Understanding Cisco Voice Gateways - Part 4. Digital Voice Ports

In the previous parts of our Cisco Voice Gateway story we identified what analog voice ports are. Also we talked about different types of analog supervisory signaling. Now let's see how we can use our Cisco voice gateways with digital lines such as T1, E1 and BRI. These types of connection are still widely available worldwide. This post maps out the various digital interfaces and explains the differences between them.

Understanding Cisco Voice Gateways - Part 3. Loop-start and Ground-start Signaling (FXS and FXO Ports)

Now you already know what Cisco Voice Gateways are and which types of analog voice ports they can use. It is time to discuss signaling processes on FXO and FXS ports. As it was shown earlier, voice ports on routers and gateways physically connect them to telephony devices such as telephones, fax machines, PBXs, and PSTN CO switches. These devices may use any of several types of signaling interfaces to generate information about on-hook status, ringing, and line seizure. Traditional two wired FXS and FXO voice ports typically use so called Loop-Start and Ground-Start supervisory signaling. I am going to explain how these types signaling work in the in the next few paragraphs.

Understanding Cisco Voice Gateways - Part 2. Analog Voice Ports

Today we are going to continue our conversation about Cisco Voice Gateways. In the beginning we defined what the voice gateways are, and now it is time to see how we can connect our VoIP infrastructure to traditional analog lines or devices. Yes, it is 2022, however the analog connections are still implemented. That's why you have to know how to use analog voice ports on your voice gateways. 

Unlock CUCM Application Administration account

This post I'd like to write mostly for myself as a reminder, because I have to deal with such a situation very often during the labs on our Cisco UC courses. Unfortunately I always forget the CUCM CLI commands and have to search them in the net 😀. The problem is that the students enter wrong passwords for the CUCM CM Administration account several times, and the CUCM simply locks the administrator account after unsuccessful attempts. Then it is not possible to enter the CM Administration for some time. Let's see how we can unlock the account (we use CUCM 12.5).

Understanding Cisco Voice Gateways - Part 1

The previous topic about Caller ID issues on Cisco FXO ports was of interest to many readers, and that's why I decided to write series of posts about Cisco Voice Gateways for beginners. I see in our classes that the Voice Gateways are always a kind of a "dark horse" to our students, especially when we talk about traditional telephony interfaces, so let's talk about these devices in more detail. 

CUCM AXL

When the engineers deploy Cisco UCCX or Cisco Unity Connection and integrate such system with Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), one of the common task is to configure so called CUCM AXL User credentials. Of course, the guys, who do such an integration for the first time in their life, wonder what the AXL really is. Today I will provide your some knowledge about CUCM AXL. 

How to enable Early Offer in SIP Trunk CUCM?

One of the most frequently asked question, when connecting Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) to Public Switch Telephony Network or to any other VoIP system with a SIP Trunk, is how to configure SIP Early Offer media negotiations for this SIP trunk. By default, CUCM SIP trunks send the INVITE message without an initial offer (Delayed Offer). CUCM has the following three configurable options to enable a SIP trunk to send the offer in the INVITE message (Early Offer). Let's see what all these options are.

What are Media Termination Points (MTPs) in the CUCM Environment?

Today we are going to discuss a topic, which confuses the newbies a lot, when they start working with Cisco Collaboration devices. It will be about one of the Media Resources, namely about Media Termination Points (MTPs). The beginners are always confused about the purpose of MTPs.  Why we would need an MTP and how it is different from transcoder? The concept of transcoder is pretty straight forward - when there's a codec mismatch between two endpoints (like G711 / G729), a transcoder will be used to "translate" the codecs.  But why MTP?

SIP Early Offer vs Delayed Offer

The most visited page in my blog is CUCM SIP Trunk to ITSP connection. From time to time my readers and students ask me to explain what the difference between the Early Offer and Delayed Offer in the SIP signaling is. Let's say your ITSP want you to use SIP signaling with Early Offer in the SIP Trunk. How can you be sure, that your SIP trunk really works in Early Offer mode?

How to Make a Bootable DVD for Installing Cisco UC Products

Lately, I've been asked a lot about how to make a bootable disk for a Cisco Unified Communication Manager installation for a lab or test environment. This is quite easy to do, and the procedure has been repeatedly described in various sources. In my lab I use the method described here:

http://htluo.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-to-make-non-bootable-iso-image.html

IMPORTANT! This method is not recommended by the vendor. Therefore, it is suitable only for installations of products for the purpose of familiarization or training, but not for real projects.

CUCM Call Routing Based on Calling Number

Good day,

Today's post will focus on the subject, which have been increasingly interested in by my students and blog readers. We will talk about how to route the call in CUCM depending on the calling number. This problem arises, typically, in situations where you want to block incoming calls from certain numbers, or, vise versa, to allow incoming calls only from certain numbers and all other call must be denied. Consider, for example, that the second task, ie, let's deny all incoming calls, except calls from certain numbers.

CUCM SIP-trunk to ITSP (via CUBE) basic configuration

Good day,

Many of my readers and students are very interested in the topic of how to connect their CUCM to IP telephony service provider via SIP-trunk. This topic is very relevant, as more and more providers offer SIP services and connections, in addition to traditional E1 or BRI lines. This post will discuss the basic settings for SIP-trunks (i.e. without DTMF, fax settings, transfers, etc.).

Firmware Upgrade for Cisco IP Phones (CUCM)

Good morning!

I wanted to write this post long ago, however I was extremely busy and did not get around to take the required screenshots. And when preparing for the next course, I had to upgrade the firmware on our lab phones. So it became possible to write about what needs to be done on CUCM to update / change firmware. The procedure is quite simple.

CUCM 9.0 - How to install licenses

Hello!

Today we'll talk about how licenses for CUCM 9.0 are installed. Since the process in the new version differs significantly from earlier predecessors, I will give the entire installation procedure with screenshots taken from our lab CUCM.

CUCM 9.0 - Pause when dialing a number with the Speed Dials keys.

Good morning!

The festive New Year's fireworks have died down, and working days are coming again. :) I decided to start 2013 with a small article devoted to the problem of inserting a pause in extension dialing when calling from CUCM to, for example, your PSTN.

Quite often, on various forums, the question was discussed - how to implement automatic extension dialing on CUCM? Suppose a CUCM user calls a company where not all employees have direct incoming DID numbers. Instead, the call arrives at the company's general number, and then the auto-attendant or DISA function is triggered and prompts you to dial the employee's extension in DTMF mode. In manual dialing, this can be done without problems, but what about the speed dial buttons on Cisco IP phones? How to pause for them while playing the auto-attendant greeting or, in the simplest case, while establishing a connection with the called PBX?

Configuring CUCM 8.6 to Register Cisco Telepresence EX90 Endpoints

Good morning!

Currently, Cisco's high-quality video and video communications solutions, the so-called Cisco Telepresence technology, are becoming more widespread. When you hear the word Telepresence, you usually immediately associate with Telepresence rooms, specially equipped for videoconferencing and designed for teamwork. However, there are also personal products in the Cisco Telepresence family of solutions that provide easy integration of video communication functions at employee workplaces, provide access to phone books, and allow video meetings with colleagues, customers or suppliers. One of these personal products is the Cisco Telepresence EX series terminals - EX60 and EX90, and today I want to share how to configure the CUCM to register these terminals.

Cisco IP Phone Background Images (CUCM)

Good evening, colleagues!

Today I'd like to tell you about how to install and change the background images of Cisco IP phones. This process is very well described in the phone Administration Guides, but I would still like to make some generalization for the most commonly used phone models and show the process itself using the example of installing a background image for the Cisco 7965 phone on the CUCM server.

Динамическая маршрутизация телефонных вызовов с помощью SAF / CCD, часть 2 - Настройка

Доброго времени суток!

Сегодня мы продолжим разговор, начатый нами ранее - рассмотрим настройку устройств, использующих технологию SAF / CCD. Снова передаю слово Александру Левичеву:

" Теперь научимся конфигурировать устройства, работающие в сети SAF. Для начала сконфигурируем форвардеры для установления соседства друг с другом:

Динамическая маршрутизация телефонных звонков с помощью SAF / CCD, часть 1

Здравствуйте, коллеги!

В прошлом посте я представил вам своего ученика - Александра Левичева. Теперь же хочу опубликовать материал, который подготовил для вас Александр. Он расскажет о новой технологии, появившейся в 8м релизе CUCM и CME - о сети SAF, с помощью которой можно передавать телефонные маршруты между двумя IP АТС динамически. Материал опубликуем в двух частях: первая будет посвящена обзору SAF / ССD, во второй Вы познакомитесь с настройками устройств SAF-сети.

Итак, передаю слово Александру. :)

Configuring MGCP Gateways

Hi all!

Today we will consider one of the options for connecting Cisco Unified Communications Manager (hereinafter referred to as CUCM) to the Public Switch Telephony Network (or PSTN). This is usually done with the voice gateways. A voice gateway is a device that combines two different telephone networks together, for example, when connecting an VOIP network to a traditional telephony network.

As you know, gateways can communicate with CUCM using the following signaling protocols:

- H323;

- SIP;

- MGCP.