Citrix statement on how Microsoft Lync is supported with Citrix XenDesktop

I want to share this informative knowledge article that describes how Microsoft Lync is supported with Citrix XenDesktop.

As stated in Client Virtualization in Microsoft Lync 2010 (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=21129), republished by Microsoft in February 2012, delivery of the Lync 2010 client using XenDesktop and XenApp is “Supported” by Microsoft (see Table 2 on page 7). However, audio (voice chat) is not directly supported by Microsoft (see Table 3 on page 8) except through a desk phone using USB Redirection. Likewise, video chat is not directly supported by Microsoft. These statements are based on XenDesktop 4.0 and XenApp 6.0 (see Appendix A.1, page 12). As noted in the footnote on page 13, “XenDesktop 5 (which introduces webcam video compression as an alternative to USB redirection) was not tested.”

How do these statements impact Citrix customers who wish to deliver Microsoft Lync with voice and video chat functionality from XenDesktop 5.5 or XenApp 6.5?

In short, XenDesktop/XenApp delivery of Microsoft Lync, including voice chat and video chat, is fully supported by Citrix.

Microsoft does not directly support third-party products such as XenDesktop. In our experience, customers can expect “best effort” support from Microsoft but in some cases might be asked to duplicate a problem on a regular PC with no Citrix software installed.

Citrix supports the delivery of Microsoft Lync and other similar third-party Unified Communications clients and softphones from XenDesktop (including XenApp) to users of the Citrix Receiver through a variety of innovative technologies including:

Optimized-for-speech codec technology, featuring fast encode and low bandwidth utilization

Webcam Video Compression in the Citrix Receivers for Windows and Linux, offering excellent bandwidth efficiency and network latency tolerance

Jitter buffering in the Citrix Receiver for Windows to ensure smooth audio even when network latency is variable, and Echo Cancellation when users a microphone and speakers instead of a headset

Audio plug-n-play

Audio device routing (for example: ringtone can be directed to speakers but voice to a headset)

Multi-stream ICA transport for full QoS support

UDP/RTP audio option on XenDesktop VDI

DSCP packet tagging for RTP packets (Layer 3)

WMM tagging for Wi-Fi

Branch Repeater support for QoS and multi-stream ICA, including UDP

Additional optimizations for Lync 2010 are currently in beta trial, including native support for Microsoft’s proprietary RTAudio and RTVideo codecs without transcoding. Furthermore, Citrix is committed to fully supporting the next release of Microsoft Lync, codenamed “Wave 15”.

More Information

CTX130912 – Testing and Using Audio and Video on Microsoft Lync 2010 with XenDesktop 5.5 or 5.6

CTX128831 – Guidelines for Delivering Microsoft Lync with XenDesktop 5.x

CTX124124 – Configuring XenDesktop 5.5 or 5.6 to Deliver Microsoft Lync 2010