Avaya has been in existence as a stand-alone company since 2000, when they spun off from lucent technologies. Avaya has a history dating back over 100 years as part of Western Electric, AT&T, or Lucent. Avaya started early making “high-performing, solidly reliable, and ‘bullet-proof’ enterprise communications technologies” earning many patents along the way. They have taken that same product quality and innovative spirit toward there latest endeavors such as wireless data communications, customer-relationship-management software, speech recognition, and most importantly Internet Protocol telephony.
Service area:
Avaya has service facilities in
This migration path to complete IP Telephony will consist of four phases.
Phase one will be replacing the current Definity G3ISISI’s with Avaya’s new ECLIPS S8700 and installing the recommended G700 gateways with P330 stackable switches.
The Avaya S8700 media server is an IP telephony server solution that routes voice, data, and video traffic using a combination of IP and traditional endpoints such as digital, analog, and ISDN. The S8700 Media Server has an Intel-based server, modular media gateways, and IP-based connectivity that meets a variety of customer telephony needs.
The Avaya G700 Media Gateway solution will seamlessly deliver Hays Medical Center's voice, fax, and messaging capabilities over an IP network. This solution converges the power of the S8700 media server with the Avaya P330 Stackable Switching System.
An upgrade to Communication Manager 2.0 will be required.
Communication Manager 2.0 is the very latest release of Avaya’s Communication Manager software suite. It will be released in November of this year and will take advantage of a web-based interface for configurations.
One ECLIPS S8700 will be located on both of the main campuses. This will provide complete survivability.
Phase II
The next required phase is setting up remote sites with required G700 Media Gateways.
With the new release of this product, up to thirty G700 Media Gateways can be controlled by a single S8700 media server.
By doing this, both HMC campuses and all remote sites can share a single voice mail system and take advantage of 4 digit dialing. Six and seven digit dialing is also supported as growth demands it. Long distance phone charges will also be eliminated, and remote locations will be directly linked to HMC’s main campus as far as voice, data, and video traffic are concerned.
Phase III
Third would come any opportunistic upgrades that present themselves.
These are upgrades such as if a new wing is added. It would be advantageous to install IP telephony equipment at that point. Endpoints could be added in such a situation even though the installation of endpoints is set for phase IV.
The Avaya solution can be implemented in such a way that the current system and the new IP system can be supported simultaneously. This is a key feature because it allows the upgrade to the full IP system to take place over any amount of time, rather than an all-at-once overnight operation.
Avaya provides various software applications for their touch-screen IP phones. These software applications can also be customized in-house or by Avaya to provide applications that are specific to
Phase IV
The final phase would be completing the migration with such things as endpoints for all the places that were not upgraded in phase three.
Avaya has several available options for endpoints. The choice that aligns best with
As stated on the previous page, vaya provides various software applications for their touch-screen IP phones. These software applications can be customized by anyone with HTML knowledge or by Avaya to provide applications that are specific to
Communication Manager 2.0 will not be released until November of 2003 so until that time is upon us the POTS system will have to remain in place.
The servicing factors remain similar to the current system.
None
Licensing rolls forward from the current system to cover the upgrades IP telephony system.
Avaya periodically comes out with new releases of its product. The software required to upgrade to these releases can be obtained via the internet or received on CD.
One disadvantage of the Avaya solution is the lack of inline power. Inline power allows the endpoints to be powered by electricity received through the data lines. Avaya phones require 110 volt AC outlets for operation.
The Avaya 4630 IP phone features a touch screen color display, graphical menus and call controls, custom applications, and browser capabilities (HTML and XML).
Avaya supports 3606 Wireless IP sets (802.11b and coming 802.11g)
This new IP telephony system administrates the same as the Definity system but Avaya’s updated Site Administration has a graphical interface with several GUI-based shortcuts and tasks. Server Administration is browser-based.
Avaya supports G.723, a codec in which small data rates of 5.3 and 6.3 kbps can be used.
Avaya provides security. Digital sets have security as would be expected and are administrable by pass code. Avaya’s IP gear has encrypted authentication of IP endpoints (prevents unauthorized stations being authenticated and making calls), and encrypted signaling and conversation) information so even if the stream is captured by a Sniffer, playback is only white noise.
Avaya’s licensing and service factors all remain the same and simply roll forward to cover the new IP telephony system.
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