technology, networking, virtualization and IP telephony
Avaya has released UNIStim firmware 5.2 for their IP deskphones;
As always I recommend you review the release notes for all the details.
Cheers!
Avaya has released SIP software release 4.1 Service Pack (4.01.15) for their 1100 and 1200 series IP deskphones. I’ll refer you to the release notes for the 4.1 Service Pack software release for the all the details. Let me also reference the 4.1 (4.01.13) software release notes since I never announced it here.
This release adds support for the following two new features;
SIP Software Release 4.1 for 11xx/12xx IP Deskphones introduced a mechanism for IP Office to configure extra features using the soft keys on the deskphone. Soft keys are the 4 buttons located below the display screen on the phone. Soft key button labels are displayed on the phone display right above the physical buttons, with each label corresponds to the physical button. SIP Software Release 4.1 Service Pack for 11xx/12xx IP Deskphones extends this feature by the addition of a ‘More’ key as the right-most button, indicating more selections are available.
SIP Software Release 4.1 for 11xx/12xx IP Deskphones provides a mechanism to customize the time to wait for LLDP data from the network.
On reset/power-up, the Deskphone will try to obtain LLDP data (i.e. the VLAN ID) only once at startup. If no response is received from the network switch the deskphone will continue to boot. After that the phone will not retry to get LLDP data until the next reboot. In some cases, the network switch may take too much time to start up. In this case, if the switch applies power to its ports (POE) before the switch is ready to accept network packets from devices (the deskphone) connected to the switch, the LLDP negotiation may timeout before the switch is ready to respond.
Prior to SIP Software Release 4.1 Service Pack, following a reboot (and the ENABLE_LLDP flag is set), the deskphone would wait for LLDP data from switch for up to 30 seconds. If no data was received, the deskphone starts up using the previous data stored in EEPROM.
With SIP Software Release 4.1 Service Pack, a new provisioning parameter has been added to the device configuration file to specify the time to wait for LLDP data from the network switch:
Minimum value is 30 seconds
Maximum value is 300 seconds (5 minutes).
I haven’t personally seen the issue that Avaya is attempting to resolve regarding the LLDP timer when connecting the 1100 or 1200 series IP phones to the Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 5520. I have observed that the switch appears to delay enabling PoE on the ports until it’s far enough along through the boot-up process.
Cheers!
Avaya has released UNIStim firmware 5.1 for their IP deskphones;
This release of firmware adds support for the following features;
UNIStim software release 5.1 delivers quality improvements for all IP Deskphones including software fixes for over one hundred work items, and resolution of seven customer reported cases. A previously reported Product Advisement related to the 1165E IP Deskphone locking up if invalid UserID and password for WML authentication are provided has been addressed in this UNIStim 5.1 software release.
UNIStim Software Release 5.1 is supported on the Avaya 2007, 1110, 1120E, 1140E, 1150E, 1165E, 1210, 1220, and 1230 IP Deskphones only. For details on specific hardware vintages which are supported, please refer to the ReadMe file.
UNIStim Software Release 5.1 is compatible with the following Call Servers:
Product Advisement for customers who previously upgraded to UNIStim 5.0 using the workaround related to Zero Touch Provisioning:
For customers who previously upgraded to UNIStim 5.0 and used the recommended workaround detailed in the UNIStim 5.0 Readme Product Bulletin, related to pre-configured REG entries, this workaround needs to be removed to successfully upgrade to UNIStim 5.1. That is, customers who have pre-configured REG entries, (which includes the MAC address, the TN, and Node) within the provisioning file to enable Zero Touch for the IP Deskphones, were previously advised of a problem that could occur related to parsing of the REG entry which prevented the IP Deskphones from coming up as expected. The recommended workaround for customers upgrading to UNIStim 5.0 was to add a comma before the semi-colon of the REG entry within the provisioning file. As noted in the UNIStim 5.0 Readme Product Bulletin, this issue is now fully addressed in this UNIStim 5.1 software maintenance release, and customers who applied the workaround will need to remove the comma to successfully upgrade to this UNIStim 5.1 software release.
You should refer to the release notes for all the details.
Cheers!
Avaya has released the IP Softphone 2050 Release 4.2 (Build 4.02.62) for the Microsoft Windows PC. This is primarily a maintenance release that includes multiple fix but no new additional features.
The release notes can be found here. You can also find additional information in the IP Phone Fundamentals manual which is here.
Cheers!
Avaya has released UNIStim firmware 5.0 for their IP deskphones;
This release of firmware adds support for the following features;
For customers who have pre-configured the REG entries (which includes the MAC address, the TN, and Node) within the provisioning file to enable Zero Touch for the IP Deskphones, be advised that a problem can occur related to parsing of the REG entry that may result in the IP Deskphones not coming up as expected, and instead continuing to reboot when UNIStim 5.0 is loaded onto the units. The issue will impact IP Deskphones that have been pre-configured for Zero Touch and where the REG lines still exist in the REG entry. This is a known issue that will impact IP Deskphones that have a matching MAC address already pre-configured in the REG entry. This issue will be fully addressed in the upcoming UNIStim 5.1 maintenance release expected in March 2011, and customers may want to delay updating IP Deskphones and Call Servers until that time due to this issue.
In the interim, to avoid this issue the following workaround is recommended: Before loading UNIStim 5.0 onto the IP Deskphones, customers are advised to add a comma before the semi-colon of the REG entry. If UNIStim 5.0 is already loaded, and the issue exists (where the phones continue to reboot instead of coming up), the customer can then add a comma as specified above and the IP Deskphones will come up.
Example: reg= 0021e1ff59cb cs1k s1 3380 096 00 00 18,;I also recently had a discussion with another telephony expert around the issues of running a PC at 100Mbps (connected to the IP phone) when the 1100 series IP phone is connected to the network via 1Gbps or vice-versa. Here’s the relevant blurb from the release notes that details the problem.
In networks in which a PC is connected to the IP Deskphone’s PC port and the PC’s NIC speed is 100Mbit but the network speed is at GigE, large file transfers to the PC can take quite a long time. This is an issue with large file transfers only. Due to the speed mismatch between the phone’s two ports the buffers in the phone can overflow resulting in retransmissions. Although the IP Deskphones support Ethernet flow control (802.3x), the support is only implemented on the phone’s PC port, not on the phone’s network port. Ethernet flow control is a mechanism were the IP Deskphone can request a brief “pause” from the transmitting Ethernet device if the IP Deskphone buffers are about to overflow.
Ethernet flow control cannot be implemented on the phone’s network port, since it impacts the phone’s voice quality. As a result, in environments were the network is GigE but the PC NIC is only 100Mbit, large file transfers from the network to the PC can take quite a long time. On the other hand, since Ethernet flow control is implemented on the phone’s PC port, in environments were the PC NIC is GigE but the network is only 100Mbits, large file transfers should be well managed by the phone’s Ethernet flow control mechanism.
You can find the release notes on Avaya’s website along with the actual firmware/software for the IP phones.
Cheers!