OCS Essentials – Fundamentals of OCS – 101

SIP & Microsoft OCS-Office Communications Server with Virtual OCS Lab Training Course

 5-Day Onsite and Demonstration Virtual Lab

For more information and scheduling contact:

TECHtionary develops & publishes rich media tutorials for the telecom & IT industry. To get custom tutorials developed for your service, solution or application please contact Thomas B. Cross at 303-594-1694, or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.TECHtionary.com. 

Pricing, options and other matters are subject to change without notice.

An executive and operational guide to SIP-Session Initiation Protocol & Microsoft OCS-Office Communications Server/Communicator available in classroom (onsite) format of five (5) days or custom version.  This course is designed to help enterprise technical-executive managers, channel partners and others better understand SIP-Session Initiation Protocol and Microsoft’s OCS-Office Communications Server.  There is more than a year of research, interviews, discussions, meetings and presentations to channel partners, providers, manufacturer's and other interested parties in the SIP-VoIP industry.  In addition to the classroom presentation, a “virtual OCS” lab/demonstration will be included.  The purpose of the virtual demonstration is to give attendees a “test drive” of OCS and be able to ask implementation and configuration questions.  The lab is in the R&D stage of development and may change without notice.   This is not a "hand-on" lab but a "live" demonstration.  If "hands-on" labs are desired, please call for details on lab setting and additional costs.

Course Overview

Who Should Attend:  - This onsite and online course is designed for enterprise executive and technical managers, channel partners, VAR-Value-Added Resellers, SI-Systems Integrators, telephone interconnect, agents, master agents and consultants.  In addition, this course will benefit corporate technical, staff marketing, training business development, sales, channel managers, operations, engineering, support and other corporate managers for SIP-VoIP providers, carriers and manufacturers.

What You Will Learn:

·         Explore Microsoft’s OCS-Office Communications Server features, concepts, call flows, configurations and other issues for evaluation and implementation.

·        Review the fundamentals of IP-Internet Protocol and platforms required for high performance SIP-Session Initiation Protocol, IT-Internet Telephony or VoIP-Voice over Internet Protocol systems.  This includes soft switches, gateways, routers, services and other critical components.

·        Explore business applications and opportunities.  Review what customers are buying today and why they are buying.  In addition, emerging “killer applications” will be explained in depth.

·        Quickly grasp complex subjects such as H.323, MGCP-Media Gateway Control Protocol and SIP.  As SIP-Session Initiation Protocol emerges are the key VoIP communications protocol, discover how this technology will impact all voice communications systems from key, PBX-Private Branch eXchange, IP-Internet Protocol-PBX, hosted, managed and other systems.

·        Understand basic and advanced SIP-VoIP concepts features.  From hosted, managed, IAS-Integrated Access Service, and IP-PBX, quickly understands “what’s-what” for different customer applications and business models.

·        Probe the issues behind Integrated and Converged Access.  Understand when and why organizations need a converged access solution.

·        Learn why “network assessment” is critical to any SIP-VoIP implementation and why this step cannot be overlooked.

·        Address the issue of QoS-Quality of Service by overcoming jitter, echo, noise and other network problems.  Review the role of RTCP-Realtime Transport Control Protocol and other tools to monitor and maintain high performance VoIP networks.

·        Understand the functions of the new communications “toolbar.”  See how the benefits of “unified communications” as they improve business operations.

·        Assess the Top-10 issues why SIP trunking and hosted VoIP is more than “dial-tone,” and how it can represent change in the business and business model of even the smallest enterprises.  Discuss and explore new ways to improve fundamental business processes.

·        Explore how a SIP-VoIP call is processed and review potential security attacks.   Discover how SPIT-Spam over Internet Telephony, VOMIT-Voice Over Misconfigured Internet Telephony, DOS-Denial Of Service and other terrorist attacks can target not just data, but voice packets.

·        Review SIP and SIP Trunking and all the implications and applications from TCO-Total Cost of Ownership to QoS-Quality of Service.  SIP Trunking is the most profound new form of telecommunications since POTS-Plain Old Telephone Service. 

This course is being constantly updated, please check for specific topics.

Course Outline

Day 1

 Fundamental Network and IP Technologies – the IP in SIP

·         1 – Voice-to-Digital-to-Packet Transmission

·         2 – Back To Basics – Cabling and Electrical

·         3 – Transmission Concepts – DSL, T-1/E-1, ISDN-PRI, SIP Trunking, GIG-E

·         4 – Optical Fiber & Bandwidth

·         5 – Integrated Access Services – Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation – BOD-Bandwidth On Demand

·         6 – Introduction to IP-Internet Protocol and VoIP-SIP , MPLS-Multi-Protocol Label Switching, DiffServ-Differentiated Services, DSCP Differentiated Services Code Points and Packet Priority Classifications, TOS-Type of Service, EF-Express Forwarding, MPLS Uniform mode, MPLS Pipe and Short-Pipe modes, WRR-Weighted Round Robin, TCB-Traffic Conditioning Blocks - Marker, Meter, Shaping, Droppers and PHB-Per Hob Behavior.

·         7 – TCP/IP and other Protocols and Layers – RTP, RTCP, SDP, SOAP, SALT

-  Call processing with Route, Image, DHCP, DNS, Image, Configuration servers

·         8 – Hardware – Routers, Switches – MAC-Media Access Control, WiFi-VLANS-VPNS

·         9 – Protocols “Rules of the Road” – H.228, H.323, MGCP, SIP, and Desktop “Softphones,” “Toolbars” and other end points (desksets)

·         10 – IP-PBX and Hosted VoIP/SIP – Integrated/Unified/Homogenized

SIP Essentials - SIP Introduction and Overview

·         SIP Definition – IETF (RFC-3261) and Manufacturers

·         CPL-Call Processing Language

·         AOR-Address Of Record – q-values

·         Location Service - DNS-Domain Name Service

·         CPL-Call Processing Language

·         Applications Layer 7 Protocol – Peer-to-Peer protocol

·         SIP – Before and After

·         SIP and Hosted – Better or Worse or Both

·         SIP Signaling – Introduction, URI-Uniform Resource

·         SIP & SBC-Session Border Controllers, servers, gateways,

·         SIP with and without IADs-Integrated Access Devices

·         SIP and SIP Phones, Softphones, Mobility,

·         SIP Signaling Basics – Inbound/Outbound calling

·         SIP Trunking – Incremental “Slope” Growth

·         CODECS-COmpression-DECompression signal processors – issues and answers

Lab 1 – Planning for OCS

·         Pre-installation planning – “what server does what”

·         Installing and configuring OCS

·         Planning the site – cabling to number portability

·         Integration or “exhumation” of existing systems

·         Prepare AD-Active Directory and AD Authentication Credentials 

Day 2

SIP Trunk Replacement & Disaster Planning

·         Open Standards

·         SIP and Trunk Replacement – same or different thing

·         SIP and Proxy ARP-Address Resolution Protocol

·         SIP and HSRP-Hot Standby Routing Protocol

·         MPLS-Multi-Protocol Label Switching – COS and QoS

·         SIP QoS – oxymoron or critical concept

·         SIP on-net and off-net issues – overflow call processing

·         SIP TCO-Total Cost of Ownership – Top-10 Benefits

 D. SIP Technology - Indepth

-       SIP – OSI-Open Systems Interconnection - "If you do not know where you are going, what difference does it make which path you take".....Cheshire Cat (Alice in Wonderland)

-       SIP “Methods” – Writing call processing as easy as email – invite, ACK, bye, etc.

-       SIP Signaling “commands” – 1xx-6xx

-       SIP Inbound and Outbound call processing 

-     SDP-Session Description Protocol - headers, Via, Max-Forwards, To:, URL-Uniform Resource Locator, URI-Uniform Resource Identifier, call-ID, Cseq, Contact, Content-Type, Content-Length, Security and others

-     Session Description Protocol Security Descriptions (SDES)

-       SIP Features - Forks, SIP Proxy, Redirect, Presence, Forking – parallel-sequential-mixed, loops, spirals

-       SIP Network devices - UA-User Agent, UAC-User Agent Client, UAS-User Agent Server

        Proxy Server, Redirect Server, Registrar Server, B2BUA-Back-to-Back User Agent

-       SRTP-Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (RFC-3711)

        -  Authentication Tag and the Master Key Identifier

        - Encryption 

Lab 2 – Initial Configuration of OCS

·         Prepare Global Catalog Server

·         DNS-Domain Name Services

·         Review Security Services

Day 3

SIP Security – “Best Practices” – Reality Check

·         SIP Security “Best Practices” – overview

·         SRTP-Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (RFC-3711)

·         Authentication Tag and the Master Key Identifier

·         Encryption – Public and Private Keys

·         SIP Firewalls and Security – SPIT-SPam over Internet Telephony, DOS-Denial Of Service, VOMIT-Voice Over Misconfigured Internet Telephony and other emerging problems

·         SIP Security and “Access Policy” – Stateful IP Filtering and Inspection, Static and Stateless IP Filters, TLS-Transport Layer Security, NAT-Network Address Translation, Persistent connection, Multi-homed hosts, etc.

·         SIP and MIM-Man-In-the-Middle attacks – Understanding wireline and WiFi wireless attacks

·         Telephone Numbers – North American Numbering Plan and International ENUM-E.164

SIP Class of Service & Quality of Service

·         SIP COS-Class Of Service and QoS-Quality of Service – ethernet meets “smart” IP

·         MPLS-Multi-Protocol Label Switching – Layer 3 - QoS

·         Managing “real-time” voice with RTCP-Real-Time Control Protocol – MRB-Metrics Report Blocks

·         Inside MRB – what’s what with all the info

SIP Security Architectures – Building Blocks

·         SIP Security Architectures – eight different VoIP configurations evaluating SIP-Aware Firewalls and other security options  -

·         Type 1 – Dedicated IP Pipe for VoIP

·         Type 2 – Merged MPLS-Pipe with LER Tagging VoIP

·         Type 3 – Merged IP pipe with SIP-Aware Firewall (SAFW)

·         Type 4 – Separate IP Pipe for VoIP with Existing Non-SIP Firewall and SIP-Aware Firewall (SOFW)

·         Type 5 – Merged IP Pipe with Incumbent Non-SIP-aware Firewall, No DMZ Port and SIP-aware Firewall (SAFW)

·         Type 6 – Looks like Type 5 but Merged IP Pipe with Incumbent Non-SIP-aware Firewall, No DMZ Port and SIP-aware Firewall

·         Type 7 – Merged IP Pipe with Incumbent Non-SIP-aware Firewall with a DMZ Port

·         Type 8 – Merged IP Pipe with Incumbent Non-SIP-aware Firewall

·         Other approaches to SIP Security - Proxy/Gateway Inside the Firewall, Proxy/Gateway in Co-Edge Mode and Proxy/Gateway Outside the Firewall

- 50-Point Comprehensive SIP Security Checklist - more than 50 different security concepts to review and include in the implementation and ongoing network management program

Top-10 Critical Technologies to SIP

1 –  IP protocol, IP networking and a VPN

2 - The difference between IAS-Integrated Access Service versus Converged Access Service

- Enhanced IAS with MPPP-Multi-link Point-to-Point Protocol, PPP Multilink Protocol (MP), L2TP-Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol

3 –  SIP-Session Initiation Protocol Trunking

4 – Justification for an IP PBX – options and approaches

5 – Technical difference between IAS-Integrated Access Service, Hosted and Managed VoIP

-  Call processing with Route, Image, DHCP, DNS, Configuration servers 

-  Media Gateways replace PBXs -  the following tutorials are some examples of customer applications of MG-Media Gateways:

      - Connection of IP-PBX to PSTN
- Connection of IP-PBX to PSTN & SIP trunk provider
- Survivable connection to SIP trunk provider
- Connection of PBX & IP-PBX to PSTN & SIP trunk provider
- Connection of IP-PBX to Hosted VoIP provider
- Connection of IP-PBX & PSTN to Microsoft OCS Server

-  SC-Session Controllers or SBC-Session Border Controllers are access devices operate at Layer 5 Session Layer, where as routers operate at Layer 3 Network.   Some of the key SBC/SC functions are:

     - Secure network peering - private and public to enhance performance

     - Topology hiding - using various types of inter-AS-Autonomous System features as well as separating media (voice) and hide signaling (IP addresses) and data streams (traffic)

     - Border call routing - routing at AS level rather than with interior protocols

     - Interoperability - access/restrict to reduce voice spam

     - QoS & Call Admission Control - load/jitter correction

     - Billing systems interoperability - reduce billing errors

     - NAT-Network Address Translation - routing for maximum performance

     - CALEA-Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act

    - Compatibility with billing

     - Dialect conversion

     - Protocol conversion

     - Codec conversion

     - Firewall restrictions

     - Wholesale and Transit peering

6 – “Open Source” PBX options

7 – QoS-Quality of Service importance - how to measure it and fix it

8 –  Softphones – Where they make sense - user benefits

9 -   The difference between IPT-Internet Protocol Telephony and VoIP - Cisco, Broadsoft, Sylantro and other platforms

10 -  Unified Communications – Mobility Applications

  C. Top-10 Steps to a Successful SIP Implementation

1 - User Needs Assessment

2 - Network Assessment

3 - Systems Upgrade

- Indepth POE-Power Over Ethernet & Comprehensive Disaster Planning Tutorial

4 - Pre–Installation Planning

5 - Data Systems Integration - VLANs, VoWLANS, Planning for WiFi, WiFi and IP Wireless "Roaming," WiFi Security and more

6 - Installation and Cutover

7 -  Managing Change - Training

8 - Ongoing Use and Expectations

9 - Billing

10 - Managed Services - TCO-total cost of ownership, monitoring, remote support, training, business development and others & Future Applications

OCS – Special Tutorial

Here are just some of the terms used in Microsoft OCS-Office Communications Server.  Each of these terms and others are explained in this OCS Special Edition:

·         Architecture – Front End, AD-Active Directory, Conferencing, Perimeter and Applications Servers

·         Co-existence

·         UC-Unified Communications

·         PBX Integration Initiative – UC-Compatible, Non-UC-compatible

·         Mediation Server – Forking

·         SIP – Microsoft SIP “Standard” – Inbound/Outbound Calls, OnHold, Making a Call Via a PBX, Answering a Call Via a PBX, Call Forwarding – Always, DND-Do Not Disturb, Call Transfer, 3-Way Conferencing

·         SIP-to-PBX

·         SIP-to-PSTN

·         E.164

·         RNL-Reverse Number Lookup

·         RCC-Remote Control Gateway

·         SQL Server

·         LDAP and sLDAP-Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

·         Mediation Server – In/Outbound calling

·         Multimedia Conferences

·         GRUU-Global Routable UA-user agent URI-Uniform Resource Locator

·         G.711/G.729

·         Information and Content Exchange (ICE)

·         MTLS-Mutual Transport Layer Security

·         SRTP-Secure Realtime Transport Protocol

·         MIME-Multipart Internet Mail Extension

·         Normalized – Canonical Number

·         SIP “Invite”

·         Vmail to Email

·         TCP-Transmission Control Protocol versus UDP-User Datagram Protocol

·         RTA-Real Tim e Audio

·         Siren CODEC

·         MG-MGW-Media Gateways – Basic, Collocated and Advanced

·         CTI-Computer Telephony Integration

·         Presence

·         IM-Instant Messaging

·         Federation IM

·         DNS-Domain Name Service

·         Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)

·         DNS Service Location (SRV) resource record – Manual, Automatic    

·         Bandwidth Analysis

·         Load Balancing

·         IP Subnets

·         SNAT-Source Network Address Translation

·         DNAT-Destination NAT

·         Port Addresses

·         SAN-Storage Area Network

·         Client Software and Installation

·         Security Policy

·         Active Directory Credentials

·         SSH-Secure Shell

·         Group Security Policies

·         Web Server Certificates

·         Firewalls

·         Antigen

·         Kerberos protocol

·         Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

·         Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007

·         Microsoft Office Mobile Communicator 2007

·         Microsoft Office Web Communicator 2007

·         Microsoft SQL Server 2005

·         Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS)

Day 4

OCS – Special Tutorial

·         SMB-Server Message Blocks

·         Traversal Using Relay NAT (TURN)

·         STUN-Simple Transversal of UDP through NAT

·         Administrative “Snap-In” Tools

·         Microsoft Management Console (MMC)

·         GPO-Group Policy Object

·         CDR-Call Detail Records

·         Phone Usage Records

·         Forests and Schema – 1-Way, 2-Way, Root Domain,

·         Active Directory

·         SQL-Structured Query Language

·         CSF-Connected Services Framework

·         Address Book Server

·         Enterprise Edition configuration

·         Enterprise Edition Consolidated configuration

·         Enterprise Edition Expanded configuration

·         Global Address List

·         Global Catalog Servers

·         Internet Information Services (IIS)

·         Multipoint Control Unit (MCU)

·         On-Premise Audio/Video Conferencing Edge Server

·         On-Premise Audio/Video Conferencing Server

·         On-premise Web conferencing

·         Speech Server (under construction)

·         Web Conferencing Edge Server

·         Single, Multi-Location and Global Deployments

  Top-10 Steps to a Successful SIP Implementation

·         1 – User Needs Assessment

·         2 – Network Assessment

·         3 – Systems Upgrade – Indepth POE-Power Over Ethernet & Comprehensive Disaster Planning Tutorial

·         4 – Pre-Installation Planning

·         5 – Data Systems Integration – VLANs, VoWLANs, Voice over WiFi, IP Wireless “Roaming,” WiFi Security

·         6 – Installation and Cutover

·         7 – Managing Change – Training

·         8 – Ongoing Use and Expectations

·         9 – Billing

·         10 – Managed Services – Data Backup, Monitoring, Remote Support, Training and Future Applications

Lab 4 – Administrative Configuration of OCS

·         Administrative Tools "Snap-in"

·         Microsoft Management Console (MMC)

·         Call Detail Records

·         Phone Management and Usage

·         IM-Instant Messaging, Chat, Chatrooms, etc.

·         IM - Federation to Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Mindalign

·         Saving of IM conversations for compliance

Day 5

Diagnosing & Tools for Troubleshooting SIP Networks

1 - Problems:

- Delay
- Jitter
- Equipment Configurations
- Clipping & Dipping
- VAD-Voice Activity Detectors -
- Connection Issues
- Echo
- Signal and Noise Level
- Crosstalk - Nearend and Farend
- Serialization
- Packet Payload Delays
- Packet Sizing Problems - Take the "Vo-eye-P Test"
- Transcoding Problems
- Asynchronous Transcoding Problems
- Electrical Interference - Surges, Sags, Shared Neutrals

- Source/Waveform CODECS

- E-model, R-model, MOS-Mean Opinion Score, G.711 and G.729 Asynchronous Transcoding 

2 - Testing for Problems

- Metrics Report Block Block, RTCP-XR-Realtime Transport Protocol eXtended Reports, STRP-Secure Realtime Transport Protocol, Authentication, MD5-Message Digest 5 “hash” coding, MKI-Master Key Identifier, SSH-Secure SHell, Public-Private keys

3 - More than 30 Problems and Common Solutions - like "CarTalk" bring your problems to "Netttalk"

4 – Best Practices - review of concepts such as Resiliency & Reliability – QoS in VoIP-SIP

5 – Vendors of Technical Solutions for VoIP Network Management

6 - Conclusions and the Bottom Line

SIP Applications and Future Outlook

·         SIP Applications – IM-Instant Messaging, Presence, Event Notification, Ondemand Conferencing, Click-to-call,

·         SIP for Call Centers – calling options and pricing benefits

·         SIP – exciting new applications

·         UDDI is also designed to replace the robot.txt search engine web site document structure concept. Here are some of the web site description-discovery-registry information retrieved by search engine spiders/bots and other retrieval programs.

·         Voice-driven yellow pages - SALT-Speech Applications Language Tags adds voice commands to web applications.  SALT is an extended set of markup (meta) tags based on XML-eXtensible Markup Language though compatible with HTML-Hyper-Text Markup Language and others.

·         SIP Total Tutorial with Future Outlook – IMS-IP Multi-media Systems – content servers, wireless integration, media gateways, etc.

Lab 5 – Troubleshooting and Integration of OCS

·         Planning for OCS

·         Troubleshooting

·         Trunking – bandwidth, delay, echo

·         Telephone deskset issues

·         IP routing check

·         PBX interoperability

·         Third-party integration – open discussion

·         LCS-Live Communications Server and OCS coexistence 

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

About Course Leader - Thomas B. Cross – CEO TECHtionary.com has three decades of experience in startups and consulting advisor with leading providers and venture capital companies in market planning and development, hardware/software design and development, project management, intellectual property in telecommunications, information technology, conferencing, teletraining, telecommuting, groupware, networks, call centers, internet, artificial intelligence and other fields. He has managed the successful development of more than 10 software, hardware and internet products to market and received industry awards for this work. He has authored 13 books, wrote, produced and directed 15 commercial videos and creator and producer of the World's Largest Animated Knowledge Source on Technology – http://www.techtionary.com – recipient of Web Hosting Magazine Editors Choice for Best Technical Help with more than 3,000 animated tutorials on technology.  He is a member of the Technical Board of Advisors for the VoIPSA-VoIP Security Alliance.

About Course Leader - Matthew Jolly - CTO TECHtionary.com has over thirteen years experience working with hardware and software in locally connected and wide area networks. He has experience from the desktop to high level advanced broadband topology networks. He has designed computer systems, small to mid size networks and cutting edge Optical/IP networks as well as integrating software design elements to streamline network provisioning, management and monitoring. Over the past five years he has shifted to training and consulting role to help others understand breakthrough technologies to more quickly evolve their networks for converged IP deployments.  He is very active in designing network planning tools which leverage the power of global interconnection for voice, video and data for businesses of any size and reach.