TABLE OF CONTENTS OCS 2007 conferences provide rich multimedia experiences that include data collaboration, group IM, audio and video, and multiparty audio conferencing. For each media type there is a corresponding conferencing server, or multipoint control unit (MCU), that manages and coordinates the use of that media type during the course of a meeting. OCS 2007 ships with four conferencing servers:
IM Conferencing Server Provides server-managed group IM
Web Conferencing Server Enables multiparty data collaboration
A/V Conferencing Server Enables audio conferencing and videoconferencing
Telephony Conferencing Server Enables audio conference integration with audio conferencing providers (ACPs)
The IM Conferencing Server and Telephony Conferencing Server always run as separate processes on the Standard Edition server or Enterprise Edition Front-End Server. The Web Conferencing Server and A/V Conferencing Server can optionally be deployed on separate computers within an Enterprise pool.
With both the OCS 2007 Standard and Enterprise editions, the Front-End Server is responsible for the following tasks:
Handling signaling among servers and between servers and clients
Authenticating users and maintaining user data, including all user endpoints
Routing VoIP calls within the enterprise and to the PSTN
Initiating on-premises conferences and managing conference state
Providing enhanced presence information to clients
Routing IM and conferencing traffic
Managing conferencing media
Hosting applications
Filtering SPIM (unsolicited commercial IM traffic)
An edge server is an...
