Business Communications Manager (BCM) is an integrated communications system designed for enterprise branch offices and small to medium-sized businesses and is capable of delivering both IP-enabled and pure-IP solutions. Business ommunications Manager integrates KSU/PBX capabilities, voice over IP (VoIP) gateway functions, and Quality of Service (QoS) data routing features in a single system. Business Communications Manager 3.0 and higher is available on two Base Unit hardware platforms — the BCM200 and 400. The BCM200 can accommodate two Media Bay Modules (MBMs) used to connect to Avaya digital telephones, analog telephones and telephone lines. The BCM400 can accommodate four MBMs, and if an expansion cabinet is used with the BCM400, a total of 10 MBMs can be used.
The BCM50 can be expanded with up to two BCM50 expansion cabinets
Each with the ability to accommodate one MBM. The BCM200 and BCM400 platforms have integrated support for up to 90 IP Telephones and the BCM50 has integrated support for up to 32 IP Telephones. BCM200/400 running software version 3.5 or higher and the BCM50 support an interface to American Power Conversion (APC) Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), allowing continued operation of telecom equipment during short power outages and a graceful shutdown during longer outages. APC is a global leader in power availability solutions, sets the standard in its industry for quality, innovation and support, and is already the product of choice for many of Avaya’s partners and customers. The Intelligent APC UPS interface feature allows for the graceful shutdown of BCM under power fail situations and the ability to provide a warning message under these shutdown conditions. Specifically, the APC UPS is configured to shut down the BCM two minutes before the battery is discharged. The ability to initiate graceful shutdown of the BCM when the UPS battery is almost depleted is only provided on BCM50/200/400. A halt shutdown is supported on BCM1000 if equipped with release 2.5 or higher.
APC Smart UPS is supported on BCM 3.5, BCM 3.6 and BCM 3.7 through the UPS serial cable interface. The BCM50 and BCM 4.0 are connected to the APC Smart UPS through a USB interface. Both the serial interface and APC’s PowerChute Plus management software are integrated with the Unified Manager UPS configuration software and the UPS status monitor software. The serial interface supports only one UPS to BCM connection. Based on the power requirements of the BCM, the suggested APC system for most BCM applications is the SURTA1500RMXL. It is a rack mounted unit that comes with the ability to supply 1400VA/1050W. It can be expanded with additional battery packs (1 – SURTA48RMXLBP) to provide additional run time. Up to four additional battery packs can be added. APC products are not supplied by Avaya, but are available from most Avaya partners. BCMs can be configured with a variety of feature options, MBMs and telephone sets, resulting in very different power consumption profiles. Power consumption will also depend a great deal on the level of activity on telephone sets, telephone lines and LAN connections. The length of time that a UPS will be able to sustain the operation of a BCM will depend greatly on the amount of telecom activity, as well as the MBMs and options installed. The data in Tables 1 to 7 shows expected UPS run time under typical and heavy load for the BCM200, BCM400, BCM400 expansion cabinet, BCM50 and BCM50 expansion cabinet. Note that the BCM400 and its expansion cabinet can be ordered with redundant feature options including redundant power supply, redundant chassis fans and redundant hard drives.
Table 1. BCM 50 runtimeThe BCM400 and an Ethernet Switch 460 (formerly BayStack) supporting Power over Ethernet with the maximum configuration consume approximately 940 Watts, not including any external 48 V power supply connected to the Ethernet Switch 460. The SURTA1500RMXL can support up to 900 Watts for 11 minutes during a power outage. If additional battery packs are added, the run time can be extended as shown above. Very often, IT rooms even in small business settings are cooled with air conditioners to help prolong the life of the equipment inside. In order to help properly calculate the size of air conditioner needed, the heat output data of different BCM models under different load conditions are listed in Table 8.
Table 7. BCM400 Expansion Cabinet runtime with redundant feature options UPS Battery Packs Typical to Heavy LoadIf you have any queries or would like more information about any of the solutions outlined, please contact us or request a call back. Alternately, you can call us on 905 695 2237 or 877 336 7710 for more immediate help and advice.