technology, networking and IP telephony
Posts tagged VOWLAN
Nortel 6100 Series WLAN Handset I2C Battery Issue
0September 3, 2009
Nortel has released a technical bulletin notifying customers of an issue with the Nortel 6100 Series Wireless LAN handsets running software release 2.x (build 115.019 or earlier) when the phones are paired with battery packs that are manufactured around or after January 2009.
The phone will hang up displaying an I2C error when it first boots up. You can read all the details in the Nortel technical bulletin;
Nortel WLAN Handset 6100 Series Battery Error: “I2C” Battery Issue (Software Rls 2.x Fix – Build 115.021)
While I’m at it I should probably mention that Nortel has released software 115_021 and 115_022 for the Nortel 6100 series WLAN handsets. I personally had an issue with 115_021 after I upgraded a 6140 handset. The ear speaker wouldn’t work at all, not after resetting it, not after switching batteries, not after praying over it. I could place and receive calls and the speaker phone worked fine but I couldn’t even get dial tone out of the ear speaker in the handset. After upgrading to software release 115_022 the problem has not re-occurred.
In addition Nortel has also released v2.4 of the Handset Administration Tool (HAT). This tool allows you to configure the 6100 series phones through the cradle from a USB port. This tool is a godsend for those of us that remember configuring every phone by hand through the dial pad (you trying entering a 128bit WEP/WPA key through a dial pad and not get it wrong).
You can download the new software and the new version of HAT from Nortel;
http://support.nortel.com/go/main.jsp?cscat=SOFTWARE&poid=18281
Cheers!
Update: September 4, 2009
I went back and tested 115_021 software with another 6140 handset and had no problems. I also went back and downgraded the original 6140 handset I tested with from 115_022 to 115_021 and had no problems. I’m guessing it was a fluke of some kind.
Nortel Wireless Phones (VoWLAN)
4January 26, 2008
by Michael McNamara in VoiceOverIP
A few folks have asked me to comment on the Nortel Wireless Phones (VoWLAN). I currently have ~ 100 Nortel Wireless 2211 Phones deployed across six locations. One site has ~ 60 phones deployed across a very large hospital campus. You should know that the Nortel Wireless 2200 Series phones are OEM’d from Spectralink. Spectralink makes some really great wireless products and Nortel has chosen a good partner in their endeavor. I would honestly have to say that the product works well and I’m generally impressed by it. I also have ~ 10 Nortel Wireless 2210 Phones but we found these phones did not have as good a signal reception/strength as the 2211s nor did they hold up to the abuse of a health care environment well.
You’ll need a Nortel Succession Call Server (along with a Succession Signaling Server and Voice Gateway Media Card) configured for “IP Line” before you’ll be able to deploy any wireless phones. If you already have any of the Internet Telephones deployed then you have already have “IP Line”. Once you have your Call Server connected to the network you just need to deploy the Nortel WLAN IP Telephony Manager 2245 (Wireless Gateway). The 2245 wireless gateway converts the Spectralink Voice Priority (SVP) used by the phones to UNIStim/H.323 used by the backend Succession equipment. Of course you’ll need a wireless network(802.11b) in place to carry the traffic. We use Motorola’s WS5000 and WS5100 Wireless LAN Switches. We’re also in the process of evaluating the RFS7000 from Motorola.
Note: we’ve currently identified an issue with the WS5100 v3.x that causes the Nortel Wireless phones to randomly watchdog and reboot themselves. We’ve also identified this same problem on the RFS7000 v1.x. We are currently only providing VoWLAN services on Motorola Wireless LAN switches running v2.1.3 software. Motorola and Nortel are aware of the issue and are working towards a solution.
The Nortel 2245 wireless gateway will literally proxy all communications between the phones at the Succession backend equipment. This requires that the 2245 assign a proxy/secondary IP address for every wireless phone (this is done in the configuration of the 2245). From the wireless network standpoint the wireless phones will have an IP address issued by the DHCP server, but the 2245 will replace that IP address with a second IP address it will use to communicate with the backend Succession environment. This is so when the Succession backend tries to signal the phone it will send the traffic back to the 2245 wireless gateway which will then transcode the signal/data and send it the actual IP address of the wireless phone. The Nortel 2245 wireless gateway also works to provide QoS for the wireless voice traffic.
Nortel has just recently release the 6120 and 6140 Wireless Phones which support 802.11a/b/g wireless networks. I’ll be evaluating those in the coming months to see how they fair against the current products.
Technical Stuff
The Nortel 2210/2211 Wireless Phones can be configured in DHCP with the vendor class of “Nortel-221x-A”. They will accept the same DHCP option code of “128″ with the same format as the i2002/i2004/1120e/1140e/1150e Internet Telephone. You’ll also need to pass DHCP option 151 (IP address of the 2245 server). Software upgrades are performed over TFTP using DHCP option 66 (IP address of TFTP server).
Hopefully that’s enough to give you the basics.
Cheers!
