TMCnet News
Mitel Extends IP Interoperability with SIP SupportTMCnet Contributing Editor IP communications provider Mitel announced on Tuesday that it extended its IP interoperability with Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) support in the latest release of the company's 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP).
"Complementing our broad suite of IP communications solutions, the addition of native SIP support on the 3300 ICP enables customers to take full advantage of their investment in a multi-vendor environment," explained Ron Wellard, Mitel's vice president, product development. "We view SIP as the enabler of interoperability and this release allows the 3300 ICP to interconnect with soft-switch vendors that represent more than 90 percent of the soft-switch market as well as offering support for SIP endpoints and applications." Mitel enables users to integrate the features of the 3300 ICP through generic SIP endpoints and use of existing hunt groups and HotDesking functionalities. The SIP connectivity to Microsoft Office Communicator for softphone, presence, collaboration functionality and third-party call control inter-working with Microsoft Live Communications Server is enabled using SIP, CSTA and XML.
Microsoft adopted SIP for its Live Communications Server product and Windows Messenger, as well as AOL and others for instant messaging (IM). Mitel's newly introduced Live Business Gateway enables businesses to implement IP-based systems through a smooth, intelligent evolution.
Mitel made news back in December when it announced its release of a standards-ready implementation of the Telecommunications Industry Association's Link Layer Discovery Protocol for Media Endpoint Discovery (LLDP-MED). The protocol would simplify the deployment and ongoing management of VoIP endpoints, as well as providing a more standardized way to locate such endpoints as part of enhancing Emergency Call Service capabilities in enterprise VoIP networks.
"Based on IEEE 802.1AB 'Link Layer Discovery Protocol,' LLDP-MED extends the standard to specifically focus on the needs of VoIP to allow simplified provisioning, ease of administration and several valuable new discovery capabilities," noted the company's news release.
The LLDP-MED standard features Quality of Service LAN policies (such as VLAN, Layer 2 Priority and Diffserv settings); "plug and play" VoIP networking; device location discovery for reporting location of the end-user in emergency calling and other location dependant applications, as well as maintaining integrity of the location database; extended and automated power management of Power over Ethernet endpoints, including fine-grained power budgeting and priority settings; inventory management, allowing network administrators to track their VoIP-based devices, and determine their characteristics manufacturer, software and hardware versions, serial /asset number); and "fast start" mechanisms so VoIP devices could come fully into service in a timely fashion.
Mitel
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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit Johanne Torres' columnist page.
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