Lync Web App Join Process

This section provides an overview of the join process in Lync Web App. Understanding how clients connect to these services will greatly help in deploying and troubleshooting Lync Server 2013 conferencing. Figure 26.3 and the list that follows outlines the join process.

Figure 26.3. Lync Web App join process.

1. When a client clicks the meeting URL in the meeting invite, they are connected to the Lync Web Services. The Join Launcher component identifies the client type that is connecting and either launches the installed Lync client or launches Lync Web App.

2. The Join Launcher connects to Lync Web App and requests the conferencing URLs to be used.

3. Lync Web App communicates with UCWA to authenticate the user. This can happen over various methods, but ultimately the connecting user must be issued a web ticket to securely connect to Lync Web App and UCWA.

4. When initiated, UCWA initiates requests to the Conference Focus to join the user to the conference.

5. The user is placed in the meeting lobby and joins when admitted.

6. Going forward, all communications with the conferencing focus happen through UCWA. These communications include state changes for the user and the conference.

7. The user receives conference join information in-band to connect to the A/V portions of the conference. Going forward, the browser client communicates directly with the Conferencing Server for media, or through the Edge Server if they are remote.

For those familiar with the conference join process in Lync Server 2013, you will notice that the join process for Lync Web App users is very similar. An important note: UCWA will always be involved to facilitate signaling for browser-based users.