Monthly Archives: July 2018

Direct Routing Configuration With Microsoft Teams and AudioCodes Virtual SBC (Part 2)

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In this article, i’m going to cover the configuration that involves in configuring the AudioCodes Mediant VE (Virtual Edition) with Microsoft Teams using Direct Routing. Let’s start with the required ingredient list;

  1. Certified SBC for Direct Routing. In my case, it’s AudioCodes Mediant VE, version 7.20A.156.028 (Newer Firmware versions will require dedicated Teams License in SBC)
  2. AudioCodes SBC and Teams licenses
  3. Public Certificate with a SAN record with the host name of the SBC (.pfx file).
  4. Public IP address
  5. Firewall Rules
  6. Public DNS Record

SBC Deployment Topology

Just to explain a bit about the supporting infrastructure for the SBC, specifically Network layer, the SBC is configured as a multi homed devise where one interface is in DMZ and the other interface is in LAN network. The reason for this setup is to secure the corporate network from potential threats from in the internet. As one of the Gateway interfaces will be opened to the internet, it’s recommended to follow this process.

SBC it self is a secured devise. So nothing other than allowed SIP traffic can be passed on to the corporate network.

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Public DNS and Firewall rules

A set of Firewall rules need to be defined, so that Teams SIP Proxy can communicate with the SBC. At Teams end, there are 3 Sip Proxies. Those are, sip.pstnhub.microsoft.com (Global FQDN), sip2.pstnhub.microsoft.com (Fail over FQDN), sip3.pstnhub.microsoft.com (Fail over FQDN). These DNS records resolve to below IP addresses;

  • 52.114.148.0
  • 52.114.132.46
  • 52.114.75.24
  • 52.114.76.76
  • 52.114.7.24
  • 52.114.14.70

The required firewall rules for SIP Signalling are below;

Traffic From To Source port Destination port
SIP/TLS SIP Proxy SBC 1024 – 65535 Defined on the SBC
SIP/TLS SBC SIP Proxy Defined on the SBC 5061

In this setup, we’ll be using the SBC Source port as port 5067.  Firewall rules that are required for Media are below;

Traffic From To Source port Destination port
UDP/SRTP Media Processor SBC 49152 – 53247 Defined on the SBC
UDP/SRTP SBC Media Processor Defined on the SBC 49152 – 53247

The Media port range that we’ll be using in the SBC will be the range 6000 – 6499. The IP rage within Teams that allocated for Media is;

  • 52.112.0.0 /14 (IP addresses from 52.112.0.1 to 52.115.255.254).

It also requires a public DNS record configured for the IP public address that is used for DMZ interface in SBC. The public IP address can be NAT to an internal DMZ IP or, the Public IP address can be directly configured on the SBC’s DMZ interface and configure the Firewall in DMZ to control traffic.

In this setup, as i have my SBC in Azure, in’m using a NATed public IP on my DMZ interface of the SBC. And i have a DNS record configured to resolve the host name sbc.uctechie.com, against that IP address.

SBC Network Configuration

AudioCodes Mediant VE is now available as an App to be deployed in Azure. If you log in to Azure portal, you can find the app and deploy it the way you want. In this setup, I’m using AudioCodes Mediant VE app in Azure. I’m not going to cover the steps for SBC provisioning in Azure in this article.

Let’s start with configuring the network component. The LAN adapter will be already configured and accessible by now. Configure the WAN interface with a DMZ IP address as shown below;

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The LAN interface must be configured to use OAMP+Media+Control applications, while the WAN interface should only do Media+Control. Both interfaces should be in dedicated VLANs. The network connectivity should looks like below;

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Next, move to configure DNS. I need to configure SRV record for Teams proxy as it uses multiple host names and IP addresses. Only way to handle this within the SBC, is to configure a SRV record and configure each proxy address within the SRV it self.  Navigate to Setup> IP Network> DNS > Internal SRV, and create a SRV record for teams.local as shown below;

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Configure Certificates

As Microsoft Teams will only use TLS and it’s connected over the Internet, a public certificate must be used in the SBC to establish TLS sessions. My public certificate contains a SAN record for the SBC;

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I will be using the above mentioned .pfx file of the public certificate here. Navigate to Setup> IP Network> Security> TLS Context, edit the default context entry and configure as mentioned below;

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Once the configuration have been saved, navigate to “Change Certificate” in the same window to upload the .pfx file.

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Before uploading the certificate, check the “Private Key Size” is configured as 2048 and not 1024. If it’s set to 1024, then change that to 2048 from the drop-down and click on “Generate Private-Key”. This process might take couple of seconds to complete. It’ll show as “New Private Key Configured” on the same window, upon successful configuration.

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Now, we can upload the certificate. Notice the “Upload Certificate Files from Your Computer” section. Specify the Private Key pass-Phrase in the specified box. Click on “Browse” and load the .pfx file.

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Once the certificate have been successfully uploaded, navigate back to “TLS Context” and click on “Certificate Information”. Confirm that the recently uploaded public certificate shows up with the “Status : OK”.

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Go back and click on “Trusted Root Certificates”  and confirm that the Root CA and subordinate CAs for public certificate appears there.If not, just import the files in.

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Configure Core Components

First thing to do is, to configure the Time and Date in the SBC. Navigate to Setup> Administration>TIME & DATE, configure the Primary NTP server and UTC Offset values. Usually, the NTP server is the Domain Controller. Capture

Next is to configure the SRD. There should be a default SRD configured. I’m going to use that one. Navigate to Setup> Signalling & Media > Core Entities> SRDs, configure the default SRD with highlighted values as shown below;Capture1

After the SRD, let’s configure a SIP Interface to be used with Teams. Navigate to Setup> Signalling & Media> SIP Interfaces, configure an Interface for Teams as mentioned below;

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Moving on to configure the Media Realm, navigate to Setup> Signalling & Media >Core Entities> Media Realms. Change the “Default Realm” and create a new Realm as “Teams” as shown below;

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Now to configure Proxy Sets, navigate to Setup> Signaling and Media> Proxy Sets, configure a Proxy set to be used with Teams as shown below;

Another bit to do here. Click on “Proxy Addresses 0 items” link in the bottom of the same window. Configure a Proxy address to connect to Teams as sown below;

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Now, i need to create an IP profile to be associated with the Teams IP Group. Navigate to Setup> Signaling & Media> Coders & Profiles> IP Profiles, Create a new profile with the configuration as shown below;

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Moving on to configure the Audio Coders. The required coders for the integration with Teams are

  • SILK Wide Band
  • SILK Narrow Band
  • G.711 A
  • G.711 U

By default, G.711 A and G.711 U is included within the SBC. In order to enable SILK codecs, the Transcoding license is required.

Note : SILK Codecs are recommended as the preferred codecs to be used for the integration. Missing those, G.711 A law will still work. But will not be as optimized as  using SILK Codecs. To configure Coders, navigate to Setup> Signaling and Media> Coders & Profiles> Coders Groups. Edit the existing Group _0 and add Codecs in above mentioned order

(my Lab setup does not have Transcoding licenses and i’ll be using only G.711 A and U laws. In production environment, make sure to procure the required license).

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Next step is to configure an IP Group to be used for Teams. Navigate to Setup> Signaling & Media> Core Entities> IP Groups, configure the IP Group as shown below;

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Media and SBC

Now we are done with the core configuration. Moving in to configure Media components. Starting by enabling Media Security and SRTP. Navigate to Setup> Signalling & Media>  Media> Media Security. Configure the parameters as shown below;

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Also,

  • in Setup> Signalling & Media>  Media> RTP/RTCP Settings, Configure “Comfort Noise Generation Negotiation” to be Enabled.
  • in Setup> Signalling & Media>  Media> Voice Settings, Configure “Silence Suppression” to be Enabled.

We need a Message Condition Rule, that need to be assign with the Classification. TO configure the Message Condition, navigate to Setup> Signaling & Media>  SBC> Message Manipulation> Message Conditions, configure a condition as shown below;

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Next to do is the SBC component configuration. Navigate to Setup> Signaling & Media>  SBC> Classification, configure inbound connections from Teams to be classified as allowed and trusted source. Configure the Classification as shown below;

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Next is to configure a Route to allow OPTIONS requests to flow between Teams Proxy and SBC. Navigate to Setup> Signaling & Media> SBC> IP-to-IP Routing and configure a route as shown below;

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Now, we need to do a SIP Header manipulation. The reason behind this is, the standard OPTIONS request, the FROM header consist of the IP address of the SBC it self. Since Teams only allow TLS connections, which is based on the device host name, the IP address need to be replaced with the host name. To do this, configure a Header Manipulation rule as shown below;

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Now, we need to enable this Manipulation set and assign to the Teams IP Group. To enable the Manipulation set, browse to http://<SBC IP Address/AdminPage and configure the value as mentioned below;

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Go back to the IP Group configuration and confirm that the “Outbound Message Manipulation Set” is configured with the proper value;

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Finally, we are done with the configuration. If all works well, you should see a green check mark on “Teams” IP Group in Topology View;

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Also, if you go to Monitor> Monitor> VOIP Status> Proxy Sets Status, all Proxies should come up as “Online” and the active one would be marked as (*);

Capture32Now, i’m good to make a test call from my Teams client. I’ll be calling my test mobile, which i have a route configured (in my previous blog post) to allow Mobile calls to this SBC;

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And we have an inbound call from Teams, coming in to the SBC. Notice the IP address of the inbound SIP message and the User Agent header in the message. The call comes from Teams proxy server. We can confirm that we have a functional integration between Microsoft Teams and Mediant VE SBC. Please post any comments that you have in comment section below. Thanks.

Direct Routing Configuration With Microsoft Teams and AudioCodes Virtual SBC (Part 1)

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Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams have become General Available a week a ago. In this article, i’m going to go through step-by-step instructions on how to configure Microsoft Teams with AudioCodes Mediant VE Session Border Controller (SBC) using Direct Routing. I’m going to brake this in to 2 sections as it’s going to get lengthy.

  1. Configure Microsoft Teams for Direct Routing.
  2. Configure AudioCodes Medinat VE for Direct Routing with Teams

This post will cover the Microsoft Teams end configuration and getting a Teams user enable for Enterprise Voice.

Let’s begin. 1st things first. The most important component, License. The users that you are plan to enable for Direct Routing, must have a “Microsoft Phone System” license enabled. Or have an E5 License which have Phone System license added by default. Below are the possible license options;

  • Office 365 Enterprise E3 (including SfB Plan2, Exchange Plan2, and Teams) + Phone System
  • Office 365 Enterprise E5 (including SfB Plan2, Exchange Plan2, Teams, and Phone System)

In my setup, i have assigned my test user with an E3 license + the Phone System license.

Teams12

Moving on to Tenant configuration. For this, you will need to Powershell in to Skype for Business Online. If you don’t have that set up already, follow this article from Microsoft to set it up. Once setup, run below commands to connect to Skype for Business Online;

Import-Module MSOnline
Connect-MsolService -Credential $credential
Import-Module LyncOnlineConnector
$lyncSession = New-CsOnlineSession -Credential $cred
Import-PSSession $lyncSession -allowClobber

You will need to provide Tenant Admin credentials to log in.

Creating and Pairing the Gateway

After logging in, the first thing to do it to pair the SBC. Run the command below to confirm that the required commands are available to configure and manage Gateways.

gcm *onlinePSTNGateway*Teams13

Create the Gateway and pair with the tenant. Run below command to create the Gateway.

New-CsOnlinePSTNGateway -Fqdn <SBC FQDN> -SipSignallingPort <SBC SIP Port> -MaxConcurrentSessions <Max Concurrent Sessions the SBC can handle> -Enabled $true

New-CsOnlinePSTNGateway -Fqdn SBC.uctechie.com -SipSignallingPort 5067 -MaxConcurrentSessions 100 -Enabled $true

Newly configured Gateway looks as below;Teams14

Next is to configure Dial Plans, PSTN Usages and Voice Routes. Let’s start with the Dial Plan.

Creating Dialplans

In this step, i’ll explain how to create an online Dialplan with couple of sample normalization rules. This configuration is valid for both Teams, as well as Skype for Business Online. You still need Powershell to configure this and have a Powershell session connected to Skype for Business Online.

As for the normalization rule, you need to have an understanding of general number dialing formats\habits within the organization. As an example, in Australia, we dial mobile numbers as 045xxxxxxx and local Perth (Western Australian) numbers as 9xxxxxx. But, these number formats are not supported within either Teams or Skype for Business. These different number formats must be normalized in to universal E.164 format, which Teams and Skype understands.

Taking above example formats, you need the mobile numbers to convert to +6145xxxxxxx and Perth numbers to+6189xxxxxxx, to make them compatible. This is where the number normalization rules comes in. Purpose of the normalization rule, is to convert\normalize the dialed number in to a different format. For Microsoft UC platforms, number normalization is based on Regular Expressions. You need to make your self familiar with Regex to come up with a correct normalization rules to convert the numbers.

If you are not familiar with Regex, then i would recommend below blog from Ken Lasko as study material.

http://ucken.blogspot.com/2017/04/tenant-dial-plans-in-skype-for-business.html 

Getting back to the topic at hand, i have created 2 Normalization rules to normalize Mobile numbers, as well ad local Perth numbers. The command that i ran to configure them are below.  This command not only create the rules, but add them in to the Global as well.

$rule1 = New-CsVoiceNormalizationRule -Parent Global -Name AU-Mobile -Description “Australia Mobile Numbers” -Pattern ‘^0([45]\d{8})$’ -Translation ‘+61$1’ -InMemory
$rule2 = New-CsVoiceNormalizationRule -Parent Global -Name AU-Local -Description “Perth Local Numbers” -Pattern ‘^([2-9]\d{7})$’ -Translation ‘+618$1’ -InMemory
Set-CsTenantDialPlan -Identity Global -NormalizationRules @{add=$rule1,$rule2}Teams10

Online PSTN Usage 

This section, i’m going to talk a bit about PSTN Usage and what it’s for. In simpler terms, PSTN Usage is the component that allows a certain number to route in to a configure Gateway.  If you are already familiar with Skype for Business Enterprise Voice, then you know that the 3 components,  PSTN Usage, PSTN Route and Voice Policy are working together to either allow or deny from users making PSTN calls.

In Teams, it’s still the same. Create the PSTN usage records for the number formats that you want. I have created a record to allow Mobile numbers dial out to PSTN. Command to run to create the usage records are;

Set-CsOnlinePstnUsage -Identity Global -Usage @{Add=”AU-Mobile”}Teams3

Online Voice Route 

As i explained in above PSTN Usage section, Voice Route and PSTN Usage goes hand in hand to allow calls to be route out to PSTN. A voice route is assigned with a PSTN Gateway, that the call need to be sent to. In the voice route configuration, a normalization rule need to be defined to allow the number pattern. This rule can be strictly configured to allow only a certain number pattern can be routed out. Or, allow any number to be routed out. In other words, voice route can be used as a controlling mechanism to prevent certain number formats from dialing out.

In my setup, i have only created a route to allow Mobile number. Command to create the route mentioned below;

New-CsOnlineVoiceRoute -Identity “AU-Mobile” -NumberPattern “^\+61(45(\d{7}))$” -OnlinePstnGatewayList sbc.uctechie.com -Priority 2 -OnlinePstnUsages “AU-Mobile“Teams4

Online Voice Routing Policy

Voice Routing policy is the component that controls what numbers that the end users can dial. Online Voice Policy will have Online PSTN Usage records added to allow certain number patterns to dial out to PSTN via the PSTN Gateway.

There can be many Online Voice Routing policies with different set of PSTN Usage records assigned. Assigning these different policies to end users allows to control what numbers they can or cannot dial.

In my setup, i have only created an Online Voice Routing Policy and added the PSTN Usage record that i created to allow Mobile numbers to dial out. Command to create the Voice Routing Policy mentioned below;

New-CsOnlineVoiceRoutingPolicy “AU-AllCalls” -OnlinePstnUsages “AU-Mobile”Teams5

Assign Voice Routing Policy to users and enable for Enterprise Voice

We are almost there. In this section, i will explain how to enable users for an existing Voice Routing Policy and enable for Enterprise Voice. I’m going to enable my test user for the previously created Voice Routing Policy called “AU-AllCalls”. Run the below command to enable the user;

Grant-CsOnlineVoiceRoutingPolicy -Identity “Thamara WIjesinghe” -PolicyName “AU-AllCalls”Teams6

Now, i have my test user configured with the Voice Routing Policy, i will enable the user for Enterprise Voice. Run the command below to enable the user. Note that the OnPremLineURI should be the user’s DID number in E.164 format.

Set-CsUser -Identity thamaraw@uctechie.com -EnterpriseVoiceEnabled $true -HostedVoiceMail $true -OnPremLineURI tel:+61893423245Teams9

Configure Teams and Set Teams as preferred calling client

In this section, i allow my test Teams user to allow calling and set the Teams client as the preferred client for calling. If an environment that both Skype for Business and Teams enabled, Skype for Business will be the preferred calling client.

Once Teams have been enabled with calling capabilities, that need to change. Teams client must be the preferred calling client. Below commands set Teams users to allow calling and set Teams client as preferred calling client;

Grant-CsTeamsInteropPolicy -PolicyName DisallowOverrideCallingTeamsChatTeams -Identity thamaraw@uctechie.com

Grant-CsTeamsCallingPolicy -PolicyName Tag:AllowCalling -Identity thamaraw@uctechie.comTeams7

At this point, we are all set. If you login to Teams client, the Dial Pad will appear on the client that allows you to dial numbers. Try dialing the number patterns that you have configured normalizing rules for ans see if they normalize properly. Teams11

As i mentioned above, i’ll be doing another article to configure the AudioCodes SBC to allow calls to go out to the PSTN. Stay tuned and all comments and feedback are welcome.