A few years ago we deployed about 25 Voice Gateway Media Cards (VGMC) across five different Nortel Call Server 1000Ms. We almost immediately started to notice a problem between the VGMCs and the ERS 8600 switches. The VGMCs would link up and link down multiple times as they booted up. While there is technically no real problem with the VGMC you can run straight into a road block if you reboot the card multiple times in a short period of time. Without getting to crazy on the explanation the ERS 8600 switch would potentially disable the switch port(s) that connected to the VGMCs if they were rebooted to often during a 60 minute period. The problem was only observed while the VGMCs were booting up, once the VGMC was up and running the problem never occurred. I believe the link flap detect feature is enabled by default unless specifically disabled.

This may be an old problem that might have already been corrected by Nortel but I still have the link flap detect feature disabled on the Ethernet Routing Switch 8600s that connect to our Nortel Voice Gateway Media Cards.

ERS8600:5# config sys link-flap-detect interval 60
ERS8600:5# config sys link-flap-detect frequency 10
ERS8600:5# config sys link-flap-detect auto-port-down disable
ERS8600:5# config sys link-flap-detect send-trap enable

The configuration can be confirmed using the following command;

ERS8600:5# show sys link-flap-detect general-info

Auto Port Down: enable
Send Trap : enable
Interval : 60
Frequency : 10

The frequency defines how often a port can go down, where the default is 10 (times). The default interval is 60 minutes; therefore the port will be disabled if the port goes down 10 times within 60 minutes.

Cheers!

It was a challenge to understand all the different heartbeats, timeouts and protocols that were in play between the handset and the Nortel 2245 wireless gateway and ultimately the Nortel Succession Signaling Server. With any Nortel IP phone running a UNIStim protocol there is a watchdog timer on the phone that counts down from 200 seconds. The watchdog timer must be reset by a watchdog reset (heartbeat) message that gets sent out from the Nortel Succession Signaling Server. This watchdog reset gets sent every 30 seconds. If a handset, remember now any Nortel IP handset that is running a UNIStim protocol such as the i2002, i2004, 1120e, 1140e, 1150e, 2210, 2211, 6120 and 6140 misses too many of these heartbeats the phone will reset itself usually displaying the message “watchdog timeout” indicating that the watchdog timer has reached zero and the phone is attempting to recover from the problem by resetting itself. With the Nortel 2210, 2211, 6120 and 6140 you also have the SVP heartbeats and timeouts to worry about.

If you have some IP phones that are generating “watchdog timeout” message your probably loosing packets somewhere in your network. With that said I would advise anyone with such a problem to immediately contact their voice reseller and make sure their Succession Call Server and Signaling Server have the latest and greatest DEP (patches) list. Once that’s complete you’ll need to go about the task of isolating the possible locations where you could be dropping packets. If it’s a wired IP phone then the problem is much easier to troubleshoot and isolate. If it’s a wireless phone then you’ll have a few extra steps. You’ll obviously need to make sure that you have QoS (DiffServ) up and working within your environment and you’ll need to make sure that you have SVP support enabled on your wireless infrastructure. SpectraLink (recently acquired by Polycom) actually has a library of documents to help customers configure their wireless infrastructure properly to support the SpectraLink handsets.

Cheers!

Correction: August 19, 2008
The watch dog interval is actually 200 seconds long and not 120 seconds as originally posted.

Update: August 24, 2008
It would seem that this article has generated a lot of interest including several inquiries by Nortel. So I thought I would try to add some additional explanation to help more clearly describe the problems and experiences I’ve had the Nortel 2211 and 2210 wireless handsets. I won’t rewrite the original because I don’t think there is anything wrong with it, other than perhaps missing some attention to the specific details.

The Motorola WS5100 v3.x and RFS7000 v1.1 was technically broken for anyone using the Nortel 2211/2210/6120/6140 wireless handsets. The phones would often reset while idle, because of a buffering issue on the Motorola AP300 access port. These problems have been resolved (as far as my testing indicates) in the Motorola WS5100 v3.2 and RFS7000 v1.2 software release. Through our troubleshooting of this problem we learned a great deal about the Spectralink Voice Priority protocol and the UNIStim protocol. In short the Nortel wireless handsets will go into PSP (Power Save Polling) for approximately 1.5 seconds, during that time the wireless handset turns off it’s radio to help save power and preserve the battery life. The problem occurs while the phone is idle because of the PSP mode, this is why no problems are ever reported while the phone is off-hook and actively being used. While the wireless handset is in PSP mode the wireless network is responsible for buffering any packets that are sent to the handset. The SVP protocol and UNIStim protocol can generate a lot of packets causing the wireless network to discard some packets while the phone is in PSP mode. These discarded packets can, depending entirely on the timing, cause the phone to either reset or the phone to be unregistered from the Succession Signaling server.

I’ve been asked by quite a few people what can be done to help alleviate any potential issues?

• The wireless infrastructure should be configured to support the SVP protocol
• QoS (DiffServ) should be set to “Trusted” on every Ethernet switch port that will be used to connect the different equipment (Succession Signaling Server, Succession Voice Gateway Media Card, 2245, wireless infrastructure)
• Design the wireless infrastructure so there is at least -60 dB of signal available and no more than 7 wireless handsets connected to a single access point/access port.

With all that said Nortel has literally just released v97.072 software for the Nortel 2211/2210 wireless handsets. While the release notes don’t seem to indicate any changes that are specific to “watchdog” issues it might be worth giving it a shot.

Cheers!

Update: Friday September 12, 2008
I’ve placed a copy of the Nortel document WLAN IP Telephony Installation and Commissioning (v3.3) on my website. This document should be a great help to many folks that are having issues with Nortel 22×0 and 61×0 wireless handsets.

For the purpose of this post we’ll assume that we’re using and i2004 (Phase 2) phone. These commands are available on i2002,i2004, and i2007 (Phase 2 phones only). And also available on the 1120e/1140e and 1150e (they might be available on the i2050 softphone).

With the phone online you can remotely command the phone to perform a number of basic network troubleshooting commands as well as retrieve detailed network statistics. From the CLI interface of the Succession Signaling Server you can issue the following commands;

rPing <TN | IP>, <dest>[,<count>]
This command will instruct the phone to ping an IP address.

oam> rPing 10.1.198.50, 10.1.240.40, 5
27/05/2008 18:16:34 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
64 bytes packets received from IP 10.1.240.40
27/05/2008 18:16:34 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
ICMP sequence is 0
27/05/2008 18:16:34 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
round trip time in ms: 20
27/05/2008 18:16:35 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
64 bytes packets received from IP 10.1.240.40
27/05/2008 18:16:35 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
ICMP sequence is 1
27/05/2008 18:16:35 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
round trip time in ms: 20
27/05/2008 18:16:36 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
64 bytes packets received from IP 10.1.240.40
27/05/2008 18:16:36 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
ICMP sequence is 2
27/05/2008 18:16:36 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
round trip time in ms: 20
27/05/2008 18:16:37 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
64 bytes packets received from IP 10.1.240.40
27/05/2008 18:16:37 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
ICMP sequence is 3
27/05/2008 18:16:37 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
round trip time in ms: 20
27/05/2008 18:16:38 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
64 bytes packets received from IP 10.1.240.40
27/05/2008 18:16:38 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
ICMP sequence is 4
27/05/2008 18:16:38 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
round trip time in ms: 20
27/05/2008 18:16:38 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
64 bytes packets received from IP 10.1.240.40
27/05/2008 18:16:38 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
5 packets transmitted 5 packets received, 0 packets lost
27/05/2008 18:16:38 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
minimum round trip time in ms: 20
27/05/2008 18:16:38 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
average round trip time in ms: 20
27/05/2008 18:16:38 LOG0006 VTM:rPing Report from set (10.1.198.50)
maximum round trip time in ms: 20
oam>

rPingStop <TN | IP>
This command will instruct the phone to stop pinging.

rTraceRoute <TN | IP>, <dest>, <count>
This command will instruct the phone to trace the route of the destination address.

oam> rTraceRoute 10.1.198.50, 10.1.240.40, 3
27/05/2008 18:22:56 LOG0006 VTM: rTraceRoute Report from set (10.1.198.50):
1 -- 10.1.198.1: 0ms  0ms  0ms
27/05/2008 18:22:56 LOG0006 VTM: rTraceRoute Report from set (10.1.198.50):
2 -- 10.1.144.40: 20ms  20ms  20ms
27/05/2008 18:22:56 LOG0006 VTM: rTraceRoute Report from set (10.1.198.50):
3 -- 10.1.144.8: 20ms  20ms  20ms
27/05/2008 18:22:56 LOG0006 VTM: rTraceRoute Report from set (10.1.198.50):
rTraceRoute completed !
oam>

rTraceRouteStop <TN | IP>
This command will instruct the phone to stop the trace route.

RUDPStatShow <TN |IP>[, <clear>]
This command will display the RUDP statistics from the phone.

oam> RUDPStatShow 10.1.198.50
27/05/2008 18:27:19 LOG0006 VTM:RUDPStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Number of Message Sent: 451
27/05/2008 18:27:19 LOG0006 VTM:RUDPStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Number of Message Received: 153149
27/05/2008 18:27:19 LOG0006 VTM:RUDPStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Number of Retries: 1
27/05/2008 18:27:19 LOG0006 VTM:RUDPStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Number of Resets: 0
27/05/2008 18:27:19 LOG0006 VTM:RUDPStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Uptime of Current TPS Registration: 0days 4hours 19minutes 8seconds

You can also append a value of 1 to the previous query to clear the statistics;

oam> RUDPStatShow 10.1.198.50, 1
RUDPStatShow: clear statistics after RUDPStatShow
27/05/2008 18:29:04 LOG0006 VTM:RUDPStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Number of Message Sent: 0
27/05/2008 18:29:04 LOG0006 VTM:RUDPStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Number of Message Received: 0
27/05/2008 18:29:04 LOG0006 VTM:RUDPStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Number of Retries: 0
27/05/2008 18:29:04 LOG0006 VTM:RUDPStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Number of Resets: 0
27/05/2008 18:29:04 LOG0006 VTM:RUDPStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Uptime of Current TPS Registration: 0days 4hours 20minutes 53seconds

eStatShow <TN | IP> [, <clear]
This command will display the Ethernet statistics from the phone.

oam> eStatShow 10.1.198.50
27/05/2008 18:30:55 LOG0006 VTM:eStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Duplex Mode: 1
27/05/2008 18:30:55 LOG0006 VTM:eStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Auto Negotiate Protocol Received: 0x3
27/05/2008 18:30:55 LOG0006 VTM:eStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Interface Speed: 1
27/05/2008 18:30:55 LOG0006 VTM:eStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
LAN Priority Bit: 0
27/05/2008 18:30:55 LOG0006 VTM:eStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
VLAN ID: 1
27/05/2008 18:30:55 LOG0006 VTM:eStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Packet Collision Peg Count: 0
27/05/2008 18:30:55 LOG0006 VTM:eStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
CRC Error Peg Count: 0
27/05/2008 18:30:55 LOG0006 VTM:eStatShow Report from set (10.1.198.50)
Frame Error Peg Count: 0

As with the RUDPStatShow command you append a value of 1 to the query to clear the Ethernet statistics. I’ll skip the example but the command would be “eStatShow 10.1.198.50, 1”.

isetInfoShow <TN | IP>
This command will display the phone configuration and server information.

oam> isetInfoShow 10.1.198.50
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report (DHCPConfig) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Terminal Type: i2002 Ph2
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report (DHCPConfig) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Firmware Version: 0604DBG
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report (DHCPConfig) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Hardware ID: 18-001765ffe0fc-6602
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report from Set (10.1.198.50)
Firmware ID: 0x02
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report from Set (10.1.198.50)
Manufacture Code: 0x001765
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report from Set (10.1.198.50)
Color Code: 0x66
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report from Set (10.1.198.50)
PEC Code: NTDU91AA
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report from Set (10.1.198.50)
DHCP Server IP: 10.1.198.10
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report from Set (10.1.198.50)
VLAN Priority: 6
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report from Set (10.1.198.50)
VLAN ID: 14
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report from Set (10.1.198.50)
Set IP Address: 10.1.198.50
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report from Set (10.1.198.50)
Set Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report from Set (10.1.198.50)
Set IP Gateway Address: 10.1.198.1
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report from Set (10.1.198.50)
Boot Mode: 47
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Server 1
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Server IP = 10.1.240.40
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Port Number = 4100
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Action = 1
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Retry = 5
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Server 2
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Server IP = 10.1.240.40
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Port Number = 4100
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Action = 1
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Retry = 5
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Server 3
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Server IP = 0.0.0.0
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Port Number = 0
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Action = 1
27/05/2008 18:36:34 LOG0006 VTM:isetInfoShow Report(Server Info) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Retry = 0

RTPStatShow <TN | IP>
This command will display network metrics and QoS values.

NOTE: You’ll need to be in PDT to execute this command from the CLI interface of the Succession Signaling Server. In order to enter PDT simply hold down the <CTRL> while typing the letters “PDT”.

pdt> RTPStatShow 10.1.198.50
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 shell: RTPStatShow: IP 10.1.198.50 is not an active set, displays the statistics from previous call
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Far End IP address: 10.1.240.45
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Far End Port: 5224
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Packet Sent: 57
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Packet Received: 0
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Packet Received out of order : 0
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Pkt Loss: 0%
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Average Jitter: 0ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Latency: 0ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Listening R: 93
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Vocoder Type: 0
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Avg Net Loss Rate: 0.00%
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Avg Discard Rate: 0.00%
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Avg Burst Density: 0.00%
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Avg Burst Length: 0ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Gap Density: 0.00%
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Gap Length: 0ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Avg End System Delay: 5ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Avg Noise Level: 0dBm
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Avg Signal Power: 0dBm
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Round Trip Time Avg: 0ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Local Round Trip Time Avg High: 0ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Listening R: 0
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Avg Net Loss Rate: 0.00%
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Avg Discard Rate: 0.00%
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Avg Burst Density: 0.00%
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Avg Burst Length: 0ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Gap Density: 0.00%
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Gap Length: 0ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Avg End System Delay: 0ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Avg Noise Level: 0dBm
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Avg Signal Power: 0dBm
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Round Trip Time Avg: 0ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Round Trip Time Avg High: 0ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Packet Loss: 0%
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Average Jitter: 0ms
27/05/2008 18:42:10 LOG0006 VTM:RTPStatShow Report (RTCP-XR) from Set (10.1.198.50)
Remote Latency: 0ms

Well by now you’re probably asking yourself what does all this mean. Well hopefully you aren’t completely lost. The first few commands are used to test basic connectivity, rPing and rTraceRoute. You would use these commands to make sure that an IP phone could communicate with a VGMC (Voice Gateway Media Card) or perhaps even another IP phone. Once you know you have basic network connectivity then you might need to look at some of the network statistics. Perhaps there is an auto-negotiation issue or perhaps there is too much packet loss leading too poor voice quality.

Note: did you know that you can perform pings an trace routes from the phone itself? After the phone has successfully booted and is connecting to the Nortel Call Server just press the “Services” key twice and select “Network Diagnostic Tools”.

Cheers!

I thought I would share some of the more useful CLI commands that be found in the Nortel Succession 4.5 Signaling Server. You can access the CLI interface by TELNETing into the Signaling Server. You can also issue may of these commands from Element Manager, the web based GUI.

isetShow – display all IP phones connected (registered) to this signaling server.

oam> isetShow
Set Information

    IP Address      NAT  Model Name                       Type      RegType  State         Up  Time       Set-TN       Regd-TN           HWID           FWVsn  UNIStimVsn SrcPort DstPort
------------------ ---- -------------------------------- ---------- ------- ------------ -------------- ------------ ------------ -------------------- ------- ---------- ------- -------
10.1.1.146              IP Phone 1150E                   IPACD      Regular online           7 10:00:30 152-00-00-09 152-00-00-09 18-001bbaf1cf58-66     C4L      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.123              IP Phone 2004 Phase 2            i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 10:00:30 152-00-00-26 152-00-00-26 18-000ae4754301-66     DBG      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.124              IP Phone 2004 Phase 2            i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 10:00:20 152-00-00-18 152-00-00-18 18-000ae4753f65-66     DBG      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.122              IP Phone 1140E                   i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 10:00:14 152-00-00-05 152-00-00-05 18-001365ff6c03-66     C4L      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.111              IP Phone 2004 Phase 2            i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 10:00:12 152-00-00-04 152-00-00-04 18-000ae4753fc9-66     DBG      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.118              IP Phone 2004 Phase 2            i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 10:00:04 152-00-00-20 152-00-00-20 18-000ae4753fba-66     DBG      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.133              IP Phone 2007 Phase 2            i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 09:59:41 152-00-01-02 152-00-01-02 18-000ae4769cc1-66     C4J      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.119              IP Phone 2004 Phase 2            i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 09:59:40 152-00-00-27 152-00-00-27 18-000ae4754009-66     DBG      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.112              IP Phone 2004 Phase 2            i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 09:59:36 152-00-00-19 152-00-00-19 18-000ae4753fe6-66     DBG      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.120              IP Phone 1140E                   i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 09:59:26 152-00-00-01 152-00-00-01 18-001365ff5e4f-66     C4L      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.121              IP Phone 1140E                   i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 09:59:18 152-00-00-02 152-00-00-02 18-001365ff717a-66     C4L      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.130              IP Phone 2004 Phase 2            i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 09:57:18 152-00-00-08 152-00-00-08 18-000ae47544d3-66     DBG      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.127              IP Phone 2004 Phase 2            i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 09:57:13 152-00-00-21 152-00-00-21 18-000ae4753fc5-66     DBG      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.106              IP Phone 2002 Phase 2            i2002 Ph2  Regular online           7 09:57:13 152-00-01-13 152-00-01-13 18-001bbaf40445-66     DBG      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.131              IP Phone 2004 Phase 2            i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 09:56:58 152-00-00-24 152-00-00-24 18-000ae4754088-66     DBG      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.107              IP Phone 2002 Phase 2            i2002 Ph2  Regular online           7 09:56:42 152-00-01-14 152-00-01-14 18-001bbaf4a628-66     DBG      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.117              IP Phone 1140E                   i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 09:54:48 152-00-00-00 152-00-00-00 18-001365ff6d7e-66     C4L      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.100              IP Phone 1140E                   i2004 Ph2  Regular online           7 09:54:45 152-00-01-16 152-00-01-16 18-001365ff1a9c-66     C4L      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.151              IP Phone 1150E                   IPACD      Regular busy             7 02:14:56 152-00-00-30 152-00-00-30 18-001bbaf1cf96-66     C4L      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.2.119              Nortel WLAN 2211 Handset         i2004      Regular online           1 08:33:34 152-00-00-12 152-00-00-12 30-00907a0284f8-66     071      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.5.58               IP Phone 2007 Phase 2            i2004 Ph2  Regular online           0 10:24:58 152-00-00-10 152-00-00-10 18-000ae4769cc8-66     C4J      2.9      5100    5000
10.1.1.154              IP Phone 1150E                   IPACD      Regular online           0 04:14:49 152-00-01-28 152-00-01-28 18-001bbaf1cfd2-66     C4L      2.9      5100    5000
Total sets = 22
oam>

electShow – display all registered and unregistered components.

oam> electShow
Node ID       : 1
Node Master   : Yes
Up Time       : 7 days, 10 hours, 9 mins, 47 secs
TN            : 000 00 00 00
Host Type     : ISP 1100
TLAN IP Addr  : 10.1.140.20
ELAN IP Addr  : 10.1.139.20
Election Duration       : 15
Wait for Result time    : 35
Master Broadcast period : 30
===== master tps =====
Host Type   TN            TLAN IP Addr
ISP 1100    000 00 00 00  10.1.140.20
Next timeout    : 16 sec
AutoAnnounce    : 1
Timer duration  : 60 (Next timeout in 3 sec)
====== all tps ======
Num  TN            Host Type   ELAN MAC           TLAN IP Addr     ELAN IP Addr     Up Time       NumOfSets  TimeOut
001  000 00 00 00  ISP 1100    00:02:b3:f6:52:0a  10.1.140.20    10.1.139.20    007 10:09:47  27         0
002  000 00 00 00  ISP 1100    00:02:b3:f6:50:9c  10.1.140.21    10.1.139.21    125 22:37:09  25         0
003  052 00 01 00  SMC         00:20:d8:d0:d9:a1  10.1.140.43    10.1.139.43    125 22:07:13  0          0
004  036 00 12 00  SMC         00:20:d8:d0:d0:fb  10.1.140.42    10.1.139.42    125 22:17:13  0          0
005  008 00 12 00  SMC         00:20:d8:d0:fc:83  10.1.140.45    10.1.139.45    125 22:15:12  0          1
006  016 00 04 00  SMC         00:20:d8:d1:12:63  10.1.140.41    10.1.139.41    125 22:15:13  0          0
007  052 00 07 00  SMC         00:20:d8:d0:dc:4d  10.1.140.44    10.1.139.44    004 13:43:53  0          1
====== All cards in node configuration are registered ======

vtrkShow – display the virtual trunk status and available channels

oam> vtrkShow
---------------------------
VTRK Summary
---------------------------
VTRK status   : Active
Protocol      : H323
D-Channel     : 30
Customer      : 0
Channels Idle : 146
Channels Busy : 11
Channels Mbsy : 0
Channels Pend : 0
Channels Dsbl : 0
Channels Ukwn : 0
Channels Total: 157
Chid ranges   : 1 to 157
VTRK State = Active
---------------------------
VTRK Status = Enabled
---------------------------

umsPolicyShow – display the available firmware for each phone model

oam> umsPolicyShow
Total policies = 1
Name             Upgrade      Protocol  Retries
---------------  -----------  --------  -------
DEFAULT          ANY          UFTP     -1
Available firmware:
FW ID  FWVsn  Model                             Policy Name      File name
-----  -----  --------------------------------  ---------------  --------------
0x00   B76    IP Phone 2004 Phase 0/1           DEFAULT          /u/fw/x00.fw
0x00   B76    IP Phone 2002 Phase 1             DEFAULT          /u/fw/x01.fw
0x02   DBG    IP Phone 2004 Phase 2             DEFAULT          /u/fw/x02.fw
0x02   DBG    IP Phone 2002 Phase 2             DEFAULT          /u/fw/x02.fw
0x02   DBG    IP Phone 2001 Phase 2             DEFAULT          /u/fw/x02.fw
0x10   S58    IP Audio Conference Phone 2033    DEFAULT          /u/fw/x10.fw
0x21   C4J    IP Phone 2007 Phase 2             DEFAULT          /u/fw/x21.fw
0x24   C39    IP Phone 1120E                    DEFAULT          /u/fw/x24.fw
0x25   C4L    IP Phone 1140E                    DEFAULT          /u/fw/x25.fw
0x27   C4L    IP Phone 1150E                    DEFAULT          /u/fw/x27.fw
Total firmware = 8

While I won’t go into every single command I will highlight a few additional commands;

ping – very useful for troubleshooting basic connectivity
routeShow – display the routing table including ELAN and TLAN

In a future post I hope to cover the remote iset diagnostic commands that are available for the IP phones.

Cheers!

While I haven’t personally started testing the new firmware release I’d like to discuss the new DHCP options that will be available to phones running this software release. It’s really important that we not confuse the legacy DHCP options with these newly available DHCP options. Unless your phone is running a firmware release documented below you should ignore this post entirely!

• 0604DBP for i2001, i2002, i2004 (Phase 2 Only)
• 0621C4V for i2007
• 0623C4N, 0624C4N, 0625C4N and 0627C4N for 1110, 1120E, 1140E and 1150E respectively
• 062AC5L for 1210, 1220 and 1230

Nortel Internet Telephones running the firmware documented above will support a new DHCP option and vendor class “Nortel-i2004-B”. The format of the newly defined “Nortel-i2004-B” DHCP option is;

Nortel-i2004-B,param1=value1;param2=value2;param3=value3;…

The above table was taken directly from the Nortel release notes.

An example configuration string would look something like the following;

Nortel-i2004-B;s1ip=47.11.62.20;p1=4100;a1=1;r1=255;s2ip=47.11.62.21;p2=4100;a2=1;r2=2;xip=47.11.62.147;xp=5000;xa=g;unid=Main-tower;menulock=p;vq=y;vcp=3;vmp=4;vlanf=y;pc=y;pcs=a;pcd=a;dq=y;dv=y;dvip=60;dp=5;pcuntag=y;lldp=y;pk1=438A64FC24127C23;pk2=64FC23CD24AB1413;cachedip=y;igarp=n;srtp=n;dim=y;bt=y;

You’ll obviously need to be careful with using the “lldp” option in DHCP because it could hang the IP phone if you don’t have the network switch setup properly.

Cheers!

We’ll be using PuTTY to rlogin into the Nortel Succession Call Server from our Windows XP desktop.

Note: you could use any operating system that supports rlogin using the parameters provided below.

Once you have PuTTY installed you’ll need to create a session, this is essentially a profile which can be stored for quick access later.

After installation you can run PuTTY from Start -> Programs -> PuTTY -> PuTTY

The example above is for the Nortel Succession Call Server v4.5 (formerly Meridian 1 Option81C PBX). The DNS name of the core CPU in the example above is “pbx-intf1”.

Step 1. Enter the “Host Name” into the dialog box. (example; pbx-intf1.acme.org)

Step 2. Select the Protocol “Rlogin”

Step 3. Save the Session by giving it a name and clicking “Save”
(I usually use the FQDN for the session name making it easy to recall later)

Step 4. Click on the “Connection” text in the left menu tree.

After clicking the “Connection” tree you’ll see a window similar to above.

Step 5. Set the “Auto-login username” to “CPSID”

Step 6. Click on the “Rlogin” text in the tree menu to the left

Step 7. Set the “Local username” to “CPSID”

Step 8. Click on the “Session” text in the tree menu to the left.

Step 9. Click on Save to save the session configuration.

All you need to-do now is to click “Open” and PuTTY will establish an RLOGIN session with the Nortel Succession Call Server.

You will still need to log into the console using the “LOGI” command.

Cheers!

While my PC showed the date as Friday February 29, 2008 my Nortel 1140E phone showed the date as March 1, 2008 (actual display reads “CS1000 03/01 8:14AM”).

The time/date on the Nortel Call Server was correct along with the time/date on the Nortel Signaling Servers. This was one of the weirdest issues I had ever seen. We opened a ticket with our voice reseller and waited for a response. It wasn’t too long before we recieved a reponse from the reseller along with an PDF document from Nortel.

It seems Nortel has released a bulletin describing a problem with Leap year that affects all Nortel IP Phase 2 phones. Unfortunately there’s no solution other than waiting for March 1, 2008 to actually come around (tomorrow).

Cheers!

The vast majority of Internet telephones are defined as either “i2002” or “i2004“. The 1150e is a special phone designed for Call Centers and is defined as an IPACD The Wireless LAN phones (2210/2211/2212) should be defined as “i2004“. Here’s a list of phones and how their associated TN should be defined;

It took me quite a few minutes to figure out how to define the 1150e the first time we purchased one a few months ago.

Cheers!

We’ve been using VoIP for almost the past 6 years with very good success. Our first forey into VoIP was using Nortel’s IP Line ITG (Internet Telephony Gateway) with a Nortel Meridian 1 Option 61C switch. We had Nortel’s first generation i2004 phones (the purple “barney” phones as we fondly referred to them). A few hardware and software upgrades later that same system is now known as Nortel’s Succession 4.5 1000M Call Server. We’ve been running IP Trunks (H.323) between 5 different Succession 4.5 1000M Call Servers for well over 4 years now with great success. We’ve only just in the past year started really rolling out VoIP to the desktop where it makes sense (example; new construction).

What do you need to run VoIP with Nortel?

These days you can run VoIP on all sorts of different platforms from small office (BCM 50) to very large multi-site enterprises (CS 2100). I’ll describe the equipment that I’m currently using;

• Nortel Succession 4.5 Call Server 1000M
• Nortel Succession 4.5 Signaling Server (two for high availability)
• Nortel Succession Voice Gateway Media Cards (five for high availability and capacity)
• Nortel Succession Internet License (Incremental Software Management – ISM)

You’ll need a phone of course;

• Nortel i2002 Internet Telephone
• Nortel i2004 Internet Telephone
• Nortel 1140E Internet Telephone
• Nortel i2050 Software internet Telephone

You’ll also need some back-end network electronics/switches;

• Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 8600 (core)
• Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 5520 PoE (edge)

And to make life easy you’ll also need a DHCP server which you can configure with custom vendor DHCP options.

If your a data person you’re most likely going to need some help from either a voice/telecom person or voice reseller. Likewise if your a voice/telecom person you’re going to need some help from either a data person or a data reseller. I happen to be a data person that has learned the voice/telecom side of things from my years of exposure and from the failure of several voice resellers, nothing like picking up the books and learning something new.

Since I’m a data person I’m going to focus on the actual network electronics and the phone configuration. In the past year I’ve deployed more than 250 IP phones at more than 5 locations. That number doesn’t include the 100 or so Nortel 2211 Wireless Internet Telephones which we’ll discuss at some later date.

I currently have a Nortel 1140E (pictured right) on my desk at work along with a Nortel i2007 on my desk at home (Nortel 1150 VPN Router with Branch Office Tunnel – BOT) and an i2050 software IP phone on my laptop with a USB headset adapter that really makes the phone work.

We recently built a health center with 140+ IP phones which are all connecting to a hospital that is more than 17 miles away. We built a 10GB Wide Area Network over dark fiber utilizing Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 8600s with 8683XLR cards and 10GBase-ER/EW XFP GBICs. We also installed and provisioned a Nortel 1000B Branch Office at the health center to provide a failover solution should the IP phones get disconnected from the Main Office Call Server. This site has been live for the past 5 months now and I’m very satisfied with the result of our work and efforts. The solution is very reliable and thanks to the design of the data network we’ve yet to experience an unscheduled outage.

Stay tuned for more…