Microsoft^® Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 has a tremendous installation base of users employing OCS SIP-based communications.  However, Microsoft OCS is not natively compatible with SIP trunking. 

Northern Michigan Substance Abuse Services, Inc. (NMSAS) is a great example of how the Ingate SIParator, working hand-in-hand with SIP trunks from BBTelsys, provides the critical integration necessary for SIP trunks to work with Microsoft OCS.

TCP/IP to UDP Conversion

NMSAS was using Microsoft OCS 2007 to converge their voice and data.  Microsoft OCS operates with the customer side facing TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)/IP.  TCP/IP is one of the core protocols used in Unified Communications (UC) and allows for the reliable, ordered transmission of data.

SIP trunks, however, use UDP. The Ingate SIParator E-SBC with SIP Trunk Software module provided a seamless format conversion of TCP/IP to UDP, working hand-in-hand with the BBTelsys service and NMSAS’ existing Microsoft OCS solution. 

The SIParator enables SIP trunking by resolving Network Address Translation (NAT) traversal of SIP traffic. Working with the SIP Trunk Software module, it also normalizes the SIP signaling between the IP-PBX, in this case the Microsoft OCS server, and the BBTelsys service, solving interoperability issues.  The SIParator also secures the voice-over-IP (VoIP) calls made over the SIP trunk.

Advanced Dialing Solutions, for Privacy

As a substance abuse facility, NMSAS offers counseling for clients over the phone. These clients are oftentimes at work; most require absolute privacy about their relationship with NMSAS. NMSAS needed to make sure that, when they called clients, the recipient’s caller ID display would come up as “anonymous.”  Additionally, NMSAS wanted the flexibility of making calls without this “anonymous” option.  

Ingate developed a simple dial plan solution harking back to the days of traditional wireline telephony. When calling a client, NMSAS workers need only dial “8” and then the phone number for the system to display an anonymous caller ID. Regular business-related calls, where an anonymous caller ID is not necessary, are preceded by a “9.”

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