Gatekeeper in VoIP network

[nkariyawasam]

Q1. Is a gatekeeper is a must in traditional VoIP network ( not IP telephony ) consisting of 3640 at head office with PBX hooked and branches with 1751-2V with analog phones attached.

Q2. If it is a must, can we deply the gatekeeper function at the head office 3640 router itslef ? ( the router CPU utilization < 25% for normal operation )

[eyabane]

A1. the gatekeeper is not a must in this situation. You can bypass it by using static dial-peers pointing destination patterns of each site to the IP of the Gateway at that site. This could be really labor intesive, because you will have to build as many dial peers as there are sites on each of the gateways. it could get worse if a site supports more than one pattern too. The gatekeeper could be used for administrative functions such as restricting bandwidth and other, but you don't have to have one, at least not yet.

A2. yes, you can configure the HQ 3640 as your GK. I can't tell you how many GWs it can handle, but i will suggest you watch that CPU util. very closely. Since cisco GK only handles initial RAS and DRQs, you won't have much to worry about if you only have up to 5 remote sites.

E.

[nkariyawasam]

Dear Eyabane,

Many thanks for the clear answer.

I have two other questions.

Q2.1) If I do not have Gatekeeper, I can't restrict the bandwith for a particular link. Suppose if I already have two voice calls in a 32K link. When the third voice call comes ( as it will happen most of the time in a practical situation ), since there is no sufficient bandwidth, can it cause degradation of all three voice calls ?

Q2.2) What is the IOS should I use for the gatekeeper option for 3640 ( is it H.323 OR Gatekeeper license ? )

Thanks in advance,