One of the many interesting things we’ve added to OCS R2 is the idea of resiliency. In OCS RTM version when you were in an active call if your client lost connectivity to the Front-end server your call was terminated. In OCS R2 we don’t tear down the call if active. Some call-control is obviously not available until connectivity re-established but the call goes on.
Some other great aspects were adding typing suppression so that typing during a call would not sound loud and improvement of “comfort noise”which reduces hisses and smoothes over discontinuous flow of packets in the call, as well as echo suppression to reduce echoes on call setup.
Here are some questions I received from a school district in Hawaii. Aloha! and a university in Ft. Collins, Colorado:
Is a Director server required for R2?
A Director is not required but recommended – for most school sizes I have seen they typically don’t deploy a Director.
What does ISA 2006 reverse proxy publish with R2?:
What Communicator clients can coexist with R2?
LCS 2005 SP1 client – can connect if the users is in an R2 pool
R1 (RTM) Communicator client can connect if the users is an R2 pool.
Communicator R2 client can connect to an R1 pool.
With a consolidated Edge in R2 do I need multiple NICs?
You don’t need multiple nics for each Edge role in a consolidated scenario but it is recommended to have a NIC for external traffic and one NIC for internal traffic. The only requirement is a unique IP and unique A record for each role. The public facing IP requirement for A/V Edge has been removed as well when using consolidated Edge.
What is the largest size an R2 response group can be?
A response group is targeted at small departmental ACDs around the size of 20 to 25 users. Most schools I talk to this is their average size.
For larger needs, you may look at a partner like Aspect which provides Contact Center like functionality with OCS.
Can Communicator Mobile use Wifi or data only similar to SkyPe, etc?
I know CoMo 3.0 combines data and voice minutes typically when using Single Number Reach. In Europe, the OCS call back feature should not use any voice minutes after OCS calls you back. As far as Wifi or Data only, this will work for IM only conversations but not for the Single Number Reach as OCS dials you back based on your cell number.
Does Group Chat console work on a Mac?
At this time it only works on a PC.
How large can I scale my conferences in R2?
I haven’t seen new performance data on this but I would imagine, since it is 64-bit now, it would be more than the 250 user soft cap in RTM. We will post once more R2 performance data becomes available.
What new R2 UC devices are there?
There are many new UC devices coming along with the R2 launch. There is a new Tanjay device, a new Catalina device, new headsets (some starting at $44), a new candybar USB phone, a new IP conference phone and a new conference usb speakerphone. Additionally, there are new HD cameras (720p @ 30 frames a sec). I have also heard rumors there will be a VGA Roundtable.
If you missed the R2 launch event you can still watch it here.
In my next blog post, I will talk about migration strategies to R2.
A common request for RFP is support for TTY. What is it? A TTY is a device that enables people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech-disabled to use the telephone by typing messages back and forth to one another instead of talking back and forth. In order to communicate, a TTY is required at both ends of the conversation, unless the call is placed through Relay. OCS now supports integration with TTY with OCS R2.
Under options you can turn on tty mode and connect a keyboard to a device such as the Catalina phones for OCS. I haven’t seen documentation on this yet but I’ll post when I know more.
OCS R2 does introduce new schema classes and attributes to accommodate for some of the new roles. So a schema update is required to deploy OCS R2 regardless if you have prepped for OCS RTM or not. Here are list of the Classes that are new (this is not a full list of classes):
msRTCSIP-ApplicationServer - holds entry for SCP for UC Application Server (UCAS) msRTCSIP-ApplicationServerService - class provides an association from a specific pool to its application server msRTCSIP-ApplicationServerSettings - aux class to msRTCSIP-Application Server holds attributes for application servers msRTCSIP-ConferenceDirectories - class is a container for multiple instances of conference directories and doesn't contain any attributes itself msRTCSIP-ConferenceDirectory - this class holds attributes representing settings for a specific conference directory msRTCSIP-DefaultCWABank - aux class holds settings for CWA bank. msRTCSIP-LocationContactMapping - class is created by conference auto attendant (CAA) and holds attributes used to categorize conference numbers by region msRTCSIP-LocationContactMappings - class is container for multiple contact mappings. Doesn't hold attributes itself. msRTCSIP-MonitoringServer - class hold attributes that represent settings for a single monitor server.
These are the ones that I've seen so far. I'll publish the link to the Active Directory OCS R2 Reference document when it's published.
Keep in mind that the schema prep is run once against the schema master for each AD Forest where you plan to deploy OCS Servers. In a resource forest then run in the resource forest not the user forest. In a central forest run only on central forest not in user forest.
So for the installation it's similar to past installs with schema prep, forest prep, and domain prep. The forest prep creates global settings and universal groups that are used by OCS, and domain prep adds permissions on objects to be used by members of universal groups.