Voice over IP feature

Type of feature

Voice over IP (VoIP) is a licensed feature. You must have RTU licenses for at least one VoIP channel to use this feature. The VoIP feature licensing is very flexible � you are not limited to purchasing channels in lot sizes of 24/30.

About VoIP

The VoIP feature is a software-only feature that enables the Avaya IR system to serve as an IVR adjunct that connects to a DEFINITY or MultiVantage switch over a packet-based network. With VoIP, transmission to the switch is achieved without digital circuit trunks (T1/E1). Instead, all transmissions occur over the packet network using the network interface card (NIC) on the Avaya IR system.

With packet-based call handling:

• Each call can use variable bandwidth, as required.
• Network capacity that is not used for calls can be used for other applications, such as file-sharing, email, and Web browsing.
• There is no need to maintain separate networks for voice (telephony) and data (office LAN). This reduces maintenance and infrastructure costs.

Although VoIP works using standard hardware required for LAN communication, configuration settings are applied to a virtual VoIP "card." The card concept is familiar and allows you to group VoIP channels for the purposes of management and control, similar to grouping channels for a digital card. VoIP connectivity is supported using two protocols:

• Trunk connections based on the MultiVantage H.323 Trunk protocol. Use trunk connections whenever the IVR service does not need to know which VoIP channel is used during calls.
• Station connections based on the MultiVantage H.323 Terminal (Station) protocol. Use station connections when there is a requirement to reach individual IVR channels from the packet network, or where switching elements restrict membership to queuing and routing structures to ports used by H.323 Terminals. Station connection is required to use the ASAI and CTI features.

Feature Summary � Trunk Connection

The VoIP subsystem supports:

• Incoming and outgoing calls � the Avaya IR system can receive and make calls via the VoIP subsystem. The destination of outgoing calls and the origin of incoming calls can be anywhere in the public telephony network.
• Up to 93 simultaneous calls � there is no restriction on the mix of incoming and outgoing calls at any given time.
• Right-to-use (RTU) licenses on per channel basis � each licensed channel can be used by an incoming or an outgoing call at any given time.
• G.711 mu-law and G.711 a-law voice encoding to and from the network.
• Voice energy detection on per channel basis � this feature is activated on demand, usually by Avaya IR applications that need to detect silence from the remote end. It may be described as either on-interface or in-band, meaning that the network connection between the DEFINITY or MultiVantage system and the IR system is used.
• DTMF barge-in � tones are passed to the IR system through the connection between the DEFINITY or MultiVantage system and the IR system (in-band). Signals may also be used and are passed off-interface or out-of-band.
• Voice barge-in � this facility is under the control of an external speech recognition system. It is described as off-interface, or out-of-band, meaning that the required packets are passed to another system.
• Call transfer � Avaya IR applications can request fully-supervised or unsupervised transfer of calls directly from the VoIP subsystem. Because the connection between the DEFINITY or MultiVantage system and the IR system is used, this operation is described ad on-interface or on-band.
• Optional reporting to a VoIP Monitoring Manager � the VoIP Monitoring Manager is a call quality monitoring applications for calls that use packet-forwarding technology. The manager is an application part of the Avaya VisAbility� Management Suite.
• The VoIP subsystem is fully transparent to existing IVR applications. These applications can:
  • Play announcements or prompts
  • Record voice messages
  • Receive or send DTMF digits
  • Interact with speech recognizers and Text-to-Speech converters
  • Interact with enterprise servers (databases)

The VoIP subsystem does not support:

• Voice encoding other than G.711 mu-law and G.711 a-law
• Incoming or outgoing FAX calls
• On-system bridging of calls. Historically, the Avaya IR system did support on-system bridging of channels in order to provide for call transfer when the Avaya IR system worked as an adjunct to a switching element that did not support third-party call control.
• Echo cancellation. There is no need to support echo cancellation on the VoIP subsystem since this function is performed by the MultiVantage or DEFINITY switch.
• Gateway function as defined in the H.323 recommendation from the ITU-T. Basically, an Avaya IR system cannot be used as an interface between a circuit and packet network.
• Quality-of-Service (QoS) protocols.
• Voice and call signaling encryption.

Hardware requirements

VoIP requires that the Avaya IR system be connected to a local area network (LAN) that also supports a DEFINITY or MultiVantage switch. Calls handled by VoIP must be received from the switch. They cannot come directly to the VoIP subsystem, as they may with other digital protocols.

Switches that support a VoIP subsystem with trunk connections include:

• DEFINITY MultiVantage with R9.5. R10, or R11 system software installed.
• DEFINITY S8700
• DEFINITY S8700 IP-connect
• DEFINITY S8300

For a VoIP subsystem with station connections, DEFINITY MultiVantage 1.3 with R11 system software is required.

The switch has the following hardware requirements:

• A Prowler card (TN22302AP)
• A C-LAN card (TN799DP)

Capacities

Maximum channels on a VoIP subsystem is 93. If WholeWord is used, the maximum number of channels is 60. FAX is not supported by VoIP.

Software requirements

VoIP requires the Voice over IP package installed on the Avaya IR system.

Using this feature

This feature is used as transmission of voice information from the switch to the Avaya IR system.

Administer this feature using the Voice over IP screens (Configuration Management > Switch Interfaces > Voice over IP) in Web Administration or by using the voip command line command.

� 2003 Avaya Inc. All Rights Reserved.