Lesson 2

Introducing Voice Gateways

Overview
GatewaysprovideanumberofwaystoconnectanIPtelephonynetworktothepublicswitched
telephonenetwork(PSTN),alegacyPBX,keysystems,orothertimedivisionmultiplexing
(TDM)systems.Gatewaysrangefromspecialized,entrylevel,andstandalonevoicegateways,
tohighend,integratedroutersandCiscoIOSgateways.Thislessonintroducesvoicegateways
anddeploymentmodelsinanIPtelephonynetwork.

Objectives
Uponcompletingthislesson,youwillbeabletodescribethedifferenttypesofvoicegateways
andwhentouseeachtype.Thisabilityincludesbeingabletomeettheseobjectives:

DescribethefunctionalityofgatewaysandtheirroleofconnectingVoIPtotraditional
PSTNandtelephonyequipment

DescribethedifferentCiscogatewayplatforms

IdentifysupportedIPtelephonydeploymentmodels

IdentifythemajorcharacteristicsanddesignguidelinesofasinglesiteIPtelephony
deploymentmodel

IdentifythemajorcharacteristicsanddesignguidelinesofamultisitecentralizedIP
telephonydeploymentmodel

IdentifythemajorcharacteristicsanddesignguidelinesofamultisitedistributedIP
telephonydeploymentmodel

Identifythecharacteristics,limitations,andadvantagesofclusteringovertheIPWAN

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Understanding Gateways
ThistopicdescribesthefunctionalityofgatewaysandtheirroleofconnectingVoIPto
traditionalPSTNandtelephonyequipment.

Understanding Gateways
A gateway connects IP
communication networks to analog
devices, to the PSTN, or to a PBX
Specifically, its role is the
following:
Convert IP telephony packets
into analog or digital signals
Connect an IP telephony
network to analog or digital
trunks or to individual analog
stations
Two gateway signaling types:
Analog
Digital

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-2

Avoicegatewayfunctionsasatranslatorbetweendifferenttypesofnetworks.Gatewaysallow
terminalsofonetype,suchasH.323,tocommunicatewithterminalsofanothertype,suchasa
PBX,byconvertingprotocols.GatewaysconnectacompanynetworktothePSTN,aPBX,or
individualanalogdevicessuchasaphoneorfax.
ThesearethetwotypesofCiscoaccessgateways:

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Analoggateways:TherearetwocategoriesofCiscoanalogaccesssystems:

AnalogstationgatewaysconnectanIPtelephonynetworktoplainoldtelephone
service(POTS).TheyprovideForeignExchangeStation(FXS)portstoconnect
analogtelephones,interactivevoiceresponse(IVR)systems,faxmachines,PBX
systems,andvoicemailsystems.

AnalogtrunkgatewaysconnectanIPtelephonynetworktothePSTNcentraloffice
(CO)oraPBX.TheyprovideForeignExchangeOffice(FXO)portsforPSTNor
PBXaccessandearandmouth(E&M)portsforanalogtrunkconnectiontoalegacy
PBX.Tominimizeanyansweranddisconnectsupervisionissues,usedigital
gatewayswheneverpossible.Analogdirectinwarddialing(DID)isalsoavailable
forPSTNconnectivity.

Digitalgateways:CiscoaccessdigitaltrunkgatewaysconnectanIPtelephonynetworkto
thePSTNortoaPBXviadigitaltrunks,suchasPRIcommonchannelsignaling(CCS),
BRI,andT1orE1channelassociatedsignaling(CAS).DigitalT1PRItrunksmayalso
connecttocertainlegacyvoicemailsystems.

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2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Gateways
Support these gateway protocols:
H.323
MGCP
SIP
SCCP
Provide advanced gateway functionality
DTMF relay
Supplementary services
Work with redundant Cisco Unified Communication Manager
Enable call survivability
Provide QSIG support.
Provide fax or modem services, or both

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-3

IPtelephonygatewaysshouldmeetthesecorefeaturerequirements:

Gatewayprotocolsupport:Ciscovoicegatewayssupportvarioussignalingprotocols,
dependingonthehardwareplatform.CiscogatewayssupportH.323,MediaGateway
ControlProtocol(MGCP),sessioninitiationprotocol(SIP),andSkinnyClientControl
Protocol(SCCP).H.323andSIPgatewaysdonotneedacallcontrolagent.Therefore,they
canbedeployedonnetworksinwhichcallagents,suchasCiscoUnifiedCommunications
Manager,arenotpresent.MGCPandSCCParestreamlinedprotocolsthatonlyworkona
networkinwhichacallagent,suchasaCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManager,is
present.CiscoIPphonesuseSCCP,whichisalighterweightprotocol.SCCPusesa
client/servermodel,whileH.323isapeertopeermodel.MGCPalsofollowsa
client/servermodel.
Protocol Selection
Protocolselectiondependsonsitespecificrequirementsandtheinstalledbaseof
equipment.Forexample,manyremotebranchlocationshaveCisco2600XMSeries
MultiserviceRoutersorCisco3700SeriesMultiserviceAccessRoutersinstalled.These
routerssupportH.323andMGCP0.1withCiscoIOSRelease12.2(11)TandCisco
UnifiedCommunicationsManagerRelease3.1orlater.Forgatewayconfiguration,you
mightpreferMGCPtoH.323becauseofitssimplerconfiguration.Thisoptionalsoworks
wellwitholderCiscoIOSversionsbecauseitprovidessupportforcallsurvivabilityduring
aCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerfailoverfromaprimarytoasecondaryCisco
UnifiedCommunicationsManager.Ontheotherhand,youmightpreferH.323over
MGCPbecauseofthemoreadvancedinterfacessupported.
TheSimplifiedMessageDeskInterface(SMDI)isastandardforintegratingvoicemail
systemstoPBXsorCentrexsystems.ConnectingtoavoicemailsystemviaSMDIusing
eitheranalogFXSordigitalT1PRIrequireseitherSCCPorMGCPbecauseH.323
devicesdonotidentifythespecificlinethatisbeingusedbyagroupofports.Theuseof
H.323gatewaysforthispurposemeanstheCiscoMessagingInterfacecannotcorrectly

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correlatetheSMDIinformationwiththeactualportorchannelthatisbeingusedforan
incomingcall.

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Advancedgatewayfunctionality,ofwhichtherearetwoadvancedfeatures:

Dualtonemultifrequency(DTMF)relaycapabilities:Eachdigitthatisdialed
withtonedialingisassignedauniquepairoffrequencies.Voicecompressionof
thesetoneswithalowbitratecoderdecoder(codec)cancauseDTMFsignallossor
distortion.Therefore,DTMFtonesareseparatedfromthevoicebearerstreamand
sentassignalingindicationsthroughthegatewayprotocol(H.323,SCCP,orMGCP)
signalingchannelinstead.

Supplementaryservicessupport:Theseservicesprovideuserfunctionssuchas
hold,transfer,andconferencing,andareconsideredtobefundamentalrequirements
ofanyvoiceinstallation.

RedundantCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagersystemssupport:Thegateways
mustsupporttheabilitytorehometoasecondaryCiscoUnifiedCommunications
ManagerintheeventofaprimaryCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerfailure.

CallsurvivabilityinCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManager:Thevoicegateway
preservestheRealTimeTransportProtocol(RTP)bearerstream(thevoiceconversation)
betweentwoIPendpointswhentheCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagertowhichthe
endpointisregisteredisnolongeraccessible.

QSignaling(QSIG)support:QSIGisbecomingthestandardforPBXinteroperabilityin
EuropeandNorthAmerica.WithQSIG,theCiscovoicepacketnetworkappearstoPBXs
asadistributedtransitPBXthatcanestablishcallstoanyPBXorothertelephonyendpoint
servedbyaCiscogateway,includingnonQSIGendpoints.

Faxandmodemsupport:FaxoverIPenablesinteroperabilityoftraditionalanalogfax
machineswithIPtelephonynetworks.Thefaximageisconvertedfromananalogsignal
andistransmittedasdigitaldataoverthepacketnetwork.

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2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Deploying Gateways
San Jose

Chicago

Unified Communications
Manager Cluster

IP WAN

MGCP
SJ-GW

Unified Communications
Manager Express H.323
CHI-GW

PSTN
Denver
SIP
DNV-GW
SIP Proxy
Server
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CVOICE v6.01-4

Gatewaysareusuallydeployedasedgedevicesonanetwork.Becausetheywillinterfacewith
boththePSTNandthecompanyWAN,theymusthavetheappropriatehardwareandutilizethe
appropriateprotocolforthatnetwork.Thefigurerepresentsascenarioinwhichthreedifferent
typesofgatewaysaredeployedforVoIPandPSTNinterconnections.
Thescenariodisplaystheunifiedcommunicationsnetworkofacompanythatwasrecently
formedasaresultofamergerofthreeindividualcompanies.Inthepast,eachcompanyhadits
ownstrategyintermsofhowtheyconnectedtothePSTN.

TheSanJoselocationusedaCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerenvironmentwitha
MGCPcontrolledunifiedcommunicationsgatewaytoconnecttothePSTN.

TheChicagolocationusedaCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerExpress
environmentwithanH.323basedunifiedcommunicationsgatewaytoconnecttothe
PSTN.

TheDenverlocationusedaCiscoSIPproxyserverandSIPIPphonesaswellasaSIP
basedunifiedcommunicationsgatewaytoconnecttothePSTN.BecausetheDenver
locationisasmalloffice,itdoesnotusetheWANforIPtelephonytraffictotheother
locations.Therefore,itslocalVoIPnetworkisconnectedonlytothePSTN.

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Gateway Hardware Platforms

ThistopicdescribesthedifferentCiscogatewayplatforms.

Gateway Hardware Platforms

Modern enterprise models:

Cisco 2800 Series Routers

Cisco 3800 Series Routers

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series

CVOICE v6.01-5

Thisfiguredepictssomeofthemodernenterprisemodelsthatareusuallyusedwithin
enterprisenetworks.

Modern Enterprise Models

FollowingaresomeofthecurrentCiscovoicegatewaymodelsusedinmodernenterprise
environments.

Cisco 2800 Series Integrated Services Routers

Cisco2800SeriesIntegratedServicesRouterscomprisefourmodels:Cisco2801,Cisco2811,
Cisco2821,andCisco2851routers.The2800Seriesroutersprovideupto5timestheoverall
performance,upto10timesthesecurityandvoiceperformance,embeddedserviceoptions,and
dramaticallyincreasedslotperformanceanddensity.Theseriesalsomaintainssupportformost
ofthemorethan90modulesthatareavailablefortheCisco1700SeriesModularAccess
Routers,2600SeriesMultiservicePlatforms,and3700SeriesMultiserviceAccessRouters
The2800Seriesrouterscandeliversimultaneous,highquality,wirespeedservicesupto
multipleT1/E1orxDSLconnections.Theroutersofferembeddedencryptionaccelerationand,
onthemotherboard,voicedigitalsignalprocessor(DSP)slots.Theyalsoofferintrusion
preventionsystem(IPS)andfirewallfunctions;optionalintegratedcallprocessingandvoice
mailsupport;highdensityinterfacesforawiderangeofwiredandwirelessconnectivity
requirements;andsufficientperformanceandslotdensityforfuturenetworkexpansion
requirementsandadvancedapplications.
Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/2800tolearnmoreabouttheCisco2800Seriesrouters.
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Cisco 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers

Cisco3800SeriesIntegratedServicesRoutersalsofeatureembeddedsecurityprocessing,
significantperformanceandmemoryenhancements,andnewhighdensityinterfacesthat
delivertheperformance,availability,andreliabilitythatarerequiredtoscalemissioncritical
security,IPtelephony,businessvideo,networkanalysis,andWebapplicationsinthemost
demandingenterpriseenvironments.The3800Seriesroutersdelivermultipleconcurrent
servicesatwirespeedT3/E3rates.
Theintegratedservicesroutingarchitectureofthe3800Seriesroutersisbasedonthatofthe
3700Seriesrouters.Theroutersaredesignedtoembedandintegratesecurityandvoice
processingwithadvancedwiredandwirelessservicesforrapiddeploymentofnew
applications,includingapplicationlayerfunctions,intelligentnetworkservices,andconverged
communications.The3800SeriesrouterssupportthebandwidthrequirementsformultipleFast
Ethernetinterfacesperslot,TDMinterconnections,andfullyintegratedpowerdistributionto
modulessupporting802.3afPoweroverEthernet(PoE).Italsosupportstheexistingportfolio
ofmodularinterfaces.Thisaccommodatesnetworkexpansionorchangesintechnologyasnew
servicesandapplicationsaredeployed.Byintegratingthefunctionsofmultipleseparate
devicesintoasinglecompactunit,the3800Seriesreducesthecostandcomplexityof
managingremotenetworks.
New3800SeriesmodelsincludetheCisco3825IntegratedServicesRouterandtheCisco3845
IntegratedServicesRouter,availablewiththreeoptionalconfigurationsforACpower,AC
powerwithintegratedinlinepowersupport,andDCpower.
Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/3800tolearnmoreaboutthe3800Seriesrouters.

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches

TheCiscoCatalyst6500SeriesSwitchesarehighperformanceandfeaturerichplatformsthat
canbeusedasvoicegatewaysbyinstallingaCiscoCommunicationMediaModule(CMM).
TheCiscoCMMisaCiscoCatalyst6500Serieslinecardthatprovidesflexibleandhigh
densityVoIPgatewayandmediaservices.Catalyst6500SeriesSwitchescanhandlemany
digitaltrunkinterfaces.Forexample,CiscoCatalyst6509Switchessupportupto144T1/E1
connectionsbyusingeightcommunicationsmediamoduleswith18portseach.Thesegateway
andmediaservicesalloworganizationstoconnecttheirexistingTDMnetworktotheirIP
communicationsnetwork,provideconnectivitytothePSTN,andenableconferencingand
transcodingservices.
Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/catalyst6500tolearnmoreaboutCatalyst6500Series
Switches.

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Well-Known and Widely Used Enterprise Models

Thisfigureshowssomewellknownandwidelyusedenterprisemodelsthathavebeeninuse
forsometime.

Gateway Hardware Platforms (Cont.)

Well-known and widely used older enterprise models:

Cisco 1751-V Router

EOS: 03/2007
EOL: 03/2012

Cisco 1760-V Router

EOS: 03/2007
EOL: 03/2012

Cisco 3600 Series Platforms

EOS: 12/2004
EOL: 12/2008

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cisco 2600XM Series Routers

EOS: 03/2007
EOL: 03/2012

Cisco 3700 Series Routers

EOS: 03/2007
EOL: 03/2012

CVOICE v6.01-6

ThefiguresummarizestheenterprisemodelsofCiscomodularaccessroutersthathavevoice
gatewaycapabilities.Thesemodelsarewellknownandwidelyused,andalthoughtheyare
announcedtoreachendofsale(EOS)or,inthecaseoftheCisco2600Series,arealready
EOSyouneedtoknowandsupportthesemodels.Becausetheyweretheleadingvoice
gatewayproductsforalongtime,nearlyallCiscocustomershaveoneormoreofthesesystems
onthenetwork.

Cisco 1751-V Modular Access Router

TheCisco1751VModularAccessRoutersupportsmultiserviceintegrationofvoice,video,
data,andfaxtraffic.TherouteroffersmanyWANaccessandvoiceinterfaceoptions,VoIP,
highperformanceroutingwithbandwidthmanagement,intervirtualLANrouting,andvirtual
privatenetwork(VPN)accesswithafirewall.

Cisco 1760-V Modular Access Router

TheCisco1760VModularAccessRouterofferssmalltomediumsizedbusinessesandsmall
enterprisebranchofficesa19inchrackmountaccesssolutiondesignedtotakeadvantageof
theproductivityofbusinessapplications.Therouterensuresthemultiserviceintegrationof
voice,video,data,andfaxtraffic.Itprovidesbusinesseswiththecompletefunctionalityand
flexibilitytodeliversecureInternetandintranetaccess.TherouterhasmanyWANaccess
options,VoIP,highperformanceroutingwithqualityofservice(QoS),intervirtualLAN
routing,andVPNaccesswithfirewalloptions.PoweredbyCiscoIOSsoftware,theCisco
1760VModularAccessRouterallowssimplifiedmanagementandtrafficprioritization,
ensuringthatbusinessandtimesensitiveapplicationsperformasexpected.

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Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/1700tolearnmoreabouttheCisco1700SeriesModular
AccessRouters.

Cisco 2600XM Series Multiservice Routers

ThemodulararchitectureoftheCisco2600XMSeriesMultiserviceRoutersenablesyouto
upgradeinterfacestoaccommodatenetworkexpansionorchangesintechnologyasnew
servicesandapplicationsaredeployed.ModularinterfacesaresharedwiththeCisco1700
SeriesModularAccessRoutersandtheCisco3700SeriesMultiserviceAccessRouters,
providinginvestmentprotectionandreducingthecomplexityofmanagingtheremotenetwork
solutionbyintegratingthefunctionsofmultiple,separatedevicesintoasingle,compactunit.
Networkmodulesthatareavailablefor2600XMSeriesand3700Seriesrouterssupportmany
applications,includingmultiservicevoiceanddataintegration,integratedswitching,analogand
ISDNdialaccess,andserialdeviceconcentration.
Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/2600tolearnmoreabouttheCisco2600XMSeries
MultiserviceRouters.

Cisco 3600 Series Multiservice Platforms

Cisco3600Seriesplatformsareafamilyofmodular,multiserviceaccessplatformsfor
mediumandlargesizedofficesandsmallerInternetserviceproviders(ISPs).Withmorethan
70modularinterfaceoptions,Cisco3600Seriesplatformsprovidesolutionsfordata,voice,
video,hybriddialaccess,VPNs,andmultiprotocoldatarouting.Thehighperformance,
modulararchitectureprotectscustomerinvestmentsinnetworktechnologyandintegratesthe
functionsofseveraldeviceswithinasingle,manageablesolution.
CiscoextendedtheCisco3600SeriesplatformswiththeCisco3660MultiservicePlatform.
TheCisco3660platformprovideshigherdensities,greaterperformance,andmoreexpansion
capabilities.TheadditionalpowerandperformanceoftheCisco3660platformenablesnew
applications,suchaspacketizedvoiceaggregationandbranchofficeATMaccessrangingfrom
T1/E1InverseMultiplexingoverATM(IMA)toOpticalCarrier3(OC3).
Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/3600tolearnmoreabouttheCisco3600SeriesMultiservice
Platforms.

Cisco 3700 Series Multiservice Access Routers

TheCisco3700SeriesMultiserviceAccessRoutersaremodularroutersthatenableflexible
andscalabledeploymentofebusinessapplicationsfortheCiscofullservicebranch(FSB)
office.The3700SeriesMultiserviceAccessRoutersoptimizethebranchofficewithhigh
performancerouting,integratedlowdensityswitching,security,voice,IPtelephony,voice
mail,video,andcontentnetworkinginanintegratedsolution.Thisintegrateddesignenables
enterprisecustomerstoadapttoevolvingbusinessneedsbyenhancingCiscoIOSservices,
suchasQoS,IPmulticast,VPN,CiscoIOSfirewall,andanIPS.The3700SeriesMultiservice
AccessRoutersarebasedonthesamemodularconceptsasthe3600Seriesplatforms,butthey
enablehigherlevelsofperformanceandserviceintegrationforthebranchoffice.
Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/3700tolearnmoreabouttheCisco3700SeriesMultiservice
AccessRouters.

Standalone Voice Gateways

Thisfigureshowssomestandalonegatewaymodels.
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Gateway Hardware Platforms (Cont.)

Special voice gateways:

Cisco VG224 and VG248 Gateways

Cisco AS5850 Gateway

Cisco AS5300 and AS5400 Series Gateways

Cisco 827-4V Router

EOS: 05/2005
EOL: 05/2010
Cisco ATA 186

Cisco 7200 Series Routers

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-7

Tofitspecialneedswithinthecustomerunifiedmessagingsystem,Ciscooffersstandalone
voicegatewaysforspecificpurposes.Eachofthesevoicegatewaysfulfillsadifferentneed,
suchastheintegrationofanalogdevicesintotheunifiedmessagingsystem,enhanced
performance,businessclassfunctionality,adaptability,serviceability,andmanageability.

Cisco VG224 and VG248 Analog Phone Gateways

CiscoVG200SeriesGatewaysincludingCiscoVG224AnalogPhoneGatewayandCisco
VG248AnalogPhoneGatewayprovidesupportfortraditionalanalogdeviceswhiletaking
advantageofthenewcapabilitiesthatCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsaffords.
CiscoVG200SeriesGatewaysincludethesefeatures:

VG200SeriesGatewaysarehighdensitygatewaysforusinganalogphones,faxmachines,
modems,voicemailsystems,andspeakerphones.

VG200SeriesGatewaysofferfeaturerichfunctionalityforenterprisevoicesystemsbased
onCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerorCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManager
Express.

TheVG224AnalogPhoneGatewayisbasedonaCiscoIOSsoftwareplatformandoffers
24fullyfeaturedanalogportsforuseasextensionstoCiscoUnifiedCommunications
ManagerorCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerExpresssystemsinacompact19
inchrackmountchassis.

TheVG248AnalogPhoneGatewayoffers48fullyfeaturedanalogportsforuseas
extensionstotheCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagersysteminacompact19inch
rackmountchassis.

Cisco AS5300 Series Universal Gateways

TheCiscoAS5300SeriesgatewaysincludetheCiscoAS5350UniversalGatewayandthe
CiscoAS5350XMUniversalGateway.TheAS5350XMUniversalGatewaydoublesthe
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performanceoftheCiscoAS5350UniversalGateway,allowingthesameapplicationstorun
fasterandwithlowerCPUutilizationlevels.
Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/as5300tolearnmoreabouttheCiscoAS5300SeriesUniversal
Gateways.

Cisco AS5400 Series Universal Gateways

TheCiscoAS5400SeriesgatewaysincludetheCiscoAS5400HPXUniversalGateway,which
enhancesperformanceforprocessorintensivevoiceandfaxapplications,andtheCisco
AS5400XMUniversalGateway.ThesegatewaymodelsdoubletheperformanceoftheCisco
AS5400UniversalGatewayandAS5400HPXUniversalGatewaymodelsandallowthesame
applicationstorunfasterandwithlowerCPUutilizationlevels.
Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/as5400tolearnmoreabouttheCiscoAS5400SeriesUniversal
Gateways.

Cisco AS5850 Universal Gateway

TheCiscoAS5850UniversalGatewayisahighdensity,carrierclassgatewaywithhigh
capacityandavailability.TheAS5850UniversalGatewayisspecificallydesignedtomeetthe
demandsoflargeserviceprovidersbysupportingupto5channelizedT3s(CT3s),96T1s,or
86E1sofdata,voice,andfaxservices,onanyportatanytime.Itoffershighavailability
featuressuchashotswaponallcards,loadsharingandredundanthotswappablepower
supplies,redundantrouteprocessingcards,andCallAdmissionControl(CAC)toensure
99.999percentavailability.
Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/as5850tolearnmoreabouttheCiscoAS5850Universal
Gateway.

Cisco 827-4V ADSL Router

TheCisco8274VADSLRouterprovidesbusinessclassfunctionalityforsmallbusinesses,
smallremoteoffices,andcorporateteleworkersusingCiscoIOStechnology.Itenablesservice
providersandresellerstoincreaseservicerevenuebysupportingfeaturesforbusinessclass
security,integratedtollqualityvoiceanddata,differentiatedserviceclasses,andmanaged
networkaccess.Thesefeatures,alongwiththemanageabilityandreliabilityofCiscoIOS
software,providemissioncriticalnetworking.
Withthesoftwareupgradeableplatformofthe8274VADSLRouter,serviceprovidersand
resellerscanincreaserevenuebyofferingDSLservicestodayandprovidevalueaddedservices
asthetechnologyneedsoftheircustomersgrow.TheCisco8274VADSLRouterisoneofthe
Cisco800SeriesRouters.
Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/800tolearnmoreabouttheCisco800SeriesRouters.

Cisco ATA 186

TheCiscoAnalogTelephoneAdaptor186(ATA186)isahandsettoEthernetadapterthat
allowstraditionaltelephonedevicestofunctionasVoIPdevices.CustomerscanuseIP
telephonyapplicationsbyconnectingtheiranalogdevicestoanalogtelephoneadapters.
TheATA186supportstwovoiceports,whicheachhaveanindependenttelephonenumberand
asingle10BASETEthernetport.ThisadaptorcanmakeuseofexistingEthernetLANs,in
additiontobroadbandpipessuchasDSL,fixedwireless,andcablemodemdeployments.
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TheCiscoATA180SeriesproductsarestandardsbasedIPcommunicationsdevicesthat
deliverVoIPterminationstobusinessesandresidences.
Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/ata186tolearnmoreabouttheCiscoATA186.

Cisco 7200 Series Routers

Cisco7200SeriesRoutersareservicesroutersforenterpriseedgeandserviceprovideredge
applications.Thesecompactroutersprovideserviceabilityandmanageabilitycoupledwith
highperformancemodularprocessorssuchastheCisco7200SeriesNPEG1Network
ProcessingEngine.
Gotohttp://www.cisco.com/go/7200tolearnmoreabouttheCisco7200SeriesRouters.

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Summary of Voice Gateways

ThissubtopicsummarizestheCiscovoicegatewayplatformsandprovidesashortoverviewof
theirusage.

Gateway Hardware Platforms (Cont.)

H.323

Cisco Unified
Communications
Manager MGCP

SIP

SCCP

Cisco 827-4V Router

Yes

No

No

No

Cisco 2800 Series Routers

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Cisco 3800 Series Routers

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Cisco 1751-V and 1760-V Routers

Yes

Yes

No

Yes1

Cisco 2600XM Series Router

Yes

Yes

No

No3

Cisco 3600 Series Platforms

Yes

Yes

No

No3

Cisco 3700 Series Routers

Yes

Yes

No

No3

Cisco VG224 Gateway

Yes2

Yes2

No

Yes

Cisco VG248 Gateway

No

No

No

Yes

Cisco AS53XX and AS5400 and AS5850

Cisco Gateways

Yes

No

No

No

Communication Media Module

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

GW Module WS-X6608-x1 and FXS

Module WS-X6624

No

Yes

No

Yes

Cisco ATA 180 Series

Yes2

Yes2

No

Yes2

Cisco 7200 Series Routers

Yes

No

No

No

Conferencing and transcoding only

FXS only
3 DSP farm
2

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-8

ThetableabovesummarizestheCiscovoicegatewayplatforms.
Thetablebelowprovidesashortoverviewoftheiruses.
Gateway Hardware Platforms
Device/Series

Use

Cisco 827-4V router

Connects up to four analog devices via ADSL

Cisco 2800 Series routers

Used for small-to-medium-sized enterprise voice gateways

Cisco 3800 Series routers

Used for large-sized enterprise voice gateways

Cisco 1751-V and 1760-V routers

Used for small-sized enterprise voice gateways

Cisco 2600XM Series routers

Used for medium-sized enterprise voice gateways

Cisco 3600 Series platforms

Used for medium-sized enterprise voice gateways

Cisco 3700 Series routers

Used for large-sized enterprise voice gateways

Cisco VG224 gateway

Connects up to 24 analog devices to the VoIP network

Cisco VG248 gateway

Connects up to 48 analog devices to the VoIP network

Cisco AS5350, AS5350XM,

AS5400HPX, AS5400XM, and
AS5850 gateways

Is a service provider voice gateway

Cisco Communications Media

Module

Provides T1/E1 and FXS interfaces and conferencing and

transcoding resources on Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches

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Device/Series

Use

Cisco Catalyst 6000 WS-X6608E1 and Catalyst 6000 WS-X6608T1 gateway modules and Cisco
Catalyst 6000 WS-X6624-FXS

Provides T1/E1 and FXS interfaces on Catalyst 6500 Series

Switches

Cisco ATA 186

Connects up to two analog devices to the VoIP network

Cisco 7200 Series routers

Is a service provider voice gateway

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IP Telephony Deployment Models

ThistopicdescribessupportedIPtelephonydeploymentmodels.

IP Telephony Deployment Models

Applications
Cisco Unified Communications
Manager Cluster

Cisco Unified
Communications
Manager
Cluster

Applications

PSTN

IP WAN

Branch

Headquarters

Supported IP telephony deployment models:

Single-site deployment
Multisite WAN with centralized call processing
Multisite WAN with distributed call processing
Clustering over the IP WAN
2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-9

EachdeploymentmodeldiffersinthetypeoftrafficthatiscarriedovertheWAN,thelocation
ofthecallprocessingagent,andthesizeofthedeployment.CiscoIPtelephonysupportsthese
deploymentmodels:

Singlesite

Multisitewithcentralizedcallprocessing

Multisitewithdistributedcallprocessing

ClusteringovertheIPWAN

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Introduction to VoIP

1-53

Single-Site Deployment
ThistopicdescribesthemajorcharacteristicsanddesignguidelinesofasinglesiteIPtelephony
deploymentmodel.

Single-Site Deployment
Cisco Unified Communications
Manager servers, applications,
and DSP resources at same
physical location

Cisco Unified Communications

Manager Cluster

IP WAN (if one) used for data

traffic only
PSTN used for all external calls
Supports approximately 30,000
IP phones per cluster
PSTN
SIP or SCCP

WAN

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-10

ThesinglesitemodelforCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsconsistsofacallprocessingagent
clusterlocatedatasinglesite,orcampus,withnotelephonyservicesprovidedoveranIP
WAN.AllCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerservers,applications,andDSPresources
arelocatedinthesamephysicallocation.YoucanimplementmultipleclustersinsideaLANor
ametropolitanareanetwork(MAN)andconnectthemthroughinterclustertrunksifyouneed
todeploymoreIPphonesinasinglesiteconfiguration.
AnenterprisewouldtypicallydeploythesinglesitemodeloveraLANorMAN,whichcarries
thevoicetrafficwithinthesite.GatewaytrunksthatconnectdirectlytothePSTNhandleall
externalcalls.IfanIPWANexistsbetweensites,itisusedtocarrydatatrafficonly;no
telephonyservicesareprovidedovertheWAN.

Design Characteristics
Thesinglesitemodelhasthefollowingdesigncharacteristics:

1-54

SingleCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagercluster.

Maximumof30,000SCCPorSIPIPphonesorSCCPvideoendpointspercluster.

Maximumof1100H.323devices(gateways,multipointcontrolunits,trunks,andclients)
orMGCPgatewaysperCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagercluster.

PSTNforallcallsoutsidethesite.

DSPresourcesforconferencing,transcoding,andMediaTerminationPoint(MTP).

Voicemail,unifiedmessaging,CiscoUnifiedPresence,andaudioandvideocomponents.

Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE) v6.0

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

CapabilitytointegratewithlegacyPBXandvoicemailsystems.

H.323clients,multipointcontrolunits,andH.323/H.320gatewaysthatrequireagatekeeper
toplacecallsmustregisterwithaCiscoIOSgatekeeper(CiscoIOSRelease12.3(8)Tor
later).CiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerthenusesanH.323trunktointegratewith
thegatekeeperandprovidecallroutingandbandwidthmanagementservicesfortheH.323
devicesthatareregisteredtoit.MultipleCiscoIOSgatekeepersmaybeusedtoprovide
redundancy.

Multipointcontrolunitresourcesarerequiredformultipointvideoconferencing.
Dependingonconferencingrequirements,theseresourcesmaybeeitherSCCPorH.323,or
both.

H.323/H.320videogatewaysareneededtocommunicatewithH.320videoconferencing
devicesonthepublicISDNnetwork.

Highbandwidthaudio(forexample,G.711,G.722,orCiscowidebandaudio)between
deviceswithinthesite.

Highbandwidthvideo(forexample,384kb/sorhigher)betweendeviceswithinthesite.
TheCiscoUnifiedVideoAdvantagewidebandcodec,operatingat7Mb/s,isalso
supported.

Benefits of the Single-Site Model

Asingleinfrastructureforaconvergednetworksolutionprovidessignificantcostbenefitsand
enablesCiscoUnifiedCommunicationstotakeadvantageofthemanyIPbasedapplicationsin
theenterprise.Singlesitedeploymentalsoallowseachsitetobecompletelyselfcontained.
ThereisnodependencyforserviceintheeventofanIPWANfailureorinsufficient
bandwidth,andthereisnolossofcallprocessingserviceorfunctionality.
Themainbenefitsofthesinglesitemodelare:

Easeofdeployment

Acommoninfrastructureforaconvergedsolution

Simplifieddialplan

Norequiredtranscodingresources,duetotheuseofonlyasinglehighbandwidthcodec

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Introduction to VoIP

1-55

Single-Site Deployment: Design Guidelines

Thissubtopiccoverssinglesitedesignguidelinesandbestpractices.

Design Guidelines
Provide a highly available, fault-tolerant infrastructure.
Understand the current calling patterns within the enterprise.
Use the G.711 codec for all endpoints; DSP resources can be
allocated to other functions, such as conferencing and MTP.
Use H.323, SIP, SRST, and MGCP gateways for the PSTN.
Implement the recommended network infrastructure for high
availability, connectivity options for phones, QoS mechanisms,
and security.

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-11

Singlesitedeploymentisasubsetofthedistributedandcentralizedcallprocessingmodel.
Futurescalabilityrequiresthatyouadheretotherecommendedbestpracticesspecifictothe
distributedandcentralizedcallprocessingmodel.Whenyoudevelopastable,singlesitethatis
basedonacommoninfrastructurephilosophy,youcaneasilyexpandtheIPtelephonysystem
applications,suchasvideostreamingandvideoconferencing,toremotesites.

Best Practices
Followtheseguidelinesandbestpracticeswhenimplementingthesinglesitemodel:

1-56

Provideahighlyavailable,faulttolerantinfrastructurebasedonacommoninfrastructure
philosophy.AsoundinfrastructureisessentialforeasiermigrationtoCiscoUnified
Communications,integrationwithapplicationssuchasvideostreamingandvideo
conferencing,andexpansionofyourCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsdeploymentacrossthe
WANortomultipleCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerclusters.

Knowthecallingpatternsforyourenterprise.Usethesinglesitemodelifmostofthecalls
fromyourenterprisearewithinthesamesiteortoPSTNusersoutsideyourenterprise.

UseG.711codecsforallendpoints.ThispracticeeliminatestheconsumptionofDSP
resourcesfortranscoding,andthoseresourcescanbeallocatedtootherfunctionssuchas
conferencingandMTPs.

UseSIP,SRST,andMGCPgatewaysforthePSTN.Thispracticesimplifiesthedialplan
configuration.H.323mightberequiredtosupportspecificfunctionalitysuchasSignaling
System7(SS7)orNonFacilityAssociatedSignaling(NFAS).

Implementtherecommendednetworkinfrastructureforhighavailability,connectivity
optionsforphones(inlinepower),QoSmechanisms,andsecurity.

Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE) v6.0

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Multisite WAN with Centralized Call Processing

ThistopicdescribesthemajorcharacteristicsanddesignguidelinesofamultisitecentralizedIP
telephonydeploymentmodel.

Multisite WAN with Centralized

Call Processing

Cisco Unified Communications

Manager Cluster

Cisco Unified
Communications Manager at
central site; applications and
DSP resources centralized or
distributed
IP WAN carries voice traffic
and call control signaling

SIP or SCCP

Supports approximately
30,000 IP phones per cluster
Call admission control
(limit number of calls per site)

PSTN

IP
WAN

SRSTcapable

SRSTcapable

SRST for remote branches

AAR used if WAN bandwidth
is exceeded
SIP or SCCP

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

SIP or SCCP

CVOICE v6.01-12

ThemodelforamultisiteWANdeploymentwithcentralizedcallprocessingconsistsofa
singlecallprocessingagentclusterthatprovidesservicesformanyremotesitesandusestheIP
WANtotransportCiscoUnifiedCommunicationstrafficbetweenthesites.TheIPWANalso
carriescallcontrolsignalingbetweenthecentralsiteandtheremotesites.Thefigureillustrates
atypicalcentralizedcallprocessingdeployment,withaCiscoUnifiedCommunications
ManagerclusterasthecallprocessingagentatthecentralsiteandanIPWANwithQoS
enabledtoconnectallthesites.TheremotesitesrelyonthecentralizedCiscoUnified
CommunicationsManagerclustertohandletheircallprocessing.Applicationssuchasvoice
mail,presenceservers,IVRsystems,andsoforth,aretypicallyalsocentralizedtoreducethe
overallcostsofadministrationandmaintenance.
TheWANconnectivityoptionsincludethefollowing:

Leasedlines

FrameRelay

ATM

ATMandFrameRelayserviceinterworking(SIW)

MultiprotocolLabelSwitching(MPLS)VPN

VoiceandVideoEnabledVPN(V3PN)IPSecurity(IPsec)protocol

RoutersthatresideattheWANedgesrequireQoSmechanisms,suchaspriorityqueuingand
trafficshaping,toprotectthevoicetrafficfromthedatatrafficacrosstheWAN,where
bandwidthistypicallyscarce.Inaddition,aCACschemeisneededtoavoidoversubscribing
2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Introduction to VoIP

1-57

theWANlinkswithvoicetrafficanddeterioratingthequalityofestablishedcalls.For
centralizedcallprocessingdeployments,thelocationsconstructwithinCiscoUnified
CommunicationsManagerprovidesCAC.
AvarietyofCiscogatewayscanprovidetheremotesiteswithPSTNaccess.WhentheIP
WANisdown,orifalltheavailablebandwidthontheIPWANhasbeenconsumed,usersat
theremotesitescandialthePSTNaccesscodeandplacetheircallsthroughthePSTN.The
CiscoUnifiedSurvivableRemoteSiteTelephony(SRST)feature,availableforbothSCCPand
SIPphones,providescallprocessingatthebranchofficesforCiscoUnifiedIPphonesifthey
losetheirconnectiontotheremoteprimary,secondary,ortertiaryCiscoUnified
CommunicationsManageroriftheWANconnectionisdown.CiscoUnifiedSRST
functionalityisavailableonCiscoIOSgatewaysrunningtheSRSTfeatureoronCiscoUnified
CommunicationsManagerExpressRelease4.0andhigherrunninginSRSTmode.Cisco
UnifiedCommunicationsManagerExpressrunninginSRSTmodeprovidesmorefeaturesfor
thephonesthanSRSTonaCiscoIOSgatewaydoes.

Design Characteristics
Themultisitemodelwithcentralizedcallprocessinghasthefollowingdesigncharacteristics:

1-58

SingleCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagercluster.

Maximumof30,000SCCPorSIPIPphonesorSCCPvideoendpointspercluster.

Maximumof1000locationsperCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagercluster.

Maximumof1100H.323devices(gateways,multipointcontrolunits,trunks,andclients)
or1100MGCPgatewaysperCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagercluster.

PSTNforallexternalcalls.

DSPresourcesforconferencing,transcoding,andMTP.

Voicemail,unifiedmessaging,CiscoUnifiedPresence,andaudioandvideocomponents.

CapabilitytointegratewithlegacyPBXandvoicemailsystems.

H.323clients,multipointcontrolunits,andH.323/H.320gatewaysthatrequireagatekeeper
toplacecallsmustregisterwithaCiscoIOSgatekeeper(CiscoIOSRelease12.3(8)Tor
later).CiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerthenusesanH.323trunktointegratewith
thegatekeeperandprovidecallroutingandbandwidthmanagementservicesfortheH.323
devicesthatareregisteredtoit.MultipleCiscoIOSgatekeepersmaybeusedtoprovide
redundancy.

Multipointcontrolunitresourcesarerequiredformultipointvideoconferencing.
Dependingonconferencingrequirements,theseresourcesmaybeeitherSCCPorH.323,or
both,andmayallbelocatedatthecentralsiteormaybedistributedtotheremotesitesif
localconferencingresourcesarerequired.

H.323/H.320videogatewaysareneededtocommunicatewithH.320videoconferencing
devicesonthepublicISDNnetwork.Thesegatewaysmayallbelocatedatthecentralsite
ormaybedistributedtotheremotesitesiflocalISDNaccessisrequired.

Highbandwidthaudio(forexample,G.711,G.722,orCiscowidebandaudio)between
devicesinthesamesite,andlowbandwidthaudio(forexample,G.729orG.728)between
devicesindifferentsites.

Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE) v6.0

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Highbandwidthvideo(forexample,384kb/sorhigher)betweendevicesinthesamesite,
andlowbandwidthvideo(forexample,128kb/s)betweendevicesatdifferentsites.The
CiscoUnifiedVideoAdvantagewidebandcodec,operatingat7Mb/s,isrecommended
onlyforcallsbetweendevicesatthesamesite.

Minimumof768kb/sorhigherWANlinkspeeds.VideoisnotrecommendedonWAN
connectionsthatoperateatspeedslowerthan768kb/s.

CiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerlocationsprovideCAC,andautomatedalternate
routing(AAR)isalsosupportedforvideocalls.

SRSTversions4.0andhighersupportvideo.However,versionsofSRSTpriorto4.0do
notsupportvideo,andSCCPvideoendpointslocatedatremotesitesbecomeaudioonly
devicesiftheWANconnectionfails.

CiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerExpressversions4.0andhighermaybeused
insteadofanSRSTrouterforremotesitesurvivability.CiscoUnifiedCommunications
ManagerExpressalsoprovidesmorefeaturesthantheSRSTrouterdoesduringWAN
outage.

CiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerExpresscanbeintegratedwiththeCiscoUnity
serverinthebranchofficeorremotesite.TheCiscoUnityserverisregisteredtotheCisco
UnifiedCommunicationsManageratthecentralsiteinnormalmodeandcanfallbackto
CiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerExpressinSRSTmodewhenCiscoUnified
CommunicationsManagerisnotreachable,orduringaWANoutage,toprovidetheusers
atthebranchofficeswithaccesstotheirvoicemailwithMessageWaitingIndicator
(MWI).

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Introduction to VoIP

1-59

Multisite WAN with Centralized Call Processing: Design

Guidelines
Thissubtopicdetailsthebestpracticeguidelinestofollowwhenyouaredeployinga
centralizedIPtelephonymodel.

Design Guidelines
Minimize delay between Cisco Unified Communications Manager
and remote locations to reduce voice cut-through delays.
Use the locations mechanism in Cisco Unified Communications
Manager to provide call admission control into and out of remote
branches.
The number of IP phones and line appearances supported in
SRST mode at each remote site depends on the branch router
platform.
At the remote sites, use SRST, Cisco Unified Communications
Manager Express in SRST mode, SIP SRST, and MGCP
gateway fallback to ensure call-processing survivability in the
event of a WAN failure.
Use HSRP to provide backup gateways and gatekeepers.

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-13

FollowtheseguidelineswhenyouareimplementingthemultisiteWANmodelwithcentralized
callprocessing:

1-60

MinimizedelaybetweenCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerandremotelocationsto
reducevoicecutthroughdelays(alsoknownasclipping).Ciscorecommends150ms
maximumoneway.

UsethelocationsmechanisminCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagertoprovideCAC
intoandoutofremotebranches.

ThenumberofIPphonesandlineappearancesthataresupportedinSRSTmodeateach
remotesitedependsonthebranchrouterplatform,theamountofmemoryinstalled,andthe
CiscoIOSrelease.SRSTonaCiscoIOSgatewaysupportsupto720phones,whileCisco
UnifiedCommunicationsManagerExpressrunninginSRSTmodesupports240phones.
However,thechoiceofwhethertoadoptacentralizedcallprocessingordistributedcall
processingapproachforagivensitedependsonanumberoffactors:

IPWANbandwidthordelaylimitations

Criticalityofthevoicenetwork

Featuresetneeds

Scalability

Easeofmanagement

Cost

Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE) v6.0

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Note

If a distributed call-processing model is deemed more suitable for the customer business
needs, the choices include installing a Cisco Unified Communications Manager cluster at
each site or running Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express at the remote sites.

Attheremotesites,usethefollowingfeaturestoensurecallprocessingsurvivabilityinthe
eventofaWANfailure:

ForSCCPphones,useSRSTonaCiscoIOSgatewayorCiscoUnified
CommunicationsManagerExpressrunninginSRSTmode.

ForSIPphones,useSIPSRST.

ForMGCPphones,useMGCPgatewayfallback.

SRSTorCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerExpressinSRSTmode,SIPSRST,and
MGCPgatewayfallbackcanresidewitheachotheronthesameCiscoIOSgateway.

HotStandbyRouterProtocol(HSRP)maybeusedtoprovidebackupsforgatewaysand
gatekeepersinaVoIPenvironment.

Forspecificsizingrecommendations,refertoCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsSRNDBasedon
CiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManager6.xat
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps556/products_implementation_design_gui
de_book09186a008085eb0d.html.

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Introduction to VoIP

1-61

Multisite WAN with Distributed Call Processing

ThistopicdescribesthemajorcharacteristicsanddesignguidelinesofamultisitedistributedIP
telephonydeploymentmodel.

Multisite WAN with Distributed

Call Processing
Cisco Unified
Communications
Manager and
applications
located at each
site
IP WAN carries
intercluster call
control signaling
Scales to
hundreds of
sites

Cisco Unified
Call Manager
Cluster

SIP or SCCP

GK

Gatekeeper

IP
WAN

PSTN

SIP or SCCP

Transparent use
of the PSTN if the
IP WAN is
unavailable

SIP or SCCP

Cisco Unified
Call Manager
Cluster

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-14

ThemodelforamultisiteWANdeploymentwithdistributedcallprocessingconsistsof
multipleindependentsites,eachwithitsowncallprocessingagentclusterconnectedtoanIP
WANthatcarriesvoicetrafficbetweenthedistributedsites.
Dependingonyournetworkdesign,adistributedcallprocessingsitemayconsistofanyofthe
following:

Asinglesitewithitsowncallprocessingagent,whichcanbeoneofthefollowing:

CiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManager

CiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerExpress

OtherIPPBX

Acentralizedcallprocessingsiteandallofitsassociatedremotesites

AlegacyPBXwithaVoIPgateway

AnIPWANinterconnectsallofthedistributedcallprocessingsites.Typically,thePSTN
servesasabackupconnectionbetweenthesitesincasetheIPWANconnectionfailsordoes
nothaveanymoreavailablebandwidth.AsiteconnectedonlythroughthePSTNisa
standalonesiteandisnotcoveredbythedistributedcallprocessingmodel.
TheWANconnectivityoptionsincludethefollowing:

1-62

Leasedlines

FrameRelay

Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE) v6.0

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

ATM

ATMandFrameRelaySIW

MPLSVPN

V3PNIPsec

Multisitedistributedcallprocessingallowseachsitetobecompletelyselfcontained.Inthe
eventofanIPWANfailureorinsufficientbandwidth,thesitedoesnotlosecallprocessing
serviceorfunctionality.CiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagersimplysendsallcalls
betweenthesitesacrossthePSTN.

Design Characteristics
Themultisitemodelwithdistributedcallprocessinghasthefollowingdesigncharacteristics:

Maximumof30,000SCCPorSIPIPphonesorSCCPvideoendpointspercluster.

Maximumof1100MGCPgatewaysorH.323devices(gateways,multipointcontrolunits,
trunks,andclients)perCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagercluster.

PSTNforallexternalcalls.

DSPresourcesforconferencing,transcoding,andMTP.

Voicemail,unifiedmessaging,andCiscoUnifiedPresencecomponents.

CapabilitytointegratewithlegacyPBXandvoicemailsystems.

H.323clients,multipointcontrolunits,andH.323/H.320gatewaysthatrequireagatekeeper
toplacecallsmustregisterwithaCiscoIOSgatekeeper(CiscoIOSRelease12.3(8)Tor
later).CiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerthenusesanH.323trunktointegratewith
thegatekeeperandprovidecallroutingandbandwidthmanagementservicesfortheH.323
devicesregisteredtoit.MultipleCiscoIOSgatekeepersmaybeusedtoprovide
redundancy.CiscoIOSgatekeepersmayalsobeusedtoprovidecallroutingandbandwidth
managementbetweenthedistributedCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerclusters.In
mostsituations,CiscorecommendsthateachCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManager
clusterhaveitsownsetofendpointgatekeepersandthataseparatesetofgatekeepersbe
usedtomanagetheinterclustercalls.Insomecircumstances,itispossibletousethesame
setofgatekeepersforbothfunctions,dependingonthesizeofthenetwork,complexityof
thedialplan,andsoforth.

Multipointcontrolunitresourcesarerequiredineachclusterformultipointvideo
conferencing.Dependingonconferencingrequirements,theseresourcesmaybeeither
SCCPorH.323,orboth,andmayallbelocatedattheregionalsitesormaybedistributed
totheremotesitesofeachclusteriflocalconferencingresourcesarerequired.

H.323/H.320videogatewaysareneededtocommunicatewithH.320videoconferencing
devicesonthepublicISDNnetwork.Thesegatewaysmayallbelocatedattheregional
sitesormaybedistributedtotheremotesitesofeachclusteriflocalISDNaccessis
required.

Highbandwidthaudio(forexample,G.711,G.722,orCiscowidebandaudio)between
devicesinthesamesite,butlowbandwidthaudio(forexample,G.729orG.728)between
devicesindifferentsites.

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1-63

Highbandwidthvideo(forexample,384kb/sorhigher)betweendevicesinthesamesite,
butlowbandwidthvideo(forexample,128kb/s)betweendevicesatdifferentsites.The
CiscoUnifiedVideoAdvantagewidebandcodec,operatingat7Mb/s,isrecommended
onlyforcallsbetweendevicesatthesamesite.NotethattheCiscoVideoTelephony(VT)
Camerawidebandvideocodecisnotsupportedoverinterclustertrunks.

Minimumof768kb/sorhigherWANlinkspeeds.VideoisnotrecommendedonWAN
connectionsthatoperateatspeedslowerthan768kb/s.

CACisprovidedbyCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerlocationsforcallsbetween
sitescontrolledbythesameCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagercluster,andbythe
CiscoIOSgatekeeperforcallsbetweenCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerclusters
(thatis,interclustertrunks).AARisalsosupportedforbothintraclusterandintercluster
videocalls.

Benefits
ThemainbenefitsofthemultisiteWANwithdistributedcallprocessingdeploymentmodelare
asfollows:

CostsavingswhenyouusetheIPWANforcallsbetweensites

UseoftheIPWANtobypasstollchargesbyroutingcallsthroughremotesitegateways,
closertothePSTNnumberdialed

Note

1-64

This practice is known as tail-end hop-off (TEHO).

MaximumutilizationofavailablebandwidthbyallowingvoicetraffictosharetheIPWAN
withothertypesoftraffic

NolossoffunctionalityduringanIPWANfailure

Scalabilitytohundredsofsites

Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE) v6.0

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Multisite Distributed Call Processing: Design Guidelines

ThemultisiteWANwithdistributedcallprocessingdeploymentmodelisasupersetofthe
singlesiteandmultisiteWANwithcentralizedcallprocessingmodels.

Design Guidelines
Use a Cisco IOS gatekeeper to provide CAC into and out of each
site.
Use HSRP gatekeeper pairs, gatekeeper clustering, and alternate
gatekeeper support for resiliency.
Size the gateway and gatekeeper platforms appropriately per the
SRND.
Deploy a single WAN codec.
Gatekeeper networks scale to hundreds of sites.
Provide adequate redundancy for the SIP proxies.
Ensure that the SIP proxies have the capacity for the call rate and
number of calls required in the network.

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-15

AmultisiteWANdeploymentwithdistributedcallprocessinghasmanyofthesame
requirementsasasinglesiteoramultisiteWANdeploymentwithcentralizedcallprocessing.
Followthebestpracticesfromtheseothermodelsinadditiontotheoneslistedhereforthe
distributedcallprocessingmodel.
GatekeeperorSIPproxyserversareamongthekeyelementsinthemultisiteWANmodelwith
distributedcallprocessing.Theyeachprovidedialplanresolution,withthegatekeeperalso
providingCAC.AgatekeeperisanH.323devicethatprovidesCACandE.164dialplan
resolution.

Best Practices
Thefollowingbestpracticesapplytotheuseofagatekeeper.

UseaCiscoIOSgatekeepertoprovideCACintoandoutofeachsite.

Toprovidehighavailabilityofthegatekeeper,useHSRPgatekeeperpairs,gatekeeper
clustering,andalternategatekeepersupport.Inaddition,usemultiplegatekeepersto
provideredundancywithinthenetwork.

Sizetheplatformsappropriatelytoensurethatperformanceandcapacityrequirementscan
bemet.

UseonlyonetypeofcodecontheWANbecausetheH.323specificationdoesnotallowfor
Layer2,IP,UserDataProtocol(UDP),orRTPheaderoverheadinthebandwidthrequest.

Note

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Header overhead is allowed only in the payload or encoded voice part of the packet.

Introduction to VoIP

1-65

UsingonetypeofcodecontheWANsimplifiescapacityplanningbyeliminatingtheneed
tooverprovisiontheIPWANtoallowfortheworstcasescenario.
Gatekeepernetworkscanscaletohundredsofsites,andthedesignislimitedonlybytheWAN
topology.
SIPdevicesprovideresolutionofE.164numbersaswellasSIPUniformResourceIdentifiers
(URIs)toenableendpointstoplacecallstoeachother.CiscoUnifiedCommunications
ManagersupportstheuseofE.164numbersonly.
ThefollowingbestpracticesapplytotheuseofSIPproxies:

ProvideadequateredundancyfortheSIPproxies.

EnsurethattheSIPproxieshavethecapacityforthecallrateandnumberofcallsthatare
requiredinthenetwork.

Call-Processing Agents for the Distributed Call-Processing

Model
Yourchoiceofcallprocessingagentwillvary,basedonmanyfactors.Themainfactors,for
thepurposeofdesign,arethesizeofthesiteandtherequiredfunctionality.
Foradistributedcallprocessingdeployment,eachsitehasitsowncallprocessingagent.The
designofeachsitevarieswiththecallprocessingagent,therequiredfunctionality,andthe
requiredfaulttolerance.Forexample,inasitewith500phones,aCiscoUnified
CommunicationsManagerclustercontainingtwoserverscanprovideonetooneredundancy,
withthebackupserverbeingusedasapublisherandTrivialFileTransferProtocol(TFTP)
server.
TherequirementforIPbasedapplicationsalsogreatlyaffectsthechoiceofcallprocessing
agentbecauseonlyCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerprovidestherequiredsupportfor
manyCiscoIPapplications.
Thetablebelowlistsrecommendedcallprocessingagentsfordistributedcallprocessing.
Recommended Call-Processing Agents
Call-Processing Agent

Recommended Size

Comments

Cisco Unified Communications

Manager Express

Up to 240 phones

Cisco Unified Communications

Manager

50 to 30,000 phones

Legacy PBX with VoIP gateway

1-66

Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE) v6.0

Depends on PBX

For small remote sites

Capacity depends on
Cisco IOS platform
Small to large sites,
depending on the size of the
Cisco Unified
Communications Manager
cluster
Supports centralized or
distributed call processing
Number of IP WAN calls and
functionality depend on the
PBX-to-VoIP gateway
protocol and the gateway
platform

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Clustering over the IP WAN

Thistopicdescribesthecharacteristics,limitations,andadvantagesofclusteringovertheIP
WAN.

Clustering over the IP WAN

Publisher or TFTP
server

<40 ms Round-Trip Delay

IP WAN
QoS-Enabled Bandwidth

SIP or SCCP

SIP or SCCP

Applications and Cisco Unified Communications Managers of the

same cluster distributed over the IP WAN
IP WAN carries intracluster server communication and signaling
Limited number of sites
2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-16

CiscosupportsCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerclustersoveraWAN.Intheclustering
overWANmodel,asingleCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerclusteranditssubscriber
serversaresplitacrossmultiplesitesconnectedviaaQoSenabledWAN.
ClusteringovertheWANcansupporttwotypesofdeployments:

Localfailoverdeploymentmodel:LocalfailoverrequiresthatyouplacetheCisco
UnifiedCommunicationsManagersubscriberandbackupserversatthesamesite,withno
WANbetweenthem.ThisdeploymentmodelisidealfortwotofoursiteswithCisco
UnifiedCommunicationsManager.

Remotefailoverdeploymentmodel:Remotefailoverallowsyoutodeploythebackup
serversovertheWAN.Usingthisdeploymentmodel,youmayhaveuptoeightsiteswith
CiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagersubscribersbeingbackedupbyCiscoUnified
CommunicationsManagersubscribersatanothersite.

Note

The remote failover deployment model might need higher bandwidth because a large
amount of intracluster traffic flows between the subscriber servers.

Youcanalsouseacombinationofthetwodeploymentmodelstosatisfyspecificsite
requirements.Forexample,twomainsitesmayeachhaveprimaryandbackupsubscribers,
withanothertwositescontainingonlyaprimaryservereachandutilizingeithersharedbackups
ordedicatedbackupsatthetwomainsites.

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Benefits
Althoughtherearestringentrequirements,thisdesignofferstheseadvantages:

Singlepointofadministrationforusersforallsiteswithinthecluster

Featuretransparency

Sharedlineappearances

Extensionmobilitywithinthecluster

Unifieddialplan

Thesefeaturesmakethissolutionidealasadisasterrecoveryplanforbusinesscontinuance
sitesorasasinglesolutionforuptoeightsmallormediumsites.
Theclusterdesignisalsousefulforcustomerswhorequiremorefunctionalitythanthelimited
featuresetthatisofferedbySRST.Thisnetworkdesignalsoallowsremoteofficestosupport
moreCiscoIPphonesthanSRSTdoesintheeventthattheconnectiontotheprimaryCisco
UnifiedCommunicationsManagerislost.

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WAN Considerations
ThissubtopiccoverssomedesignguidelinesforclusteringovertheWAN.

WAN Considerations
40-ms maximum RTT between any two Cisco Unified
Communications Manager servers in the cluster
Use QoS to minimize jitter for the IP Precedence 3 ICCS traffic.
Design network to provide sufficient prioritized bandwidth for all
ICCS traffic, especially the priority ICCS traffic.
The general rule of thumb for bandwidth is to over-provision and
undersubscribe.
QoS-enabled bandwidth must be engineered into the network
infrastructure.

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-17

ForclusteringovertheWANtobesuccessful,youmustcarefullyplan,design,andimplement
variouscharacteristicsoftheWANitself.TheIntraClusterCommunicationsSignaling(ICCS)
betweenCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManagerserversconsistsofmanytraffictypes.The
ICCStraffictypesareclassifiedaseitherpriorityorbesteffort.PriorityICCStrafficismarked
withIPprecedence3.BesteffortICCStrafficismarkedwithIPprecedence0.
ThefollowingdesignguidelinesapplytotheindicatedWANcharacteristics:

Delay:ThemaximumonewaydelaybetweenanyCiscoUnifiedCommunications
ManagerserversforallpriorityICCStrafficshouldnotexceed20ms,or40msroundtrip
time(RTT).DelayforotherICCStrafficshouldbekeptreasonabletoprovidetimely
databaseaccess.Propagationdelaybetweentwositesintroduces6microsecperkilometer
withoutanyothernetworkdelaysbeingconsidered.Thisequatestoatheoreticalmaximum
distanceofapproximately3000kmfor20msdelayorapproximately1860miles.These
distancesareprovidedonlyasrelativeguidelinesandinrealitywillbeshorterduetoother
delaysincurredwithinthenetwork.

Jitter:Jitteristhevaryingdelaythatpacketsincurthroughthenetworkduetoprocessing,
queue,buffer,congestion,orpathvariationdelay.JitterfortheIPprecedence3ICCS
trafficmustbeminimizedusingQoSfeatures.

Packetlossanderrors:Thenetworkshouldbeengineeredtoprovidesufficientprioritized
bandwidthforallICCStraffic,especiallythepriorityICCStraffic.StandardQoS
mechanismsmustbeimplementedtoavoidcongestionandpacketloss.Ifpacketsarelost
duetolineerrorsorotherrealworldconditions,theICCSpacketwillberetransmitted
becauseitusesTCPforreliabletransmission.Theretransmissionmightresultinacall
beingdelayedduringsetupordisconnect(teardown),orwhenothersupplementaryservices
arebeingperformedduringthecall.Somepacketlossconditionscouldresultinalostcall,

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butthisscenarioshouldbenomorelikelythanerrorsoccurringonaT1orE1,whichaffect
callsviaatrunktothePSTNorISDN.

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Bandwidth:Provisionthecorrectamountofbandwidthbetweeneachserverforthe
expectedcallvolume,typeofdevices,andnumberofdevices.Thisbandwidthisin
additiontoanyotherbandwidthforotherapplicationssharingthenetwork,includingvoice
andvideotrafficbetweenthesites.ThebandwidthprovisionedmusthaveQoSenabledto
providetheprioritizationandschedulingforthedifferentclassesoftraffic.Thegeneralrule
ofthumbforbandwidthistooverprovisionandundersubscribe.

QualityofService:ThenetworkinfrastructurereliesonQoSengineeringtoprovide
consistentandpredictableendtoendlevelsofservicefortraffic.NeitherQoSnor
bandwidthaloneisthesolution;rather,QoSenabledbandwidthmustbeengineeredinto
thenetworkinfrastructure.

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2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

Summary
Thistopicsummarizesthekeypointsthatwerediscussedinthislesson.

Summary
Gateways connect IP communications networks to traditional
telephony networks.
There are several types of voice gateways that can be used to
meet all kinds of customer needs, from small enterprises to large
service provider networks.
Supported Cisco IP telephony deployment models are single-site,
multisite with centralized call processing, multisite with distributed
call processing, and clustering over the IP WAN.
In the single-site deployment model, the Cisco Unified
Communications Manager applications and the DSP resources
are at the same physical location; the PSTN handles all external
calls.

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

CVOICE v6.01-18

Summary (Cont.)
The multisite centralized model has a single call-processing
agent, applications and DSP resources are centralized or
distributed, and the IP WAN carries voice traffic and call control
signaling between sites.
The multisite distributed model has multiple independent sites,
each with a call-processing agent, and the IP WAN carries voice
traffic but not call control signaling between sites.
Clustering over an IP WAN provides central administration, a
unified dial plan, feature extension to all offices, and support for
more remote phones during failover, but places strict delay and
bandwidth requirements on the WAN.

2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Lesson Self-Check
Usethequestionsheretoreviewwhatyoulearnedinthislesson.Thecorrectanswersand
solutionsarefoundintheLessonSelfCheckAnswerKey.
Q1)

IPcommunications_____connectIPcommunicationsnetworkstotraditional
telephonynetworks.
Relates to: Understanding Gateways

Q2)

Standalonegatewaysincludethe_____and_____.(Listtwo.)
Relates to: Gateway Hardware Platforms

Q3)

TheIPdeploymentmodelsarethe_____,_____,_____,and_____.
Relates to: IP Telephony Deployment Models

Q4)

Inthesinglesitedeploymentmodel,theCiscoUnifiedCommunicationsManager
applicationsandtheDSPresourcesareatthe_____,andthe_____handlesallexternal
calls.
Relates to: Single-Site Deployment

Q5)

Inamultisitecentralizedmodel,the_____carriesvoicetrafficandcallcontrol
signalingbetweensites.
Relates to: Multisite WAN with Centralized Call Processing

Q6)

Inamultisitedistributedmodel,theIPWANcarriesvoicetrafficbetweensitesbutnot
_____signaling.
Relates to: Multisite WAN with Distributed Call Processing

Q7)

ClusteringoveranIPWANprovidescentraladministrationplacesstrict_____and
_____requirementsontheWAN
Relates to: Clustering over the IP WAN

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Lesson Self-Check Answer Key

Q1)

Gateways

Q2)

VG224,VG248,AS5300,AS5400,ATA186

Q3)

Singlesite,multisitewithcentralizedcallprocessing,multisitewithdistributedcallprocessing,clustering
overtheIPWAN

Q4)

samephysicallocation,PSTN

Q5)

IPWAN

Q6)

callcontrol

Q7)

delay,bandwidth

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