Registration group considerations for Interaction SIP Bridge

In Customer Interaction Center, registration groups define Customer Interaction Center network entities to which managed IP telephones can register for sending and receiving SIP messages. When you define an Interaction SIP Bridge workstation using Interaction Administrator, you select a registration to associate with it. The following list provides the Customer Interaction Center network entities that you can assign to a registration group:

• SIP lines

• A SIP registration server

• Interaction SIP Proxy servers

You can add multiple entities to the registration group for redundancy considerations. For example, if you define a registration group with a Customer Interaction Center SIP line as the first entity and an Interaction SIP Proxy server as the second entity, Interaction SIP Bridge will attempt to register to the second entity if the first is unavailable.

For some of these network entities, you can define a port number and a transport layer protocol within the registration group. For other network entities, such as SIP lines, you must configure the port number and transport layer protocol in the SIP line definition. Customer Interaction Center supports the following types of transport layer protocols:

• Telecommunications Protocol (TCP) This transport layer protocol requires the endpoint that receives the IP packets to provide confirmation when the IP packet arrives.

• User Datagram Protocol (UDP) With this transport layer protocol, IP packets are transmitted only once. The receiving endpoint does not send receipt confirmations.

• Transport Layer Security (TLS) TLS is an application layer protocol that encrypts IP packets. It typically uses TCP as the transport layer protocol.

The default Customer Interaction Center registration groups, <Default Registration Group> and <Default Secure Registration Group>, use the <Stations-UDP> and <Stations-TLS> default SIP lines.

For managed IP telephones that send communications within private networks that do not use WAN links or the Internet, UDP is a viable solution. Typically, private networks rarely have problems with dropped packets or other transmission problems. However, a managed IP telephone that you associate with an Interaction SIP Bridge workstation transmits communications through the LAN of the remote agent across a VPN connection over the Internet to the network connected to the Customer Interaction Center server. In this scenario, there is an increased possibility of dropped packets.

For Interaction SIP Bridge registration groups, consider either creating a new SIP line that uses the TCP transport layer protocol or using the default <Stations-TCP> SIP line. You can then assign that TCP-based SIP line to a registration group created specifically for Interaction SIP Bridge workstations.

For more information about registration groups and managed IP telephones, see Interaction Administrator Help.