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Oracle® Collaboration Suite Deployment Guide
10g Release 1 (10.1.2)

Part Number B25492-04
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12 Deploying Oracle Voicemail & Fax

This chapter contains the following topics.

Understanding the Oracle Voicemail & Fax Architecture and Functionality

This section provides an overview of the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server architecture and functionality. The Oracle Voicemail & Fax server is a computer telephony (CT) server comprised of Oracle Voicemail & Fax applications integrated with CT server solution of Intel and NetMerge CCS 3.0. The Oracle Voicemail & Fax server is installed on the Oracle Collaboration Suite Application tier where it transmits voice information from a private telephone switchboard, also known as a Private Branch Exchange (PBX), to the Oracle Collaboration Suite Infrastructure. Before deploying Oracle Voicemail & Fax, you should understand both the architecture of Oracle Voicemail & Fax server and the different ways that it can be integrated with a PBX.


Note:

NetMerge CCS 3.0 software is not provided by Oracle and must come from a third party.

Oracle Voicemail & Fax Components

The Oracle Voicemail & Fax architecture contains the following components:

Mail Store

Oracle Voicemail & Fax uses the Oracle Mail message store as the store for all voicemail and fax messages. These messages are stored directly into the inbox of the user who is using the Oracle Mail PL/SQL Application Programming Interface (API) to ensure delivery of voicemail messages across the IP network. Oracle Voicemail & Fax also uses Oracle Mail PL/SQL APIs to provide fast access to all messages stored in the inbox of users. Users have real-time access to the mail store through the telephone.

GUI access to voicemail and fax messages is provided through the same infrastructure as normal e-mail traffic. E-mail messages are stored in Internet standard MIME format allowing rendering through any IMAP4 or POP3 mail client that supports multi-part mime messages. In addition to providing message access, the Oracle Web Access client, Oracle Connector for Outlook, and clients using Oracle Mail Web components allow self-service access to Oracle Mail and Oracle Voicemail & Fax user preferences including greeting selection and changing voicemail passwords.

Oracle Internet Directory

Oracle Internet Directory stores all information about users and their preferences as well as system information. Oracle Voicemail & Fax leverages user information and preferences from Oracle Mail and then extends the stored information to include voicemail-specific attributes such as site, greeting, access to fax, and phone number. System configuration information stored within the directory includes attributes such as system parameters, menus, prompts and other management information.

Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server

The Oracle Voicemail & Fax server is based on Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum (ECTF) standards. Oracle has certified Oracle Voicemail & Fax implementation on Netmerge CCS server of Intel and associated hardware. See the "Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server Architecture" section for more information.

Optional POP3 and IMAP4 Servers

You can optionally configure POP3 and IMAP4 servers to provide e-mail access to voicemail messages.

Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server Architecture

The Oracle Voicemail & Fax server is comprised of Oracle Voicemail & Fax applications integrated with Intel's CT server solution, NetMerge CCS 3.0. As a standards based telephony product, Oracle Voicemail & Fax is written to the Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum (ECTF) CT Standard, specifically calls the S.410 (essentially a Java version of the ÒcÓ based s.100 API. It is also known as JTAPI Media) and S.300 APIs. Oracle Voicemail & Fax has been developed, tested and certified against Intel CT Server implementation known as NetMerge CCS.

NetMerge CCS provides an abstraction layer which shelters Oracle Voicemail & Fax from the proprietary nature of telephony implementations and enables the same application to function regardless of PBX integration strategy, underlying telephony board types or bearer channel. The following figure illustrates the Oracle Voicemail & Fax and Intel Netmerge CCS architecture.

Figure 12-1 Oracle Voicemail & Fax Intel Netmerge Architecture

Oracle Voicemail Fax Intel
Description of "Figure 12-1 Oracle Voicemail & Fax Intel Netmerge Architecture"

Figure 12-1 illustrates the Oracle Voicemail & Fax Intel Netmerge architecture. This figure contains an upper box and two lower boxes. The upper box represents the Oracle Voicemail & Fax applications. These are java based and interact with NetMerge CCS by making generic s.410 calls such as Answer Call, record, and Play. The lower box to the left represents the Oracle Container and the lower box to the right represents the Computer Telephony (CT) Server Intel NetMerge CCS 3.0. The Computer Telephony (CT) Server Intel NetMerge CCS 3.0 contains a box representing the Intel R4 Global Call APIs and five boxes beneath it. Four of these boxes represent available cards for connecting to the PBX using a circuit switched configuration. These include T1/D1, D82, Analog, and Fax. The fifth box represents the Host Media Processing (HMP) software used to connect to the PBX with VoIP gateway.

The Oracle Container sub-system is an extension of the standard "C" based s.300 container provided with Intel Netmerge CCS which normally stores or retrieves media from the local file system. The Oracle extension maps standard container calls to the Oracle Mail message store allowing the recording and retrieval of voicemail messages directly from the database. Calls to the message store database are made over the IP network using standard Net protocol of Oracle. The Oracle Container is multi-threaded and takes advantage of connection pooling into the database.

Oracle Voicemail & Fax PBX Integration

Oracle Voicemail & Fax supports integration with many popular traditional and VoIP based telephone systems using a combination of technologies available from Oracle integration partners.Most PBXs provide proprietary interfaces to integrate additional functionality such as Voice Mail systems. Intel or Dialogic provides telephony cards which support common telephone systems found in most enterprise and carrier environments.Oracle Voicemail & Fax integrates with a PBX using either a Circuit Switched or VoIP configuration.

  • Simple analog connectivity and Bellcore standard SMDI provides basic support for the majority of carrier grade or high end CPE market.

  • Digital E1 or T1 protocols and Bellcore standard SMDI provides a better solution for carrier and large campus implementations.

  • Digital handset emulation using the Intel D82 series boards and Intel PBX-IP-Media-Gateway (PIMG) devices provide an alternative integration method for many common enterprise class PBX or Switches and less standard VoIP solutions.

  • Inbound DTMF integration through Analog provides a lowest common denominator approach for smaller PBX or key system integration.

  • VoIP support (h.323) through the Intel IP Link series of cards. Future versions will include native SIP capabilities.

  • SIP based VoIP for IP gateways.

Circuit Switched Configuration

With the Circuit Switched configuration, the Oracle Voicemail & Fax software uses telephony cards to communicate directly with the PBX. These cards vary depending on with which PBX the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server communicates.

Figure 12-2 Oracle Voicemail & Fax Circuit Switched Configuration

Oracle Voicemail Fax Circuit Switched
Description of "Figure 12-2 Oracle Voicemail & Fax Circuit Switched Configuration"

Figure 12-2 illustrates an Oracle Voicemail & Fax circuit switched configuration. This figure contains the Oracle Collaboration Suite Infrastructure tier, Application tier, a PBX and the Public Switched Telephone (PSTN) network.

Infrastructure Tier

In Figure 12-2, the Infrastructure tier contains the mail store and the Oracle Internet Directory.

Applications Tier

In Figure 12-2 the Applications tier contains the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server. Details of the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server are described in the "Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server Architecture" section.

Functionality

Communication between the Oracle Container in the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server and the mail store takes place using Procedural Structured Query Language on Oracle Call Interface (PL/SQL on OCI). Communication between the Oracle Voicemail & Fax applications and Oracle Internet Directory takes place using the Java Naming Directory Interface (JNDI). Communication between the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server telephony cards and the PBX takes place using a variety of telephony protocols depending on which card is used:

  • Digital E1 or T1 protocols and Bellcore standard SMDI provides a better solution for carrier and large campus implementations.

  • Digital handset emulation using the Intel d82 series boards provides an alternative integration method for many common enterprise class PBX or switches and less standard VoIP solutions.

  • Simple analog connectivity and Bellcore standard SMDI. This provides basic support for the majority of carrier grade or high end CPE market.

When a call is received from the PBX, the Oracle Voicemail & Fax applications check the Oracle Internet Directory to discover the address of the message recipient.

VoIP Configuration

This section discusses Oracle Voicemail & Fax VoIP configuration.

Figure 12-3 Oracle Voicemail & Fax VoIP Configuration

Oracle Voicemail Fax VoIP Configuration
Description of "Figure 12-3 Oracle Voicemail & Fax VoIP Configuration"

Figure 12-3 illustrates an Oracle Voicemail & Fax VoIP configuration. This figure contains the following components:

  • Oracle Collaboration Suite Infrastructure tier

  • Application tier

  • VoIP Gateway

  • PBX

  • PSTN

Infrastructure Tier

In Figure 12-3, the Infrastructure tier contains the mail store and the Oracle Internet Directory.

Applications Tier

In Figure 12-3 the Applications tier contains the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server. Details of the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server are described in the "Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server Architecture" section.

Functionality

Communication between the Oracle Container in the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server and the mail store takes place using PL/SQL on OCI. Communication between the Oracle Voicemail & Fax applications and Oracle Internet Directory takes place using JNDI. Communication between the Oracle Voicemail & Fax HMP and the VoIP Gateway and between the VoIP Gateway and the PBX takes place using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

Planning for Oracle Voicemail & Fax Deployment

This section contains Oracle Voicemail & Fax deployment planning information. Deploying Oracle Voicemail& Fax involves a wide range of issues. These include hardware and software prerequisites, sizing guidelines, firewall issues, and topology considerations for a geographically distributed organization.

Deployment Steps

Before deploying Oracle Voicemail & Fax, you should review the required deployment steps.

Step 1: Architect and Design the Voicemail Solution

You can choose from a number of different deployments of Oracle Voicemail & Fax depending on your organization's requirements. For example, your organization may have several different sites each with their own PBX. You may wish to distribute the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server to each of these sites instead of at the data center that contains the Oracle Collaboration Suite infrastructure components. You may also select either a Circuit Switched or VoIP configuration and a high availability version of each depending on your requirements. You should consult the "Oracle Voicemail & Fax Deployment Configurations" of this chapter when architecting and designing your voicemail solution.


See Also:

For more information, please see:

Step 2: Provide Telephony Server Hardware and Software

When deploying Oracle Voicemail & Fax, you must provide the required CT server hardware and software. For more information, please see the "Hardware and Software Requirements" section.

Step 4: Configure the Oracle Collaboration Suite Infrastructure Tier and Application Tier Components

For information on configuring the required Oracle Collaboration Suite Infrastructure tier and Applications tier components, seeOracle Voicemail & Fax Administrator's Guide

Step 6; Start the Different Processes

For information on starting the different Oracle Voicemail & Fax processes, seeOracle Voicemail & Fax Administrator's Guide.

Step 7: Add Voicemail & Fax Users

For information on adding Oracle Voicemail & Fax users, see Oracle Voicemail & Fax Administrator's Guide

Hardware and Software Requirements

This section describes the hardware and software requirements for deploying Oracle Voicemail & Fax.

Hardware Requirements

Oracle Voicemail & Fax has the following hardware requirements:


Note:

Requirements will be partly based on usage (e.g. a small server can handle a small number of concurrent calls while a larger server can handle many more).

  • Intel Based ServerSingle or Dual Pentium 3 or higher CPU2 GB RAMCD ROM DriveNICWindows 2000 Professional

Certified Configurations

Oracle Voicemail & Fax may be deployed on many different Intel based platforms depending upon customer requirements. The following configuration are certified by Oracle for use in our own data centers and can be used as guidelines.


Note:

Oracle operational requirements may or may not match your organizations requirements. Oracle does not endorse or promote any server provider.

  • Dell PowerEdge 2850Dual 2.5 Xeon with 1MB Cache2GB DDR SDRAM1.44MB Floppy Drive,24x CD ROM,RAID 1 with (2) 36GB Hard DrivesDual 100= NIC Card,Keyboard/Mouse,Windows 2000 Server

Software Requirements

Oracle Voicemail & Fax has the following software requirements:

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Edition or higher

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3

  • Microsoft Windows Server Resource Pack

  • Intel NetMerge CCS 3.0 Service Pack 1

  • Sun Java 2 RTE (version 1.3.1_03), installed with Intel NetMerge CCS 3.0

Overall Implementation Considerations

This section discusses overall implementation considerations.

Switching Infrastructure

Often, the decision to switch infrastructure drives the options available for voicemail implementation. As a media server application, Oracle Voicemail & Fax can support any combination of the following common switching options:

  • Distributed Switching: Each office or site of an organization has its own switching infrastructure and direct access to the PSTN. This configuration is common in the United States CPE market. Implementing Oracle Voicemail & Fax in this environment replaces the voicemail solution already in place and re-uses existing switching infrastructure. Site sizes range from the very small office (for example, sales offices with less than 50 users) to complete buildings or large campuses.

  • Centralized Switching: In Europe and other parts of the world, centralized switching supporting multiple locations or regions is common. Implementing Oracle Voicemail & Fax in this environment also replaces the existing voicemail solution and can reuse the same switching infrastructure. These environments will normally have larger user populations.

  • Centralized VoIP: VoIP implementations offer distributed offices the ability to appear as a consolidated environment without the need for new large telecommunications networks. Oracle Voicemail & Fax implementations can be centralized in the data center alongside the voice call control capabilities.

Comparative Network Costs

Another implementation consideration is the cost comparison between the traditional circuit switched network and the IP network. An organization with low-cost call providers may choose to route all calls to a centralized set of media servers rather than acquire the necessary IP network bandwidth to each site. Conversely, a company with a low-cost or well-developed IP network may decide to place media servers in each site or implement VoIP call transport in order to maximize efficiency of the general purpose IP network. Cost considerations should be analyzed with an understanding of the organization's overall network strategy (circuit switched and IP) and VoIP strategy.

IP Network Considerations

Quality of service (QoS) across the network is perhaps the largest issue with VoIP implementations and related telephony applications (such as Oracle Voicemail & Fax). When reviewing the IP Network infrastructure, organizations should take into account projected network bandwidth (size of the pipe), latency (pipe speed), and QoS (pipe congestion and performance during a call or application session). Running VoIP and Oracle Voicemail & Fax on the IP network may also impact the performance of other applications sharing the network. Care should be taken to evaluate the complete network traffic profile rather than individual applications when sizing the underlying network.

High Availability Considerations

The Oracle Voicemail & Fax solution enables you to implement the appropriate amount of availability for each site. High availability considerations generally fall into three areas:

  • Telephony servers

  • Message store

  • Network

Telephony Servers

Storing messages in a central Oracle database rather than the telephony server itself, enables you to deploy redundant servers at a single site. In this configuration, telephone-hunt groups (configured on the switch) provide both load balancing and backup or fail over capabilities if one of the telephony servers become disabled. Server vendors also provide a number of high availability options and components allowing you to acquire hardware that meets your individual requirements.

Implementing redundant telephony servers is more cost-effective for larger organizations than smaller ones. If you have a large organization, then you may want to consider centralizing both the switching and telephony servers in a data center. This has the added benefit of lower management and service requirements.

Service requirements and spares strategies are another important consideration when comparing the costs of a distributed instead of a consolidated voicemail implementation. Depending upon the hardware vendor used and the location of the office, the cost of providing 2 or 4 hour response times and additional spares storage onsite may be prohibitive.

Message Store

Oracle Voicemail & Fax utilizes the Oracle Mail message store for voicemail and fax storage. You can optionally implement Oracle10g Real Application Clusters as well as all Oracle Data Guard technologies for offsite business resumption and standby database capabilities.


See Also:

For more information on making the mail store highly available, see the "Oracle Collaboration Suite High Availability Architectures" section of Chapter 3, "Deploying Oracle Collaboration Suite"

Networks

Oracle Voicemail & Fax is dependent upon the underlying network (circuit switched or IP). You should review network architectures of your organization for single points of failure (even in multi-vendor environments) and aggregate bandwidth requirements.

VoIP Deployment Considerations

This section discusses VoIP deployment considerations.

Bandwidth Requirements

Bandwidth between the expected end points is one of the first areas to research when deploying any VoIP solution, including Oracle Voicemail & Fax. Depending upon the codec (encoding of voice in the IP packets), the bandwidth requirements will vary between 95 kbps each channel (two way call) when using the g.711 codec and 37 kbps each channel when using g.729a. Oracle Voicemail & Fax and the associated Intel infrastructure can support both of these codecs. These numbers are approximate and depend upon your use of other technologies including header compression, comfort noise detection (CNG) and voice activity detection (VAD).

Other factors to consider include the features supported by your chosen VoIP gateway and if fax will be used within the implementation. Today, many VoIP gateways support the ability to re-negotiate the codec depending upon the media type. This is especially useful when inbound fax is implemented as it enables the use of a lower bandwidth codec for voice calls while switching to higher bandwidth codecs (g.711) for accurate fax support.

Another gateway dependent capability that will help to determine the appropriate codec (and therefore the needed bandwidth) is support for Out of Band DTMF (RFC 2833). This standard enables all DTMF traffic to be broken out from the RTP voice traffic and sent to the Voicemail & Fax endpoint using other IP transport, thus allowing the use of lower bandwidth compressed codec like g.729. If your VoIP Gateway does not support this capability, then Oracle recommends that all voice traffic be g.711 as the lower quality voice associated with highly compressed codecs may not normally allow adequate DTMF recognition.

Latency

Latency, also known as delay, is defined as the time a packet takes to travel between the beginning endpoint and destination endpoint, including all network hops. Recommendations for maximum one-way latency range from 150 milliseconds (ITU-T recommendations) through about 250 milliseconds in real life for traditional two way conversations. Once latency increases beyond 250 milliseconds, talk-over (where the delay causes end users to start talking before hearing a response,) can become an issue.

When compared to voice conferencing or two party live phone calls, the effects of latency are somewhat less apparent with Oracle Voicemail & Fax as the caller expects to interact with an application and is prompted for actions. It is not recommended that customers deploy Oracle Voicemail & Fax using VoIP when end point latency is over approximately 300 milliseconds.

Packet Loss

Loss of packets or receiving packets in mixed order is another typical issue associated with running VoIP on a mixed (data and voice) network. This is the second component of what is normally called jitter (the first is latency discussed earlier) and usually manifests itself to end users as stuttering or silent spots within the conversation or message. This situation occurs frequently in saturated networks where packet collisions cause lost packets and packet queues. This is common at network choke points such as routers and switches.

Misordered packets generally occur when the packets take differing routes across the network to the same destination. Just as with packet loss, this can occur in any IP network but occurs more frequently as network saturation increases.

Both of these conditions can be managed to some degree with techniques such as packet replacement and Jitter buffers. As it's name implies, the Jitter buffer enables the receiving end point to assemble the packets in the correct order before rendering to the caller. Packet replacement applies algorithms that look at the surrounding packets and make a best guess of the contents of the missing packets. These solutions come with a price in both latency and additional computing power requirements that become more visible as the underlying network latency increases.

Neither of these solutions will provide a perfect end user experience and a poorly performing network will eventually manifest itself. These technologies can help mask smaller hiccups and issues.

The Intel infrastructure that Oracle certifies with supports these techniques. Your choice of VoIP gateway will determine availability on the gateway side.

Network Availability (VoIP)

Network availability is a complex subject that ranges from disaster recovery planning to onsite hardware redundancy. While many organizations look at their overall data infrastructure and networks as business critical, data networks have traditionally been viewed (and managed) as less reliable than the concurrent telephone network. With the addition of voice services to the IP network, availability of the core IP network becomes a key issue. Following are important network availability considerations for Oracle Voicemail & Fax deployment:

  • Redundant network providers: For key sites, consider the use of multiple network providers. This enables your organization to function even if the primary network provider goes down. Be aware that different network providers may provide connectivity on the same underlying link.

  • Redundant routes: Plan for situations where connectivity is lost between outlying sites and a main site by ensuring redundant network access through multiple network hubs. The level of redundancy is a business decision driven by the cost of downtime compared to the network costs.

  • Redundant equipment: A single point of failure on a network may be as bad as a single point of failure in a physical server. Plan to have multiple routers, switches and gateways.

  • Traffic studies: Traffic studies provide insight into the volume and types of network traffic. Clearly this is a pre-requisite for determining if your network will support deploying VoIP based Oracle voicemail

  • Network monitoring: Once the application is up and available, managing the system and ensuring a good user experience is critical. Network management tools and methodologies will vary based on your preferred network and network management vendor.

Oracle Voicemail & Fax

Sizing requirements for Oracle Voicemail & Fax are based on the expected number of concurrent callers recording, retrieving messages, and receiving faxes. Table 12-1 lists guidelines for configuring your hardware.

Table 12-1 Recommended User-to-Port Ratios

Number of Users User-to-Port Ratio

Under 100

20:1

100 - 300

30:1

300 - 500

40:1

500 - 1000

50:1

1000 or more

75-100:1


Actual requirements vary based on the roles and responsibilities of end users. For example, a site with call center users who receive large numbers of voice mail messages may require a lower ratio compared to a back-office site which receives little call activity.

The following considerations apply:

  • A normal scenario is to size the system based on two calls each voice mail message: one for leaving a message and one for retrieving a message. The number of calls will normally be reduced to between 1.25 and 1.5 each voice mail message when deploying Oracle Voicemail & Fax and Oracle Mail together, because some users will retrieve Voicemail through their e-mail client.

  • Additional cards can be added to the configurations up to the number of free slots available in any server number. The number of slots available is dependent on server hardware.

  • Multiple Oracle Voicemail & Fax servers may be used to support a single site.

Oracle Voicemail & Fax Hardware Recommendations

The following tables list CPU and telephony card hardware configuration recommendations based on the expected number of users each site and redundancy requirements.


Note:

The following table assumes a digital PBX compatible with an Intel D82JCTU card with eight ports. Other cards with different port counts and interfaces can also be used

Table 12-2 500 User Site

Resource Primary System Secondary Systems

Single-CPU servers

1

1

Dual-CPU servers

0

0

Intel Dialogic/82JCTU cards

2

2

VFX/PCI cards

1

1


Table 12-3 1000 User Site

Resource Primary System Secondary Systems

Single-CPU servers

0

0

Dual-CPU servers

1

1

Intel Dialogic/82JCTU cards

4

4

VFX/PCI cards

1

1


Table 12-4 2000 User Site

Resource Primary System Secondary Systems

Single-CPU servers

1

0

Dual-CPU servers

1

1

Intel Dialogic/82JCTU cards

7

5

VFX/PCI cards

2

1


Table 12-5 3000 User Site

Resource Primary System Secondary Systems

Single-CPU servers

0

0

Dual-CPU servers

2

1

Intel Dialogic/82JCTU cards

8

5

VFX/PCI cards

2

1


Table 12-6 4000 User Site

Resource Primary System Secondary Systems

Single-CPU servers

1

0

Dual-CPU servers

2

1

Intel Dialogic/82JCTU cards

11

5

VFX/PCI cards

3

1


Table 12-7 5000 User Site

Resource Primary System Secondary Systems

Single-CPU servers

0

0

Dual-CPU servers

3

1

Intel Dialogic/82JCTU cards

13

5

VFX/PCI cards

3

1


Table 12-8 10000 User Site

Resource Primary System Secondary Systems

Single-CPU servers

1

0

Dual-CPU servers

5

1

Intel Dialogic/82JCTU cards

26

5

VFX/PCI cards

6

1


Table 12-9 20000 User Site

Resource Primary System Secondary Systems

Single-CPU servers

1

0

Dual-CPU servers

10

1

Intel Dialogic/82JCTU cards

52

5

VFX/PCI cards

11

1


Oracle Voicemail & Fax Deployment Configurations

This section discusses available deployment configurations for Oracle Voicemail & Fax

Consolidated Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server Configuration

In a consolidated Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server configuration, all voicemail and e-mail services are centralized in one data center supporting all components of the messaging solution. Telephony servers running the Oracle Volcano & Fax applications are connected to one or more switches that are either PBXs or VoIP gateways.

Figure 12-4 Consolidated Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server Configuration

Consolidated Oracle Voicemail Fax
Description of "Figure 12-4 Consolidated Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server Configuration"

Figure 12-4 illustrates the consolidated Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server configuration. In this figure the Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server, mail store, and Oracle Internet Directory are centralized in one data center supporting all components of the messaging solution. The PBX or PBX with VoIP Gateway are optionally deployed in the datacenter itself, or in remote sites. If the data center supports both a PBX and a VoIP Gateway, then it requires one Oracle Voicemail & Fax server for each.

Advantages

This configuration has the advantage of consolidating management and all infrastructure in one place. This lowers management, administration, and ongoing hardware support costs (spares management requirements are minimized) while also reducing to a minimum the cost to maintain hardware footprints in multiple sites.

Disadvantages

Total consolidation requires that all sites ship calls to the data center. This can be accomplished over leased lines, the PSTN or over a VoIP implementation. While conceptually the most pure, this configuration requires additional infrastructure costs that may not be appropriate for some organizations. When consolidating switching to support this approach, dial plans may need to be re-evaluated.

Distributed Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server Configurations

In a distributed Oracle Voicemail and Fax Server configuration, the Oracle Voicemail and Fax Server is stored in sites with their own circuit switched or VoIP telephone systems. This is also known as a partial consolidation because the voicemail and e-mail services are partially consolidated.

Distributed Circuit Switched Oracle Voicemail & Fax Configurations

The following figure illustrates a distributed circuit switched, Oracle Voicemail & Fax server configuration.

Figure 12-5 Distributed Circuit Switched Configurations

Distributed Circuit Switched Configurations
Description of "Figure 12-5 Distributed Circuit Switched Configurations"

Figure 12-5 illustrates a distributed circuit switched, Oracle Voicemail & Fax server configuration. This figure contains a data center and two remote sites labeled Site 1 and Site 2. The data center contains the mail store and Oracle Internet Directory. Site 1 and Site 2 each contain a PBX and the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server.

Advantages

This configuration enables your organization to keep its investment in existing switching technologies and to leverage its IP network for messages movement between the CT Server and message store. No change in dial plan is needed.

Disadvantages

While distributed telephony servers can be managed and administered from the data center, support and deployment costs are higher compared to the consolidated deployment due to the number of individual sites that must be supported.

Distributed VoIP Configurations

The following figure illustrates a distributed VoIP, Oracle Voicemail & Fax server configuration.

Figure 12-6 Distributed VoIP Configurations

Distributed VoIP Configurations
Description of "Figure 12-6 Distributed VoIP Configurations"

Figure 12-6 illustrates a distributed VoIP, Oracle Voicemail & Fax server configuration. This figure contains a data center and two remote sites labeled Site 1 and Site 2. The data center contains the mail store and Oracle Internet Directory. Site 1 and Site 2 each contain a PBX, a VoIP Gateway and the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server.

VoIP Multiple PBX Configuration

You can deploy Oracle Voicemail & Fax with the VoIP Gateway to support multiple PBXs. This configuration is especially useful in organizations that have a number of smaller offices that cannot easily provide server maintenance and that do not require all of the capacity of a single server. In this case, the number of individual offices can continue to grow until the Voicemail & Fax server reaches capacity.

Figure 12-7 VoIP Multiple PBX Configuration

VoIP Multiple PBX Configuration
Description of "Figure 12-7 VoIP Multiple PBX Configuration"

Figure 12-7 illustrates a VoIP multiple PBX configuration. This figure contains a data center and three remote sites labeled Site 1, Site2 and Site 3. The Infrastructure tier of the data center contains the mail store and Oracle Internet Directory. The Applications tier of the data center contains the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server. Each of the remote sites contains a PBX and VoIP gateway. The VoIP gateways communicate with their respective PBXs and to the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server using SIP. The Oracle Voicemail & Fax server communicates with Oracle Internet Directory using JNDI and with the mail store using PL/SQL on OCI.

Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server Mixed Switching Configuration

A complete Oracle Voicemail & Fax system can support multiple sites and integration types. In this configuration, some sites may use VoIP to transport calls to a voicemail & fax server co-located with the Oracle collaboration Suite infrastructure in the data center, while other sites may use a boarded voicemail & fax server sitting next to the PBX.

Figure 12-8 Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server Mixed Switching Configuration

Mixed Switching Configuration
Description of "Figure 12-8 Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server Mixed Switching Configuration"

Figure 12-8 illustrates an Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server Mixed Switching Configuration. This figure contains a data center and three remote sites labeled Site 1, Site2 and Site 3. The data center's Infrastructure tier contains the mail store and Oracle Internet Directory and its Applications tier contains the Oracle Voicemail & Fax servers. Site 1 contains an Avaya G3 PBX, Site 2 contains a DMS100 PBX and each site contains the Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server. Site 3 contains an Avaya G3 PBX and a VoIP Gateway.

The PSTN communicates with the PBXs in each remote site, In Site 1 and Site 2, the PBXs communicate with the Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server using telephony protocols and in Site 3 the PBX communicates with the VoIP Gateway using SIP. The Oracle Voicemail & Fax Server on Site 1, Site2 and the data center communicate with Oracle Internet Directory using JNDI and with the mail store using PL/SQL on OCI. The VoIP Gateway in Site 3 communicates with the Oracle Voicemail & Fax server using SIP.

High-Availability Configurations

With Oracle Voicemail & Fax, the PBX can be configured to act like a load balancer. PBXs can determine when a call is answered or not (usually known as a Ring No Answer in the industry). Groups of telephone lines known as hunt groups are configured with a routing plan which can be configured to follow specifics routes depending upon the result of a call handling request. A typical deployment rule may include:

  • If call is not answered at user desk phone, then roll over call to voicemail huntgroup 1 (7200).

  • If call is not answered at voicemail huntgroup 1 after 3 rings, then roll call over to voicemail backup huntgroup (7250).

  • If voicemail huntgroup 1 is busy, then camp call on voicemail huntgroup 1 for 5 rings.

  • If call is not answered at voicemail backup huntgroup after 3 rings, then roll call over to voicemail.

With Oracle Voicemail & Fax, you can set up circuit switched and VoIP configurations for high availability.

CIrcuit Switched High-Availability Configuration

The following figure illustrates a circuit switched high-availability configuration.

Figure 12-9 Circuit Switched High-Availability Configuration

Circuit Switched High-Availability Configuration
Description of "Figure 12-9 Circuit Switched High-Availability Configuration"

Figure 12-9 illustrates a circuit switched high-availability configuration. In this figure, a PBX routes calls to one of two Oracle Voicemail & Fax servers. If one Oracle Voicemail & Fax servers is not available, then the VoIP Gateway routes calls to the other one. Infrastructure tier components are configured with Oracle10g Real Application Clusters for hardware redundancy.

VoIP High-Availability Configuration

Voice applications and the telephone network are normally considered more reliable than data applications and have much higher user expectations in areas such as performance and availability. When deployed with VoIP, Oracle Voicemail & Fax can be deployed redundantly at a number of levels in order to minimize downtime and maximize performance. One example of this is the ability to support multiple VoIP gateways connected to the same PBX.

This model provides both device redundancy and additional capacity when using low cost VoIP gateways such as the Intel PIMG. Voicemail call carrying capacity can be added with the addition of more gateways. Redundant gateways provide an ideal way to ensure that a single gateway failure does not cause a complete service outage. In this scenario, the PBX continues to route calls to the surviving gateways until the failed device can be repaired or replaced.

Additionally, multiple Voicemail & Fax servers can be deployed behind a SIP Proxy or traditional IP load balancer in order to ensure that there is no single point of failure for the voicemail application. The Infrastructure tier can be deployed using Oracle10g Real Application Clusterswhich provides fault tolerance and enhanced scalability for the Suite infrastructure.

Figure 12-10 VoIP High Availability Configuration

VoIP High Availability Configuration
Description of "Figure 12-10 VoIP High Availability Configuration"

Figure 12-10 illustrates a VoIP high-availability configuration. In this figure a PBX routes calls to one of two VoIP gateways. If one of the VoIP gateways is not available, then the PBX routes calls to the other one. The VoIP gateways routes calls to one of two Oracle Voicemail & Fax servers. If one Oracle Voicemail & Fax servers is not available, then the VoIP Gateway routes calls to the other one. Infrastructure tier components are configured with Oracle10g Real Application Clusters for hardware redundancy.