Presence feature on 4.0.1B

[amobley118]

I am currently testing out the presence feature on a SoundPoint IP 670 and a VVX 1500, both running 4.0.1B, in an Asterisk environment.  I have been able to get the phones to suscribe to the Asterisk server and monitor a buddy, as well as display the "MyStat" and "Buddies" soft keys.  

What I can't figure out, is how to get the phones to publish/update their status on the Asterisk server.  Currently, each phone shows the other's status as "Online."  When I change that to say "Away" it is not updated on the server.  I ran a packet capture on both phones and confirmed that neither one is sending any kind of SIP message to Asterisk when the status is changed.  I would expect to see a SIP PUBLISH or maybe a NOTIFY here but, alas, I see nothing at all.

I currently have the following config on the phones as outlined in the 4.0.1B Admin guide.

 <feature feature.presence.enabled="1">
  </ feature>
  
  <pres pres.idleSoftkeys="1" pres.reg="1">
  </ pres>

I feel like I am missing somthing here.  Any ideas?

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hi amobley,

if I remember correctly Presence is usually only used for Microsoft® Live Communications Server 2005 or Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

In addition there is a Nortel Variant described in the UCS 4.0.1 Admin Guide.

I never tested presence / Buddy watch on an Asterisk 1.6 as I usually use BLF.

It may be worth checking via your Reseller with Polycom Support as I am on Holiday until the next year and wont have the time to check internally.

Best Regards

Steffen Baier

Polycom Global Services 

[amobley118]

I did notice that in the earlier versions of 4.0, the Admin Guide stated that presense was only supported on Microsoft but that it would be opened up in later versions. The Admin guide for 4.0.1B does not imply that only Microsoft is supported.  

Compatibility issues aside, I am wondering why the phone is not even making an attempt to update its status.  There is no PUBLISH, no NOTIFY, nothing.  I would expect for the phone to send somthing despite what platform it is connected to.

I will check out that note on Nortel, perhaps there are some clues there.

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hello amobley,

usually it would send a SUBSCRIBE at the beginning but without looking at the trace or replicating this in the Lab I won't know.

This is outside the scope of the Community and you may want to liaise with your Polycom Reseller.

Best Regards

Steffen Baier

Polycom Global Services

[Anonymous]

I was puzzled with the same question but finally got it worked.

The thing is Polycom phones perform end-to-end subscription to presence event.

It worked when I changed the routing configuration to simply relay the SUBSCRIBE request to the monitored device.

(I'm using OpenSER as SIP proxy.)

My conclusion is that Polycom devices do not support complete presence features as outlined in RFC 3856.

Well, UC Admin's Guide does say the following:

"In a future release, support for the Presence and Instant Message recommendations in the SIP Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) proposals will be provided by the following Internet drafts or their successors:
• draft-ietf-simple-cpim-mapping-01
• draft-ietf-simple-presence-07

..."

But why it mentions the draft..? "draft-ietf-simple-presence" has been replaced by RFC 3856 in 2004!

[Anonymous]

That is a great idea. I have tried that and it is working great. 

Do you happen to have any ideas for SLA/BLA with the Polycom phones and Openser/Kamailio? Just have kamailio reley the messages for that too?

Has anyone tried it?