In IP Office Branch solution, Avaya Aura® Session Manager provides bandwidth management through Call Admission Control (CAC). This service is available is available in Distributed, Mixed, and Centralized deployment options connected to the Avaya Aura® network.

You must configure a location for each branch on Avaya Aura® Session Manager, and make sure that Session Manager detects that the IP Office and the centralized users in the branch are part of the same location. Make sure the IP address pattern configured in the Location Pattern section of the Session Manager location represents the IP addresses for the branch. You must select the name of the location in the Location field of the SIP Entity configured in Avaya Aura® System Manager for the IP Office in the branch.

You can configure a bandwidth limit for a branch location in Avaya Aura® Session Manager. The bandwidth limit should be configured according to:

• The network bandwidth available for media traffic on the WAN link that connects the branch to the rest of the enterprise network
• Expected traffic patterns to and from the branch

The Session Manager CAC feature inspects the SDP in call signaling to count the total bandwidth of calls. When the bandwidth limit is reached the Session Manager CAC rejects all new calls to and from the IP Office branch location.

The Session Manager CAC is aware that centralized users and IP Office are in the same branch, and can calculate the following call details to determine the bandwidth of calls:

• The number of calls to and from the IP Office
• The number of calls to and from centralized users in the branch

The CAC can determine the types of calls that consume WAN bandwidth. For example, a call between an IP Office user or trunk and a centralized user in the same branch does not consume WAN bandwidth because the media flow is local within the branch. The CAC does not count this type of call with local media flow toward the configured WAN bandwidth limit for the branch.