New Skype for Business Community Champ
Hi there, My name is Helbert and I’m one of the new Skype for Business community champ. I’m the principal engineering manager responsible for all the telephone number management for Skype for Business globally. Everything you can think of from number stock/availability, onboarding new markets to port numbers to and from Microsoft will show up in my radar (and touch “my” code). I’m also familiar with other aspect of Skype for Business, mainly around cloud PSTN and Cloud Conferencing and know pretty much all the developers, product owners and managers working in this area, so I can count on good help to shed some light at your questions. I’m very passionate about making things right and always making them better, and this is why I volunteered (really volunteered) to be engaged with this community. I would love to hear your difficulties, feedback (and also compliments, end of the day I’m also a human ). Please let me know how can I help and what you have in mind and I’ll do my best to be of any use. Cheers, HelbertAnnouncing Skype For Business Cloud Connector Edition version 2.0
Today, we are announcing Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition version 2.0. We announced general availability in April, 2016 letting customers integrate their existing PSTN trunks to Cloud PBX providing three modalities: Authentication of the local trunk to Office 365 Cloud PBX; Keep media within enterprise boundaries; Negotiation of codecs between the clients and a PSTN gateway/Session Border Controller (SBC) Since the GA of Cloud Connector Edition, we've seen momentum from companies of varied sizes who use CCE to connect their telephony trunks to Microsoft Cloud PBX. Cushman and Wakefield, a global property management company uses Cloud Connector and Skype for Business Cloud PBX to empower their employees to be productive on any device saving $1 million a year on telephony costs. We are pleased to release Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition version 2.0 addressing the most requested improvements by our customers including media bypass, support of 16 Cloud Connector Editions per one PSTN site, the ability to manipulate SIP headers, use of Office 365 Skype for Business accounts and more. Media Bypass Media bypass allows a client to send media directly to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) next hop - a gateway or Session Border Controller (SBC) - and eliminate the Cloud Connector Edition component from the media path. Media bypass can improve voice quality by reducing latency, the possibility of packet loss, and the number of points of potential failure. Elimination of media processing for bypassed calls reduces the load on Cloud Connector, which enables a higher number of concurrent calls, and can improve scalability. Freeing Cloud Connector Edition from media processing tasks may also reduce the number of hardware an infrastructure requires. How media bypass affects media and signaling pathways While signaling takes the same path with or without media bypass, the media flow will differ. The following diagrams show media and signaling pathways in topologies with and without media bypass. For example, in the following topology - which does not employ media bypass - a Skype for Business client places a PSTN call to an external number, the SIP signaling goes to Office 365, and Office 365 then directs the signaling traffic according to the end-user voice policy. For Cloud Connector users, the voice policy directs signaling traffic to the Cloud Connector Edge Server, which then routes the signaling traffic to a PSTN Session Border Controller (SBC) or gateway via the Cloud Connector Mediation Server. Media flows from the Skype for Business client to the Cloud Connector Mediation Server, and then to the SBC or gateway, as shown in the following diagram: Media and signaling pathways without media bypass An inbound call from the PSTN uses the same signaling path in the reverse direction. For internal users, media will ultimately flow between the Skype for Business client and the Cloud Connector Mediation Server and then the SBC or gateway. In the next topology - which employs media bypass - signaling takes the same path, but media flows directly between the Skype for Business client and the SBC or gateway, as shown in the following diagram: Media and signaling pathways with media bypass For more information, go to TechNet to learn more on planning and deploying Media Bypass. Support of 16 Cloud Connector Editions per one PSTN Site Skype for Business PSTN site is a logical combination of Cloud Connectors in one physical location. You can assign users to a site to provide affinity between users and gateways. With the initial release, only four instances of Cloud Connector Editions are supported per PSTN site. Each instance of Cloud Connector can support up to 500 simultaneous calls. One site consisting of four instances of Cloud Connectors can support 1,500 simultaneous calls/lines (with one instance reserved for High Availability). This means one deployment of Cloud Connector Edition could support 9,000 to 15,000 users using a 1:6 to 1:10 ratio of available line to users. However, many large companies want to centralize Cloud Connectors in one location to minimize their costs. This is when the number of users can exceed 15,000 and require more instances per site. With the support of 16 CCEs, we can now support 45,000 to 75,000 simultaneous calls/lines. Ability to manipulate SIP headers for billing or interoperability purposes With version two of Cloud Connector Edition we enable manipulation of SIP headers via the INI file of Cloud Connector. The following headers can now be manipulated in the INI file: EnableFastFailoverTimer: With the default value "True" if outbound calls are not answered by the gateway within 10 seconds they will be routed to the next available gateway; if there are no additional trunks, the call will be dropped. In the case of slow networks and gateway responses, or when establishing calls takes more than 10 seconds, you will need to change the value to False if you encounter similar issues. Do not forget to change the corresponding setting on connected SBC or Gateway. ForwardCallHistory: These parameter turn on SIP headers that are used to report the initial caller in Simultaneous Ringing, Call Forwarding and Call Transfer Scenarios. Setting the parameters to True will turn on two SIP headers: History-Info: The History-Info header is used for retargeting SIP requests and "provide(s) a standard mechanism for capturing the request history information to enable a wide variety of services for networks and end-users" (RFC 4244 - Section 1.1, http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4244.txt). For the Cloud Connector trunk interfaces, this is used in Simulring and Call Forwarding scenarios. Referred-By: For Call transfer scenarios the Referred-By header is used for retargeting SIP requests, specifically for Call Transfer scenarios with regards to the Cloud Connector trunk interface. In a call transfer scenario it may be necessary to provide the refer target with specific information about the referrer and the refer request itself. In the case of SIP trunks, the Referred-By header carries information (referrer's identity) which is typically used for authentication and billing purposes by the SIP trunk provider. Note that the Referred-By header sent by the Mediation Server to the SIP trunk provider will not be encrypted or signed. ForwardPAI: PAI is a private extension to SIP which enables SIP servers to assert the identity of authenticated users. For SIP trunk providers, PAI may be used for billing purposes in the event that History-Info and Referred-By headers are not present. When Forward P-Asserted-Identity is enabled in the configuration, Mediation Server will forward PAI headers with SIP & Tel URI's from Cloud Connector onto the SIP Trunk. Mediation Server will forward PAI headers with tel URI's & E.164 numbers ONLY received on the SIP trunk to Cloud Connector. Mediation Server will also forward any Privacy headers received in either direction. If the SIP Request sent by mediation server includes a Privacy header of the form - "Privacy: id" in conjunction with the PAI header then the asserted identity should be kept private outside of the network trust domain. More details about the History-Info and ForwardPAI headers can be found here http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/4/5/245583A7-E9E1-403B-BD15-AB711C7DF744/Lync%202013%20Headers%20for%20SIP%20trunk%20provider%20billing.docx Use of Office 365 Skype for Business account instead of a Global Administrator account Previously, we required a dedicated Office 365 account with Global Administrator rights to perform certain administrative tasks. Based on customer feedback, we now let any account with a Skype for Business administrator role to perform management tasks. This allows larger organizations with several administrators to easily administer the system while keeping strict rules on access rights. Autogenerated passwords for local administrators of Cloud Connector instances During the deployment of a Cloud Connector instance a new Active Directory forest is created for each appliance. There are two accounts created at the forest level and one account created for each VM: Domain Administrator account, Safe Mode Administrator account and an administrative account for each virtual machine. To lessen the burden on administrators, we no longer require manually creating a password for the forests administrators. Instead, the password for those accounts are auto generated during the installation. Introduction of Hybrid Voice flag in Mediation Service User Agent to better distinguish Cloud Connector calls in the Call Quality Dashboard When a call is placed, every Server or Client reports its name in SIP User-Agent header for diagnostic purposes. For example, when you place a call using a Cloud Connector before version two, RTCC/6.0.0.0 MediationServer was reported which led to confusion when there was a need to distinguish Cloud Connector calls from calls placed via other trunks. To better distinguish the calls, Cloud Connector Mediation Server now reports in SIP User-Agent Header to better distinguish Cloud Connector calls in Call Quality Dashboard. Improvements to self-monitoring and self-troubleshooting process The last improvement we made by customer request are improvements to the self-monitoring and troubleshooting mechanism. With this update, additional scenarios were added now detecting the following events: One or more Virtual Machines of a Cloud Connector instance are not connected to internal or internet virtual switch; One or more Virtual Machines of a Cloud Connector instance are in saved or stopped status; The following services are not running: On Central Management Store Virtual Machine: Skype for Business Master Replicator Agent; Skype for Business Replica Replicator Agent On Mediation Server Virtual Machine: Skype for Business Replica Replicator Agent Skype for Business Server Mediation On Edge Server Virtual Machine: Skype for Business Replica Replicator Agent; Skype for Business Server Access Edge; Skype for Business Server Audio/Video Edge; Skype for Business Server Audio/Video Authentication; Skype for Business Server Web Conferencing Edge If one of the events outlined above is detected, the entire instance of the Cloud Connector is drained and marked as offline. Disabling SSL 3.0 by default for all services used by Cloud Connector Edition We reviewed all services in Cloud Connector Edition and disabled use of SSL 3.0 by default according to the security advisory published on October, 2014 https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/3009008 Since the release of Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition, we've seen momentum from companies adopting the solution to achieve Hybrid PSTN. With CCE version 2.0, we have addressed some of the most requested improvements by our customers. As we look ahead, we are committed to improving the functionality of Cloud Connector Edition, so please provide feedback to us via skypefeedback.com and Technical Community. For more resources on Skype For Business Cloud Connector Edition, go to the following links: Documentation Plan for Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition Configure Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition Plan for media bypass in Cloud Connector Deploy media bypass in Cloud Connector Recorded Training Skype Academy: What's New in Cloud Connector Edition V2 - This session explain all the changes, improvements and new features that we are introducing with version of Cloud Connector Edition. Pptx attached to this blog. Skype Academy: Media Bypass in Cloud Connector Edition V2 - This session explains the concept of Media Bypass and goes into detail how to enable and manage it for Cloud Connector V2. Pptx attached to this blog.Skype for Business Broadcast: Cloud Voice Update
Join the Skype Meeting Broadcast on Thursday, Dec 15, 2016 at 9:00 am PST. Come join Delanda Coleman and Jamie Stark from the Skype for Business marketing team to hear all about Skype for Business Cloud Voice Reporting and manageability as well as PSTN Calling updates including new service in France. There will be lots of demos! Don’t miss it! Calendar Invite below. If you have missed our previous broadcasts they are all available on demand at aka.ms/sfbcastpast
What's new for Auto Attendants and Call Queues in July 2017?
Call Queue and Auto Attandant calls are now supported on Mac and Mobile endpoints! A user can be setup to make calls on behalf of a Call Queue or Auto Attendant, and support for 0365 Groups and enhancements in Speech Recognition and Text to Speech are now rolled out for Auto Attendants.Tell us your thoughts in our Microsoft Voice Services survey!
Hi all, We are conducting research to better understand the usage of different voice services. Microsoft has built a strong portfolio of voice services and we are looking to feedback to help us form the future of Microsoft Voice Services. If you have a few minutes, we would love to hear your feedback on Voice Services here: https://www.instant.ly/s/iYKnS Thank you in advance for taking the time to help us!Skype for Business iOS CallKit integration now available!
We recently announced deeper integration of Skype for Business with iOS devices using Apple’s CallKit framework, which enables a better experience for Skype for Business calls on the iPhone. The CallKit API with iOS 10 enables Skype for Business calls to work the same way as the native calling experience on iOS, allowing you to seamlessly extend your personal device as a business phone.To try the new calling experience, update your iOS app today. Learn more at http://aka.ms/ioscallkit
