Microsoft Lync 2010: Audio, Video,and Web Conferencing Architectureand Experience

Cameron Parker, Senior Program ManagerAnkit Tandon, Program Manager IIMicrosoft Corporation

EXL301

Agenda

Roadmap for Conferencing

Web Conferencing Experience and Demo

Audio, Video, Collaboration Drilldown

Manageability

Troubleshooting

What you’ll learn today

Deeper look at audio, video, and web conferencing workloads of the Lync 2010 clientConferencing Architecture, Call Flows, and TroubleshootingDetails on Features, Requirements, BandwidthLync on-premise and Lync Online differences

Lync Conferencing Roadmap

OCS 2007 R2 • Communicator

• Audio Conferencing• Desktop Sharing

• Live Meeting• Audio conferencing• Desktop & Application

Sharing• PowerPoint Presentations• Whiteboard• Polling, Q&A, etc.

Lync 2010 Server• Lync 2010

• Richer Audio Conferencing• Desktop & Application

Sharing• PowerPoint Presentations• Whiteboard• Polling

• Live Meeting• Available during migration

to 2010• Use for very large meetings

Lync Online / Office 365• Lync 2010 CU2+

• Public Beta NOW• General Availability in June• OrgID sign-in• Audio Conferencing

Partners for PSTN Audio• Not a soft phone• Regular updates and

improvements• Live Meeting

• Separate Service only

Unified Client, Rich Conferencing Features

Conference Management• Scheduling via Outlook with admin support,

and via Web*• Join with Lync, Web App, Attendee clients• Lobby support for easy join• Manage permissions and roles

Voice and Video• PSTN Audio on premise with IVR• Audio Partners (ACPs) in O365• Scalable Voice, Video• Device/IP Phone support (on premise)• Response Group, Private Line, Call Park• >90% VoiceCon RFP complete

• Up from 60% in 2007, 78% in 2009

Basics• Presence/discovery integration• Rich IM with federation• Interop with Communicator, Messenger for

AV, IM with public internet connectivity* WL Messenger only with O365

• Ad hoc conference escalation

Content• Desktop sharing• Application sharing• PowerPoint with animations• Whiteboarding• Polling• Navigate ahead/back in slides and to

other content

End to End Web Conferencing User ExperienceAd-hoc conferencing from IM and PhoneScheduling, Join, In-meeting experience

DEMO

Conferencing Scenarios

Rich conference calls Work with people anywhere

Effective Team Meetings Professional Presentations

Architecture/Flows

Front End Server

Web Conferencing Architecture

Backend SQL DB Server

AV Conferencing Server

ConferencingDatabase

Focus

Focus Factory

Web Components (IIS)

Join Launcher

Web App ServerIM Conferencing MCU

Web Conferencing MCU

App Sharing MCU

AV MCU

Machine Boundary Process Boundary Web Application Audio Conferencing

Conference Service

Personal Virtual Assistant

Group Virtual Assistant

Audio Conf Provider MCU

Web Conferencing Flow

Focus

Communicator

Client

CC

CP

/SIP

Web Conf MCU

IM Conf MCU

AV Conf MCU

C3P/HTTP

SIMPLE/SIP

(S)RTP

PSOM

Focus Factory

SQL Backend

SchedulingClient

CC

CP

/SIP

SQL

SQL

Conferencing Server FactoryC3P/HTTP

1

2

3

4 5

6

7

App Sharing Conf MCU

RDP/RTP

Audio ConfProvider

MCUACP

(S)RTP

Client Details/Reqs

Join Details

Lync Client Lync Attendee Client Lync Web App

Admin InstallIT Push, or admin install IT Push, or admin install Yes, for Silverlight

Also, ActiveX or FF Plugin for screen sharing

User mode Installn/a Yes n/a

SilverlightYes, installs with client Yes, installs with client Yes, can install on the fly

On 67% of desktops WW*

OS RequirementsXPSP3, Vista, Win7, 2K8 XPSP3, Vista, Win7, 2K8

IT PushXP, Vista, Win7, 2K8, 2K3Mac 10.4.8

BrowserIE6-9, FF IE6-9, FF IE6-9 based on Win OS

Mac 10.4.8 with FF, Safari

*http://riastats.com

Conferencing Support in Lync 2010 clients

Feature/capability Lync 2010 Lync Web

App Lync 2010 Attendee

Lync 2010 Attendant

Lync 2010 Phone

Edition Communicator for Mac 2011

Computer audio ● ● ● ● ●

Video ● ● ●

In-meeting presenter controls ● ● ●

Access detailed meeting roster ● ● ● ●

Participate in multiparty IM ● ● ● ● ●

Share the desktop ● ●(requires plug-in)

● ●

Share a program ● ●(requires plug-in)

●

Add anonymous participants ● ● ●

Use dial-in audio conferencing ● ● ● ●

Initiate a meeting ●

Present PowerPoint ● ●

Use a whiteboard ● ● ●

Conduct polls ● ● ●

Share files ● ● ●

Schedule meeting/conference ● ResKit

Video – Supported Formats

Display Resolution 1024x768 or higher required

Memory Windows 7 or Windows Vista: 2 gigabytes (GB) of RAMWindows XP: 1 GB of RAM

Video Memory 128 MB of Video RAMDirectX®  9

CIF • Common Interchange Format• 352x288, 15 fps, 350 kbps• Single Core > 1.5GHz

VGA• Video Graphics Array• 640x480, 25 fps, 700 kbps• Dual Core > 1.9GHz

HD• High Definition • 1280x720(16:9), 25 fps, 1.5 Mbps• Quad Core > 2 GHz

Panorama• Polycom CX5000 RoundTable• 1056x144 (22:3), 15 fps, 350 kbps• Single Core > 2 GHz

VoIP and Video – Bandwidth Requirements

Audio codec Scenarios Audio payload bitrate (Kbps)

RTAudio Wideband Peer-to-peer 29.0

RTAudio Narrowband Peer-to-peer, PSTN 11.8

G.722 Conferencing 64.0

G.711 PSTN 64.0

Siren Conferencing 16.0

Video codec Resolution Maximum bitrate (Kbps) Minimum bitrate (Kbps)

RTVideo CIF 250 50

RTVideo VGA 600 350

RTVideo HD 1500 800

RTVideo Panoramic Video 350 50

Conferencing Details

On-premise Audio Conferencing

Replaces ACP for ~85% of calls (Gartner)Requires PSTN Gateway deployment on premiseFeatures

Name Recording, Entry/Exit announcements (default OFF)Supports Lobby for easy join (Presenters grant access)Easy PIN management, default no expiryRecording from Lync clientRich language support for IVR

Per-pool Limits (10 FEs/pool):80K users/pool, max mtg:250Limit of 6000 simultaneous users per pool:

900 PSTN-only meetings, 2100 in VoIP-only, 2400 mixed

Online (ACP) Audio Conferencing

Sign up with an ACP partnerInitially British Telecom, InterCall, Premier Global

Integrates automatically with VoIP users via VoIP bridgeFeatures

Dial-in from phone (details in invite, and conversation window)Dial-out to self and others via ACPMute individuals from LyncEject individuals from LyncEnd conference (ends for all Lync and PSTN users)DTMF tones via ACP for Mute, Unmute

Web Conferencing

Scale to 250 users per meetingScreen sharing (256, 1000, 3500 kbps)

Supports P2P to reduce server trafficShare Desktop, single app, multiple appsControllable via in-band policy settings

PowerPoint (20, 200, 500 kbps)Converts to PPT 2003 and DHTML (web app), removes AVRich transitions, asynchronous navigation

Whiteboard/PPT Annotations (20, 200, 500 kbps)Text support for note taking, clipboard support, images

Manageability

Manageability

Clients can now be managed using Lync Server Control Panel, the Windows PowerShell command-line interface, or both. Settings are sent to clients using in-band provisioning as opposed to group policies.

In-band provisioning settings (Lync on-premise) Group Policy settings (Communicator 2007/R2)

Single location, using a single user interface Use other IT groups to push GPOs

Configured at the global, site, or tag level. Configured at global and user levels only

Consistent for all users whether on-premise or remote Requires corp domain connection to get policies

Settings take effect immediately Requires Windows login to refresh settings

Improved client security – users cannot modify registry Malicious user can modify registry to override policies

Note: Certain policies are still required for client bootstrapping. These are policies that take effect before the client signs in and begins receiving in-band provisioning settings from the server.

Troubleshooting

Client Troubleshooting

Call Quality Notifications to end user (next slides)Logging

Enabled/disabled by policy/in-band settingUser can turn on/off in Options dialog if no policy setWritten to %userprofile%/tracingTools to analyze logs

Collect LogsPackages logs into ZIP file with screen shot, voice sampleEnabled via regkey or policy/in-band settingUser sends to their IT admin on their own

Call Detail Records & Reporting on Server (on-premise)

Call Quality Notifications

Events and Measurements

Type Event Description Measurements - Thresholds

Network Network Send Quality Packet loss & jitter on receive stream is severe and introducing distortions

Jitter - Good <20ms, Bad >30msPacket Loss - Good <3%, Bad >7%

Network Receive Quality Concealed packet ratio on send stream is severe and introducing distortions

Concealed Packet Ratio - Good <2%, Bad >3%

Low Bandwidth Available bandwidth is insufficient for acceptable voice/video experience

Dynamic based on codec

High Latency Network latency is severe and preventing interactive communication

RTT - Good <300ms, Bad >500ms

Machine Low CPU cycles Insufficient CPU for processing current modalities & apps, causing audio distortions.

Flag the event when audio encoding/decoding engine isn't getting sufficient CPU cycles

Remote User Low SNR Poor capture quality from remote user. Distortions from noise or user too far from mic.

Flag if participant in the conference has a noisy environment

Echo Remote user's device or setup is causing echo beyond the ability of the system to compensate.

Flag if remote user (or participant in a conference) has a device setup that is injecting echo in the call

Call Quality Notifications (cont.)

Events and MeasurementsType Event Description Measurements - Thresholds

Audio Echo Device or setup is causing echo beyond the ability of the system to compensate.

Timestamp noiseDynamic & Adaptive NLP attenuationPost-AEC echo percentageMic clipping due to far-end signal

Howling Audio feedback loop detected (caused by multiple endpoints sharing audio path).

Check for howling/screeching from other endpoints in the room

Capture Device Not Functioning

Microphone currently used is not functioning correctly, causing one-way audio issues.

Check capture buffer status

Render Device Not Functioning

Speaker currently used is not functioning correctly, causing one-way audio issues.

Check render buffer status

Render Glitches Severe glitches in audio rendering, causing distortions. Can be caused by driver issues, DPC storm (drivers), high CPU usage.

Look for glitches after adaptive render buffer

Low SNR Poor capture quality. Distortions from noise or user too far from mike. Low SNRHigh absolute noise level after digital AGC

Microphone Clipping User’s speech level is too high for the system to handle and is causing distortions.

Microphone clipping during near end only portions

Near End to Echo Ratio

User’s speech is too low compared to the echo being captured, limits ability to interrupt a user. Reduce speaker volume or move closer to mic.

Near-end to echo ratio

Half Duplex Mode To prevent echo, system enter half duplex mode (dynamic switching between render and capture streams), which limits ability to interrupt a user.

Flag the event when device is in "voice switch" mode

Multiple Audio Endpoints

Multiple audio endpoints in the same session detected and the system has compensated by reducing render volume.

Detect conference join tone in the room

CDR & Reporting improvements

MS diagnostics aka “msdiags” included with all SIP 4xx, 5xx, 6xx, BYEsms-diagnostic:<error code>;reason=“xxx”;description=“yyy”;source=“zzz” [;custom-param=“foo”]

Msdiags are:Specific – one error code per distinguishable failure caseAdmin Friendly – They describe failure from end user point of view; not in terms of internal implementation details, use official product nomenclature for server names (no hex codes)Actionable – Many msdiags contain troubleshooting stepsCategorized – Success, UnExpectedFailure, ExpectedFailure

Greatly improved reliability reports on the monitoring serverFor a whole lot more on this, see the deck from EXL318

Lync in Office 365

Online vs. On-premise Key DifferencesFeature On-premise Office 365

Sign In Corp credentials, or custom OrgID (Live ID infrastructure)

Audio Conferencing Included, PSTN GW needed Via ACP

Lync as soft phone Yes No

Device integration Yes No

Skill Search with SP Online Yes No

Recording Yes No

Group Chat Yes No

Auth join in Attendee and Web App Yes (corp users ony) No

Mute all attendees (audio conf) Yes No

Attendant client Yes No

Virus/malware scanning Yes (from partner) No (use client side scanning)

IM Archiving Yes No

Exchange Unified Messaging Yes No

Admin UI Full web/SL UX Tenant admin UX, limited features

Powershell support Yes No

Client version management Yes No

Top 5 takeaways

True Unified ClientOne client for IM/P, Audio, Video, Web ConferencingEasy tools to learn once

Improved Meeting JoinSimple meeting linksLobby for presenters to admit/reject attendeesClick-to-join from mobile phones

PSTN Dial-In and Dial-out ConferencingOn premise replacement for most audio conferencing needsOnline ACP partnerships

Call Quality Checks and DiagnosticsNetwork health indicatorNotifications for end user troubleshootingMake a test call and check call qualityIT Tools to analyze issues/logs

Office365 / Lync Online is ready for Beta now, Production in June

Related Breakout SessionsOne left! B207

Thursday 4:30PM EXL317 Microsoft Lync 2010: Interoperability, Integration with Competition or Legacy Francois Doremieux

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