Tesira Lync/Skype support
Tesira VoIP products (including the SVC-2 card and TesiraFORTÉ VI) can natively connect to and interact with Microsoft Lync / Skype For Business VoIP phone systems. These Microsoft phone systems include a wide variety of features, however Tesira VoIP products don't necessarily support every Microsoft feature. This article attempts to clarify the major Microsoft Lync / Skype For Business features that Tesira VoIP products are compatible with.
Features that Tesira supports
The following Microsoft Lync / Skype For Business features are supported by Tesira VoIP products that are running Tesira firmware version 3.0 or later:
- Tesira VoIP products can natively register to and communicate with Lync Enterprise Voice systems using MS-SIP or Microsoft SIP Exchange.
- Tesira VoIP products support encryption via TLS and SRTP. TLS also supports the use of certificate exchanges.
- Tesira VoIP products advertise themselves as a Voice-Only device to ensure they participate correctly in supported sessions.
- Tesira VoIP products have limited support for presence updates. Currently, they will report whether they are in a call or available. All other presence states are currently not supported.
- Tesira VoIP products can dial a call using a phone number or a Lync User Name.
- Tesira VoIP products support Lync Front End Server Pools, including:
- The ability to resolve Proxy locations via DNS (NAPTR, SRV records, DNS lookups).
- The ability to query a hardware load balancer for the proper Front-End Server (FES) location.
- The ability to maintain a list of multiple FES locations via a list provided in an SRV record.
- The ability to accept redirects from an FES that is pointing us to a different FES.
- The ability to maintain connection through an FES failover.
- Tesira VoIP products can support proprietary dialing normalization rules. Normalization rules can be received automatically during the SIP registration process (as of firmware version 3.0), or they can be exported from Lync and manually input into the Tesira VoIP product.
- Tesira VoIP products support the use of the E.164 dialing method required by Lync systems. They also support the use of dialing normalization rules to convert a "common" number to an E.164 compliant number.
- Tesira VoIP products support Lync Dial-In Conferencing (as of firmware version 3.0) for calls within the same domain or server pool.
- Tesira VoIP products support Dial-In Conferencing across multiple domains or server pools (as of firmware version 3.12).
- Tesira VoIP products support Location-Based Routing (as of firmware version 3.13).
Features that Tesira does not support
- Tesira VoIP products do not support Lync's requirement to use Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) to traverse network firewalls. This can cause problems in situations where a Tesira VoIP product needs to directly maintain port openings through a firewall. Such situations include, but are not limited to:
- Connecting to some cloud-based Lync systems.
- Negotiating a port opening for RTP directly through an Edge Server.
- Tesira VoIP products do not support Lync ad-hoc conferencing (adding participants during a point-to-point call).
- Tesira VoIP products do not support direct connections to Survivable Branch Servers (SBS). SBS's are typically used to support physical sites located remotely from the main SFB Servers. In these applications it may be possible to simply register the Biamp VoIP card directly back to the main SFB server(s).
- Tesira VoIP products do not support the use of OAuth (authentication)