Avaya Flare

Avaya is taking Unified Communications to a new level with their new Flare Experience. Flare works through a desktop tablet and integrates all forms of communications including Email, IM, Voice Conferencing, Video Conferecing etc. You can access your Enterprise directory from the device and through Presence, see who is available and how they can be reached. You can even add your favorite Android applications, as the tablet runs on the Android operating system. Today the application is available exclusively on the Avaya tablet; however, they are working on integrating Flare with the Ipad and Android tablets. Click on this link to see what the application looks like and how it works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW_uzYiquug&feature=channel

Avaya IP Office R6.1

Avaya released the newest version of IP Office this week. This new version installs on the standards based Linux operating system. This should reduce installation and licensing costs to the user as the process is more streamlined and there are no Windows licenses to purchase.

Other new enhancements to 6.1 include:

Flexible Avaya one-X™ Portal for IP Office: The solution’s dynamic Web-based desktop communications interface for remote, mobile and office workers features a newly-designed, customizable interface with drag and drop application gadgets. The solution—which lets users manage calls, instant messages and e-mails from one PC-based portal—is more flexible, allowing users to place gadgets (i.e. Directory, Call Log, etc.) wherever they want on their screen. Further customization includes 'skins' and branding with a business' name.

Improved Contact Center Reporting: Now, an SME can gauge the success of a customer campaign through location-based business intelligence that analyzes the calls flowing into a contact center, and makes them viewable on a geographic map. This capability provides a visual report of the volume of customer interaction based on each customer's location.

Expanded Video Options: Avaya IP Office expands upon its videoconferencing capabilities, going beyond Softphone-based video to now offer more advanced multi-point HD videoconferencing with up to 4 parties.3 Additionally, it enables video integration with selected third-party SIP phones.

Multi-site Management: SME owners can now manage multiple office sites using one consolidated interface and a single log-in. This lets users view and manage all of the key communications parameters (i.e. user rights, hunt groups) of multiple locations (up to 32).

Also with 6.1 comes the ability to use some Nortel IP sets on the platform. Future releases will also allow Nortel digital sets to operate. These advances will let businesses with Nortel systems upgrade to take advantage of the latest advancements without throwing out the investment in all of those telephones.

Small and medium sized businesses want the same tools that Enterprise sized business have taken advantage of for years. With 6.1 come some of these tools with the promise of more in the near future.

Happy Halloween!

A useful tip for troubleshooting VOIP quality issues in Communication Manager.

Doing a “list trace station xxxx” when an IP station is on a call will result in the following output every 10 seconds during the call:

15:33:46 Jitter:4 3 3 2 3 3 1 3 3 3: Buff:9 WC:26 Avg:2

15:33:46 Pkloss:1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1: Oofo:0 WC:1 Avg:0

These two lines will tell you a lot about what is going on during a call.
The first line indicates jitter (variations in latency). Each number is 1 seconds intervals. In this case the first second of the call had 4 milliseconds of jitter. Followed by the jitter buffer size (which is dynamic), worst case jitter during this call (26 milliseconds), then the average jitter for this call. In general, 20 milliseconds of jitter or less is desired.

The second line indicates packet loss in percent. In this case the first second had 1 percent packet loss. Oofo is the number of out of order packets, followed by worst case packet loss for this call. Then the average packet loss for the call (in this case 0)
Packet loss at or above 2 percent will be noticed. Above 3 percent will usually result in call quality complaints.

High numbers from this output can tell you that there is something wrong on the network somewhere. It usually take a deeper dive to find out just where the trouble is occurring but this is the place to start.

MERU

We've been having great success again this year with Meru's wireless access solutions. The biggest advantage that Meru brings to the table is single channel deployment.

Most 802.11 wireless access solutions utilize a three channel deployement. Multiple access points installed in a facility each need to be on channels 1,6 or 11. There can be no overlap in coverage from AP's using the same channel. This means that the AP's have to be strategically placed so no AP using channel 1 can be near another AP using channel 1. The same goes for channels 6 and 11. This can make designing a solution challenging and adding to an exisiting system even more challenging.

Meru circumvents this problem with their single channel deployment. Unlike the 1,6 and 11 solutions where the AP's decide where you will be connected, Meru's decision points are made by the controller. This allows them to have a single channel throughout the building. As you move from one area to another, the controller moves you from one AP to another.

This is particulary important with 802.11n installations. 802.11n AP's provide significantly more range than 802.11a/b/g AP's. However, the coverage for N is very spikey compared to the a/b/g AP's. N signal bounces off walls giving more coverage, but weird coverage patterns. With the single channel deployment this is not an issue at all. If you have an area of weak coverage you just install another access point. If you are using a product without single channel deployment and want 802.11n AP's, it will become very difficult to get optimal coverage without designing and re-designing to avoid channel conflicts.

Check out our website, www.necomm.com , for more information on Meru if you are considering wireless access.

Come One, Come All! Charity Yard Sale to Benefit Good Shepherd Food Bank on Saturday, September 18th, 8am – 3pm, 480 Riverside Street, Portland, Maine. Parking in the rear of the building. New England Communications employees are having a gigantic yard sale with lots of great items! The items will include clothing, household items, books, toys, and some sports equipment. All items are priced to sell – after 2pm $1.00 per box/bag full --all items must go! What a deal – you get a great bargain AND you help your neighbors in need! All proceeds will go to benefit The Good Shepherd Food Bank.


Patricia Bartlett

Giving back to the community is a big part of the fabric of New England Communications. Throughout the year, we hold various fundraisers for charities in support of the needy here in the State of Maine.

This week, NEC employees are enjoying ice cream sundaes and contributing to a worthy cause at the same time! Several employees contributed various items for making ice cream sundaes, such as: coffee, vanilla, and strawberry swirl ice cream, as well as several toppings including; coconut, strawberries, pineapple, nuts etc. We even had cherries and whipped cream for the top! Our fellow employees then purchased a sundae for $2.00 to make their own creation for a joyous consumption. All the proceeds will be contributed to a worthy cause to be chosen at a later date. There will be other fundraisers throughout the year to add to our contributions, such as our annual yard sale in September and a luncheon on Halloween.

NEC employees are extremely generous when it comes to helping those in need.


Patricia Bartlett

Recently we had a request from one of our employees to add some feature capability to his mobile phone. This would allow him to turn EC500 (mobile twinning) on and off remotely with his mobile phone. It would also allow him to send all calls to his desk phone remotely and access pbx dial tone remotely. With this last ability, he can establish calls remotely from his cell phone, but the caller ID that shows to the called party is his company DID number. This is a great feature if you don’t want the world to know your mobile phone number. He can also now dial a four digit extension for any of our employees from his mobile phone.

FNE’s are the extensions in your dial plan that your EC500 can dial from an outside EC500 phone to activate Communication Manger features.

Usually each of these entries is populated with a DID. However to conserve DID’s, we decided to use a VDN and came up with the following solution:

1. Populate the required FNE’s using non-DID numbers:
change off-pbx-telephone feature-name extensions

Feature non-DID extension
Active Appearance Select 3405
Idle Appearance Select 3406
Off-PBX Call Enable 3401
Off-PBX Call Disable 3402
Send All Calls 3403
Send All Calls Cancel 3404

2. Select an available DID to create a VDN.
add vdn 2075 to use vector 75

3. Add and record an announcement with the features you’ve selected.
add announcement 1550

Script: To enable your EC500 press 1. To disable EC500 press 2. To enable Send All Calls press 3. To disable Send All Calls press 4. To extend call press 5. To make a call press 6.

4. Write the vector steps based on the selections you have given your caller in the announcement.
change vector 75
wait-time 2 secs hearing silence
collect 1 digits after announcement 1550 for none
route-to number 3401 with cov y if digit = 1
route-to number 3402 with cov y if digit = 2
route-to number 3403 with cov y if digit = 3
route-to number 3404 with cov y if digit = 4
route-to number 3405 with cov y if digit = 5
route-to number 3406 with cov y if digit = 6
stop

Besides conserving DID’s another advantage to this method is having to remember only one number for numerous FNE’s instead of individual DID’s.

Remember that you will need a PRI for this function.