Updated: July 10, 2020 (October 15, 2007)

Scaling Voice and Video

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

Communications Server components can run on separate load-balanced server farms to provide redundancy and improve performance. Shown here is a simplified view of the “expanded configuration” supported by Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition. For voice and video, the component responsibilities are as follows:

Front End servers perform Session Initiation Protocol processing. They register users and their device addresses, perform call signaling (e.g., starting, ending, and routing calls), and publish presence information. Records of all operations are forwarded to Archiving and Call Detail Record servers for logging. Front End servers also coordinate conference calls (e.g., adding and removing users) and balance load among the Audio/Video (A/V) Conferencing servers that host the calls.

The back-end database is a SQL Server database that stores user registrations, address books, and configuration data for the Front End servers. The database could itself be hosted on clustered servers to reduce the chance of downtime.

Atlas Members have full access

Get access to this and thousands of other unbiased analyses, roadmaps, decision kits, infographics, reference guides, and more, all included with membership. Comprehensive access to the most in-depth and unbiased expertise for Microsoft enterprise decision-making is waiting.

Membership Options

Already have an account? Login Now