Mitel Simplifies VoIP with LLDP-MED-Ready Open Standard

Some interesting news to share from Mitel claiming to be the first to use the LLDP-MED standard. This standard aims to improve deployment and ongoing management of VoIP endpoints as well as provide a standardized way of locating VoIP endpoints in an emergency, i.e. what building, what floor, what area, etc. each VoIP phone is located. (database-dependent)

Mitel Delivers Open Standards to Simplify VoIP Deployments First to Market with LLDP-MED-Ready Open Standard

Mitel, a leading provider of communications solutions, today announced it has released a standards-ready implementation of the Telecommunications Industry Association's Link Layer Discovery Protocol for Media Endpoint Discovery (LLDP-MED) as part of Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform's latest release. The protocol greatly simplifies the deployment and ongoing management of VoIP endpoints, as well as providing a fully standardized way to locate such endpoints as part of enhancing Emergency Call Service capabilities in enterprise VoIP networks.

Based on IEEE 802.1AB "Link Layer Discovery Protocol", LLDP-MED extends the standard to specifically focus on the needs of VoIP to allow simplified provisioning, ease of administration and several valuable new discovery capabilities. The new LLDP-MED standard enables the following key values:

- auto-discovery of Quality of Service LAN policies (such as VLAN, Layer 2 Priority and Diffserv settings), leading to "plug and play" VoIP networking,
- device location discovery, critical to reporting location of the end user in emergency calling and other location dependant applications, as well as maintaining integrity of the location database,
- extended and automated power management of Power over Ethernet endpoints, including fine-grained power budgeting and priority settings,
- inventory management, allowing network administrators to track their VoIP devices, and determine their characteristics (manufacturer, software and hardware versions, serial / asset number)
- "fast start" mechanisms, considered important for VoIP devices to come fully into service in a timely fashion.

"LLDP-MED standardizes VoIP discovery on the network to greatly simplify management and facilitate integration into any network environment," said Jim Davies, Chief Technology Officer, Mitel. "This allows customers to implement VoIP based on open standards, without having to lock into a one vendor environment."

Mitel aligns with other industry leaders to provide powerful, flexible and robust solutions to meet the needs of any environment and any customer. With IP communications products designed to work on virtually any LAN/WAN infrastructure, Mitel customers have the choice and flexibility to easily customize solutions to their individual business needs.

LLDP-MED was formally ratified through the TIA standards process in November, and is expected to be published as ANSI/TIA-1057 shortly. Mitel, as Editor of the specification, led the LLDP-MED standard definition and adoption effort in collaboration with other industry vendors.