11-01-2002 05:55 PM - edited 03-12-2019 09:23 PM
I am interested in knowing the best practices design of AMIS networking. We have a customer with AMIS and when they send a message to a lot of recipients they are not sent in a single message and then distributed by the receiving system but instead sent one by one. My engineers have stated this is the way AMIS works but I am concerned this limitation will make AMIS an unreasonable migration option for many customers. Can anyone recommend a method for effectively using AMIS as well as point me to any AMIS best practices documents we should consider when designing AMIS voice mail networking?
11-01-2002 09:06 PM
Your engineers are correct. AMIS is a very limited protocol which doesnt scale well. It lacks all of the enhanced functionality that superior analog protocols such as Octel Analog Networking (OctelNet) have. Unfortunately its the only standard that was widely adopted.
Does your customer send the messages to the same subscribers all the time? If so, and if their voicemail system allows for AMIS messages to be sent to groups of users, you might get some relief going that route. Otherwise you dont really have any other options.
Can their current voicemail system do OctelNet or VPIM? Unity can support OctelNet with the use of the Unity Bridge and Unity 4.0 will support VPIM.
Most of our AMIS information is available at this URL:
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_unity/unity31/net/net313gg/net_0400.htm
I am working on a Cisco Press book with others that will cover networking design but that is still quite a ways off.
Hope that helps...
Keith
11-02-2002 06:59 AM
We have to explore the question further about the types of recipients, I was under the impression the AMIS enabled systems would be able to take a message once and distribute it internally to multiple people more like an e-mail system. However, I now have to ask a little more about the routing and transfers they expect to be using.
I am also not sure on the VPIM and OctelNet. It is Intuity and I am not familiar with the networking options other than AMIS available for that particular system. Is VPIM another voice mail networking protocol?
I also have our own network we are integrating to and migrating to Cisco IP Telephony. We have a Nortel Meridian voice mail system and I planned to use AMIS for this. Are there other options to network such as VPIM or something that we should consider?
11-02-2002 02:15 PM
If a Unity subscriber sends a single message to 5 AMIS recipients, it needs to send the message 5 times, even if the recipients are on the same system.
I am working on a project that is using Intuity as well. My customer is using the Avaya Intuity Interchange hub. In Unity 3.1.3, Cisco added support for AMIS networking to this system.
For your internal network, you have a couple of options. I'm not sure how far you are into the current migration, but you might want to install Unity as a dual-switch integration. You can have Unity provide voicemail for both your CallManager and your Nortel users. This way, there isn't any VM networking required. This integration requires the PBXLink box and a dialogic interface in the Unity server to support the Nortel PBX. Once you are 100% on telephony, the additional hardware is no longer needed (although it may be a nice addition to your toolbox for future Nortel migrations). Here is a link:
I haven't tried networking Unity to Meridian Mail. It is possible that you are using Octel on your Nortel. If so, you should be able to use AMIS. An even better option with Octel is the Cisco Unity Bridge.
Here is a link to Unity Networking, including AMIS and Bridge:
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_unity/unity31/net/net313gg/index.htm
11-03-2002 09:38 AM
Thanks. I did confirm we have Meridian Mail. I also have considered a dual integration but I think we plan to do this as a phase II shortly after initially tying the systems together. I am using the dual integration approach for some customers on Siemens and Avaya system as well as another Nortel in process. On the Meridian, is AMIS an option you are aware of? You mentioned with Octel it would be an option but do you think Meridian Mail is a problem with AMIS for simple and basic networking?
11-03-2002 04:28 PM
AMIS Networking to Meridian Mail is not supported with Unity. See the following link for Unity's system requirements and supported hardware and software:
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_unity/sysreq/31_sysrq.htm
I do not know why Meridian Mail is not a supported AMIS option. It is possible that Meridian Mail does not support AMIS, or that their implementation of the AMIS standard is not compatible with Unity.
11-05-2002 07:14 AM
Cisco Unity support for AMIS with Meridian Mail will be announced very soon, probably in the next couple weeks.
11-04-2002 05:04 PM
VPIM is an SMTP based networking protocol. In short, the messages are sent over email between the voicemail systems.
Since it's SMTP based, you don't need phone lines, etc to transfer messages and it scales quite well.
We plan to support VPIM in Unity 4.0 in conjunction with the following voicemail products:
-Avaya Interchange
-Mitel NuPoint Messenger
-Nortel CallPilot
-Nortel Meridian Mail with NetGateway
Please note that all of the above is subject to change since Unity 4.0 is an unreleased product.
Keith
Find answers to your questions by entering keywords or phrases in the Search bar above. New here? Use these resources to familiarize yourself with the community: