MCU and BFCP

[George Thomas]

I have a MCU 4505 and I am running version 4.3. Checking through the release notes, I see that this version is capable of supporting BFCP however I dont see a way to enable. It doesnt show up under Network ->Services. I have Content Sharing "enabled" and not set to "H.239 only". Is there an option key required for this capability? Even when I pull up the help file under Network -> Services, I dont see a mention of BFCP however I did see it on another MCU.

Thanks in advance!

[Tomonori Taniguchi]

By setting “Enable” on the “Content status” parameter under Settings > Content, MCU offer capability of both H.239 (call between H.323 Endpoint/MCU/GW) and BFCP (call between SIP UA).

By setting “H.239 only”, MCU only offer capability of H.239, this may useful if you have SIP UA or/and other SIP proxy in deployment that doesn’t support BFCP which usually call setup failed during call negotiation (because far end SIP UA doesn’t understand or can’t handle SDP with BFCP capability line).

[George Thomas]

I have that setting as Enabled but the call doesn't negotiate BFCP for content sharing.

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[Tomonori Taniguchi]

What is Content Mode setting on conference that you are testing with? (Default is “Transcoded”).

If this parameter is “Disabled” then even global setting enable the content feature, MCU will not include BFCP capability in SDP.

What is other end SIP UA and do you see same behavior when dial-out from MCU and also dial-in to MCU?

If enable content feature on global setting as well as conference, and then dialing out from MCU, you should see Value="m=application 56427 UDP/BFCP * " in Invite message (can be capture by using H323/SIP logging feature on MCU)

[Tomonori Taniguchi]

BTW, if MCU receive Invite from SIP UA and SIP UA doesn’t include BFCP capability in Invite (excluding invite without SDP), MCU will response 200 OK with SDP but not including BFCP capability although content feature is enabled on MCU and conference.

[Andrei Atamanenko]

I have Cisco Jabber CSF client on other side as SIP client on CUCM. MCU connected to CUCM as conference bridge. BFCP on CUCM is enabled. But I can't share desktop on Jabber client. Is it possible use BFCP for desktop sharing on this configuration?

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[Paulo Souza]

Hi Andrei,

I think you are missing an important point here. When deploying Cisco Telepresence MCU as a conference bridge of the CUCM, some features are not supported, such as scheduling conferences, cascading conferences, TLS and support for BFCP protocol. This is a known limitation of Telepresence MCU when implemented as media resource of the CUCM.

Basicly, there are three official deployments for Cisco Telepresence MCU:

1 - Deploying an MCU registered Cisco TelePresence VCS

2 - Deploying an MCU with Cisco TelePresence Conductor

3 - Deploying an MCU as a Unified CM media resource

Only options 1 and 2 have support for BFCP protocol, when using option 3 BFCP is not supported, hence you are not able to have BFCP working with your MCU.

I have seen people integrating MCU to CUCM through SIP Trunk, in this case, you will have only static or scheduled conference on MCU, and BFCP will work. However, there will be no support for Adhoc conference such as we have when using MCU as media resource of CUCM. Also, this deployment is not official, so I wouldn't recommend it, even though I think it is a good option to investigate and test.

For further information, please, refer to the latest Cisco Telepresence MCU deployment Guide:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/mcu/install_guide/Cisco_TelePresence_MCU_Deployment_guide_1-31.pdf

I hope this help.

Regards

Paulo Souza

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[Andrei Atamanenko]

Paulo, thank you very much for your detailed answer and link to latest manual. Unfortunately, in this time we don,t have Telepresence components that are using in 1 and 2 cases of implementation.

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[Paulo Souza]

Hi Andrei,

As this behavior is a known limitation of MCU, the best you can do now is to open a feature request and ask Cisco to implement BFCP support for MCU registered to CUCM as conference bridge.

I am not sure, but I think that you are not the only one to ask this same feature. However, I cannot confirm whether Cisco has plans to implement it in the next releases. Maybe someone from Cisco can answer better than me regarding that matter.

Regards

Paulo Souza

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[rasimyigit]

Hi ,

Please read the Release notes 4.3(1.68).

Sip Content encrypted doesnt supported

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[Tim Grunwald]

Hi Guys,

I went through the deployment guide of version 4.4 and there is no more limitation for BFCP support when integrating the mcu as an media resource on cucm. In older Versions there was a limitation for BFCP support.

Does that mean it is supported now?

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/mcu/install_guide/mcu_deployment_guide_4-4.pdf

[Niyas Purakkal]

Hi,

Yes . Desktop sharing (BFCP ) will work (support) over MCU 4.4  as media resource on CUCM.
I have tested in my lab.

Products and version used in my lab:
Win 7 64 Bit – Jabber for Windows 9.7.1 (18710) - Resolution was set to 1600x900 (It was the maximum from this machine)
Win XP - Jabber for Windows 9.7.1 (18710) - Resolution was set to 1680X1050
MCU – 5320 : software version 4.4 (3.57)
CUCM – 9.1.2.11900-12

Register MCU as Conference Bridge (Type : Cisco TelePresence MCU) on CUCM. Add the MRG,MRGL  of CSF devices.
Jabber users will be able to make an Ad-hoc video call conference and share their desktop.

Cheers

Niyas