Jabber Mobile WITHOUT VPN!

[Douglas Crane]

1. Documentation on the separation of services provided by Jabber Mobile.

I understand that the wifi and data calls require a VPN tunnel due to the range of ports needed by RTP. However is the same true with simple chat and presence from the Jabber Mobile App?

2. When no data or VPN is available is it possible to backhaul incoming and outgoing calls to the cellular network while maintaining SNR?

Let's be realistic here, a stable WiFi or 3G connection is not always going to available. In that scenario what is the fall back plan for maintaining SNR for my mobile field users(of which I have more than in office). It's seems logical to have the Jabber client do like Lync does and have the Call Manager place the call to both parties then connect them over it's trunks in the event that VPN is unavailable.

3. Is there ANY other option to VPN? SIP proxy, RTP proxy? ANYTHING for Jabber that will provided the same functionality?

4. If the VPN is not connected and a data connection is available, how does the Jabber app know to initiate the VPN(when it is set to on demand)in order to accept an incoming VoIP call.

Thanks for any help..

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[philipppe cuvillier]

Hi

I use Cisco Jabber without a tunnel and it works fine with audio and video

Regards

Philippe~~

[craigp]

Phillpppe -

Are you outside your corporate network when doing this? Do you have secure connect setup on your firewall?

Like Douglas I wish there was a better document that outlined the various jabber clients and how they can communicate inside and outside the corporate network - with a list of requirements. Maybe that's asking for a lot, but it seems like when trying to create a collaboration roadmap for our company.....we are using a moving target.

[Aaron Harrison]

Hi

I think there's no document because there's no consistency between any two products that have 'Jabber' written on them. Due to the way that the clients are seemingly being developed in random directions on every platform and are being released without the basic functionality of the products they replace and then gradually 'fixed' over time any such doc would be quickly out of date!

As much as I like working with Cisco it's difficult to argue the case for all this confusion when you compare it to M$ who do at least make a single release every few years with a fairly complete set of components and established functionality... Yes, some stuff creeps out in 'R2s' and service packs and Lync isn't the simple/lean/cost free product they make it out to be, but it does have a workable, transparent external access solution, good conferencing, and a few other strengths...

Aaron

[craigp]

Aaron

You make some valid points and I think it's easy to fault Cisco. But if you look back at the initial

release of Microsoft phone products it had many missing 'needed features' (still does), but

at some point you have to put a product out the door and I understand that.

I am currently a MS OCS user and have not been very happy with the product and the

tighter integration with Webex and CUCM makes Jabber very attractive. However, if the

mobile clients can only connect via a VPN....then the solution is not as flexible, as I don't

want to setup all my users with VPN access.

Doesn't help when there are so many platforms that need developing for and I can see where it would be

hard to keep them on the same development roadmap. Espeacially when one platform (IOS) might be

more closed which limits your capabilities, but another platform (Android, Windows) lets you add additional features.

[Douglas Crane]

Lync is currently in use on our network right now. It works fine and YES it is a pain to maintain the Lync server inside the DMZ in order to have mobile clients utilize its services. Also not very clean.

The problem starts when users want to place calls from the mobile app when outside the corporate network.

This is the break down of what I have found (the scenario is based on calls placed or received with mobile apps).

Jabber -

1. If an outgoing call is made by the end user the VPN "On Demand" establishes a VPN connection if the Phone is capable this. (I have yet to test this). If there is no availability of WiFi or cellular data services then the Jabber app should use the cellular carriers dial tone. (this is where documentation Falls short BTW. As it is unclear what happens here).

2. If an incoming call is placed to an end users corporate number the CUCM attempts to establish a connection to the mobile client via internal SIP trunk If the clients Presence is detected. (what is unclear here to me is if the XMPP is maintained without a VPN in order to "On Demand" establish the VPN on the mobile client. If the end users Presence is not established then the Call Manager will use Mobile Connect (formally known as SNR).

Lync -

1. If an outgoing call is made by the end user the app tells the Lync server placed in the DMZ to let the Call Manager manager know via a SIP trunk to place a call to the calling parties (mobile app) AND to the called parties external phone number. This works like Cisco's Mobile Voice Access solution. The only difference being that the Lync app does this without requiring the user to dial in to the corporate network in order to display the appropriate ANI information.

2. If an incoming call is placed to an end users corporate number the CUCM can simply utilize Mobile Connect and place the call with whatever dial tone is available.

As you can see this requires an administrator to maintain the Lync server inside the DMZ in order to manager this process. Ports open outside the firewall and inside the network. This solution also does nothing to address users outside of the country attempting to utilize Toll Bypass features when trying to place a call.

Jabber does provide a solution for all of this and I don't fault Cisco for establishing the mobile client exactly as they have. However it is neigh impossible to make a case for Jabber over Lync if there is no understandable documentation for what occurs with the "On Demand" VPN connection and it's battery utilization given each platforms capabilities. Yes I understand that each case will be different given what the user may or may not be running as additional apps. However I think it is highly important to document a baseline.

I am currently waiting for my CUCM 8.6.x with all CUWL Pro licensing to arrive.. Status (Back Order). 1.5 months and counting.. Tick.. Tick.. Tick...

Jabber mobile

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[philipppe cuvillier]

Hi,

During this test I was inside my network with an AP directly attached to the voice vlan.

You can also perform an external test with anyconnect, in this scenario first you establish your tunnel and after few seconds

(dont go too fast) you can launch the application. It works fine in wifi environnement, I also tried in 3G and

the result vary a lot as you can imagine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNRL9sSuQCw

I did not try all the scenarios but the result is positive for me. The quality is good and this is exactly the product

expected by my customers.

Regards

Philipppe