AireSpring User Guide: MaX UC and VOP Customer Network Configuration Guide

Configure Your Network to Support MaX UC Communicator for Desktop and VoIP

You must ensure that your network is configured correctly to support MaX UC Communicator for Desktop and the Voice Operator Panel. The following instructions are necessarily at a high level, because the network configuration may be very different at each enterprise customer. Therefore, the customer needs to adapt the information in this section to make it suitable for your particular enterprise's network.

For example: in the section on Firewall Configuration, you should specify the address and port ranges on your Session Border Controller that MaX UC Communicator Desktop must be able to reach. If the enterprise is only deploying MaX UC Communicator for Desktop without softphone function, most of the network configuration is not required and can be removed. The enterprise will only need to configure their firewall to ensure that MaX UC Communicator for Desktop can communicate to AireSpring's servers.

We assume that DSCP markings on media will be preserved between your core network and the Enterprise's network. If this is not the case, for example, because you do not own the network between the two, you may want to advise your enterprise customers to identify VoIP packets from your SBC and reinstate the appropriate DSCP markings (where they have a border router that supports it). This will typically be DSCP 46 if they are from ports 5060-5070 (signaling) or 46 if they are UDP from any port above 8000 (media).

About this Task

In this task you will:

• Ensure you have adequate bandwidth from your users' computers to the network device (LAN or WAN) and then adequate bandwidth on the WAN side.
• Check that your firewalls or Session Border Controllers permit the codecs used by MaX UC Communicator for Desktop.
• Configure your firewall(s) to ensure that MaX UC Communicator for Desktop can communicate with your Service Provider's servers.
• Configure your network to correctly prioritize VoIP signaling, voice and video traffic.

Configure your Bandwidth Requirements

You must ensure that you have adequate bandwidth for the number and types of calls that you are expecting.

Detailed Procedure

Audio Calls:

For audio calls, the amount of bandwidth you need depends on the codec you are using. You should allow 100Kbps (in each direction) for every call.

Therefore, if you expect a maximum of 10 concurrent calls, you should assign 1Mbps of bandwidth for voice calls alone, and then ensure you have adequate bandwidth on top of that for other traffic (VPN, web, file transfer) which shares the same connection.

Video Calls:

For video calls, the bandwidth requirement varies hugely depending on resolution, ranging from 500Kbps (low definition) up to 8000Kbps (HD), again in each direction per concurrent video call. MaX UC Mobile and Desktop have video enabled in the product by default.

Check you have support for MaX UC Communicator codecs

• MaX UC Communicator uses the SILK codec for all calls, including video calls and those to the PSTN - 16kHz for direct media calls to clients that support it or 8kHz for all other calls. Perimeta, the Session Border Controller, transcodes from SILK to G.711 as required when MaX UC Communicator is talking to other.
• Voice Operator Panel uses G.711 and G.722.
• MaX UC Communicator also uses G.722 to communicate with compatible remote devices (for example, many SIP desk phones).
• H.264 is used for video on MaX UC Desktop and MaX UC Mobile.

Configure your firewalls

You must ensure that you have the correct ports open on your firewall to ensure that MaX UC Communicator for Desktop can communicate with your Service Provider's servers. By default many firewalls will allow communication from the internal LAN side meaning that no configuration is required here. However, if your firewall requires specific configuration, you must ensure that it is not blocking traffic.

The following table lists all the ports that must be open on your firewall. This table defines the external IP addresses and ports that the MaX UC Communicator Desktop client needs to be able to reach through your firewall. It is assumed that other standard ports, notably 443 for HTTPS are also open.

Figure 1. All the ports that must be open on your firewall.

Configure your Quality of Service (QoS) settings (simple network)

For optimal audio quality, you must ensure that your network is set up to correctly prioritize VoIP signaling, voice and video traffic.

The steps you need to take depend on the configuration of your network. If you have a very complex set-up, then you may need to contact your equipment vendor for advice.

If you have a simple network, you will typically only need to do the following:

• If any MaX UC Communicator for Desktop user will access your network via a wireless Access Point (AP), ensure that WMM (Wireless Multimedia extensions) support is available and enabled on any such access points.
• Use Quality of Service (QoS) on the WAN/Internet router to prioritize all traffic to and from the SBC IP addresses.

Configure your Quality of Service (QoS) settings (complex network)

If you have a more complex network then you may need to carry out further configuration to ensure optimal audio quality. You should consult your IT Provider if you need any additional information.

Detailed Procedure

1. Signal QoS Information:

Configure the QoS values that MaX UC Communicator for Desktop will signal in the MaX UC Communicator for Windows Phone Profile.

However, if you are in an Active Directory domain, Windows will override these values. Instead you will need to configure a QoS group policy that looks for any packets coming out of communicator.exe and marks them appropriately (typically with DSCP 46 if they are going to ports 5060-5070 (signaling) or 46 if they are UDP on any port above 8000 (media)). Reference Microsoft QoS Policy documentation for more details.

2. Prioritize Traffic:

Configure all your network equipment to correctly prioritize traffic based on the IP header DSCP markings. Signaling and Media traffic should be expedited delivery at the highest priority.

3. Rewrite Ethernet Header COS:

You may also need to configure your equipment to rewrite the Ethernet header COS values based on the IP header DSCP values. If you don't take this step, then most managed switches will rewrite DSCP marking based on COS (and COS will typically be zero or incorrect on packets originated from a computer).

Set DSCP marking for domain-joined Windows computers

You must set group policies if you want to do DSCP marking on domain-joined Windows machines. You can either allow all apps to mark traffic as they wish, or you can create policy conditions. You can set policy conditions to match your individual network set up for MaX UC Communicator and VoiceOperatorPanel. The simplest way to do this is to match on the application MaX UCCommunicator.exe and VOP.exe.

Results

You have now taken the necessary steps to configure your network to support MaX UC Communicator for Desktop.