IP Telephony Migration

Ed WrightSr. Sales Engineer, ShoreTel Inc.

September 2008

2

Legacy Phone World – Variety of Positives

• Reliable– Built on reliable OS, typically VxWorks– No moving parts, outside of fan– 7-11 year realistic life-span– Each site remotely survivable

• Workhorses– Phones had strong functionality

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

Branch Office

PBX

VM

ACD

PBX

VM

ACD

PBX

VM

ACDPSTN

IPWAN

PSTN

PSTN

3

Legacy Phone World – Host of Negatives• Each site is a silo unrelated to other sites• Applications are expensive additions

– Unified Communications, ACD, etc.• Management is per system, per site and

usually outsourced– Each new site multiplies the amount of management time– 3 PBXs, 3 VMs and 3 ACDs to manage

• Feature disparity between sites– Reporting, phone portability, ACD applications, paging, etc.

• A single image is impossible– Difficulty in administration, communication and

application extensions between sites

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

Branch Office

IPWAN

PBX

VM

ACD

PBX

VM

ACD

PBX

VM

ACD

PSTN

PSTN

4

IP Telephony Offers New Possibilities• Drawbacks of legacy system become strengths of UC

solution . . . benefits include . . .– Applications are easy to add, can be shared across one

network, and many come standard– Management is administered via a GUI or Web interface, and

each site is part of a single image solution– Features are transparent between sites, as finally users can

realize a single image solution: one brain equals one system!– Although they go by different names, components for IP

telephony systems are analogous, and consistent in their architecture.

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

Branch Office

IPWAN

PSTN

VMVM

ACDACDGatewayGateway

CallCallProcessorProcessor

GatewayGateway

GatewayGateway

PSTN

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

5

IP Telephony Concerns – Single Headed• While the failures of legacy systems became VoIP’s

strengths, so do the strengths of legacy solutions become the weaknesses of VoIP systems

• Server-centric: spinning media MTBF is less than 5 years (only some on real time OS)

• Centralized brains make remote survivability a substantive concern

• Limited intelligence in the gateway is sometimes an option

• True remote survivability requires a call processor in each site

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

Branch Office

IPWAN

PSTN

VMVM

ACDACDGatewayGateway

CallCallProcessorProcessor

GatewayGateway

GatewayGateway

PSTN

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

6

UC Concerns – Multi-Headed• With a call processor in each site, many

benefits of UC are lost:– System admin must manage multiple systems– Feature transparency for users across sites is

lost: no ACD, paging, management, phone portability, etc.

– Each site will require individual applications– Additional applications will be required to assist

in the complexity of managing multiple sites: management augmentations and master ACD applications, etc.

MasterMasterACDACD

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

Branch Office PSTN

VMVM

ACDACDGatewayGateway

CallCallProcessorProcessor

GatewayGateway

PSTN

CallCallProcessorProcessor

VMVM

ACDACD

VMVM

ACDACDCallCall

ProcessorProcessor

NetworkNetworkManagerManager

GatewayGateway

IPWAN

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

7

Gateways in RoutersGateways:– Single point of failure– Command line interface– No system admin integration to primary call

controller

NetworkNetworkManagerManager

MasterMasterACDACD

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

Branch Office PSTN

VMVM

ACDACD

CallCallProcessorProcessor

CallCallProcessorProcessor

CallCallProcessorProcessor

VMVM

ACDACD

VMVM

ACDACDPSTN

IPWAN

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

8

Server Dial ToneGateways:– Single point of failure– Command line interface– No system admin integration to primary call controller

Call processing:

– Centralized, Windows or Linux OS, hard disk, – Redundancy required– Limited survivability in routers with limited features

NetworkNetworkManagerManager

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

Branch Office PSTN

MasterMasterACDACD

VMVM

ACDACD

VMVM

ACDACD

VMVM

ACDACDPSTN

Call ProcessorCall Processor

Call ProcessorCall Processor

Call ProcessorCall Processor

Call ProcessorCall Processor

IPWAN

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

9

Applications = More ServersGateways:

– Single point of failure– Command line interface

Call processing: – Centralized, Windows or Linux OS, hard disk, – Redundancy required– Limited survivability in routers with limited features

– Applications: Unified Messaging

NetworkNetworkManagerManager

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

Branch Office PSTN

Call ProcessorCall Processor

Call ProcessorCall Processor

Call ProcessorCall Processor

Call ProcessorCall Processor

MasterMasterACDACD

ACDACD

ACDACD

ACDACDPSTN

IPWAN

UMUM

UMUM

UMUM

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

10

Applications = More ServersGateways:– Single point of failure– Command line interface

Call processing:

– Centralized, Windows or Linux OS, hard disk, – Redundancy required– Limited survivability in routers with limited features

– Applications: Unified Messaging, ACD

NetworkNetworkManagerManager

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

Branch Office PSTN

Call ProcessorCall Processor

Call ProcessorCall Processor

Call ProcessorCall Processor

Call ProcessorCall Processor

UMUM

UMUM

UMUMPSTN

Master ACDMaster ACDIPWAN

ACDACD

ACDACD

ACDACD

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

11

Applications = More ServersGateways:– Single point of failure– Command line interface

Call processing: – Centralized, Windows or Linux OS, hard disk, – redundancy required– Limited survivability in routers with limited features

– Applications: Unified Messaging, ACD, 911, Presence, Desktop Call Control, Video, Paging, Management

Regional Office

Branch Office

IPWAN

Call ProcessorCall Processor

Call ProcessorCall Processor

Call ProcessorCall Processor

Call ProcessorCall Processor

UMUM

UMUM

UMUM

ACDACD

ACDACD

Master ACDMaster ACD

ManagementManagement

ACDACD

e911e911

e911e911Desktop Call ControlDesktop Call Control

PagingPaging

OperatorOperator

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

12

Another Way- Distributed Approach

NetworkNetworkManagerManager

MasterMasterACDACD

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

Branch Office

PSTN

PSTN

VMVM

ACDACDGatewayGateway

CallCallProcessorProcessor

GatewayGateway

GatewayGateway

CallCallProcessorProcessor

CallCallProcessorProcessor

VMVM

ACDACD

VMVM

ACDACD

IPWAN

13

Distributed Gateways

• Seamless scalability• Plug and play• Flexible allocation of resources:

– IP phones– Analog trunks– Analog stations– SIP trunks

NetworkNetworkManagerManager

MasterMasterACDACD

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

VMVM

ACDACD

CallCallProcessorProcessor

CallCallProcessorProcessor

CallCallProcessorProcessor

VMVM

ACDACD

VMVM

ACDACD

IPWAN

PSTN

Branch Office PSTNPSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

PSTNITSP

Distributed Call Processing

• Distributed call processing

– Appliance-based– No single point of failure– Minimization of spinning media– Real time operating system

NetworkNetworkManagerManager

MasterMasterACDACD

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

PSTN

VMVM

ACDACD

VMVM

ACDACD

VMVM

ACDACD

IPWAN

PSTN

Branch Office

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PSTNPSTNITSP

PSTNPSTNITSP

PSTNPSTNITSP

Trunking Flexibility

• TDM and SIP compliant

– Full TDM trunk support– Seamless migration– Address SIP Security – Certified ITSP portfolio

NetworkNetworkManagerManager

MasterMasterACDACD

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

VMVM

ACDACD

VMVM

ACDACD

VMVM

ACDACD

IPWAN

Branch Office

15

PSTNPSTNITSP

PSTNPSTNITSP

PSTNPSTNITSP

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Unified Applications

• Cohesive suite of UC applications• Consolidated platform• Rich API environment• Open, standards-based

NetworkNetworkManagerManager

MasterMasterACDACD

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

Branch Office PSTN

IPWAN

PSTN

PSTNPSTNITSP

PSTNPSTNITSP

PSTNPSTNITSP

17

Unified Management

• Single image system• Centralized management• Intuitive, TLA and FLA-free

PSTN

Regional Office

Headquarters Office

Branch Office PSTN

IPWAN

PSTN

PSTNPSTNITSP

PSTNPSTNITSP

PSTNPSTNITSP

18

Thank You!