MOH and SoftPhone

[yuenme]

MOH fails to work when softphone A put softphone B on hold. The followings are verified:

- CM 3.1

- Both devices are configured to use "samplevoice" as source for user hold and network hold

- MOH source 1 is defined

- MOH server colocates with the call manager. Multicast is enabled/disabled for testing purpose

Any advice is welcome.

[dgoodwin]

Are either of the SoftPhones configured to be in a Location other than "None" on the CTI Port configuration in CCMAdmin? If so, please read the Release Notes for 3.1(1) at the URL below.

If you are running into this, 3.1(2) will resolve the issue and in the meantime you can put your held device into Location "None" and it will work.

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_callmg/3_1/rel_note/311ccmrl.htm

[yuenme]

Yes, I'm aware of the caveat and "location" is set to none. However the tool/stat does not allow me to isolate the problem. The information I can gather includes:

- MOH server has successfully registered into CallManager and IP address is assigned (They colocate in the same h/w)

- MRG and MRG list are defined. MRG list has been added to the "device pool" in which both softphones enroll (I interpret that only the held party selects the MRG list and holding party determines the audio source ID) Anyway I give everything to them

- IP Streaming Apps service is up and running

- No multicast is enabled

- Both phones can communicate successfully

- However there is a problem on the sound driver in the CallManager/MOH Server that it cannot play the .wav. I assume it is irrelevant as the audio should be reproduced in the softphone. Let me know if my assumption is wrong.

I needs some organized tools that can isolate the problem. I have tried:

- Phone trace in CallManager

- Skinny Station and MOH server trace in IP Streaming Apps

But I cannot see any signalling handshake during on hold. Maybe someone can show me how to use stat / trace to tackle this case.

Yuenme

[dgoodwin]

You need to turn on detailed tracing for both CallManager and IP Voice Media Streamer. Then if you look in the trace directory you will see one folder for CCM traces and another called CMS which contains the IP Voice Media Streamer traces.

Also, just out of curiosity, have you tried to put a hardware phone (e.g. 7960) on hold to make sure it works?

[yuenme]

Resolved! It is the conflict of codec. Both softphones are under the region with G729 for intra-regional connection. However the MOH server has default codec of G.711, as verified from the "Service Parameters". Once I change the region codec back to G.711, it works.

However I notice some issues with SDI trace. It does show MTP error when problems happen. However it does not show the name of MRG list being used and any codec related warning. Maybe I should look at other traces and pls let me know.

It is an interesting problem. Thanks for help.

Yuenme

[dgoodwin]

Also note that you can enable G.711 and G.729 for MOH at the same time. If you go to Service Parameters for IP Voice Media Streamer and click Advanced, you can select which codecs are allowed for MOH, and hold down the Control key to select multiple codecs.