SIP Presence

The UCM6XXX is now offering the ability to subscribe to extensions state and to be informed about the current presence status of a coworker phone extension. So far, the users can use the BLF (Busy Lamp Field) to check the phone communication state and will be advertised of every state change (Idle / Ringing / Connected), the added value of SIP Presence is to keep the user advertised on the monitored extension’s current general state as well (Available / Busy / DND …).

SIP Presence is one of the newly added features on the UCM6XXX series, allowing a user to publish his/her presence state, this state can be predefined and known state (Available / Busy / Unavailable ..), or a custom state that can take any format, and can be customized by the user. The monitoring extension can subscribe to the presence status and be updated about any status change.

This guide describes the utility and steps for configuring the SIP Presence on UCM6xxx, as the main feature when the user wants to be informed about other extensions’ status.

Overview

The SIP Presence feature improves the users monitoring on the UCM6xxx and extends the MPKs utility on end points. A Busy Lamp is limited in its usability to phone line status, it can provide line connectivity and calling status, but something more informative is required.

SIP Presence can provide ability to be informed about user’s extension when it’s offline / online like a Busy Lamp, but that’s just the basis. Users can also use Presence to share their status, and tell the others that they are out of office / On Chat / Do not Want to Be Disturbed, and so on.

This guide will be explicating the SIP Presence feature, and the user should have the UCM6xxx and endpoints supporting Presence Watcher features:

The prerequisites in our scenario are as follow:

• UCM6xxx with firmware version 1.0.14.23 or higher.
• A phone supporting presence watcher feature see [SUPPORTED DEVICES] section.

Setting your Presence Status

Setting Presence Status via Admin Web Interface

The SIP Presence feature on UCM6xxx includes six available statuses, users can access to the UCM Web GUI🡪Extension/Trunk🡪Extensions🡪Features and list the different statuses:

The above screenshot shows the available statuses, user can select a status depending on their availability and preferences. Once done, a NOTIFY message will be sent to the subscribers announcing the newly defined status.

The above available statuses are explained in the following table:

Available	The contact is online and can participate in conversations/phone calls.
Away	The contact is currently away (ex: for lunch break).
Chat	The contact has limited conversation flexibility and can only be reached via chat.
Do Not Disturb	The Contact is on DND (Do Not Disturb) mode.
Custom Presence Status	Please enter the presence status for this mode on the web GUI.
Unavailable	The contact is unreachable for the moment, please try to contact later.

The default status among the listed ones above is ‘Available’, changing it will generate a NOTIFY message that will be sent to all the subscribed presence watchers.

Users can also set a new custom state under the “Custom Presence Status” tab, the following figure shows a new custom presence status named “InMeeting”:

To simplify the status viewing, a new column was added to the main Extensions page, listing all the extensions Presence Statuses, as displayed in the following figure:

Setting Presence Status via User Portal

Users can also login to their portal to view and edit their Presence Status, this feature is available when accessing the user portal and navigating to Basic Information🡪Extensions🡪Features.

The same six statuses are also available, and users can select any status as displayed in the following screenshot:

Setting Presence Status via Feature Code

If the user is not having Web Access, the Presence feature can be accessed using feature code, and users can dial this code to get the corresponding voice prompt with various options in order to choose which presence status they want to put themselves into then follow the instructions to confirm the setting.

The default used feature code for Presence feature is *48, users can access/edit this case from Web GUI🡪Call Features🡪Feature Codes:

When dialing the Presence feature code, users have also six available states, below is the order you get on the voice prompt when dialing the feature code:

1. Unavailable: Press ‘1’ to set the Available state.
2. Available: Press ‘2’ to set Available state.
3. Away: Press ‘3’ to set Away state.
4. Chat: Press ‘4’ to set Chat state.
5. DND: Press ‘5’ to set DND state.
6. Custom Presence Status: Press ‘6’ to set the Custom state.

Monitoring Presence Status

Using VMPKs

In our scenario, we will be using a GXP phone to illustrate the use of VMPKs to monitor another SIP entity’s Presence status.

The recommendations on the GXP phone before proceeding to the presence watcher configuration on the VMPKs are as follow:

• Have a GXP phone supporting presence feature 🡺 Refer to [SUPPORTED DEVICES].
• Have a registered SIP account on the same UCM6xxx as the monitored extension.

The presence watcher can use one of the available accounts on the phone, at least one should be registered as illustrated on the following screenshot:

Once the phone is having a registered account, we can proceed to the presence watcher configuration on the phone’s VMPK settings.

The Virtual Multi-Purpose Keys (VPK) configuration page is under the phone’s Web UI🡪Settings🡪Programmable Keys🡪Virtual Multi–Purpose Keys tab. By default, all fixed VPKs are listed:

Click on “Edit VPK” for the line (VPK) you would like to configure. A new window will pop up for VPK configuration, up to 20 mode options can be selected for the VPK, select presence watcher. Once done, press “Save” on this window and press “Save VPK” on the bottom of the Virtual Multi-Purpose Keys page again to apply the change.

The configuration should be like the following:

Users can also use the following p-value to provision the VMPK with Presence Watcher mode:

Mode Name	Mode String	Mode P-Value
Presence Watcher	presencewatcher	12

Once done, the phone will display the new VMPK with monitored extension and status icon, the LED should be Green, as displayed in the following screenshot:

Six presence statuses lead to six VMPKs and icons states. Each status is indicated by a different icon on the LCD and different LED colors and Label colors (GXP21XX, GRP261x, and GRP2624/GRP2634 only).

Please find the icon indications below for different Presence Status (Starting from firmware 1.0.9.25):

VPK Mode	State	Icon + Label	LED Status
Presence Watcher	Available		GREEN
	Away		GREEN
	Chat		RED
	Custom Status		GREEN
	DND		RED
	Unavailable		OFF

VPK Mode	State	Icon + Label	LED Status
Presence Watcher	Available		GREEN
	Away		GREEN
	Chat		RED
	Custom Status		GREEN
	DND		RED
	Unavailable		OFF

Using Extension Boards and MPKs

Users have also the ability to set presence watcher on phone MPKs (Multi-purpose Keys), and connected Extension Boards.

For MPKs configuration, similarly to the VMPKs configuration, you need to have a phone supporting Physical Multi-Purpose Keys. For instance, GXP2130 / GXP2160 / GXP1628 are offering physical MPKs, and you can do the same configuration for Presence Watcher. This is available on phone Web UI🡪Settings🡪Programmable Keys🡪Physical Multi–Purpose Keys.

Note: Using Physical MPKs, the Presence Watcher feature will be limited in comparison with VMPKs. The six available Presence Statuses will have the following LED states when using MPKs:

Presence Watcher	Chat, DND, Unavailable	LED Off
Presence Watcher	Available, Custom Status, Away	LED On

Users can also use Extension Boards for Presence Watcher configuration, for example, GXP2140 and GXP2170 support Extension Boards (GXP2200Ext), the extension board configuration is available under web UI🡪Settings🡪Extension Boards.

Following are examples of LED status on extension boards:

Available	DND	Unavailable

Supported Devices

Model	Supported using VPK (Visual Status)	Supported using MPK (LED Status)	Supported using EXT Board (LED Status)	Firmware
GXP21xx Series
GXP2130	Yes	Yes	No	1.0.9.25 or higher
GXP2140	Yes	No	Yes
GXP2160	Yes	Yes	No
GXP2135	Yes	No	No
GXP2170	Yes	No	Yes
GXP17xx Series
GXP1760/W	Yes	No	No	1.0.1.28 or higher
GXP1780	Yes	No	No
GXP1782	Yes	No	No
GXP16xx Series
GXP1610/1615	No	Yes	No	1.0.4.67 or higher
GXP1620/1625	No	Yes	No
GXP1628	No	Yes	No
GXP1630	No	Yes	No
GRP260x Series
GRP2604	Yes	Yes	No	1.0.1.18 or higher
GRP261x Series
GRP2612/p/w	Yes	No	Yes	1.0.5.48 or higher
GRP2613	Yes	No	Yes
GRP2614	Yes	Yes	Yes
GRP2615	Yes	No	Yes
GRP2616	Yes	Yes	Yes
GRP2624	Yes	No	Yes
GRP2634	Yes	Yes	Yes