new system ideas/comments

[tweege]

have a location with a magix connected back to a g3r via pri. it has around 40 digital stations, 12 analog stations, and also utilizes approx 8 co lines. looking to replace it with a bigger, more robust system. we will be going to the s8700 media servers at our main site sometime in the next few months. have been looking at both the ip office and media server/gateway combination for this remote location. anyone have any input as to either way being more advantageous that the other? also any drawbacks to either one?

thanks, tim

 

[Dunstan]

IP Office


Advantages
IP Office will likely be cheaper

IPO will integrate efficiently with other Avaya platforms such as the S87xx this is also usefull.

IPO offers a wide range of robust telecom applications not commonly found in cheaper devices. Not the least of which is a powerful conferencing application (40+ parties) when coupled with VM pro.

Disadvantages

IPO does not require a network asessment because it is a stand alone box not requiring any call control from a master.

Completely different programming and administration skills required. IPO uses ASCII and a GUI to Administer the system while it is not that difficult to use it is vastly different then ACM and will require you to learn a second set of admin commands etc


Gateways (250,350,650,700, MCC et al)

Disadvantages
A gateway either survivable or not will likely cost more
so I guess that is a disadvantage.

A gateway will likely require a network assessment and changes to your network to allow for QOS, VLANS etc.

Advantages

Gateway will integrate cleanly with full feature sets (FACs will be uniform etc).

Gateway can take advantage of your existing license pool at the main location (i.e. depending on your config you may not need to purchase more licensing).

Gateway will also provide you with the same programming platform you are used to whereas the IPO uses an Ascii type administration with some GUI elements.

Gateways of some types can use existing circuit packs so if you have spare DS1 or line cards you might be able to use them instead of buying new.

Gateways can offer multiple points of failure. It is quite possible to have a gateway re-register with another Master server in the event of an outage to that main cluster. So in a multi-site configuration it is common to have many tiers of redundancy.



That is some of the more obvious items...I hope it helps.