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Managing Pool Settings for Enterprise Voice

Topic Last Modified: 2009-05-22

The Communications Server 2007 R2 Enterprise pool, or a Standard Edition server functioning as a pool, must be configured with a location profile. The location profile translates dialed numbers into E.164 format for reverse number lookup and call routing. The location profile defines the default set of normalization rules that are applied to phone numbers dialed by users in the pool. The normalized phone numbers are used to perform reverse number lookup, which is the process of finding a recipient's SIP URI from his or her phone number. If this lookup fails, the call is routed according to the global routing rules.

In Office Communications Server 2007 R2, location profiles can also be assigned to individual users. If a location profile is assigned at both the user level and for the user’s homed server/pool, the per-user location profile takes precedence. For details about per-user location profiles, see Step 10. Configure Per-User Location Profiles in the Deploying Enterprise Voice documentation.

When you deploy Enterprise Voice, you specify one or more initial olocation profiles. You can change the default location profile for the pool. The location profile you select as the default should include all phone numbers to which calls can be routed for the pool. It can be any location profile that has been previously created at the global level for the forest. For details about creating a location profile, see Creating and Configuring Location Profiles.

In addition to specifying a default location profile for the pool, you can also change settings for Microsoft Office Communicator Phone Edition. The procedures in this section discuss these settings:

  • Enforce phone lock. Selecting this option locks the Office Communicator Phone Edition desktop device. The Office Communicator Phone Edition desktop device phone can be locked for purposes of security. If you choose to enforce the phone lock, it is enforced only in the pool for which it is configured. If you select this option, also specify the following:
    • Minimum PIN length. This is the minimum number of characters for a valid personal identification number (PIN) for a valid PIN. Users create PINS to lock and unlock their Office Communicator Phone Edition desktop devices.
    • Minimum time-out. This is the minimum length of time in minutes that the phone is idle before the it locks itself.
  • Quality of Service (QoS). For an acceptable quality of service for Enterprise Voice, the IP network must assure that packet loss, delay, jitter, and bandwidth fall within acceptable ranges. Voice communication in particular is intolerant of packet loss and delay and requires greater bandwidth than data transmissions. The Voice QoS value and 802.1p Voice settings work together to enable your IP network to assign priority to audio packets, based on the settings you specify:
    • The Voice QoS value allows you to assign higher priority to audio packets at routers performing Network Layer IP-based packet routing. The default value of 40 represents an IETF Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP), which is used to mark packets so that routers can provide appropriate per-hop behavior based on the class of traffic. For optimum quality of service, it is recommended that you do not change the default value.
    • The 802.1p Voice setting allows you to assign higher priority to audio packets at the nodes performing Data Link Layer switching within a LAN segment. The default value is 0. Assigning a higher value assigns higher priority to audio packets. For optimum quality of service, it is recommended that you do not change the default value.
  • SIP security. The SIP security settings are used to specify transport and authentication requirements for IP phones connecting to Communications Server 2007 R2. If you do not configure a policy setting, an IP phone can use any transport, but if it does not use TLS and the server authenticates users, the phone must use either NTLM or Kerberos authentication.

Use the following procedures to manage pool-level settings for Enterprise Voice:

For details about deploying Enterprise Voice, see Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Enterprise Voice Deployment Guide.