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ASK THE EXPERTS - UC 500 SYSTEM VOICE TECHNOLOGIES

ciscomoderator
Community Manager
Community Manager

Welcome to the Cisco Networking Professionals Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn about the voice capabilities of the UC 500 system with Marcos Hernandez.  Marcos is a Technical Marketing Engineer with the Small Business Technology Group at Cisco. He has more than 14 years of experience with voice-over-packet technologies, with focus on VoIP, SIP, QoS, Cisco Unified CallManager Express, and managed services.

Remember to use the rating system to let Marcos know if you have received an adequate response.

Marcos might not be able to answer each question due to the volume expected during this event. Our moderators will post many of the unanswered questions in other discussion forums shortly after the event. This event lasts through July 30, 2010. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

55 Replies 55

bjames
Level 5
Level 5

Hi Marcos, I have some questions;

Cisco is really pushing on video and collaboration, and they have said small business is a big deal for us, yet I do not see that much trickling down to the UC/SMB space in regards to video and collaboration. Is this just due to the large separation of the Company, or does it just take so long from a product cycle to modify UC tools/hardware/software to support CME/UC?

The other question I have relates to products will there be a time in the near future that the phones for example will work both the Call Manager and UC500 in a cross-platform way or will there always be separation?

Thanks,

Bob James

Hi Bob,


Nice to hear from you.


It is very hard not to be vague when discussing roadmaps and future plans. Revenue Recognition rules and certain legislations, prevent us from sharing strategies that have not been formally committed. With that said, I can tell you that the Cisco Small Business Product Marketing Teams are invested in creating a portfolio where UC will play a fundamental role. We are exploring integration opportunities with Tandberg (market leaders for video endpoints), integration with the Cisco Cius tablet and also integration with the Consumer Telepresence Team, just to name a few.

Unlike some other technologies (for which we are considered newcomers in the SMB space), we feel that we have a right to own and become the preferred choice for Unified Communications and Collaboration in Small. The trick is to do it in a manner that does not undermine our installed base, but still makes financial sense to our SMB customers. It might be that an "adjusted" Enterprise solution is not the best fit for Small. I would expect a mixture of inherited solutions (from other Cisco BU's) and offerings that are native to our own SMB Product Teams.

With regards to our phone portfolio, specifically the SPA500/SPA300 series, there are NO plans to move them up the food chain (to CME or Call Manager). We will keep positioning those phones as the preferred choice for Centrex deployments (Broadsoft and the likes), where we have been extremely successful. For on-premise call control, UC500 (and future SMB UC solutions) will remain the only Cisco IP PBX'es that will support those phones.

I will also take a minute to insert a shameless plug, and it is related to Cloud. A LOT is being done in this area. The initial focus is Network Management and Managed Service Providers (MSP). But UC integration with the Cloud, specifically for small, is inevitable. It will happen and we will lead.

You know how to reach me if you need to discuss further. Thanks for the good and challenging questions. Keep them coming.

Marcos

Thanks Marcos, a very articulate answer.

I did just see where Cisco is now going to be offering Cloud integration to partners, and one of the verticals was Unified Communications. Is/will this be an offering that can be position for the SMB space (like a virtual UC560)?

As for the phones, what about the inverse 9900 video series on a UC5xx?

One again thanks for all the work you've done.

PS; WebEx Connect Rocks in the cloud...

Bob James

Bob,

The Cloud Services for SMB that we are working on revolve around Security, Storage and most notably, Network Management. You can contact me directly and we can talk about including you in a pilot that we are running. UC Services specific to SMB, like I said, will come eventually, probably through a combined effort with another Cisco teams.

The 8900/9900 phones will eventually show up in CME. At that point, we will look into adding them to UC500 and CCA. But right now, this support is not on the roadmap.

Thanks,

Marcos

craig.corbett
Level 2
Level 2

Hi Marcos, can you please shed some light on the fax capabilities on the UC540 & UC560.

What’s supported and what is not? I think on / off ramp faxing was possible with the UC520 but what about 540 – 560?

Can it be done with SIP etc or just FXO ISDN 2 and 30.

What is the recommended method for receiving faxes via the UC540 and UC560 electronically?

Many thanks,

Craig.

Hi Craig,

Fax to Email, or Email to fax (commonly known as "T.37 onramp" and "T.37 offramp" respectively) are applications supported by any UC500 today, but only using the CLI. Support for them in CCA (and consequently, TAC support for the feature) is scheduled for CCA 2.3, due in the Fall timeframe. At this point, the feature will be formally included in the Platform Capabilities list, for the UC540 and the UC560. UC520 support of CLI will remain.


Here is a document that I wrote on how to enable onramp:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-9718

I have another variation of it using fax detect, so you can combine voice and data on the same DID and have the UC500 detect either call type.

Again, my advise is to wait until the feature is formally supported in CCA, in order to take advantage of the TAC support.

T.37 requires a DSP, which might not necessarily be involved in a pure IP call, like when using a SIP trunk. Therefore, T.37 is only supported when using FXO and ISDN (BRI and PRI) for UC500.

Another alternative is to use a Fax Server. We interoperate with StoneVoice. More information on:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-9420

Finally, check out this generic (but little dated) presentation on Fax Technologies that I did some time ago:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-9719

Hope this helps.


Marcos

John Platts
Level 4
Level 4

I know that IPv6 is currently supported on the following:

  • Cisco IOS software
  • Cisco CME 8.0
  • TNP phones in SCCP mode with firmware release 8.5(2) or later and Cisco CME 8.0 or later
  • Cisco SA500
  • Cisco AP541N
  • Cisco AnyConnect SSL VPN client

I know that Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Qwest, and other major ISPs already have plans to migrate to IPv6. In addition, IPv6 provides the following benefits over IPv4:

  • Network Mobility can be leveraged to provide better WAN redundancy over a IPv6 network. Even though WAN redundancy is possible over IPv4, network mobility addresses the following problems commonly found in IPv4 WAN redundancy solutions:
    • In most IPv4 WAN redundancy solutions, the two WAN connections have very different IP addresses. As a result, some form of network address translation has to be implemented on the dual-WAN capable router.
    • In contrast, Network mobility enables IPv6 traffic to be re-routed over another Internet connection without having to perform any network address translation using the same public IP addresses.
    • IPv6 network mobility can be combined with a tunneling protocol to transport IPv4 traffic over a IPv6 connection, providing better redundancy over IPv6.
    • SIP registrations can still point to the wrong IP address if an IPv4 WAN connection fails over in many of the IPv4 WAN redundancy solutions, preventing inbound calls from coming through until the IPv4 WAN connection is restored or a re-registration occurs. In addition, network address translation involved in IPv4 WAN redundancy solutions prevents SIP calls from working properly. Similar problems can occur when SIP endpoints are behind NAT devices  that use a dynamically assigned public IP address. IPv6 network mobility fixes these issues by rerouting traffic over another Internet connection. In addition, IPv4 VoIP traffic can be sent over IPv6 network mobility-enabled WAN connections using a tunneling protocol and statically assigned public IPv4 addresses.
  • IPv6 eliminates Network Address Translation. The following problems are solved by removing Network Address Translation:
    • The need for application layer gateways (ALGs) are removed as devices use globally reachable addresses to communicate over the Internet.
    • XML can be pushed down to IP phones using IPv6 as IP phones can be assigned globally reachable IPv6 addresses.
    • Remote network management is easier to do over IPv6 as devices can be assigned globally reachable IPv6 addresses.
    • IPsec over IPv6 VPNs are easier to configure as port forwarding and NAT-T are no longer needed for IPsec over IPv6 VPNs.
    • SIP over TLS can be a problem for devices behind firewalls and routers as SIP over TLS can be incompatible with Network Address Translation and SIP ALGs cannot deal with SIP over TLS. However, the removal of NAT in IPv6 makes it easier to use SIP over TLS over an IPv6 connection, as SIP over TLS is more secure than unencrypted SIP.
    • The elimination of NAT in IPv6 makes it easier to deploy VoIP-enabled devices behind firewalls as SIP-enabled endpoints can be assigned globally reachable IP addresses.
  • There are only approximately 4 billion IPv4 addresses available and there are fewer public IPv4 addresses becoming available. On the other hand, there are 3.4 x 1038 IPv6 addresses available, providing more than enough IP addresses to cover the world's Internet needs.
  • IPv6 can be used with existing IPv4 connections using tunneling protocols. Even though tunneling IPv6 over IPv4 enables IPv6 to be used without having to have native IPv6 connectivity, better redundancy and reduced overhead are achieved with native IPv6 connectivity. Furthermore, NAT, IPv4 WAN redundancy, firewalls, and dynamically assigned IPv4 addresses can create incompatibilities with some IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling mechanisms.

Are there plans to support IPv6 on the 6900, 8900, 9900, and SPA500 series phones? When will IPv6 be supported in CCA?

Hi John,


With the recent highly publicized news covering the depletion of public IPv4 addresses, more and more customers and Cisco resellers have expressed some anxiety on what's going to take to move to IPv6. Things such as Product capabilities, migration cost, technical feasibility and staff training are very present in many people's minds. Your post is a reflection of that.

Network hardware is just a piece of this complex puzzle. Small Business customers need to also consider software support for IPv6 (as in software applications used by the SMB), ISP compatibility and web presence; the point being that having Cisco, or any vendor for that matter, support IPv6, is not going to do the trick. Many other variables need to be taken into consideration.

SMB resellers need to formulate solid migration plans and be prepared to respond to challenging customer inquiries. But let's make sure we do not panic and this whole thing doesn't become another Y2K fire drill. Most software and hardware vendors, including Cisco, offer documentation and recommendations on how to act and seamlessly move into IPv6. We maintain a site with excellent resources to help you stay informed:

http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/government/usfed_ipv6.html

As you correctly point out, our SMB network infrastructure devices all support IPv6.

For Unified Communication products in general, you can refer to the following page:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/srnd/ipv6/ipv6inuc.html

For the phones not listed in the above document (6900/8900/9900 and SPA500), IPv6 is scheduled for CY 2011.

For CCA, IPv6 support is NOT on the roadmap at this point, and we do not have an estimate on when this will happen either.

Thanks,


Marcos

John Platts
Level 4
Level 4

We have been wanting to set up VPNs between servers hosting applications and our customers using the UC500 platform. Here is what I want to accomplish:

  • Easy VPN and AnyConnect SSL VPN connectivity enabled on the customer UC500 units.
  • VPN tunnels between the customer UC500 units and our servers.
  • In multisite deployments, VPN tunnels from one customer site to another customer site.

I know how to get Easy VPN, AnyConnect SSL VPN, and site-to-site VPNs between UC500 sites (when the site-to-site VPNs are terminated on the UC500 units themselves).

I need a VPN solution that can deal with the following:

  • Termination of VPNs between our servers and UC500 units.
  • Termination of VPNs between our servers and other IOS-based endpoints (such as the SR520 or ISRs).
  • Termination of VPNs between our servers and non-IOS-based devices (such as the SA500).
  • Termination of VPNs in a manner that works with dynamically assigned IP addresses, network address translation, and WAN failover devices. We need these capabilities in order to demo the UC500 and our hosted applications and to provide secure connectivity whenever the primary WAN connection fails.
  • There is connectivity between the customer's sites and our servers over the VPN tunnels to our servers while ensuring that there is no connectivity between one customer's sites and another customer's sites through the VPN tunnels to our servers.

We do not expect these capabilities to be CCA configurable on UC500 units immediately. However, we do need to be able to have these capabilities available on UC500 units without having to deploy a SA500, SA520, or ISR because:

  • We have already deployed the UC520 to several customers.
  • We send PSTN calls from the UC520 using SIP.
  • We already utilize VPN features available on the UC520.
  • We avoid the cost or the problems associated with deploying an extra device in front of the UC520.

Another good question John.

Let me first state what we do and is supported by the Small Business TAC:

1) Multisite VPN (IPsec) between UC500's (any model) using CCA's Multisite manager

2) IPsec EZVPN Server on UC500 (any model) using CCA

3) SSL VPN Server on UC500 (any model) using CCA

4) Multisite VPN between SA500's using their native administration GUI's

5) SSL VPN Server on SA500 using its native administration GUI.

The following you can also do and get support from "traditional" TAC:

1) Use CLI to provision IPsec Multisite VPN between a UC520 and another UC520, SA500, SR500 or ISR.

2) Use CLI to provision an EZVPN Server or SSL VPN server on UC520.

Any other combination of features (or devices) is not supported, won't be supported and we don't recommend.


For the needs that you describe, such as dynamic IP's, failover, etc. SA500 is a possibility. We know it has issues, but we are constantly improving its capabilities.

If your desired deployment does not comply with the above supported scenarios, or if the above scenarios don't satisfy your existing needs, then the Cisco Small Business Security portfolio is not a good fit and you should not position it. An option would be to position ISR's.

Thanks,

Marcos

I actually do understand that some of the VPN deployment scenarios are not supported today. One of things that I would like to see with the UC500 platform is to integrate it with the cloud without having to place it in front of a SA500, SR500, or ISR. Using VPNs in the integration of the UC500 with the cloud gets allows unsecured traffic to be encrypted and protected and also gets around the network address translation problem.

Some of the features that I would like to see in the successor to the UC520, UC540, and UC560 platforms:

  • Support for VPNs between the all-in-one UC appliance and servers in the cloud (as a GUI configurable feature).
  • Enhancements to multisite support
  • Gigabit Ethernet PoE ports
  • Wireless-N wireless capability
  • Dual WAN capability
  • IPv6 support
  • Increase in the number of VPN tunnels supported
  • Support for the SPA500, 6900, 7900, 8900, and 9900 series phones
  • Integration of the phone system with data applications
  • Call monitoring and recording directly supported on the all-in-one UC appliance. We already have customers that really need this feature.
  • Easier remote management of the all-in-one UC appliance and all of the other on-premise components of the UC solution. We often have to remotely make changes to telephony settings (such as adding and removing phones, adding and removing extensions, changing SIP connectivity settings, changing call flow, changing names on extensions and phones) on UC520 units.
  • Easy remote upgrading of the all-in-one UC appliance and other solution components. Most other Cisco products for small businesses are easier to remotely upgrade because the firmware upgrade can be easily pushed down to the device. The following makes upgrading the UC500 more complicated than most other Cisco products designed for small businesses:
    • UC500 has a CUE module that might have to be upgraded
    • The UC520 has limited flash memory
    • The UC500 has to pull the files from the device performing the upgrade, rather than having the device performing the upgrade push down the necessary files
    • When CUE has to be upgraded, the UC500 CUE module has to pull the CUE files from the device performing the upgrade. There is currently no method available for uploading the CUE upgrade files to the CUE module.
  • Ability to generate a configuration in a GUI and pushing it down to the target all-in-one UC appliance

Hi John,


As stated on this post

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3139380#3139380

our plans for UC Cloud integration are not completely defined yet.

Thanks,


Marcos

JOHN NIKOLATOS
Level 3
Level 3

Hi marcos -

I have a client that is a Hedge fund and they have a lot of calls that people dial into and listen to a seminar or something like that. One person listens to the information until there is important information for the traders and then they want to get into the same call and the original person who made the call to listen for a few minutes..  A few users asked about the ability to dial in or barge into a call to listen when important information is being said then disconnect afterwards.  Is there some feature that allows this in the UC500 IOS?

Hi John,


An ideal solution for what you want would be Silent Monitoring, which we DO NOT support natively on UC500/CME. It can be done with Telrex's CallRex solution, which is very affordable and stable. UCCX also supports this capability, but our testing has been focused around Telrex and not UCCX.

cBarge could also be used, but they barge-in must be initiated from an IP phone, whereas with Telrex all you need is a desktop client to pull the live audio in real time (with no two-way audio capabilities).

More information on:

http://www.cisco.com/go/sbcsapps

I predict that CME will eventually support some form of silent monitoring, but it is not on the roadmap at this point in time.


Hope this helps,


Marcos

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