AL MA TE RI Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications RI GH TE D Instant Messaging and integrated voice communications have become an everyday business and a personal necessity. The demand for Instant Messaging alone has increased dramatically over the past several years and is predicted to become the preferred communication solution over e-mail in the near future.
Chapter 1 Business users today are under serious pressure to provide even greater efficiency in all of their assigned tasks. With new government sanctions for compliance, reduced labor, and the globalization of the workplace with outsourcing, the ability to access information and expertise, while reducing travel and associated costs is extremely difficult. Time-to-market pressure has increased with the pressure applied to companies to provide products and results to validate shareholder investments.
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications an application interface to enable communications, presence, and collaboration features to be built into custom applications. By building the Unified Communications products within the Office suite of products, Microsoft was able to provide customers with desired features within products with which they are already familiar. Millions of users start their day with Microsoft Office, including Microsoft Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint.
Chapter 1 The Business Value of Presence While mobile communications have brought contacts closer than before, the game of “phone tag” is still being played. Instant Messaging technologies present something that telecommunications companies do not offer regarding the ability to view the status of a given contact.
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications today. Business owners and information technology (IT) decision makers have been faced with securing these communications or banning them completely. When contemplating which type of Instant Messaging application to deploy, three scenarios present themselves. The first scenario is to enable public Instant Messaging applications provided by companies such as Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and others, which creates a major security breach.
Chapter 1 Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Server Roles Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 is available in two separate versions that vary according to size and type of deployment. Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Standard Edition is targeted at smaller businesses or single-server implementations, as the Standard Edition only requires one server and includes a scaled-down database using Microsoft MSDE, supporting up to 15,000 users per server.
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications EXTERNAL ACCESS Resources LCS Access Proxy www Certificate Active Directory Business Unit AD Groups LCS Remote Access LCS Director Enterprise CA Business Unit AD Users INTERNAL ACCESS TLS Global Catalog Server Load Balancer Certificate LCS Enterprise Edition Pool Servers MTLS Certificate MTLS Certificate MTLS Certificate $ IM Archiving Agent Certificate LCS Back-End SQL Servers CLUSTERED LCS IM Archiving Server Figure 1-1 7
Chapter 1 Live Communications Server Proxy Applications that provide Instant Messaging and real-time communications are becoming more common than ever. Leveraging the Live Communications Server Proxy, organizations can build real-time applications using the LCS Proxy as an interface between applications that use the Live Communications Server service and the Live Communications Server Enterprise Edition or Standard Edition servers.
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications The Live Communications Server Proxy provides developers with the capability to write custom realtime applications that leverage the LCS Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Exposing these components also enables developers to integrate existing Line of Business (LOB) applications to take advantage of the communication, collaboration, and presence features of the Live Communications Server service.
Chapter 1 EXTERNAL ACCESS Resources LCS Access Proxy www Certificate Active Directory Business Unit AD Groups LCS Director LCS Director Enterprise CA Business Unit AD Users INTERNAL ACCESS TLS Global Catalog Server Load Balancer Certificate LCS Enterprise Edition Pool Servers MTLS Certificate MTLS Certificate MTLS Certificate $ IM Archiving Agent Certificate LCS Back-End SQL Servers CLUSTERED LCS IM Archiving Server Figure 1-3 Figure 1-4 shows a diagram depicting a Live Communicati
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications EXTERNAL ACCESS Resources LCS Access Proxy www Certificate Active Directory Business Unit AD Groups LCS Director Enterprise CA Business Unit AD Users INTERNAL ACCESS TLS Global Catalog Server Load Balancer Certificate LCS Enterprise Edition Pool Servers MTLS Certificate MTLS Certificate MTLS Certificate LCS Pool Servers $ IM Archiving Agent Certificate LCS Back-End SQL Servers CLUSTERED LCS IM Archiving Server Figure 1-4 Live Communicati
Chapter 1 in that SQL Server can be clustered for performance and fail-over purposes. SQL Server databases can also be attached to back-end Storage Area Network (SAN) storage systems for even more storage capacity. Figure 1-5 shows a diagram depicting the Live Communications Server Back-End Server within a Live Communications Server environment.
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications Within a Live Communications Server deployment, it is important to place emphasis on back-up and restore services for the Live Communications Server Back-End SQL Servers so that if data is lost on one server, it is available on either the clustered server or back-up tape drive.
Chapter 1 EXTERNAL ACCESS Resources LCS Access Proxy www Certificate Active Directory Business Unit AD Groups LCS Director Enterprise CA Business Unit AD Users INTERNAL ACCESS TLS Global Catalog Server Load Balancer Certificate LCS IM Archiving Service LCS Enterprise Edition Pool Servers MTLS Certificate MTLS Certificate MTLS Certificate $ IM Archiving Agent Certificate LCS Back-End SQL Servers CLUSTERED LCS IM Archiving Server Figure 1-6 Figure 1-7 shows a diagram depicting the Li
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications existing PBX systems by providing Remote Call Control (RCC) to control the phone line in order to receive and make calls using the Communicator 2005 client. No longer are you limited to your desk phone: If you are away from the office, you can still receive calls made to your office line directly from the Communicator 2005 client.
Chapter 1 Introducing Session Initiation Protocol Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is the protocol that Live Communications Server uses to transfer messages between Live Communications Server clients. While this book introduces SIP for its use within Live Communications Server, I recommend that you read the Request for Comment (RFC) 3261, available via the Internet by browsing to www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3261.txt.
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications user1@companyname.com. Properly planning how the company will set SIP URIs for each client will prove useful in later stages of a Live Communications Server deployment and for future use of Microsoft Unified Communications products. SIP Methods Session Initiation Protocol uses its own methods to communicate SIP messages between SIP clients and SIP servers. Similar to other Internet protocols, SIP provides a messaging structure.
Chapter 1 18 SIP Method Method Description INFO The INFO method is used to notify a SIP client about information regarding the contact or contacts with whom a specific contact is initiating a message. For example, in LCS, when a Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 client is Instant Messaging another user, the INFO method is used to indicate whether the other contact is typing a message. The INFO method is also used with 3PCC gateways that allow you to control and view events for your desktop phone.
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 utilizes these SIP methods for client registration and to send messages between clients and servers. Figure 1-8 depicts an example of SIP methods that are used by Microsoft Office Communicator 2005.
Chapter 1 In this example, Dan Willis is sending an invitation to initiate a messaging session with me. If I want to communicate with Dan, even when it’s 2 A.M., I will respond with the following SIP response message: SIP/2.0 200 OK Via: SIP/2.0/UDP workstation1.connectedinnovation.com To: “Joe” ;tag=987 From: “Dan Willis” ;tag=123 Call-ID: 972-555-5555@192.168.1.102 CSeq: 1 INVITE Contact: 192.168.1.
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications EXTERNAL ACCESS Resources LCS Access Proxy TLS Certificate Active Directory Business Unit AD Groups LCS Remote Access via TLS LCS Director Enterprise CA Business Unit AD Users LCS Internal Access via TLS INTERNAL ACCESS TLS Global Catalog Server Load Balancer Certificate LCS Enterprise Edition Pool Servers MTLS Certificate MTLS Certificate MTLS Certificate $ IM Archiving Agent Certificate LCS Back-End SQL Servers CLUSTERED LCS IM Archiving
Chapter 1 Introducing Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 Without the Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 client, Live Communications Server would just be a service.
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications Figure 1-11 Figure 1-12 ❑ Mode Type: With MOC, you can take part in a messaging conversation in one of three modes: handwrite, type, or convert. Tablet PC users now have the option to handwrite their instant messages to contacts, as shown in Figure 1-13.
Chapter 1 Figure 1-13 ❑ Conversation Type: MOC provides the capability to create Instant Messaging, audio/video, or telephony conversations, as shown in Figure 1-14.
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications ❑ Presence: With MOC, contacts are enabled with presence status, which can be modified individually or by using advanced status with direct integration with Microsoft Office 2003, as shown in Figure 1-15. ❑ Application Sharing: MOC provides contacts with the capability to share applications, including the desktop, with one another.
Chapter 1 Figure 1-16 Public Instant Messaging Connectivity Integration One of the most exciting and most anticipated features of Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 is the Public Instant Messaging Connectivity (PIC) service. With PIC, LCS users have the ability to add and contact users of a public network from their Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 client. These conversations are then secured using Mutual Transport Layer Security (MTLS).
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications Although the diagram depicted in Figure 1-17 showcases integration with the three most popular Instant Messaging applications, the Live Communications Server service can integrate with other provisioned public Instant Messaging services as long as the services provide a proxy that allows Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)–based communications.
Chapter 1 Telephony Integration Converged communications is becoming a necessity in today’s marketplace. With Live Communications Server 2005 with Service Pack 1 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2005, organizations now have the ability to integrate telephony features, Instant Messaging, and Audio/Video communications all within one application. Integration with new and legacy PBX systems and PSTN services is provided as an outof-the-box feature with minor configuration.
Introducing Microsoft Unified Communications Figure 1-19 What I personally love about the CoMo client is that I have the capability to search for contacts I do not have in my contacts list on my device, including a list of published numbers for each contact. If you are a geek like me, you purchase a new Microsoft Windows Mobile device as soon as the latest one hits the shelves. What is great about CoMo is that I never have to worry about whether or not I have a contact in my mobile contacts list.