Lab Testing Summary Report

Transcription

1 Lab Testing Summary Report April 2007 Report Product Category: SMB IP-PBX Vendor Tested: Avaya Product Tested: Avaya Distributed Office Key findings and conclusions: Interconnected IP-PBX targeted at organizations with a large number of branch offices Full feature set for PBX style deployment or optional low cost 1600 series IP endpoints for key system functionality Centralized management provides remote set up and configuration SIP-based architecture eliminates hardware clusters as new branch offices are added Avaya engaged Miercom to verify the operation of their latest IP-PBX product, Avaya Distributed Office. Miercom looked at pre-release versions of the i40 and the i120 platforms along with the Integrated Management for Distributed Office software. Avaya Distributed Office is targeted at organizations with a large number of branch offices. Distributed Office allows for quick setup and distribution of branch systems while offering a unified central management for them. Once deployed, the systems are also capable of operating autonomously should the link back to the central site become un-available. In conjunction with the release of Distributed Office, Avaya is also introducing the 1600 series phones. These VoIP endpoints feature key-system like functionality while maintaining a low price point, as well as standard features such as PoE and pass through switch ports for one wire to the desktop. The 1600 series phones can also be configured with traditional PBX capabilities and used with Distributed Office or Avaya s other communications platforms. Figure 1: Avaya Distributed Office i120

2 Typical Deployment Test Bed: For the course of this evaluation, testing was conducted on three Distributed Office platforms interconnected over a simulated WAN to a data center. Within the data center were the SIP enablement server and the Integrated Management server. The first branch consisted of an i120 platform with Avaya 9600 series phones configured for SIP. The second office consisted of an i40 platform with 1603, 1608 and 1616 phones as well as an analog trunk connection to a simulated PSTN and analog phone. The second office also had an analog device configured on the FSX port. The third office was an i40 platform, initially with no configuration. The Integrated Management system was used to add the platform to the network and integrated the dialing plan with the other offices. This platform had a combination of 4600 and 9600 series phones. A SIP connection was established between the enablement server and a remote location to connect to and demonstrate integration via SIP with third party call center and IVR platforms. Results The pre-release version of Avaya Distributed Office and Integrated Management for Distributed Office was evaluated in the areas of architecture, endpoints, features and management. Architecture There are two new hardware platforms as part of the upcoming Distributed Office release. The i40 and i120 platforms are targeted at slightly different office environments. The i40 features eight integrated PoE ports and two FXS ports. PSTN Trunking can be established via four integrated FXO ports, a pair of BRI trunks or a T1 trunk depending upon the model ordered. It is geared towards small branch offices with eight to forty administered users. The i120 is suited for larger environments, up to 120 users and features a more modular chassis. There are five slots designed for trunking cards from FXO up to T1. A separate, larger slot is available for a 24 or 48 port PoE switching module. Both models include an ETR (Emergency Transfer Port) for failover to an analog phone in the event of power loss. There is also a close contact port for external device control such as door circuits. The platforms also support T.38 fax. Both systems also host an internal web server for Copyright 2007 Miercom SMB IP-PBX Page 2

3 accessing the local administration and configuration application. The i40 and i120 are designed to operate autonomously in a branch environment. With the integrated PoE, trunk cards and voice mail, they are self sufficient. Calls can be successfully placed between a local extension and PSTN connection even when one of the i40 systems was unable to connect to the centralized management or core network. Setup is straight forward. Out of the box, both units provide DHCP. Initial configuration was accomplished by connecting a computer and browsing to the default IP address of the internal web server. Both units are shipped with a default profile configured at the factory based upon initial parameters entered at time of order. This allows for a near plug and play deployment where only the network and gateway IP addresses need to be configured in the field. From scratch configuration, wizards are available to quickly build a base profile to get the basic features working with dial tone for the phones. Profiles can be saved and loaded directly onto the platforms enabling an organization to establish standard images and configure multiple units rapidly. Stored profiles can also be used to upload to a new box for graceful replacement. Multiple i40 and i120 units can be quickly added to a cohesive inter-branch dialing plan. Using the Avaya SIP Enablement Server (SES), the systems interconnect via SIP trunking. The central management application can then be used to group systems and quickly build inter-branch dialing plans. Endpoints The platforms support the 9600 series SIP endpoints and the 4600 and 1600 series H.323 endpoints, as well as version 5.2 or 6.0 of the Avaya IP Softphone. The 1600 series phones are being introduced at the same time as Distributed Office. They are designed as a cost effective solution with key system-like functionality. The three models evaluated were the 1603, 1608 and The 1603 features three programmable function or line Figure 3: Avaya 1603 buttons, a simple two line display, and six function buttons: Hold, Conference, Transfer, Drop, Redial and Menu. There are also hard keys for volume control, speaker phone and mute. The 1603 does not feature an integrated switch for PCs. The layout and function of the phone was intuitive for all of the functions exercised. The two line display provided good visual feed back of the call status and state. The 1608 and 1616 feature the same general look and feel as the 1603 with several other features. In addition to the hard function keys of the 1603, both have three soft keys for context sensitive feature operation, navigation keys and contacts key. Message, voice mail and call logs buttons are also present and back light when events are waiting. The 1608 has eight programmable buttons for line appearances or additional features while the 1616 has sixteen. The 1616 can be further expanded with an optional 32-button module. Both the 1608 and 1616 featured an integrated switch for computer pass through and headset ports. They had simple and effective three and four line displays, respectively to provide for options during a call. Again, both phones operated as expected for a key system during the evaluation. Figure 2: Avaya 9630 The 9600 series support srtp for the media path in conjunction with Distributed Office. The 4600 series support H.323 annex H for signaling security while the 9600 uses TLS. The 4600 and 1600 both support AES encryption as well. Wireless options such as the DECT based wireless Avaya 3711 which establishes a H.323 trunk between the base station and i40 or i120 are also supported. Calls were placed using the wireless handset to other stations and external lines with acceptable voice quality. Third party SIP endpoints such as the Cisco 7960G, 7960, 7960G and 7940 IP phones with the SIP load were also registered to the systems and used to place calls. The feature set supports Figure 4: Avaya 3711 the core functions as described in the SIP protocol such as call forward (all and busy), call transfer and call drop. Features Avaya Distributed Office system supports the full range of features expected for a medium to small Copyright 2007 Miercom SMB IP-PBX Page 3

4 branch system. Several calls placed with all of the endpoint series evaluated with the system were used to determine the effectiveness of the feature implementations. On the trunking side, PSTN connection can be configured to appear as lines, as would be expected in a key system. This gives Distributed Office the flexibility to operate in a variety of environments and ease training requirements in migration situations. Both platforms feature an integrated, multilingual voice mail and automatic attendant. They reside locally within the i40 and i120 platforms but can also be administered with the Centralized Management server. The voice mail can also be configured with an SMTP server for unified messaging. On the station side, endpoints can also be configured to operate as key systems or PBX phones. In a key system-like deployment, the 1600 series phones were shown to light buttons for line appearances and monitoring. By selecting an active line, users could bridge onto an existing call. An exclusion function is available to allow for keeping a call private. Other key system features such as group paging and loudspeaker were also demonstrated. Ad-hoc conferencing was supported without the need for an additional media conferencing unit. Using the 9600 series phones, a conference call was established, participants could use the navigation keys on the phone to see who else was on the call. The organizer could then place specific parties on mute as well as drop users from the call. Application Support Distributed Office has embedded Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) for monitoring and controlling endpoints. Referred to as Application Enablement for Distributed Office, it provides a Microsoft TAPI Service Provider to telephony-enable common business applications found in target market branch offices such as click-to-dial, popular Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications and other 3rd party branch reporting packages. For our evaluation, calls were placed, received and handled from within Sage Software s ACT! Contact management application which had been telephony-enabled via the Application Enablement. In a PBX style deployment a bevy of other features were evaluated on the 4600 and 9600 series endpoints. The standard features such as call drop, call hold, call transfer, one-button speed dial and mute all functioned as expected. CallerID, message waiting and missed call indicators are all displayed on the endpoints. All of the endpoints also retained last number redialed. Music on hold was shown for all endpoints. Music files are stored on the i40 and i120 in an.au format. New music files can be pushed out to the local systems via the Central Management application. This allows for simple distribution of custom hold announcements across an organization. Stations can also be set to handle call forwarding differently depending upon the condition. The system supports call forwarding on busy and no answer. Users can define separate numbers or coverage paths in both cases. The call park feature allowed for both directed and arbitrary extensions. Directed allowed the user to specify the extension at which to park the call while arbitrary parked the call at a system defined extension. Figure 5: Distributed Office Integrated Management Management In addition to the systems being able to function autonomously, another key feature of Avaya Distributed Office is the centralized management applications. With Integrated Management for Distributed Office server, the i40 and i120 platforms can be managed and configured remotely. The Integrated Management application runs on a Microsoft Windows server and offers complete control over the branch solutions. Avaya demonstrated the ability to install, configure and deploy an i40 without any local connection except for the initial IP setup. Copyright 2007 Miercom SMB IP-PBX Page 4

5 Integrated Management for Distributed Office also allows for the creation of templates of branch configurations for rapid deployment to multiple sites. The templates can include feature access codes, system parameters, Figure 6: Templates password management, voice mail configurations, stations as well as a comprehensive abbreviated dial plan for all sites. From Integrated Management, station moves, adds and changes were demonstrated. This eliminates the need for a local presence for most administrative functions. System announcements and auto attendant management can also be done for all branches from Integrated Management. A second key management application is the Network Management Console (NMC). The NMC will auto discover all platforms in the network. It allows managers to perform fault management and alerting of discovered devices. Items can be displayed by device type, subnet or VoIP system. Users can also organize the devices in their own custom views. Figure 7: Network Management Console Alarms are displayed historically and in real time. Administrators can select a system with an alarm and drill down to determine the exact cause and port. Double clicking on a device launches the local management application. The Software Update Management (SUM) aids in managing software and firmware updates for all Distributed Office devices in the network. SUM goes out to the Avaya web site, logs in and automatically downloads the latest version applicable to the inventory of devices it has. Administrators are presented with a simple interface screen where they can quickly asses which devices have an update available. They can see the current version and the version they are entitled to use based on their active license. Devices can then be scheduled to download the updates during maintenance windows or immediately, as required. Figure 8: Software Update Management inventory view The final piece of the central management software applications is the Network Configuration Manager (NCM). It focuses on backup and restoration operations of the i40 and i120 platforms. From this single application, the three major databases of each system, voic configuration, SES (SIP server information) and provisioning database can be scheduled for immediate or periodic backup to a centralized server. A wizard is provided for assisting in selecting the appropriate file for restoration operations. For survivability, local access to the i40 or i120 platforms can be accomplished via dialup over a modem connected to the USB port. Avaya demonstrated that the management functions are highly streamlined, such that accessing the platforms in this manner still allows for a quick response time from the application. Conclusion The Avaya Distributed Office system allows organizations to deploy a feature rich IP based PBX to multiple branch locations. It enables them to maintain autonomy of branch operations while providing comprehensive centralized management support. Additionally, the new 1600 series endpoints give organizations the choice to use the IP-PBXs with either traditional or with key system like functionality. Copyright 2007 Miercom SMB IP-PBX Page 5

6 Miercom Performance Verified Based on Miercom s examination and testing of the Avaya Distributed Office and review of its configuration, deployment and operation as described herein, Miercom hereby issues the Performance Verified certification for the product in this report. Miercom certifies the following key observations made during this review: Autonomous IP-PBX targeted for small and midsized branch offices Low cost 1600 series endpoint offers key system functionality in an IP phone Centralized management provides remote set up and configuration Full feature set for key system or PBX style deployment Avaya, Inc 211 Mt. Airy Road Basking Ridge, NJ USA Tel: GO-AVAYA ( ) About Miercom s Product Testing Services With hundreds of its product-comparison analyses published over the years in such leading network trade periodicals as Business Communications Review and Network World, Miercom s reputation as the leading, independent product test center is unquestioned. Founded in 1988, the company has pioneered the comparative assessment of networking hardware and software, having developed methodologies for testing products from SAN switches to VoIP gateways and IP PBX s. Miercom s private test services include competitive product analyses, as well as individual product evaluations. Products submitted for review are typically evaluated under the NetWORKS As Advertised program, in which networking-related products must endure a comprehensive, independent assessment of the products usability and performance. Products that meet the appropriate criteria and performance levels receive the NetWORKS As Advertised award and Miercom Labs testimonial endorsement. 379 Princeton-Hightstown Rd., East Windsor, NJ fax Report Copyright 2007 Miercom SMB IP-PBX Page 6