Aastra 6725ip POE problems with HP Procurve switching

We recently received a number of Aastra 6725ip handsets, the handsets immediately powered up via POE and connected to our Lync 2013 deployment. After I returned to work on Monday morning none of the phones were still connected to the Lync server, after rebooting them they no longer booted from POE.

This problem was introduced when they updated to newer OC Phone firmware editions 4.0.7577.4397 (CU9) and above. Although we can't confirm if the issue was introduced in firmware versions CU8 and below.

We tried a number of different Procurve switch models including other 5400 series switches (all fully populated with 900w POE+ power supplies) and 2900 series models, all experienced the same no power problems. The switches complained of not detecting an MPS signature and occasionally the switch also gave over current detection errors. If we used a POE injector or DC power supply the phone started without an issue. We also verified this was not an issue with POE power limits, pre-std-detection or LLDP.

After contacting Aastra they asked us to take a photo of the label underneath the phone. After the technician viewed the label they immediately offered to RMA all my phones but didn't give any reasons as to why they needed to be RMA'd.

After receiving the new phone I compared the labels and to no surprises the replacement unit is a Revision B compared to the previous Revision A unit.

While this is not in any way confirmed by Aastra, we theorize that in later editions of Lync 2013 phone edition some changes were made to the POE signature that caused incompatibilities with the Revision A Aastra 6725ip handsets and HP Procurve swit ches. If you are experiencing similar issues Aastra and very efficient at dealing with issues and promptly shipped me new handsets without any hassle.

The old handset

The new handset