Avaya's 9600 Series One-X IP Phones

Once saddled with a reputation for complexity, voice over IP is now becoming easier to use. Avaya's new 9600 series one-X IP phones have high-quality voice codecs and well-designed, context-sensitive menus to improve the end-user VoIP experience.

Avaya isn't the only vendor to tackle these areas. Polycom offers context-sensitive menus on its phones, Siemens has a similar peer-to-peer solution, and many telephony vendors offer soft clients for mobile phones. Avaya's dominant market position in North America, however, lends additional force to these technological advancements.

Avaya sent a G250 Media Gateway with Communication Manager 3.1; two 9600 series one-X IP phones, the 9620 and 9630, with 16 MB of Flash memory and 32 MB of RAM, and two current-generation 4610SW IP phones for comparison. The one-X brand aims to provide a consistent experience on various phone models, from the 9600 and Quick Edition series (see Avaya one-X Quick Edition) to Avaya soft phones and their Nokia Mobile Client.

Unlike Avaya's 4610SW IP phones, the 9620 and 9630 come with the G.722 codec, providing wide-band audio with improved tone and higher volume speech. The codec, an ITU-T standard, converts audio signals at a rate of 16 KHz sampling, twice the rate of conventional telephony interfaces. The clear, high-quality voice calls rival those of Polycom's Siren codec (G.722.1). Both new models have better tone quality and speech volume than Avaya's 4610SW IP phones.

To get the phones' full benefit, you may need to upgrade your IP PBX. Communication Manager 3.0 supports the new H.323 IP phones, but the enhanced codec requires version 3.1.

More UsabilityAvaya's new IP phones make it easy to visualize and execute phone features. First, LEDs are used with hard keys and buttons that let the speaker mute a call and/or enable a headset. When a feature is enabled, the LED is lit--a small but convenient detail. No more wondering whether your IP phone is muted.

Second, Avaya cut the clutter. By using context-sensitive menus, Avaya reduced the number of hard and soft keys on the phone to make for an elegant user interface. The new style brings it up to par with Polycom's SoundPoint IP phones.

In contrast, the older 4610SW IP phones mix call features with appearances and make it difficult to use the limited LCD display (1.5x3 inches). The new IP phones use the same size display, but make better use of the real estate. When the phone is firmly in its cradle, the LCD simply displays basic information, such as time, date, three call appearances, and the ability to send all calls to a configurable location such as voicemail or a cell phone.

When an incoming call beckons, new options such as "An-swer," "Send to V-Mail," and "Ignore" appear. Choose "Ignore," and the call will go to voicemail or another location as if you did not answer the phone. Once calls are placed or received, options such as "Hold," "Conference," "Transfer," and "Drop" appear on the display. No more searching for a hard key.

The phone's hard keys provide quick access to voicemail, call logs and up to 250 contacts stored on the phone. Contacts can be imported from a PC or generated from call logs.The phone also supports an LDAP lookup to an enterprise directory. Like the 4610SW IP phone, the 9600 series' "Phone" hard key makes it possible to return to the main display interface with just the touch of the button, to view call appearances without cascading back through menus.

The 9620 and 9630 models support 12- and 24-line appearances, respectively, and a button box for extra display space. A hard switch beneath the phone allows you to change Power Over Ethernet be-tween IEEE Classes 1-2 and 3, and each unit is available with or without a standard power supply.

The phones come with a USB interface to connect external keyboards and headsets. For users who can't live without a mobile headset, a Bluetooth adapter will be out later this year along with gigabit and Wi-Fi adapters.

The Avaya 9600 IP phone series ultimately will include six models, ranging in functionality from a basic phone designed for public use to one with operator features. The 9620 and 9630 are geared for knowledge workers and executives, and show Avaya's commitment to good design, elegance and simplicity.

Sean Doherty is a contributing editor to Network Computing. Write to him at [email protected].Avaya one-X Quick EditionAvaya's VoIP simplification mission doesn't stop with the end user. Small enterprises that want to set up IP PBXs can quickly turn to the SIP-based one-X Quick Edition.

This software, which is built into the company's 4610SW IP phones, lets you assemble a peer-to-peer system, complete with voicemail, a call attendant and group calling, for up to 20 phones.

Avaya sent us three 4610SW IP telephones. Unpacking the phones and plugging them into a LAN switch with in-line power (Power over Ethernet) was the most difficult part of setting up this phone system. After the first phone booted, it prompted us to create a site and change the default password. We added a user name to the phone, and the phone was ready to send and receive calls and record voicemail. Once the other phones booted on to the same LAN, we could add them to the site, set the user name and have a complete SIP-based phone system in minutes.

Setting up the Quick Edition phone system took approximately 10 minutes. We spent another few minutes bringing up an FXO (foreign exchange office) gateway. Immediately, outside callers were greeted by an auto-attendant ready to deliver calls by extension or dialing the party's last name. To maintain the system's simplicity and avoid QoS issues, Avaya set a maximum of 20 phones. Larger enterprise setups can move to the company's IP Office product. Starts at $1,345 with two phones and the PSTN gateway.