Nortel Web Center Portal, Symposium Web Center Portal Reference Manual

297-2183-115
Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
Planning and Engineering Guide
Product release 4.0/SU05 Standard 2.0 July 2004
Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
Planning and Engineering Guide
Publication number: 297-2183-115 Product release: 4.0 Document release: Standard 2.0 Date: July 2004
Copyright © 2004 Nortel Networks, All Rights Reserved
Information is subject to change without notice. Nortel Networks reserves the right to make changes in design or components as progress in engineering and manufacturing may warrant.
The process of transmitting data and call messaging between the Meridian 1 and Symposium Web Center Portal is proprietary to Nortel Networks. Any other use of the data and the transmission process is a violation of the user license unless specifically authorized in writing by Nortel Networks prior to such use. Violations of the license by alternative usage of any portion of this process or the related hardware constitutes grounds for an immediate termination of the license and Nortel Networks reserves the right to seek all allowable remedies for such breach.
*Nortel Networks, the Nortel Networks logo, the Globemark, Meridian, Meridian 1, Succession, and Symposium are trademarks of Nortel Networks.
ADOBE, ACROBAT, and ACROBAT READER are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
APACHE is a trademark of Apache Micro Peripherals, Inc. MICROSOFT and WINDOWS are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. PCANYWHERE is a trademark of Symantec Corporation. SYBASE is a trademark of Sybase, Inc.
Publication history
July 2004
November 2003
The Standard 2.0 version of the Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal Planning and Engineering Guide, Release
4.0, is released.
The Standard 1.0 version of the Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal Planning and Engineering Guide, Release
4.0, is released.
Planning and Engineering Guide v
Publication history Standard 2.0
vi Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
Contents
1 Getting started 9
About this guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Skills you need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
About Symposium Web Center Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Planning your Symposium Web Center Portal system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
What’s new in this release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2 Planning and engineering 23
Windows networking requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
System network configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
E-mail server requirements for Symposium Web Center Portal . . . . . . . . . . 30
Engineering the switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
TAPI requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Contact center planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
External Web server integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Planning the Dynamic Transaction Handler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
TAPI license requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
DTH traffic model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Other parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Symposium Web Center Portal database and disk capacity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Symposium Web Center Portal Performance Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
A Telephony calculations 75
Using Erlang B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Glossary 77
Index 87
Planning and Engineering Guide vii
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viii Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
Chapter 1
Getting started
In this chapter
About this guide 10 Skills you need 12 About Symposium Web Center Portal 13 Planning your Symposium Web Center Portal system 20 What’s new in this release 21
Planning and Engineering Guide 9
Getting started Standard 2.0
About this guide
Introduction
This guide includes the engineering guidelines that will help you to successfully prepare for the installation of Symposium Web Center Portal.
Distribution of this guide
This document is available only in electronic Portable Document Format (.pdf) file format on the documentation CD-ROM that is supplied with the Symposium Web Center Portal Release 4.0/SU05 software.
You can view this guide online using Acrobat Reader, or you can print the guide in whole or in part for individual use.
Related documentation
To install Symposium Web Center Portal, refer to the Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal Installation and Administration Guide.
To learn how to use the Agent Interface, refer to the following guides, which are available on the documentation CD-ROM:
! Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal Installation and
Administration Guide
! Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal User Guide for Agents ! Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal User Guide for Supervisors
Online Help
Symposium Web Center Portal Release 4.0/SU05 software provides the following online Help:
! Symposium Web Center Portal Release 4.0/SU05 online Help for
administrators
! Symposium Web Center Portal Release 4.0/SU05 online Help for agents
10 Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
July 2004 Getting started
! Symposium Web Center Portal Release 4.0/SU05 online Help for
customers
Assumptions
This guide does not provide installation or configuration instructions for Symposium Web Center Portal or any of the required third-party applications. For instructions, refer to the documentation that comes with the applications.
Who should read this guide
This guide is intended for the following types of readers:
! system designers who are responsible for planning and provisioning a
Symposium Web Center Portal system
! engineers who are responsible for configuring the switch for Symposium
Web Center Portal
! administrators who are responsible for configuring TAPI for use with
Symposium Web Center Portal
Technical support
Nortel Networks provides support during the installation and configuration of Symposium Web Center Portal, and answers questions about the operating system requirements and pcAnywhere.
Planning and Engineering Guide 11
Getting started Standard 2.0
Skills you need
You must have knowledge of and experience with the following concepts and applications to successfully install and configure Symposium Web Center Portal:
! telephony concepts ! database concepts ! Internet and e-mail concepts and protocols ! Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Windows networking concepts ! your company’s network configuration ! Symposium Call Center Server or Symposium Express Call Center
concepts
! Nortel Networks TAPI configuration tools ! switch administration overlays and procedures
12 Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
July 2004 Getting started
About Symposium Web Center Portal
Introduction
Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal is a client/server contact center application that expands contact center capabilities to handle multimedia contacts, including e-mails and web forms. Unlike a conventional e-mail system, which directs e-mail contacts to a single e-mail account, Symposium Web Center Portal directs them to a skillset, or a group of qualified agents. The contact is then handled by the first available agent in the skillset. If more than one agent is available, the contact is routed to the agent with the highest priority for the skillset.
Symposium Web Center Portal provides enhanced routing, tracking, and reporting of Internet transactions, which consist of the initial contact plus your agents’ responses. It allows you to measure and control the volume of traffic from the Internet. Supervisors and administrators can view real-time displays of contact center activities and run historical reports.
The Agent Interface presents agents with a browser-based graphical user interface. Symposium Web Center Portal agents can respond to contacts through a variety of media, including callback responses, e-mail, Internet text chat, and form sharing.
The Portal Desktop software provides an automated response feature to eliminate repetitive actions, such as addressing an e-mail or typing a common response in text chat. As a result, it can reduce agents’ handling time, fatigue, and mistakes.
System components
Symposium Web Center Portal Release 4.0 consists of the elements shown in the diagram on the following page. These elements are described in the following sections.
Planning and Engineering Guide 13
Getting started Standard 2.0
Existing Call Center Solution
Portal
Desktop
Portal
Desktop
DTH
Lines
Succession 1000
Symposium Web Center Portal
Meridian 1/
Switch
Symposium
TAPI Server
CLAN
ELAN
Center Server
DTH
Call
PSTN
Portal Server
OA&M
Telephone
Customer
External Web Server
Java Business
Objects
Web
Communications
Customer
Interface
Internet-based Customers
Web
Customer
Transaction
Agent Interface
Web
Monitor
Database
Administrator
Email Manager
SMTP
E-Mail Server
E-mail Transaction
E-mail
Customer
HDX Client
Portal
Rules
Engine
IMH
OMH
POP3
14 Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
July 2004 Getting started
Portal Server
The Symposium Web Center Portal server contains the following subcomponents:
! Database—The component that stores all contact center data (including
e-mails, web requests, and all of the associated responses) in a structured format.
! Agent Interface—A browser-based application that allows agents to receive
multimedia customer inquiries and e-mail messages from the Web. Agents can respond to contacts by telephone or e-mail from the Agent Workbook. Agents can use the Agent Workbook to view, sort, and select transactions; to log fax, mail, and courier responses; and to maintain customer information.
! Transaction Monitor—The component that tracks the transactions. A
transaction consists of the contact (the initial e-mail or web form) plus any responses.
! Dynamic Transaction Handler (DTH)—The component that controls the
Phantom (virtual) TNs in the telephony switch through TAPI. The DTH presents multimedia contacts to Symposium Call Center Server to queue, route, and report on in the same way as Symposium Call Center Server handles voice contacts.
! Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OA&M)—The interface that
allows Symposium Web Center Portal to access information in the Symposium Call Center Server database, including configured agents, supervisors, skillsets, and agent to skillset mapping.
! HDX client—The interface to the Symposium Call Center Server
component that allows multimedia contacts to be routed based on skillset, preferred agent ID, and so on.
! Portal Administrator—The component that provides administrative and
management capabilities. It can be installed on the Symposium Web Center Portal server or on both the Portal Server and a separate PC for remote access.
! Email Manager—The component that connects to the e-mail server at
regular intervals to access all of the configured mailboxes. E-mails from the customer are read from the e-mail server, processed, and then stored in the database. It generates outgoing e-mails from the e-mail responses stored in
Planning and Engineering Guide 15
Getting started Standard 2.0
the database, and sends them to the e-mail server. The Email Manager contains the following subcomponents:
! Rules Engine—The component that executes rules relevant to the e-mail
(based on To address, and so on). The rules determine the skillset to which the contact is queued, as well as assigning priority.
! Inbound Message Handler (IMH)—The component that retrieves
inbound e-mails from the e-mail server and stores them in the Symposium Web Center Portal database. The IMH connects to the e­mail server using the POP3 protocol; therefore, it supports any POP3­capable server, including Short Message Service (SMS) and fax servers.
Note: Release 4.0 SU05 supports connection to multiple servers on a per-mailbox basis. (That is, for each mailbox, you can define the e-mail server from which e-mails are retrieved.)
! Outbound Message Handler (OMH)—The component that logs on to
the e-mail server, using the SMTP protocol, and sends any outbound automated responses.
Portal Desktop
This component provides the logon and telephony integration with the Agent Interface.
External Web server
This component contains the following subcomponents:
! Java business objects—A Java API that writes contacts into the Symposium
Web Center Portal database, retrieves them from the database, and queries their status. The Java API is detailed in a JavaDocs set distributed with the Java archive (JAR) file containing the API.
! Web Communications—An optional component that allows agents and
customers to communicate using Internet text chat, push web pages to each other, and share forms.
! Customer Interface—A component set up on the External Web server. The
Customer Interface consists of customized web pages that interact with the Symposium Web Center Portal database. Sample Customer Interface pages are provided with Symposium Web Center Portal.
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Processing multimedia contacts
Symposium Web Center Portal receives multimedia contacts through two external interface points: the e-mail server and the External Web server. Symposium Web Center Portal can present calls to Symposium Call Center Server in two different modes: push mode (recommended) and pull mode.
E-mail server transactions
E-mail server transactions are retrieved from a POP3 capable e-mail server using the Inbound Message Handler (IMH). The IMH runs at regular intervals. You can configure the settings for the IMH (such as the time between intervals and the number of e-mails retrieved from each mailbox during each run) through the Portal Administrator.
The IMH logs on to the mailboxes on the e-mail server as listed in the Email Manager. It parses e-mails in the mailboxes and stores them in the Symposium Web Center Portal database. Any attachments associated with the e-mails are stored in the Inbound attachment folder, as specified in the Portal Administrator. Once an e-mail is successfully stored in the Symposium Web Center Portal database, it is deleted from the e-mail server.
The IMH passes a received e-mail to the Symposium Web Center Portal rules engine, which executes any rules relevant to the e-mail (based on the To address, and so on) and invokes the Outbound Message Handler (OMH) to send any necessary auto-responses.
Once the IMH process is complete, the OMH logs on to the e-mail server and sends any automated outbound e-mails (auto-responses) through the SMTP protocol.
External Web server transactions
Symposium Web Center Portal also receives contacts from the External Web server through the Symposium Web Center Portal Java business objects. The Java business objects provide a Java API, which allows contacts to be written into the Symposium Web Center Portal database, retrieved from the database, and then have their status queried.
Contacts received through the Java business objects are not passed through the Rules Engine. The External Web server determines the skillset and priority assigned to the contact.
Planning and Engineering Guide 17
Getting started Standard 2.0
A set of sample pages is distributed with Symposium Web Center Portal to provide Java Server Pages (JSP) script examples of how a Web server can access the Java business objects. You must have a web developer to create your own web pages, with their own look, feel, and business logic.
Presentation to Symposium Call Center Server: push mode
Once the contacts are placed in the Symposium Web Center Portal database, the DTH and the Transaction Monitor manage their presentation to Symposium Call Center Server for routing to agents. The system performs the following tasks:
! At regular intervals, the DTH sorts new contacts in the database by
Transaction ID (the row number of the contact in the Transaction table of the database) and Priority (assigned by the rules engine for e-mails and by the web server business logic for web contacts).
! The contacts are pushed into the Symposium Call Center Server system
through calls originated from the Phantom TNs assigned to the DTH. They are routed to a CDN, and then to scripting. At this point scripting may invoke an HDX exchange to retrieve further routing information (such as skillset, preferred agent ID, and so on) from the Symposium Web Center Portal database. Based on this information, the contacts are routed to the appropriate agents.
Note: HDX is not supported with Symposium Express Call Center.
! The Transaction Monitor tracks contacts that are routed to Symposium Call
Center Server. If their related Phantom calls are disconnected by Symposium Call Center Server, the Transaction Monitor ensures that these contacts are presented to Symposium Call Center Server again.
Push mode is the most efficient way of processing contacts.
Presentation to Symposium Call Center Server: pull mode
In pull mode, agents select transactions from the Agent Workbook; transactions are not routed to them by Symposium Call Center Server. Pull mode can be used in two ways:
! For pending transactions only. Agents work mostly in push mode, but can
pull contacts that are in a pending state—for example, when a customer calls to follow up on the status of an e-mail. (This is the recommended method for working with pull mode.)
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July 2004 Getting started
! For all transactions. The DTH is disabled, and agents use the Agent
Workbook to pull contacts from the list presented to them in the Workbook. This list only contains the contacts assigned to skillsets to which the agents belong.
For information about configuring Symposium Web Center Portal for push and pull mode, refer to the Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal Installation and Administration Guide. For more information about using the Agent Workbook in push and pull mode, refer to the Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal User Guide for Agents.
Integration with Symposium Call Center Server
The Symposium Web Center Portal system is integrated directly with Symposium Call Center Server through the OA&M interface and (optionally) through the Host Data Exchange (HDX). The OA&M interface allows Symposium Web Center Portal to access the information in Symposium Call Center Server about configured agents, supervisors, skillsets, and the mapping of these users to skillsets. The HDX interface allows you to route calls to different skillsets based on data such as skillset, preferred agent ID, and so on, obtained from the Symposium Web Center Portal database.
Notes:
! HDX is not supported with Symposium Express Call Center. ! You can use Symposium Web Center Portal with either Symposium Call
Center Server 04.02.06 Revision 3 with SU09 ( later]) or Symposium Express Call Center 04.02.06 (or later).
Integration with TAPI
Symposium Web Center Portal is integrated with the TAPI server through the Dynamic Transaction Handler (DTH). The DTH controls the Phantom (virtual) TNs in the telephony switch through TAPI. The DTH presents multimedia contacts to Symposium Call Center Server to queue, route, and report in the same way as Symposium Call Center Server handles voice contacts. TAPI call data identifies the Symposium Web Center Portal contact for the associated call. The Portal Desktop then uses this data to route the contact to the appropriate agent.
Note: You must use TAPI Service Provider 3.0.
NS040206SU09S [or
Planning and Engineering Guide 19
Getting started Standard 2.0
Planning your Symposium Web Center Portal system
When you are planning your system, you must consider the following details:
! The platform requirements. For more information, refer to the Nortel
Networks Symposium Portfolio Server and Operating System Requirements Guide (P-2003-0381-Global). This document is available on the Partner
Information Center (PIC) web site, in the location Products by Brand (Documentation) / Symposium Web Center Portal
! The system network configuration. For more information, refer to “System
network configuration” on page 26.
! The e-mail server configuration and mailbox requirements. For more
information, refer to Center Portal” on page 30.
“E-mail server requirements for Symposium Web
! The Meridian 1/Succession 1000 configuration requirements. For more
information, refer to
“Engineering the switch” on page 32.
Note: Unless otherwise specified, references to the Succession 1000 switch also apply to the Succession 1000M switch.
! The skillset requirements for the system and routing requirements within
Symposium Web Center Portal and in Symposium Call Center Server scripting. For more information, refer to
“Contact center planning” on page
54.
! Integration of the customer’s Web server with the Symposium Web Center
Portal Java business objects. For more information, refer to
“External Web
server integration” on page 58.
! The TAPI configuration of DTH lines (Phantom lines) and the Agent
Desktops. For more information, refer to
“TAPI license requirements” on
page 61.
! The server requirements depend on agent numbers and anticipated
transaction volume. Storage space must take into account the space requirements for attachments to e-mails. For more information, refer to “Symposium Web Center Portal database and disk capacity” on page 69.
20 Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
July 2004 Getting started
What’s new in this release
Introduction
This section provides an overview of the new features and enhancements to the installation and administration of Symposium Web Center Portal Release 4.0.
New operating system
In Symposium Web Center Portal Release 4.0, the Portal server runs on the Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Advanced Server operating systems. For more information, refer to the Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center
Portal Installation and Administration Guide.
New version of Sybase
Symposium Web Center Portal Release 4.0 uses Sybase 12.5. For more information, refer to the Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
Installation and Administration Guide.
New TAPI requirements
Symposium Web Center Portal Release 4.0 requires that TAPI be installed on every agent desktop to enable unified logon with Symposium Call Center Server.
Planning and Engineering Guide 21
Getting started Standard 2.0
22 Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
Chapter 2
Planning and engineering
In this chapter
Windows networking requirements 24 System network configuration 26 E-mail server requirements for Symposium Web Center Portal 30 Engineering the switch 32 TAPI requirements 43 Contact center planning 54 External Web server integration 58 Planning the Dynamic Transaction Handler 59 TAPI license requirements 61 DTH traffic model 63 Other parameters 67 Symposium Web Center Portal database and disk capacity 69 Symposium Web Center Portal Performance Tool 72
Planning and Engineering Guide 23
Planning and engineering Standard 2.0
Windows networking requirements
Introduction
Before you install Symposium Web Center Portal, your network administrator must configure your Microsoft Windows network.
Simplest configuration
In the simplest configuration, the network administrator adds your Portal and TAPI servers to the domain forest of the Portal Desktops.
Multiple-domain configuration
Optionally, the network administrator can put the Portal server, the TAPI server, or both, into a different domain than the Agent Desktops. However, each of these domains must have a two-way trust relationship with the others.
For example, if you have three domains, one containing your Portal Server, one containing your TAPI server, and one containing your Agent Desktops, the following conditions must be true:
! The Portal domain must have a two-way trust relationship with both the
TAPI and Agent Desktop domains.
! The TAPI domain must have a two-way trust relationship with both the
Portal and Agent Desktop domains.
! The Agent Desktop domain must have a two-way trust relationship with
both the Portal and TAPI domains.
A two-way trust relationship between two domains means that members of both domains have access to the resources of the other domain without having to log on to that domain. For example, in a two-way trust relationship between the Portal and TAPI domains, members of the TAPI domain have access to the resources of the Portal domain, and members of the Portal domain have access to the resources of the TAPI domain. For more information, refer to the Network Managers Guide for Symposium TAPI Service Provider and your Microsoft Windows documentation.
24 Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
July 2004 Planning and engineering
Windows configuration checklist
When configuring the Microsoft Windows network, the network administrator must complete the tasks in this checklist. For more information about completing these tasks, refer to the Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal Installation and Administration Guide.
Configuration task
Create a domain user for the DTH user.
Create a domain user for the uploads_user.
Configure the TAPI desktop.
Configure Agent Roaming.
Configure the SWCPlog folders.
Create user accounts for the Dashboard configuration and add these accounts to the same user group as the Portal server and Portal Agent Interface server.
Configure anonymous access to the Portal Agent Interface for a upload_user.
Note: For more information about completing the tasks listed above, refer to your Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal Installation and
Administration Guide.
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Planning and engineering Standard 2.0
System network configuration
Introduction
This section provides an overview of the Symposium Web Center Portal system network configuration. For more information about configuring Symposium Web Center Portal, refer to the Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
Installation and Administration Guide and the Nortel Networks Symposium Portfolio Server and Operating System Requirements Guide.
Note: For more information about your system requirements, use the Symposium Web Center Portal Release 4.0 Performance Spreadsheet (see “Symposium Web Center Portal Performance Tool” on page 72).
Symposium Web Center Portal network configuration
The following illustration shows a sample Symposium Web Center Portal network configuration:
26 Nortel Networks Symposium Web Center Portal
July 2004 Planning and engineering
Symposium Web Center Portal port requirements
The following diagram provides an overview of the TCP ports that are required for Symposium Web Center Portal:
Portal
Desktop
Remote
Procedure
Call
Remote
Procedure
Call
RMIHTTP
Portal Server
Agent Interface
TAPI Server
Admin: 8000
Firewall
customer
Web
External Web Server
Tomcat/
JRun
IIS/
Apache
HTTPS HTTP
8100/8080
Customer-facing
Web pages
www
DB: 5005
DB: 5005
Database
Email Manager
SMTP POP3
E-Mail Server
DB Backup: 5001
DB Admin: 5005
Planning and Engineering Guide 27
Planning and engineering Standard 2.0
Portal Server ports
Port Description
5001 Used during a database backup
5005 Used for normal database access
Agent Interface ports
Port Description
HTTP (Port 80) Used for normal HTTP protocol access
RMI (Remote Method Invocation) The default port is 1099.
External Web Server ports
These ports include those used by Web Communications and Customer Interface modules.
Port Description
HTTP Used for normal HTTP protocol access (8080 for Tomcat or 8100
for JRUN)
HTTPS Used for secure HTTP protocol access (usually 443)
5005 Used for normal database access
8000 Used to access Admin pages for the servlet engine used to run
Web Communications (either Tomcat or JRUN)
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July 2004 Planning and engineering
E-mail server ports
Port Description
110 Used for POP3 protocol access
25 Used for SMTP protocol access
TAPI ports
Port Description
135, 530, 1500, 2500, Random >1024
Bandwidth recommendations
Nortel Networks recommends that the average CLAN utilization not exceed 30 percent of the total bandwidth. This includes all the traffic (even customer traffic).
The e-mail server can be remote, but the latency and bandwidth of the connection to these servers will mean slower throughput of the overall system.
Used for Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Planning and Engineering Guide 29
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