It s no longer a question of wh e t h e r to migrat e

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1 BCR BEST-IN-TEST High-End IP-PBXs: VOIP Powerh o u s e s Edwin E. Mier, David C. Mier, Robert B. Tarpley and Anthony P. Mosco Ed Mier is founder of M i e rc o m, a netwo rk c o n s u l t a n cy and p roduct test center based in East Wi n d s o r, N J. Dave Mier is senior manager of lab t e s t i n g, R o b e rt Ta rp l ey is senior lab tester, and To ny Mosco is lab tester at Mierc o m. Th ey can be re a ch e d at : e m i e r. c o m, d m i e m i e r. c o m, rt a rp l m i e r. c o m, o r a m o s c m i e r. c o m, o r by phone at Voice quality is no longer a c o n c e rn. This ye a r s rev i ew finds broader SIP support, better security and s u rv ivab i l i t y. It s no longer a question of wh e t h e r to migrat e your lega cy telep h o ny to IP, or even wh e n. Th e most asked VOIP question now is: Wh i ch ve n- dor and system best suits your enterp ri s e s t o p o l ogy and fe at u re re q u i re m e n t s? We l l, t h e re are at least five IP-PBXs that we k n ow can handle the job. Detailed here are the results of B C R s and Mierc o m s latest rev i ew of leading h i g h - e n d IP-PBXs all systems designed to support more than 1,000 IP stations in typical dep l oyments. This compre h e n s ive handson eva l u ation was conducted this past October and Nove m b e r, in wh at has become an annu a l i n d u s t ry eve n t. M o re than a dozen IP-PBX ve n d o rs we re inv i t- ed late last summer to submit their high-end IPt e l ep h o ny systems for rev i ew. Five accepted the ch a l l e n ge : Alcatel e-nd, wh i ch submitted its OmniPCX E n t e rp ri s e, running the latest release 6.2 softwa re. A special new softwa re ve rsion expands the syst e m s capacity from 5,000 to 15,000 IP stat i o n s. TABLE 1: Scorecard High-End IP PBXs Alcatel Avaya ShoreTel Siemens 3Com Percent OmniPCX S8720, ShoreTel HiPath VCX IP Weighting Enterprise G Telephony Architecture (1) /2 14 1/2 10 1/ Endpoints (2) / / /2 Management & Admin (3) Features (4) /2 20 1/2 21 1/2 Security (5) / /2 6 Performance (6) / Bottom Line (1) Includes: Call-control and gateway failover/redundancy/survivability; dynamic call re-routing, PSTN-to-IP; QOS support; VOIP bandwidth control, CAC (Call Admission Control); capacity and scalability; and standards support. (2) Includes: Assessment of all supported endpoints (including wireless, desktop video support, IP speakerphone, analog/modem/fax); review of full-featured IP hard phone and softphone; and other special or unique device/endpoint support. (3) Results for successful accomplishment of specific management and administrative tasks involving: moves, adds and changes; on-line help and documentation; realtime monitoring; interface navigability; and reporting. (4) Includes: Validation of basic telephony feature set (conference, hold, etc.); verified availability of common add-on packages (contact center, multitenant partitioning, E911, etc.); and review of vendor-nominated advanced features (5) Includes: Encrypted call control; endpoint and caller authentication; RTP/VOIP-stream encryption; secure management access; documented security policies; and support for specific security-infrastructure environments. (6) Includes: Call-completion load testing; connection and call-quality tests under different vocoders and impairments; latency measurements; and verification of additional high-availability features. 30 BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW / JAN 2006 Use BCR s Acronym Directory at

2 The ve n d o r s compre h e n s ive OmniTo u ch Unifi e d C o m mu n i c ations pack age of ap p l i c ations was also fe at u red in the rev i ew. Ava y a, wh i ch sent the still-late-beta release 3.1 of its Commu n i c ations Manager softwa re, due to ship next month. The confi g u ration fe at u red the S8720 Media Serve r Avaya s high-end call cont ro l l e r, s u p p o rting up to 12,000 IP stat i o n s t h e G650 gat eway, and ap p l i c ations including Meeting Exch a n ge (for Web collab o ration and confe r- encing) and multimedia desktop. S h o re Te l, wh i ch sent its latest Shore Tel 6 package, n ow cap able of supporting up to 10,000 total p o rts (mix of IP stations and trunks). The lat e s t ve rsion of the ve n d o r s Pe rsonal Call Manage r suite of desktop ap p l i c ations was also fe at u re d. S i e m e n s, wh i ch submitted the latest ve rsion 3.0 of its HiPath 4000 system, s u p p o rting up to 12,000 combined IP stations and trunk ch a n n e l s. Siemens included the OpenScape collab o rat i o n and confe rencing suite as part of its pack age. 3Com Corp., wh i ch provided the new release 7 of its VCX IP Te l ep h o ny system, a key component of the ve n d o r s 3Com Conve rgence Ap p l i c at i o n S u i t e. Fe at u red with the totally SIP-based IP-telep h o ny system was the Conve rgence Client ap p l i- c ation suite. Two other notable high-end IP-PBX s u p p l i- e rs we re conspicuously absent Cisco and Nort e l. Cisco decl i n e d, s aying that the next major re l e a s e of its CallManage r-based system wo u l d n t be re a dy for rev i ew until early Nortel also fo r- m a l ly decl i n e d, citing scheduling issues and diffe rences over the test methodology. And The Winner Is As the Score c a rd (Table 1) show s, c o n grat u l at i o n s go to Avaya, for the second year in a row. Avaya b ro ke its own high-score re c o rd of 90, wh i ch it set last ye a r. The high-water mark is now 91, set by Avaya as a result of its perfo rmance this ye a r. The other four contenders we re not far behind; all earned scores in the 80s. Miercom comparat ive test methodologies have for ye a rs established that a ny product scoring 80 and higher can be conside red solid, e ffe c t ive and a Mierc o m - re c o m m e n d e d bu y. All of the systems in this ye a r s rev i ew, we re pleased to announce, e a rned that distinction. After spending many days in the lab with each s y s t e m, the Miercom test team wanted to re c ogn i ze notewo rt hy aspects of a few of the high-end I P - P B X s, wh i ch the point scores alone may not a d e q u at e ly re flect. So three best of c at ego ry awa rds are also announced as a result of this ye a r s t e s t i n g : Best Distributed Surv iva b i l i t y, High-End IP- P B X s is awa rded to 3Com for its VCX system. This is the fi rst time an awa rd s been bestowe d s p e c i fi c a l ly for this, but in 3Com s case it is wa r- ra n t e d. All high-end IP-PBXs have a compelling s u rv ivability story to tell, but 3Com s is awa rd - winning for seve ral re a s o n s : 1.) E ve rything call contro l, voice mail, e t c. can run together on the same, or on diffe re n t, d i s- t ri bu t e d, L i nu x - b a s e d, s u p e r- redundant IBM s e rve rs ; 2.) C o n t rol can fail over either way, f rom a re m o t e site to headquart e rs, or from headquart e rs to a remote site; 3.) A ny controller can run its own netwo rk, a n d also serve as back-up to multiple re m o t e, d i s t ri b- uted call contro l l e rs; and 4.) B a ck-up confi g u ration files are ex t re m e ly effic i e n t, entailing less than 10 Mbytes of dat a, can be s i t u ated any wh e re in the netwo rk, and are autom at i c a l ly updated wh e n ever there s a ch a n ge. In testing fa i l - over of the V C X, we we re f ra n k ly astonished that we could ke ep disconnecting back-up contro l l e rs, and phone service continued without skipping a beat. Best Pe r forming High-End IP-PBX is awa rded this year to second-place Siemens. With a l l p e r fo rmance metrics considere d l at e n cy, c a l l - load handling, call and connection quality in all s c e n a ri o s, s u rv ivability and fa i l - over times, a n d m o re Siemens did ex c ep t i o n a l ly well across the b o a rd. And only Siemens this year scored a perfect 20 for 20 in the Pe r fo rmance cat ego ry. Easiest to Use High-End IP-PBX is awa rd e d for the second straight year to Shore Tel for its S h o re Tel 6 system. Reflecting its re l at ive ease of d ep l oy m e n t, c o n s o l i d ated management and easyto-use fe at u res and ap p l i c at i o n s, S h o re Te l d e s e rves this tri bu t e. You don t need as mu ch technical staff to dep l oy and run Shore Te l s IP-PBX as o t h e rs. Competitors should take the time to s t u dy and hopefully then emu l at e h ow quick ly and effi c i e n t ly move s, a dds and ch a n ges are accomplished via the Web-based Shore Wa re D i re c t o r. The fo rmal 100-point scale comprises six cat e- go ries. Up to 25 points can be earned in Fe at u re s, the largest of the six cat ego ries. Endpoints and Pe r fo rmance each offer a maximum of 20 points. A rch i t e c t u re is wo rth up to 15 points, and the M a n agement and Security cat ego ries each offe r up to 10 points. Avaya ga rn e red the high score in A rch i t e c t u re and tied (with Siemens) for the top score in Endpoints. Shore Tel won in Management. A l c at e l took the top slot in Securi t y. And Siemens did best in Pe r fo rm a n c e. In the Fe at u res cat ego ry, o n ly a single point sep a rated all five contenders. Please note that the re l at ive ranking of these systems resulted from the weighting we gave to e a ch cat ego ry. Readers may consider modifying the cat ego ry weightings to better suit their ow n e n t e rp rise re q u i rem ents. Depending on wh at s most important to yo u, your final ranking could be d i ffe re n t. Trends S eve ral interesting industry and tech n o l ogy tre n d s e m e rge from this ye a r s testing. Linux and SIP are both gaining dominance BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW / JAN

3 Linux has become the call-control platfo r m of choice. As Table 2 details, the majority of the tested systems use Linux-based call control. Th e other two S h o re Tel and Siemens run on Unix and other Unix-derivat ive operating systems, l i ke V x Wo rks. Besides high perfo rmance and stab i l i t y, o n ly a re l at ive handful of hacker assaults targe t L i nux and the other Unix-based operating syst e m s, c o m p a red to thousands of assaults aimed at M i c rosoft operating systems. While seve ral ve n- d o rs employ Microsoft plat fo rms for their ap p l i- c ations suites, s u ch as Siemens O p e n S c ap e, n o n e of the IP-PBXs tested run call control on a M i c rosoft plat fo rm. SIP is spre a d i n g. As Table 2 show s, the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is now supported by all of the rev i ewed IP-PBXs. This does not mean, t h o u g h, t h at users are assured that any SIP dev i c e will wo rk on any of these systems. Th e re are still i n t e ro p e rability quirks and issues; it s best to ask the IP-PBX vendor to confi rm, i d e a l ly in wri t i n g, whether specific third - p a rty SIP endpoints have been intero p - t e s t e d. A l s o, SIP support can entail ex t ra, and ex t ra - p riced components. Only 3Com, of the systems t e s t e d, s u p p o rts SIP nat ive ly. Th at is, 3 C o m s VCX uses SIP, and only SIP, for all call contro l. Th e re s nothing ex t ra to bu y. Siemens HiPat h 4000 re q u i res a sep a rate card, and Avaya users need a whole sep a rate serve r. A l c atel and Shore- Tel have integrated SIP s t a ck s into their system s o f t wa re, right alongside their own call contro l ( A l c at e l s is H.323-based, S h o re Te l s is MGCP n at ive ly). These ve n d o rs support a gat eway Testing High-End IP-PBXs The H i g h - E n d IP-PBX test bed consisted of two simu l ated sites a h e a d q u a rt e rs and a remote offi c e, connected by an IP WAN link. The netwo rk infra s t ru c t u re at both sites consisted of Extreme Netwo rks Summit 48 L2/L3 sw i t ch / ro u t e rs. The IP-PBX ve n d o rs had the option of d ep l oying their IP-telep h o ny (IPT) systems over our lab s netwo rk infra s t ru c t u re, or else p rovide their own sw i t ch and router (Layer 2/3) equipment (using IP subnets, V L A N s, e t c., t h at we specified). The ve n d o rs all needed to also p rovide their own PoE (power over Ethern e t ) equipment to power their IP hard phones. A l l the ve n d o rs ex c ept Siemens confi g u red and sent us their IPT systems running over their own L2/L3 sw i t ches and ro u t e rs. A simu l ated IP WAN connected the h e a d- q u a rt e rs and re m o t e sites. A Pa cke t S t o rm H u rricane 1800E Netwo rk Emu l at o r, i n s e rt e d i n - l i n e on this link, was used to ap p ly impairments simu l ating a typical IP LAN ( campus ) and a WAN link over the Internet. For many t e s t s, s u ch as lat e n cy measure m e n t s, no add e d i m p a i rments we re ap p l i e d. For the VOIP connection-quality tests, t h o u g h, the Pa cke t S t o rm applied lat e n cy, p a cket loss and jitter to simul ate the diffe rent test scenario env i ro n m e n t s. The h e a d q u a rt e rs and re m o t e sites we re also P S T N - c o n n e c t e d via T 1 s, t h rough an TABLE 2 Profiles Of IP-PBXs Reviewed Alcatel enterprise Avaya System tested, version, general availability OmniPCX Enterprise, rel 6.2, Oct 2005 S8720 Media Server & G650 Gateway, beta rel 3.1; Feb 2006 Call controller Linux based; various PC models supported Linux based, on custom processor platforms Max single-system IP station capacity; max 15,000 IP hard or softphones; 12,000 IP hard or softphones; Busy Hour (BH) call capacity, per vendor 150,000 BH calls up to 300,000 BH calls IP networking of multiple distributed systems Multiple systems up to 100,000 users, via Multiple S8720s via H.323, or SIP, or Q.Sig proprietary ABC protocol or Q.Sig trunks trunks (with proprietary extensions); limited feature transparency Native IP call control protocol TDM-like signaling, through H.323; gateway to/ Proprietary H.323 based; some third party from SIP H.323 interoperability SIP support Yes, with internal SIP proxy; 8 supported SIP Yes, via separate Linux server; some phones phones, gateways and softswitches cited; alternately support SIP; separate SIP softphone; alternate SIP stack for vendor s IP phones; 20+ supported SIP phones; some SIP-trunking testing SIP-trunking Price, per station, US List, for 1,500-station $528; Alcatel 4018 IP Touch phone sets $680; Avaya 4602SW IP phone sets configuration (1) (1) Vendors provided detailed pricing for a complete 1,500-user configuration, consisting of: call control; 1,000 mid-range IP hard phones (with at least 6 feature buttons, an LCD display and second switch port), 500 softphones/licenses; 15 T1/PRI PSTN interfaces/gateways/media servers; voice mail for all users; all management software; power for 1,000 IP hard phones; and all appropriate licenses. No redundancy is included. This price is US List, subject to discounts. Discounts of 20 percent, or more, are common. 32 BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW / JAN 2006

4 A d t ran Atlas 800 centra l - o ffice (CO) sw i t ch simu l at o r. This connectivity was used to test T 1 - gat eway fa i l over and IP-to-PSTN re - ro u t i n g s c e n a rios. The s i mu l ated CO also employed a channel bank an Access Bank II from Carri e r Access Corp. to test PSTN fax support and a n a l og connectiv i t y. For consistency, we ran the IP-PBX ve n d o rs softphones on the same lap t o p : a Compaq P re s a rio 2500, with 2.4-GHz Pentium-4 CPU and 448 MB RAM. Ve n d o rs could either use our P l a n t ronics model DSP-400 USB headset fo r t e s t i n g, or bring and use their ow n, as long as it was a headset that the vendor offe re d / re s o l d and/or specified or recommended in their user d o c u m e n t ation. A few did bring and use their own headsets, wh i ch it turned out we re all P l a n t ronics USB models similar to our DSP-400. L atencies we re measured with an audioa n a lysis softwa re tool, Cool Edit, o ri gi n a l ly d eveloped by Syntrillium Softwa re, and now o ffe red by A d o b e. All latencies we re measure d b e t ween the ve n d o r s IP hard phone on one end, and all other endpoints, one at a time, at the other e n d. One-way lat e n cy was measured in the d i rection from the endpoint (softphone, w i re l e s s p h o n e, e t c.) to the IP hard phone. To measure the l at e n c i e s, an audio tap was inserted dire c t ly into the phone handsets (or equivalent headset jack s ) using T H AT-2 (Te l ephone Handset Audio Tap ) u n i t s, f rom JK Au d i o. A pair of Empirix Hammer systems a Hammer FX and a Hammer LoadBlaster 500 ge n e rated the call loads in our test bed. The IP-PBXs we re all tested at a load of 36,000 BHCA (busy hour call at t e m p t s ), wh i ch was ru n c o n t i nu o u s ly for nine hours, u s u a l ly ove rn i g h t. The call-ge n e rating Hammer units delive red the load from the P S T N into VOIP-T1 gat eways at the h e a d q u a rt e rs and re m o t e s i t e s, via a total of 16 T1 spans. All calls we re routed across the IP WAN between sites, and then through VO I P - T1 gat eways out onto the PSTN, b a ck to the o ri gi n ating Hammer systems, wh i ch a n swe re d e a ch call and ve ri fied successful call completion. Half of the Hammer calls invo l ved DTMF t o n e s, wh i ch we re sent bi-dire c t i o n a l ly immediat e ly after call set-up. These had to be handled p ro p e rly for those calls to be considered s u c- c e s s f u l. The DTMF tones added to the complexity of the call-load pro c e s s i n g, and only ve n d o rs who delive red high call-completion success rat e s with these DTMF tones earned full point cre d i t. Ve n d o rs we re offe red the option of having the DTMF tones in the ge n e rated call load disabl e d. As Table 3 (pp ) show s, all the ve n d o rs a ch i eved or 100 percent success rates. A percent success rate equates to just a re l a- t ive handful of failed calls, out of more than 320,000 delive re d, and should be considere d e s s e n t i a l lyperfe c t, given test-bed va ri ab i l i t y. O n ly Avaya asked to be tested with DTMF tones disabl e d. The vendor subsequently d e l ive red perfect call-completion perfo rm a n c e, but earned 1 point less due to this DTMF c o n c e s s i o n ShoreTel Siemens 3Com siemens.com ShoreTel 6, Sept 2005; some features HiPath ver 3.0, Nov 2005; some Convergence Application Suite/VCX IP Telephony, beta, for Dec 2005 release phone features were late beta rel 7, Nov 2005 Distributed modules, VxWorks-based Custom modules, irmx- and Unix-based Linux-based, high-redundancy IBM ser vers 10,000 total ports (mix of IP stations 12,000 total ports (mix of IP stations and 10,000 IP hard or softphones; 75,000 BH calls and trunk channels); 50,000 BH calls trunk channels); 275,000 BH calls Up to 200 ShoreGear switch modules can Up to 500 systems, up to 100,000 users, Up to 50,000 users across multiple systems, via be deployed in a fully expanded system via proprietary CorNet IP/ H.323 or SIP-Q hierarchical SIP-based call routing trunks MGCP; gateway to/from SIP H.323 based; gateway to/from SIP Pure SIP, per RFC 3261; including back-to-back user agent Yes, internal back-to-back SIP user agent; Yes, supports external SIP proxy server; SIP Exclusively SIP; 15 supported SIP phones, 6 supported SIP phones and gateways phone and SIP-trunking testing is underway gateways and softswitches cited; SIP-to-legacy-PBX cited; some SIP trunking adapters, for interop w/ non-ip PBXs (Avaya, Nortel, others) $625; ShorePhone IP 530 phone sets $662; OptiPoint 420 Economy Plus phone $444; 3Com 3102 IP Business Phones sets BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW / JAN

5 List prices have fallen percent year-over-year, and deep discounts are available c ap ab i l i t y, so that SIP phones can wo rk with the p a rticular ve n d o r s own phone sets and protocols. Costs are dro p p i n g. Table 2 shows the per- u s e r p ri c e, U. S. List, based on a system with 1,000 m i d - ra n ge IP hard phones and 500 softphones. ( The confi g u rat i o n, s u m m a ri zed in the Table 2 fo o t n o t e, was fa i rly specifi c, and we believe the p rice comparison is ap p l e s - t o - apples.) Readers should ke ep in mind that U. S. List prices are subject to additional discounts, t y p i c a l ly 20 percent or m o re. Prices ra n ged from an incre d i ble low of $444 for 3Com s pure-sip VCX system, to a high of $680 for Avaya 50 percent higher than 3Com. M o re interesting is that the ave rage per- u s e r p rice this ye a r, $ 5 8 8, rep resents a 10-to-15-percent drop from last ye a r. We ll concede that the set of playe rs was somewh at diffe rent last ye a r, bu t we believe this significant drop may be the re s u l t, in part, of SIP s perva s ive n e s s, combined with d ropping IP-telep h o ny component prices and i n c re a s i n g ly intense competition. Pe r formance is good, and getting better. G iven this set of ve n d o rs and the latest releases of their systems, we observe that perfo rmance in almost all areas is getting better (see Table 3). Fo r ex a m p l e, VOIP voice and connection quality is n ow ge n e ra l ly assure d, even over moderat e ly i m p a i red IP routes. Indeed, Avaya and Siemens we re able to deliver estimated-mos ratings of 4.0 or better on all scenarios tested even links with high jitter, l at e n cy and packet loss. (Such perfo r- mance is ach i eved by care f u l ly tuning all interrel ated fa c t o rs c o d e c, jitter bu ffe r, even lost-packet re - c re ation.) In add i t i o n, re d u n d a n cy and surv ivability fa i l ove rs are now done so quick ly that t h ey are nearly imperc ep t i ble to users. Wh at s m o re, Avaya, Siemens and Shore Tel all ach i eve d p e rcent success on our call-load test, fo l- l owed by A l c atel and 3Com with near- p e r fect perfo rm a n c e. Security has been significantly bolstere d. A s s h own in Table 4 (pp ), all the systems tested ex c ept 3Com now support RTP vo i c e - s t re a m e n c ryption. And seve ral of the systems now also s u p p o rt 802.1x/RADIUS authentication to some extent. These are promising signs, although there still are security holes to be dealt with. For ex a m- p l e, S h o re Tel supports RADIUS authenticat i o n o n ly on its SIP wireless phone. And Avaya is the o n ly vendor tested that had RTP encryption also running on its softphone. Wh at fo l l ows are ve n d o r- by - vendor summary highlights of the strengths and shortcomings of e a ch system tested, a rra n ged alphab e t i c a l ly by ve n d o r. Alcatel OmniPCX With special new softwa re fe at u ring a dat ab a s e re d e s i g n, a fully expanded OmniPCX can now s u p p o rt up to 15,000 users, up from 5,000, giv i n g it a leg up on competitors 12,000 for Avaya and S i e m e n s, 10,000 for Shore Tel and 3Com. A l c at e l claims it can handle 150,000 busy-hour calls, s u f- ficient for its new high user cap a c i t y. TABLE 3 Call Handling, Survivability Alcatel Avaya 36,000 BHCA call-load success rate (1) percent 100 percent (DTMF tones disabled) Fail-over to redundant call control 22 sec 9 sec Established calls stay up? Yes Yes Are features lost? (speed dial, last- Redial is lost; speed dial is retained Redial is retained; speed dial is retained number redial?) Re-routing around failed gateway Excellent (<1 sec) Excellent (<1 sec) Call re-routing from failed IP WAN to PSTN Avg 20 sec; 62 sec to automatically re-route Avg 27 sec; 45 sec to automatically re-route (between same two remote systems) back after IP-link restoration back after IP-link restoration User-settable, QOS-based, IP-to-PSTN Only via professional services customization Yes; user-settable for latency and/or packet re-routing loss Other verified high-availability features, Remote-site signaling backup via PSTN Phones re-register to back-up LAN card options Remote/off-site SCS (Silent Call Server) Remote ESS (Enterprise Survivable Server) Non-disruptive software upgrade board Many hot-swappable modules Non-disruptive software upgrade (with dual servers) QOS support, verified TOS/DiffServ and VLAN are settable TOS/DiffServ and VLAN are settable Call Admission Control, verified Yes, can limit concurrent VOIP calls between Yes, can limit concurrent VOIP calls between sites regions (1) 36,000 BHCA (Busy Hour Call Attempts) delivered for nine hours. Calls included DTMF tones, which vendors could request be disabled for better overall success rate. 34 BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW / JAN 2006

6 Other notewo rt hy arch i t e c t u ral aspects incl u d e : the Silent Commu n i c ations Serve r, wh i ch provides hot back-up and can be placed any wh e re in the netwo rk; and good admission contro l, for limiting VOIP calls between sites. The vendor d o e s n t now support QOS thresholds for re - ro u t- ing tra ffic (i.e., a means to route calls to the PSTN if lat e n cy hits 500 ms), as Avaya and Siemens do. And we found that at least one fe at u re l a s t - nu m- ber redial is lost in the event of a call contro l fa i l - ove r. A l c atel earned a near- p e r fect score for endpoints. Its new IP-To u ch phones are a tad costly U. S. List from $295 to $695. But some fe at u re s m a ke them wo rth it. With an effe c t ive display and built-in key b o a rd, instant messaging via the phone is a useful and efficient tool. Th e re s Bluetooth w i reless handset support, a PDA softphone ve r- s i o n, and even a dual-mode Wi Fi/GSM wire l e s s cell phone. We found the ve n d o r s OmniVista management pack age, fe at u ring a half-dozen diffe re n t modules with diffe rent user interfa c e s b e t t e r than most. Nav i gability and on-line help we re rated excellent; confi g u ration and rep o rting we re also ve ry go o d. A l c atel has made notewo rt hy progress in securi t y fe at u ring encryption and good authentication and in SIP support. It remains to be seen whether A l c atel will fully relinquish its pro p rie t a ry H.323-based call control in favor of stand a rd i zed SIP. The short answe r, it seems: I t d epends on wh at happens with SIP tech n o l ogy and in the marke t p l a c e. The OmniTo u ch Unified Commu n i c at i o n s suite has been continu a l ly enhanced and re fi n e d over recent ye a rs. Th e re are now ri ch softphone o ffe rings (both Java-based and Wi n d ows thick cl i e n t ), u n i fied messaging with good Outlook integrat i o n, and solid confe rencing and collab o rat i o n. Avaya S8720 Media Server And G650 Gateway Avaya pulled out all the stops to edge out the competition again this ye a r. The vendor earned the top s c o re in A rch i t e c t u re, s h owing solid and we l l - thought-out scalab i l i t y, s u rv ivability and distri b- uted netwo rk i n g. We tested Avaya s ability to re - route tra ffic based on QOS para m e t e rs incl u d i n g l at e n cy and packet loss monitori n g. Solid. And we tested its Call Admission Contro l, reg u l at i n g VOIP call tra ffic between sites. Solid. And its fa i l over and redundant call control. Solid. Eve rything we tested Solid. Avaya s SIP support is solid, too. But as with A l c atel (and most of the other ve n d o rs ), u s e rs h ave to wonder how Avaya will reconcile its n at ive H.323 stru c t u re with SIP down the ro a d. Will the CCS (the SIP contro l l e r, n ow called the SIP Enablement System, or SES) become a sep a- rate IP-PBX on its own? Curre n t ly both are re q u i red for any SIP-Avaya intero p e rab i l i t y. Avaya earned max points for Endpoints, as did Siemens. There are nearly a dozen IP hard phone models, in all shapes and sizes, ranging Alcatel s endpoints had some strong features ShoreTel Siemens 3Com 100 percent 100 percent percent 29 sec 5 sec 17 sec. Yes Yes Yes Redial is lost; speed dial is retained Redial is lost; speed dial is retained Redial is retained; speed dial is retained Calls re-route within 30 sec Excellent; new calls are re-routed Very good; calls are re-routed in 8 sec. immediately Re-routes within 5 sec; less than 5 sec to Avg 42 sec; signaling to/from remote Avg 9 sec; 8 sec to automatically re-route back after automatically re-route back after IP-link site is re-routed over a modem/pstn link IP-link restoration restoration No Yes; user-settable for latency and/or packet No loss Distributed voice mail fail-over Signaling delivered via modem/pstn if IP Full fail-over from remote to headquarters or vice Redundant LAN uplinks on ShoreGear connectivity is lost versa switch modules Redundant IP cards Remote-site fail-over to PSTN gateway Power loss results in analog PSTN Dual IP/NIC connections on gateway cards Highly redundant IBM server (RAID disk, dualconnection CPU, etc.) TOS/DiffServ and VLAN are settable DiffServ and VLAN are settable DiffServ is fixed (46-EF); VLAN is settable Yes, can set max VOIP bandwidth limit Yes, can set max VOIP bandwidth limit No between sites between sites BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW / JAN

7 Mobility and security were among Avaya s strengths from under $200 to nearly $1,000. Other notable Endpoint achievements? There s a new all-sip softphone. There s BlackBerry 7270 WiFi support (local LAN). There s WiFi/GSM dual-mode support, off-system extension to cell and home phones, even enhanced desktop video supp o rt. Avaya s strengths? Th e re are four we have to s p e c i fi c a l ly laud: 1. ) The vendor is at the leading edge of Wi Fi and mobility support. 2. ) The quality of advanced vo i c e - p rocessing subsystems (Voice Po rt a l, e t c.) is ahead of the comp e t i t i o n. 3. ) S e c u rity is ve ry go o d, and getting better. 4. ) Pe r fo rmance is, as alre a dy noted, s o l i d. Not that there s no room for improvement in c e rtain areas. Critical subsystems like voice mail ( U n i fied Commu n i c ations Center) have evo l ve d t o t a l ly sep a rate from call control and so fo l l ow d i ffe rent confi g u rat i o n, a rch i t e c t u re and re d u n- d a n cy ru l e s. And Avaya s advanced ap p l i c ations ra n ge fro m desktop utilities part of its softphone to the t o t a l ly sep a rat e, high-end Meeting Exch a n ge p a ck age, wh i ch provides Web collab o ration and c o n fe re n c i n g. Th e re are a lot of pieces, wh i ch d o n t all seem part i c u l a rly well coord i n at e d. Then there s Avaya s management. Th e re are s eve ral disparate ap p l i c ations to contend with ( i n cluding Netwo rk Management Console and Avaya Site A d m i n i s t ration). And while they coll e c t ive ly add ressed our management tasks we l l, t h e re s no question that administering a high-end Avaya system re q u i res a fair amount of full-time ex p e rt i s e. ShoreTel 6 S h o re Tel has been hard at wo rk enhancing its system in all respects. And the ove rall 85 score this year for the latest Shore Tel 6 pack age re flects that h a rd wo rk. A question we fre q u e n t ly get is: D o e s S h o re Tel re a l ly compete head-on with Avaya and C i s c o? Our answe r : Ye s. C l e a rly, t h e re are arch i t e c t u ral and cultural diffe rences that might point an enterp rise towa rd s S h o re Te l, or away from it. Shore Tel is sold, s u p- p o rted and its customized options are prov i d e d t h rough reseller channels only, not dire c t ly. As fa r as perfo rmance and fe at u re s, t h o u g h, S h o re Te l can stand toe-to-toe with any of the other, t y p i c a l- ly mu ch larger ve n d o rs tested in this ro u n d. S h o re Tel distri butes call control across mu l t i- ple fi xe d - c o n fi g u rat i o n, V x Wo rks-based modules, e a ch supporting up to 120 IP stations. Voice mail, m a n agement and other ap p l i c ations run on sep a- rate serve rs. Redundancy and fa i l - over cap ab i l i t i e s a re built-in and, for the most part, wo rk well. If you identify a questionable aspect of its arch i t e c- t u re s ay you need re d u n d a n cy for the voice mail s e rve r S h o re Tel has a re a dy solution for add re s s- ing it. Call-control re d u n d a n cy has to be care f u l ly p rov i s i o n e d, and there are some minor nits: L a s t - number re d i a l, for ex a m p l e, is lost in a call-contro l fail ove r. N o t able Shore Tel ach i evements in this lat e s t S h o re Tel 6? Th e re are seve ral. A new component of the Pe rsonal Call Manage r, called Office A nywh e re, lets you effe c t ive ly marry IP and PSTN c ap ab i l i t i e s, along with securi t y, in a telewo rke r s h o m e. This fe at u re lets the telewo rker run all the PC telep h o ny ap p l i c ations via IP, alongside an a s s o c i at e d a n a l og home phone (for assure d voice quality), retaining full PC-based call contro l ( cl i ck-to-dial from call log s, e t c. ), incoming call p o p - u p s, e t c., plus IP securi t y. It s pretty we l l t h o u g h t - o u t. A l s o, a full SIP stack (in the fo rm of wh at s called a b a ck - t o - b a ck user agent ) has been integrated into the Shore Tel call control softwa re. A n d va rious new Wi Fi cap abilities have been add e d ; i n t e ro p e rability with seve ral SIP-based phones, i n cluding a Black B e rry 7270, was show n. As alre a dy noted, S h o re Te l s management is a p e rennial winner. A l s o, while the vendor offe rs va rious uniquely designed IP hard phones, t h e gem in the Shore Tel pack age is its desktop ap p l i- c ation suite, c o l l e c t ive ly called Pe rsonal Call TABLE 4 VOIP Security Encryption And Authentication Alcatel Avaya VOIP RTP voice-stream (media) encryption Yes, supported on gateways and Alcatel IP Yes, on all links (including to/from gateways) Touch hard phones. NOT (yet) supported on and phones including softphones softphones Media encryption Secure RTP, 128-bit AES Uses 128-bit AES Call set-up and call-control encryption Key call-control values are encrypted, including To some extent (between gateways and server); by softphones generally, we could not readily extract useful info from captured call-control packets Endpoint/caller authentication 802.1x (external RADIUS) and EAP/MD5 Encrypted key exchange at phone registration authentication are supported (HMAC-SHA1), which is used for each call; no 802.1x external authentication; 8-digit PIN passwords 36 BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW / JAN 2006

8 M a n age r, wh i ch typically is included in the cost of the system. This pack age s cap ab i l i t i e s, w i t h rega rd to search, M i c rosoft desktop integrat i o n, cl i ck - t o - d i a l, call ro u t i n g, s o f t p h o n e, u n i fied mess aging and raw pro d u c t ivity enhancement, a re wo rth ch e cking out. S h o re Tel shortcomings? As with others, i t s not clear how SIP will eve n t u a l ly dovetail with this ve n d o r s nat ive MGCP protocol. Shore Te l s ow n IP phones do not support an alterat ive SIP stack. And third - p a rty SIP phone support is still ve ry l i m i t e d. Siemens HiPath 4000 Siemens made a powerful showing this year with the combination of its HiPath 4000 IP-PBX and O p e n S c ape collab o ration and confe rencing ap p l i- c ation suite, pulling to within 3 points of fro n t ru n- ner Avaya. R e d u n d a n cy is ach i eved with a hot-standby call contro l l e r, wh i ch takes over ve ry fast. Like o t h e rs, l a s t - number redial is lost in the fa i l - ove r, but otherwise any disruption is imperc ep t i bl e. A strength of the Siemens pack age is the QOSbased re - routing of calls. The ability to monitor the lat e n cy and packet loss of calls, and then temp o ra ri ly re - route to the PSTN, based on user- s e t- t able impairment thre s h o l d s, is impre s s ive. Rerouting in this manner add resses intermittent netwo rk eve n t s, wh e re there s still IP connectivity bu t with seve re lat e n cy or packet loss, wh i ch is ruinous to VOIP quality. As noted earl i e r, VO I P can be fine-tuned to accommodate m o d e rat e I P - n e t wo rk impairments. This cap ab i l i t y, h oweve r, m o re effe c t ive ly handles seve re, and typically t ra n s i e n t, VO I P - i m p a i ring conditions. Avaya supp o rts this cap ab i l i t y, t o o. A rch i t e c t u ra l ly, t h e re is some room fo r i m p rovement. For ex a m p l e, t h e re s no notion of a u t o m ated load sharing or balancing across mu l t i- ple call contro l l e rs, wh i ch are re q u i red ab ove about 2,000 users. A l s o, Siemens didn t get full c redit for its Call Admission Control because this c ap ability can only be accessed via an arcane and c ryptic command-line interfa c e. In add i t i o n, vo i c e mail re d u n d a n cy and surv ivability (Micro s o f t - based Xpressions) is architected totally diffe re n t ly than call contro l. Siemens has implemented a full SIP stack, with a gat eway for calling from SIP to its nat ive - p rotocol phones, and the vendor demonstrated this with multiple SIP phones. Howeve r, Siemens is just now starting third - p a rty SIP-intero p e rab i l i t y t e s t i n g. And as with other ve n d o rs o ffe ri n g s, i t s not clear yet wh at SIP s role will be down the ro a d for the HiPath S i e m e n s s t rengths? This ye a r s ach i eve m e n t s i n clude top-notch perfo rmance across the board, for wh i ch Siemens earned a special awa rd. A n d Siemens earned maximum points for Endpoints (as did Avaya ), s h owing an impre s s ive array of n ew IP phones, ri ch softphone options, d e s k t o p v i d e o, Bluetooth headset support, super Wi Fi phones with color display s, and dual-mode Wi Fi and cell phones (running with T-Mobile service). The ve n d o r s OpenScape ap p l i c ation suite is i m p re s s ive : The pack age is tightly integrated with M i c rosoft Live Commu n i c ations Server (LCS), and delive rs superb wo rk gro u p - o riented confe r- encing and collab o rat i o n. M a n agement was a mixed bag for Siemens in this ye a r s rev i ew. Confi g u ration and prov i s i o n- i n g, for ex a m p l e, is arcane and, ge n e ra l ly speaki n g, re q u i res too mu ch tedious data entry. Howeve r, the vendor also showed an impre s s ive new adjunct pack age, called QOS Control Unit (QCU), wh i ch collects, c o n s o l i d ates and rep o rts on QOS s t atistics collected from IP phones. This prov i d e s a tru ly useful view of IP QOS ch a ra c t e ri s t i c s, a c rucial dimension in future IP-telep h o ny managem e n t. 3Com VCX IP Telephony 3Com has been quietly wo rking on overhauling its all-sip high-end IP-PBX, called VCX IP Te l ep h o- ny. The re s u l t, c o n s i d e red a component of the b roader 3Com Conve rgence Ap p l i c ation Suite, was the VCX system we eva l u at e d. ShoreTel s management and Siemens performance were top-notch ShoreTel Siemens 3Com Yes, on vendor s IP phones (MGCP) and Yes, on vendor s IP phones and gateways; No, none gateways; NOT on softphone or any being added to softphone (not yet supported SIP phones supported when tested) Proprietary 64-bit Secure RTP, 128-bit AES No, none No, none Yes, per Secure RTCP specification; Registration password is hashed in transmission 128-bit AES. via MD5 algorithm UserID and password (up to 25 digits); 802.1x (external RADIUS) authentication Variable-length password required for wireless SIP phone (only) supports supported by all IP endpoints; also, initial phone registration 802.1x/ RADIUS mechanisms preclude message spoofing BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW / JAN

9 As alre a dy mentioned, we we re so impre s s e d with the 3Com system s fa i l - over and surv ivab i l i- ty arch i t e c t u re based on a mix of IBM Linu x s e rve rs (V7000s) and new low - c o s t, m o d u l a r, b ra n ch - o ffi c e, b a ck-up contro l l e rs (V6000s) that 3Com ga rn e red a special cat ego ry awa rd for B e s t D i s t ri buted Surv ivab i l i t y. 3Com also demonstrated some notewo rt hy c ap abilities that we believe are unique. Th e s e i n clude the Te l e c o m muter Module and the PBX I n t egration Dev i c e, or PID. The Te l e c o m mu t e r Module is an altern at ive to VPNs for off-site telewo rke rs. It fe at u res a sep a rate IBM serve r, wh i ch wo rks in association with the enterp ri s e s main fi rewall. The server re l i eves and offloads the fi rewall of lots of SIP VOIP pro c e s s i n g, m o n i t o rs all VOIP tra ffi c, h a n d l e s VOIP security and re - routing around netwo rk p ro bl e m s. The PID is a cl eve r c o nve rter unit that e n ables the 3Com V C X system to be dep l oye d The centerpiece of 3Com s messaging suite is its convergence client, a softphone-plus a l o n g s i d e, and interwo rk with, a wide ra n ge of lega cy T D M - b a s e d PBXs. The dev i c e s p e a k s the TDM protocol of the lega cy syst e m s phone sets on one s i d e, and SIP on the VCX side. Leading cl a s- s i c P B X s Avaya Defi n i t y, N o rtel Meridian and o t h e rs a re support e d. In 3Com s arch i t e c t u re, most ap p l i c ations are c o n s o l i d ated in a softwa re module called IP Mess agi n g. This embodies the server components of voice mail, a u t o - at t e n d a n t, u n i fied messagi n g, even music on hold. The IP Messaging module can run on the same server as call control or, fo r load or re d u n d a n cy re a s o n s, on a sep a rate serve r, l o c a l ly or re m o t e ly. The jewel of 3Com s IP Messaging suite is the C o nve rgence Client, a ri ch desktop ap p l i c at i o n t h at includes softphone, and wh i ch delive rs unified messagi n g, pop-up VPN and security settings, access to call logs and voice mail integration. Th e user interface is icon-driven and, in our assessm e n t, ex t re m e ly easy to use. We had a view of the ap p l i c at i o n s nex t - ge n e ration interfa c e, and it is even better cl e a n e r, m o re compact and cust o m i z abl e. S h o rtcomings of 3Com s system? Securi t y s o re ly needs to be bolstere d, and the vendor say s it is bu s i ly wo rking on that. And some more cap a- b i l i t i e s l i ke advanced speech processing and expanded multi-tenant support a re needed to compete in the high-end IP-PBX space. Ove ra l l, h oweve r, the prognosis is good for 3Com s cont i nued improvement in its offe ri n g. Conclusion Five h i g h - e n d IP-PBXs systems handling over 1,000 IP stations in their t y p i c a l and t a r- get customer i n s t a l l at i o n s we re tested in this ro u n d. Given the weighting of the cri t e ria cat e- go ries of the test methodology ap p l i e d, Avaya e m e rged with a new re c o rd-high ove rall score of 9 1, fo l l owed cl o s e ly by Siemens, A l c at e l, S h o re- Tel and 3Com. By earning scores of 80 or higher, the tested IP- PBXs can all be considered solid and effe c t ive s y s t e m s, and Mierc o m - recommended buys fo r h i g h - e n d, e n t e rp rise IP-telep h o ny. Th ree of the systems earned special re c og n i- t i o n : 3 C o m, for the ex c eptional distri buted surv ivability of its VCX system; Shore Te l, for ease of use and efficient management; and Siemens, fo r a ch i eving best ove ra l l p e r fo rm a n c e. Fi n a l ly, s eve ral notewo rt hy trends emerge d f rom this ye a r s testing: L i nux is becoming the call-control plat fo rm of choice; serious and e ffe c t ive SIP support is now widespre a d, though its role in these p ro d u c t s f u t u re re m a i n s u n clear; per-user costs a re dropping; perfo r- mance acro s s - t h e - b o a rd is i m p roving; and security is being effe c t ive ly a dd re s s e d Companies Mentioned In This A rt i cl e 3Com Corp. (www. 3 c o m. c o m ) Adobe (www. a d o b e. c o m ) A d t ran Inc. (www. a d t ra n. c o m ) A l c atel (www. a l c at e l. c o m / e n t e rp ri s e ) Avaya (www. avaya. c o m ) C a rrier Access Corp. ( w w w. c a rri e ra c c e s s. c o m ) Compaq (www. c o m p a q. c o m ) E m p i rix (www. e m p i ri x. c o m ) E t h e real (www. e t h e re a l. c o m ) E x t reme Netwo rks ( w w w. ex t re m e n e t wo rk s. c o m ) JK Audio (www. j k a u d i o. c o m ) Pa cke t S t o rm Commu n i c at i o n s ( w w w. p a cke t s t o rm. c o m ) P l a n t ronics (www. p l a n t ro n i c s. c o m ) S h o re Tel (www. s h o re t e l. c o m ) Siemens (enterp ri s e. u s a. s i e m e n s. c o m ) 38 BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS REVIEW / JAN 2006