony Gateway which converts voip into a digital station...

I don't see why the ip phone cannot connect directly to the bcm ip's with a ip access client license.

I'm looking for someone who has setup wireless phones with a bcm 400 to give me some hints on where to go with this.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MSDI]

By the way...

I'm running BCM 4.0 in case it matters

 

[gwebster]

Both the Nortel WLAN 22xx/61xx Handsets and their Polycom equivalents utilize SVP (Spectralink Voice Prioritization) to provide QoS. Remember that WLAN is a shared bandwidth (similar to a hub versus a switch in data terms) so you need something to provide Call Admission Control as well as to provide priority to any voice traffic versus data traffic. Since you are dealing with battery-powered devices, you also want something to control a sleep/wake cycle so that you get acceptable battery life. All of the above are unique to a wireless (versus wired) infrastructue and are provided by SVP. They therefore need to terminate on either the Nortel 2245 or the Polycom equivalent.

 

[MSDI]

Ah ok thanks.

Is there some difference in functionnality or pricing between Nortel's or the polycom equivalent ?

So basically, I need a controller (Either Nortel 2245 or Spectralink 8000 SRV), 1 ip set by phone and phones that's all ? (No programmer, other licenses or anything ?)

Thanks for your help

 

[gwebster]

The Nortel devices talk UNIStim and therefore emulate a Nortel IP Phone 2004. The 2245 proxies the communication but the WLAN Handset essentially talks directly to the BCM. The 2245 comes in 10-user, 20-user, and 500-user variations. No physical hardware is required on the BCM since the IP sets are virtual.

The Polycom SRV has hardware to emulate digital sets so would connect via digital set ports. You would need available digital set ports (i.e. hardware) on the BCM to connect to.

 

[MSDI]

1- If we go Nortel, do we need a Ip Seat license for every phone or does it "comes" with the 2245 licenses ?

The polycom way, there is 2 products
A- SpectraLink 8000 Telephony Gateway which is a VOIP TO digital set converter.

B- SpectraLink 8000 SVP Server wouldn't that one connect VOIP Phones directly to the ip seats of the BCM 400 without needing the Telephony Gateway ? Isn't that supposed to be a VOIP TO BCM Solution ?

Thanks

 

[Dasheen]

Yes you need ip client licenses for your wilan sets.

 

[gwebster]

No solution from Polycom (Spectralink) connects directly to IP seats of the BCM. Only the Nortel solution connects directly to IP seats.

 

[MSDI]

OK...

Do you guys would have a preference/experiences between the Nortel WLAN VOIP Solution and the polycom VOIP to Digital set conversion solution ?

Both in term of pricing, functionnality, efficiency and stability ?

Thanks