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Avaya, formerly known as Lucent Technologies, designs and manufactures a complete line of Avaya equipment for traditional Telecommunications applications, as well as enterprise-grade IP telephony applications. Avaya supports traditional PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) connections, IP transport, Call Center , Contact Management, Wireless applications, and more. The list of options and specialty application modules that Avaya offers seems to be an endless list that can be customized to any changing business environment. Telephone Equipment. Avaya offers a wide range of IP-enabled SIP (session initiated protocol) telephones for a variety of applications. Starting at the low end of telephone equipment by Avaya, the model 2402 is a basic set that has only the standard speakerphone options and a two-line LCD display. Several more options are available, adding more feature buttons, larger displays, etc until you reach the model 6424D+M. This model is a full-featured unit that also allows analog devices (speakerphones, analog fax machines, etc) to connect directly to the unit. The CallMaster series of Avaya equipment are intended for ACD (automatic call distributor) use in call center environments, and include features such as personalized rings, dual headset jacks, and recorder interface modules. MultiVantage. Since in an IP environment, both voice and data are sharing the same IP network, more than just typical voice and data can be integrated in today's network. Avaya has incorporated unified messaging, contact management, conferencing (Spectel), and softphone options into their integrated platform. Avaya has an option to allow calls to be redirected to virtually any destination, including cellular phones, laptops or PCs, and even Pocket PC applications. Media Servers and Gateways. Avaya offers several options for configuring your IP network, including the S8300 Media Server, and G700 Media Gateway. The S8300 Server can accommodate up to 50 Media Gateways, allowing a single hub location to control traffic at 50 different locations. Running on a Linux Operating System, the Media Server is the hardware platform required for Avaya's Communications Manager program. Gateways are used on a per-location basis to manage edge traffic as it enters or leaves the enterprise network. Although Avaya's platform allows non-Avaya hardware (based upon SIP standards), by operating in a pure Avaya environment, even fax transmissions can be encrypted over the WAN. The Heart of the Network. Avaya's Communications Manager Platform is the software-driven mastermind of managing today's converged network (blending voice and data over the same network). The Communications Manager provides the management platform for traffic shaping, management, and optimization. Any IP-based voice network application will require a management platform like Avaya's Communication Manager to monitor and control traffic, tune QOS settings, and manage the overall IP network infrastructure. IP Telephony Basics. In considering an IP-based voice network, planners must keep in mind that voice traffic is much more sensitive to packet delivery (in order and without delay) than data traffic. As such, early attempts at blending voice traffic over an IP network yielded "choppy" voice performance, since in a routed IP environment, data packets are transmitted without regard for the route taken, or in what order they are received on the distant end. When voice and data packets are routed over the same network without prioritization, voice quality can be severely impacted. QOS (Quality of Service) was introduced into the IP based network routing architecture as a means to prioritize traffic for delivery. A high QOS rating on a per packet basis would take transmit priority over a low QOS rating. Network administrators have learned to prioritize voice traffic on a higher basis than data traffic, thus ensuring that network latency and high data throughput demands do not cause voice quality issues. Latency is a measure of how long it takes to send a packet from one location to another, and return a response. Also known as round-trip delay, data applications will typically accommodate a much higher degree of latency than a voice conversation. Because of QOS concerns, and a need to add a "traffic management" function, vendors have developed applications that mark traffic packets with QOS indicators that prioritize their delivery from one location to another. For more information, Avaya's website is Avaya.com. |
Avaya Equipment
