Passed Nortel NCTS converged IPT

malcybood

Sitting the Nortel NCTS - Converged IPT, 920-803 exam a week on Friday. This will be the first Nortel exam I've taken, so hopefully it will go well!

It is very concentrated on SIP, H.323 and VOIP codecs from what I can gather in the book.

Objectives here - http://app97.nortelnetworks.com/cgi-bin/teds/cs/maintc.jsp?level=6&category=12&subcategory=8&subtype=&exOID=1064021

I'm using Nortelpress book in VOIP Technologies along with Nortel whitepapers

Will post my verdict of the exam after I sit it!

jibbajabba

Good luck !

malcybood

passed exam today with 76 percent and now have another acronym to put on my CV / profile.

NCTS - Converged IP Telephony Solutions

major components of voip 88
voip network design considerations 76
transport and session layer technologies 66
implementing QoS 80
WLAN convergence issuse 0
VoIP standardisatio and signalling protocols 85

this exam was very focused on VoIP codecs G.729, G.711, G.723.1 etc, SIP and H.323 from a design angle.

I didn't do too well on WLAN convergence but there were only 2 questions according to the score report, gives a breakdown of no of qs in each section and how many you answered correctly.

the VoIP section of CCDA helped me in this exam, along with Nortel VoIP technologies book from nortelpress. I've also got 2 years exp in supporting nortel voip system at work.

next up is the NCTE in the same track converged IPT before I start CCNP at night class in october.

good way to start the weekend!

networker050184

Does this certification go a lot into detail on enterprise Nortel equipment? From looking at the objectives I think I could knock this one out pretty quickly, but I don't see anything about specific equipment knowledge. It seems to be purely technology based, but I'm not sure. All my Nortel experience is on provider level equipment and haven't worked with the enterprise level stuff.

Oh and congrats on the pass!

astorrs

Yeah congrats on the pass and thanks for the information.

malcybood

networker050184 wrote:

Does this certification go a lot into detail on enterprise Nortel equipment? From looking at the objectives I think I could knock this one out pretty quickly, but I don't see anything about specific equipment knowledge. It seems to be purely technology based, but I'm not sure. All my Nortel experience is on provider level equipment and haven't worked with the enterprise level stuff.

Oh and congrats on the pass!

It doesn't go into Nortel specific products for this exam or the NCTE, it builds a foundation and is a core exam for the Support Specialist (NCSS, which I aim in obtaining) certifications which are specific to i.e. succession server, LAN switching (Baystack/Passports), BCM etc.

If you have a decent experience in VOIP and are familiar with the protocols used for call setup, inter-dependencies, Codecs etc and the other stuff mentioned in the objectives, you probably could knock it out. The only thing I'd say on that is if you don't deal with Nortel kit and you pass a Nortel Technology Specialist certification what do you say at an interview in regards to experience to back it up.

If you're a Cisco man would CCVP not be better just now?

The technology is mostly standards based but you need to understand where it fits in the Nortel VoIP product set I think to get the most out of it.

Anyhooo I'm not trying to discourage you just making you aware if you decide to do it then make sure you swot up specifically on SIP as I would say I probably got around 15 SIP questions!

Good luck and if you need any more info give me a shout

Turgon

malcybood wrote:

networker050184 wrote:

Does this certification go a lot into detail on enterprise Nortel equipment? From looking at the objectives I think I could knock this one out pretty quickly, but I don't see anything about specific equipment knowledge. It seems to be purely technology based, but I'm not sure. All my Nortel experience is on provider level equipment and haven't worked with the enterprise level stuff.

Oh and congrats on the pass!

It doesn't go into Nortel specific products for this exam or the NCTE, it builds a foundation and is a core exam for the Support Specialist (NCSS, which I aim in obtaining) certifications which are specific to i.e. succession server, LAN switching (Baystack/Passports), BCM etc.

If you have a decent experience in VOIP and are familiar with the protocols used for call setup, inter-dependencies, Codecs etc and the other stuff mentioned in the objectives, you probably could knock it out. The only thing I'd say on that is if you don't deal with Nortel kit and you pass a Nortel Technology Specialist certification what do you say at an interview in regards to experience to back it up.

If you're a Cisco man would CCVP not be better just now?

The technology is mostly standards based but you need to understand where it fits in the Nortel VoIP product set I think to get the most out of it.

Anyhooo I'm not trying to discourage you just making you aware if you decide to do it then make sure you swot up specifically on SIP as I would say I probably got around 15 SIP questions!

Good luck and if you need any more info give me a shout

Awesome. Nortel certs for me next year please. Recommend any good books? Seem few and far between.

networker050184

malcybood wrote:

networker050184 wrote:

Does this certification go a lot into detail on enterprise Nortel equipment? From looking at the objectives I think I could knock this one out pretty quickly, but I don't see anything about specific equipment knowledge. It seems to be purely technology based, but I'm not sure. All my Nortel experience is on provider level equipment and haven't worked with the enterprise level stuff.

Oh and congrats on the pass!

It doesn't go into Nortel specific products for this exam or the NCTE, it builds a foundation and is a core exam for the Support Specialist (NCSS, which I aim in obtaining) certifications which are specific to i.e. succession server, LAN switching (Baystack/Passports), BCM etc.

If you have a decent experience in VOIP and are familiar with the protocols used for call setup, inter-dependencies, Codecs etc and the other stuff mentioned in the objectives, you probably could knock it out. The only thing I'd say on that is if you don't deal with Nortel kit and you pass a Nortel Technology Specialist certification what do you say at an interview in regards to experience to back it up.

If you're a Cisco man would CCVP not be better just now?

The technology is mostly standards based but you need to understand where it fits in the Nortel VoIP product set I think to get the most out of it.

Anyhooo I'm not trying to discourage you just making you aware if you decide to do it then make sure you swot up specifically on SIP as I would say I probably got around 15 SIP questions!

Good luck and if you need any more info give me a shout

I may go for the CCVP, but right now I don't do a lot of Callmanger work so I may wait on that for a while. I do work with Nortel CS2000's and other large Nortel VoIP switches which is why I was wondering if its geared towards enterprise level or just VoIP technology in general. Most of my work revolves around VoIP in general rather than any vendor specific technology right now as I work a lot with customer sites which can have a large range of vendor set ups. I spend most of my day looking at SIP signaling and QoS issues.

I probably won't do this exam anyway (not any time soon anyway I have my ISCW on Monday), I was just curious.

Thanks for the info and good luck on your future certs as well!

malcybood

Turgon wrote:

Awesome. Nortel certs for me next year please. Recommend any good books? Seem few and far between.

The only book I used was VoIP Technologies from nortelpress, which comes with a CD including whitepapers geared towards the objectives and a couple of practice exams. For the 920-803, I used the book/CD and the SIP RFC 3261. The VoIP stuff covered in the CCDA helped alot too in addition to experience.

This book should be sufficient for the NCTS - Converged IPT (920-803) & NCTE Converged IPT (920-804). Not aware of any other official study guides other than going on actual training courses with Nortel.

NCTE is about security, emergency services in the VoIP network and performing a network assessment.

Objectives here

http://app97.nortelnetworks.com/cgi-bin/teds/cs/maintc.jsp?level=6&category=12&subcategory=8&subtype=&exOID=1064100

malcybood

networker050184 wrote:

I may go for the CCVP, but right now I don't do a lot of Callmanger work so I may wait on that for a while. I do work with Nortel CS2000's and other large Nortel VoIP switches which is why I was wondering if its geared towards enterprise level or just VoIP technology in general. Most of my work revolves around VoIP in general rather than any vendor specific technology right now as I work a lot with customer sites which can have a large range of vendor set ups. I spend most of my day looking at SIP signaling and QoS issues.

I probably won't do this exam anyway (not any time soon anyway I have my ISCW on Monday), I was just curious.

Thanks for the info and good luck on your future certs as well!

Thanks man, you should have a look into the NCSS tracks, here's the NCSS page which lists all product certification tracks also. Have a look, there is some CS2k stuff there but not sure if it's the stuff you work with or not

NCSS home page
http://app97.nortelnetworks.com/cgi-bin/teds/cs/maintc.jsp?level=2&category=12&subcategory=1&desId=TNTS000007

NCSS Carrier VoIP CS2k Compact
http://app97.nortelnetworks.com/cgi-bin/teds/cs/maintc.jsp?level=6&category=12&subcategory=9&subtype=&trkID=TNTS00014A&crtOID=1000006&stat=A

NCSS - Carrier VoIP Communication Server 2000 XA-Core
http://app97.nortelnetworks.com/cgi-bin/teds/cs/maintc.jsp?level=6&category=12&subcategory=9&subtype=&trkID=TNTS000147&crtOID=1000006&stat=A

There's some other stuff there for carrier class element manager etc etc too, hope this helps ya out.

For the CS2k tracks the exam I've done is a required exam - 920-803 so maybe you should go for it!

networker050184

Thanks for all the info. I think I will look into some of the Nortel stuff when I finish the CCNP.

malcybood

I received a PDF version of my certificate via email which is fine..........

However if I want a paper copy from Nortel I can order one up, where the only shipping options are courier $25 UPS or $82 next day!!!!!

It may be because I'm in the UK as I had the same thjing when I ordered the voip technologies book, but nevertheless I think I have spent enough on this cert without having to pay for the actual certificate I've earned too!

Will just print it out on some decent paper, that's all they do after all!