Cisco Preferred Architecture For Video: Design Overview
Cisco Preferred Architecture For Video: Design Overview
Cisco Preferred Architecture For Video: Design Overview
for Video
Design Overview
Contents
Preface .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Documentation for Cisco Preferred Architectures ..................................................................................................... 4
About This Guide ...................................................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 5
Technology Use Cases ............................................................................................................................................. 5
Architectural Overview .............................................................................................................................................. 5
Cisco Business Edition 6000 ..................................................................................................................................... 7
High Availability ............................................................................................................................................... 8
Endpoints ....................................................................................................................................................... 9
Recommended Deployment.................................................................................................................................... 10
Conferencing ............................................................................................................................................... 17
Recommended Deployment.................................................................................................................................... 18
Benefits ................................................................................................................................................................... 18
Deployment Best Practices ..................................................................................................................................... 19
Instant Video Conferencing ........................................................................................................................... 19
Permanent Conferences with Cisco Collaboration Meeting Rooms (CMR) Premises ................................... 19
Scheduled Video Conferences ...................................................................................................................... 21
Collaboration Meeting Rooms Hybrid (CMR Hybrid) ..................................................................................... 21
Collaboration Meeting Rooms Cloud (CMR Cloud) ....................................................................................... 22
Support for Multiple Call Processing Sites .............................................................................................................. 23
Applications ................................................................................................................................................. 28
Cisco Prime Collaboration ....................................................................................................................................... 29
Recommended Deployment .......................................................................................................................... 29
Benefits.......................................................................................................................................................... 29
Cisco TelePresence Management Suite and Extensions........................................................................................ 29
Recommended Deployment .......................................................................................................................... 30
Benefits.......................................................................................................................................................... 31
Appendix ...................................................................................................................................................... 33
Product List ............................................................................................................................................................. 33
Ordering Information ............................................................................................................................................... 33
Preface
Cisco Preferred Architectures provide recommended deployment models based on common use cases. They incorporate
a subset of products from the total Cisco Collaboration portfolio that is best suited for the targeted technology and defined
use cases. These deployment models are prescriptive, out-of-the-box, and built to scale with an organization as its
business needs change. This prescriptive approach simplifies the integration of multiple system-level components and
enables an organization to select the deployment model that best addresses its business needs.
Introduction
Today’s business environment provides numerous challenges for organizations that are trying to expand business while
containing expense. Additionally, organizations are more often geographically dispersed because of mergers and
acquisitions. This physical separation of team members creates a compelling need for rich communication tools.
Not long ago, organizations realized the added value that video solutions brought to their business through increased
employee productivity and enhanced customer relationships. However, interoperability among video solutions was sparse,
and most solutions were difficult to deploy and use. Since then, significant advances have been made in video technology
that simplify deployment, improve interoperability, and enhance the overall user experience. Video communication is
starting to be widely adopted by individuals in their personal lives. Today’s business video solutions offer organizations
the ability to easily integrate video, voice, and web participants into a single, unified meeting experience.
Architectural Overview
The Cisco PA for Video provides an end-to-end video solution for deployments of up to 1,000 users and 2,500 video
endpoints. This architecture incorporates high availability for critical applications and uses products developed and priced
for small to large video deployments. The consistent user experience provided by the overall architecture facilitates quick
user adoption, enabling an organization to recognize immediate value for its investment. Additionally, the architecture
supports an advanced set of video services that extend to mobile workers, partners, and customers through the following
key services:
• High definition video and content sharing
• Rich media conferencing
• Enablement of mobile and remote workers
• Business-to-business video communications
• Integration of on-premises and cloud video solutions
The Cisco PA for Video is designed to work with your existing voice platform – whether from Cisco or another vendor – or
as a standalone video solution. Connecting voice and video architectures breaks down barriers to unified
communications, preventing unnecessary technology islands within an organization.
Because of the adaptable nature of Cisco endpoints and their support for IP networks, this architecture enables an
organization to use its current data network to support video calls. It is essential to ensure a collaboration solution is
deployed with proper quality of service (QoS) configured throughout the network. Voice and video IP traffic should be
classified and prioritized to preserve the user experience and avoid negative effects, such as delay, loss, and jitter. For
more information about LAN and WAN QoS, see the Cisco Collaboration SRND.
The Cisco PA for Video, shown in Figure 1, provides highly available and secure centralized services. These services
extend easily to remote offices and mobile workers, providing availability of critical services. Additionally, centralizing
services simplifies management and administration of an organization’s video deployment.
Table 1 lists the products in this architecture. For simplicity, products are grouped into modules to help categorize and
define their roles. The content in this guide is organized in the same modules.
Call Control Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified Provides endpoint registration, call processing, and media
CM) resource management
Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Provides instant messaging and presence services
Presence Service
Cisco Integrated Services Router (ISR) Provides Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) functionality
Endpoints Cisco video and TelePresence endpoints and Cisco Enables real-time voice, video and content sharing for users
Jabber
Collaboration Edge Cisco Expressway-C Enables interoperability with third-party systems and firewall
traversal
Cisco TelePresence ISDN Gateway Enables interoperability with H.320 video endpoints
Applications Cisco Prime Collaboration Provisioning Standard Provisions Cisco Unified Communications applications
Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Provides scheduling, web conferencing integration, user portal
and, other advanced video features
Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Extension Enables Cisco TelePresence Management Suite TelePresence
for Microsoft Exchange scheduling through Microsoft Outlook
For more information about the Cisco BE6000, consult the data sheet.
The Cisco PA for Video is built on two Cisco BE6000H servers to provide high availability for applications within the
architecture (Figure 2). Virtualizing multiple applications on a single server lowers cost, minimizes rack space, lowers
power requirements, and simplifies deployment and management. Virtualization also accommodates re-deploying
hardware and scaling software applications as organizational needs change.
In this architecture, the following six applications and Cisco Prime Collaboration Provisioning Standard are deployed on
one Cisco BE6000H server, while a second instance of six applications is deployed on a second Cisco BE6000H server,
providing hardware and software redundancy for:
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM and Presence Service
• Cisco TelePresence Conductor
• Cisco TelePresence Management Suite
• Cisco Expressway, consisting of Expressway-C and Expressway-E
Cisco recommends always deploying redundant configurations to provide the highest availability for critical business
applications; however, a non-redundant Cisco BE6000H server configuration may be deployed for organizations that do
not require full redundancy. Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Extension for Microsoft Exchange does not support
redundancy in this deployment due to it residing on the Cisco TMS server.
Note: Space is available on the Cisco BE6000H for additional Cisco applications on each BE6000H server.
A smaller deployment with a reduced infrastructure footprint is available, allowing more applications (including
TelePresence Server on Virtual Machine) to reside on the BE6000H server. Details about this smaller deployment option
are covered in the chapter on BE6000H Small Video Deployment.
High Availability
The Cisco PA for Video provides high availability for essential applications by means of the underlying clustering
mechanism present in certain Cisco Unified Communications applications.
Clustering replicates the administration and configuration of deployed applications to backup instances of those
applications. If an instance of an application fails, Cisco Unified Communications services – such as endpoint registration,
call processing, messaging, business-to-business communication, and many others – continue to operate on the
remaining instance(s) of the application. This process is transparent to the users. In addition to clustering, the Cisco PA
for Video provides high availability through the use of redundant power supplies, network connectivity, and disk arrays.
Endpoints
Cisco video endpoints provide a wide range of features, functionality, and user experiences. Because endpoints range
from desktop video phones and softclients to multiple-screen immersive TelePresence endpoints, an organization can
deploy the right variety of endpoints to meet users’ needs (Figure 3). Additionally, these devices enable users to access
multiple communication services, such as:
• Voice calls
• Video calls
• Conferencing
• Presence
• Desktop sharing
Recommended Deployment
Cisco Unified CM is the call control server for the Cisco PA for Video. Use SIP to register Cisco Jabber clients and video
endpoints directly to Cisco Unified CM. The Unified CM cluster’s failover mechanism provides endpoint registration
redundancy.
Cisco recommends the endpoints listed in following tables because they provide optimal features for this design at an
attractive price point. Cisco has a range of endpoints with various features and functionality that an organization can also
use to address its business needs.
Product Description
Product Description
Jabber Mobile Y Y N Y Y
Jabber Desktop Y Y Y Y Y
DX Series Y Y Y1 Y N
EX Series Y Y Y Y Y
MX Series Y Y Y Y Y
SX Series Y Y Y Y Y
IX Series Y Y Y Y N
1. The Cisco DX70 and DX80 are the only DX Series endpoints that support content sharing.
Call Control
Call control is the core element for any video deployment. It provides endpoint registration, call processing, and call
admission control. Call control design considerations include the dial plan, endpoint addressing schema, calling party
presentation, call admission control, codec selection, external connectivity, and general trunking requirements, as well as
other factors.
Cisco Unified CM provides a common call control platform for all Cisco Video deployments (Figure 4). Having a highly
available and common call control component for a communications infrastructure is crucial to provide consistent services
for all devices and communication types and to preserve a uniform dial plan and a consistent feature set across the
organization.
Adding the IM and Presence Service to a Cisco Unified CM deployment provides instant messaging, network-based
presence, and federation for third-party chat servers, and it enables the use of Cisco Jabber for instant messaging,
presence, voice and video communications.
Table 5 lists the roles of the call control components in this architecture and the services they provide.
Call Control Cisco Unified Communications Manager Provides call routing and services, dial plan, bandwidth management, and
(Unified CM) device-based presence, and enables Cisco Jabber desktop endpoint control
Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM Provides Cisco Jabber support for instant messaging, presence, and third-
and Presence Service party federation
Recommended Deployment
• Deploy a single Cisco Unified CM cluster for a central site and remote offices. Deploy a call processing subscriber
for scalability and redundancy.
• Deploy two IM and Presence Service servers in a cluster configuration that includes a publisher node and a
subscriber node for scalability and redundancy.
Note: If full redundancy is not required, a single server may be deployed without loss of functionality.
Benefits
This deployment provides the following benefits:
• Call control is centralized at a single location and serves multiple remote sites.
• Management and administration are centralized.
• Common features are available across all video endpoints.
• Single call control and a unified dial plan are provided for video endpoints.
• Critical business applications are highly available and redundant.
Cluster Recommendations
Cisco Unified CM and IM and Presence support clustering, which is the grouping of nodes that work together as a single
logical entity (Figure 5). The publisher node contains the cluster’s configuration database, which is replicated to the
subscriber node.
Clustering provides an automatic redundancy mechanism for endpoints and for Cisco Unified CM services, such as the
ability to receive and process incoming calls. The subscriber node periodically receives a copy of the configuration
database from the publisher node. This database replication ensures that all nodes operate in a consistent configuration
state.
For IM and Presence, Cisco recommends deploying an IM and Presence publisher and subscriber node. The publisher
and subscriber provide redundancy for each other.
Dial Plan
A structured, well-designed dial plan is essential to successful deployment of any call control system. When designing a
dial plan, consider the following main factors:
• Dialing habits
• Endpoint addressing
• Routing
• Directory integration
• Classes of service
Dialing Habits
Dialing habits describe what end users can dial to reach various types of destinations. Dialing habits can first be classified
as numeric dialing (for example, 914085550123) or alphanumeric dialing (for example, bob@company.com).
Typically, different types of destinations require support for different dialing habits. For example:
• PSTN toll call: for example, in North America, 91-<10 digits>
• PSTN international call: for example, in North America, 9011-<country code + national significant number>
• Abbreviated intra-site dialing: for example, 4XXX
• Abbreviated inter-site dialing: for example, 8-<site code>-<intra-site number>, 85556XXX
• +-dialing from directories: “+” followed by a fully qualified global PSTN number as described in ITU recommendation
E.164
• URI dialing: for example, bob@company.com for intra-company and inter-company dialing. Endpoints typically allow
omission of the right-hand side (host portion) of the URI and automatically appending the local host portion, so that
bob@company.com can also be abbreviated as bob.
Further dialing habits might have to be defined for services such as call pick-up, recording, and others. Also, future growth
should be considered so that more users and more sites can be added as needed without redesigning the dial plan.
Some dialing habits, typically PSTN dialing habits in particular, need to follow country-specific requirements or established
dialing procedures. For example, in contrast to the trunk access code 9 in the above US-based examples, 0 is used for
trunk access in many other countries. The dialing habit for national calls in these cases, in addition to the potential for
using 0 as the trunk access code, also needs to reflect the characteristics of the national numbering plan of the respective
country.
Identifying dialing habits is most important when defining a dial plan, in order to avoid overlaps between any two dialing
habits. For example, a trunk access code of 9 prohibits abbreviated intra-site dialing starting with 9. Avoiding overlaps
between dialing habits is crucial to avoid inter-digit timeouts, which lead to bad user experiences.
In migration scenarios, the dialing habits supported by the existing system can be used as a first estimate of the dialing
habits required in the new system. On the other hand, migration to a new communications system can also serve as a
reason to get rid of outdated customs and practices.
Endpoint Addressing
Each endpoint registered with the video call control must have a unique numeric address. Endpoint addresses in Cisco
Unified CM are equivalent to the directory numbers provisioned on the lines of the endpoints. Use fully qualified PSTN
numbers (E.164 numbers) with a leading “+” as endpoint addresses. This format is typically referred to as +E.164 format.
The benefits of using +E.164 endpoint addresses include:
• Wide use in voice networks
• No need to develop and maintain an enterprise numbering scheme
• Easy creation of correct caller ID presentation for all on-cluster and off-cluster call flows
• Easy implementation of directory lookups
For endpoints without assigned PSTN-based direct inward dial (DID) numbers (no E.164 number representation exists),
create company-wide unique endpoint addresses outside of the default +E.164 domain. These endpoint addresses should
be in line with the internal dialing habit defined to reach these endpoints. If, for example, the abbreviated inter-site dialing
habit to reach a set of non-DID endpoints in a given site is 84915XXX, then these non-DID endpoints should use this
numbering scheme for their endpoint addresses.
In addition to the primary numeric endpoint addresses, administrators should provision alphanumeric URIs (for example,
bob@company.com) in Cisco Unified CM to serve as aliases for the primary addresses, and users can enter the URI as
an alternate way to dial the destination endpoint. Every connected and registered video endpoint should be assigned both
a numeric address and an alphanumeric alias so that the organization’s users can dial either address to reach the video
endpoint.
Routing
The routing portion of the dial plan enables users to reach the correct destinations when they use the defined dialing
habits.
The primary numeric routing is based on +E.164 numbers. External routes to other transport networks such as the PSTN
also use the +E.164 scheme. All other numeric dialing habits, such as abbreviated inter-site and intra-site dialing, are
implemented as overlays by adding the appropriate translation patterns to the dial plan to map from the implemented
dialing habit to the +E.164 global routing address format. This allows users to reach the same endpoint by means of
different dialing habits, depending on user preference.
Alpha-numeric URIs, as aliases for numeric addresses, provide an alternative means of reaching endpoints. The benefits
of URI dialing and routing include:
• Conformity with the native dialing habit on most video systems
• Easier business-to-business (B2B) connectivity
• Direct mapping from instant messaging identifiers to addresses (easier escalation of business-to-business IM
sessions to voice and/or video), although technically IM identifiers and SIP URIs are not necessarily identical
As with numeric routing, if an alias or SIP URI is recognized as an internal destination and is associated with a specific
device, then Cisco Unified CM sends the call to that device. However, if the dialed SIP URI does not match any registered
endpoint alias, Cisco Unified CM uses SIP route patterns to determine where to send the call. For example, if the dialed
alias room1@example.com does not exist internally, Cisco Unified CM uses a SIP route pattern (such as *.com) to send
the call to Expressway-C as a business-to-business call.
Directory Integration
To enable users to search contacts and dial from the directory, integrate Cisco Unified CM with the organization’s LDAP
directory. Although Cisco Unified CM allows the creation of local user contacts, LDAP directory integration is
recommended when using Cisco Jabber because it provides a single location for directory management and enables
users to authenticate to Cisco Unified CM and Cisco Jabber by using their LDAP directory credentials.
In addition to using LDAP for user authentication, Cisco Unified CM pulls user information from LDAP directories and
synchronizes user parameters – name, surname, username, telephone number, and SIP URI – when changes occur. For
example, use the telephoneNumber attribute to populate the Telephone Number field in the Cisco Unified CM directory.
The format of phone numbers in the corporate directory must be globally significant and must match one of the defined
dialing habits. Corporate directories typically should have all phone numbers in +E.164 format (leading “+” followed by the
fully qualified global number) as long as a DID exists. Only this format allows the phone number in the corporate directory
to be used universally inside and outside the organization. Non-DID numbers that are not in +E.164 format could be used
to dial users internally from the directory, but they would have no significance outside the organization. Use the mail
attribute to populate the Directory URI field in the Cisco Unified CM directory for URI dialing.
The IM and Presence Service pulls user and contact information from Cisco Unified CM.
Class of Service
Classes of service define which users can access which services, such as allowing only emergency and local calls from
lobby phones while allowing unrestricted calls from executive phones. The complexity of the dial plan is directly related to
the number of differentiated classes of service it supports.
To define classes of service, configure partitions and calling search spaces in Cisco Unified CM. The number of classes of
services supported by a dial plan depends on the granularity and complexity of the classes. For more information about
classes of service and details on dial plan design, see the Cisco Collaboration SRND.
Admission Control
Call admission control (CAC) mitigates congestion on WAN links due to excessive voice and video traffic. In cases where
the administrator needs to control how many media calls flow over various links in the WAN topology, Cisco Unified CM
Enhanced Location Call Admission Control (ELCAC) provides a solution. ELCAC supports various WAN topologies and
gives the administrator the ability to statically model the WAN network topology to support admission control for voice and
video calls.
Cisco Unified CM uses locations and links to model how the WAN network topology routes media between groups of
endpoints within a location for voice and video conference calls. Figure 6 illustrates locations, links, and voice and video
bandwidth pools for modeling the WAN topology and creating separate voice and video bandwidth allocation pools. Voice
allocations are for voice-only calls, while video allocations are for both the voice and video portions of a video call.
This includes the need to keep users from different parts of the organization on separate infrastructures, or the
requirement to have different departments operate different parts of the communications infrastructure.
• Geographic footprint
Technical limitations such as excessive propagation delay might prohibit endpoint registrations (for example,
endpoints in Asia registering to an enterprise call control hosted in the US).
In a multi-cluster deployment, interconnect all the individual Unified CM clusters through SIP trunks. To avoid session
traversal through individual clusters, deploy a full mesh of SIP trunks. With four or more clusters, deploy Cisco Unified CM
Session Management Edition to centralize the dial plan and trunking and to avoid the complexity of a full-mesh SIP trunk
topology.
In multi-cluster deployments, use Global Dial Plan Replication (GDPR) to replicate dial plan information between clusters.
GDPR can advertise a +E.164 number, one enterprise significant number (ESN), and up to five alpha-numeric URIs per
directory number. An ESN is the abbreviated inter-site dialing equivalent of a directory number. The information
advertised and learned through GDPR enables deterministic inter-cluster routing for these dialing habits:
• +E.164 dialing based on the advertised +E.164 numbers
• Enterprise abbreviated inter-site dialing based on the advertised ESNs
• Alpha-numeric URI dialing based on the advertised URIs
Unified CM Enhanced Location CAC network modeling supports multi-cluster distributed Unified CM deployments. This
allows the administrator to "share" locations between clusters by enabling the clusters to communicate with one another
to reserve, release, and adjust allocated bandwidth for the same locations across clusters.
Conferencing
The ability for three or more people to communicate in real time by using video technology is a core component of any
video deployment. Cisco rich media conferencing builds upon existing infrastructure in place for point-to-point calls,
offering users a consistent video experience regardless of how many participants are involved (Figure 7).
Table 6 lists the roles of the conferencing components in this architecture and the services they provide.
Cisco WebEx Software as a Subscription-based web conferencing delivered through WebEx Collaboration Cloud
Service (SaaS)
Recommended Deployment
• Deploy Cisco TelePresence Server on Multiparty Media 400v (MM400v) in remotely managed mode for all
conference types.
◦ Deploy Cisco TelePresence Conductors in a cluster with TelePresence Servers as managed conference bridges.
◦ Integrate the TelePresence Conductor cluster with Cisco Unified CM through SIP trunks and registered media
resource conference bridges for instant conferences.
◦ Integrate the TelePresence Conductor cluster with Unified CM through SIP trunks and route patterns for
permanent and scheduled conferences.
◦ Deploy Cisco TelePresence Management Suite to schedule conferences with TelePresence Conductor. Deploy
Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Provisioning Extension for provisioning of personal collaboration
meeting rooms (CMRs).
• Deploy Cisco WebEx Software as a Service (SaaS) for scheduled web conferences. If customers have special
requirements that forbid storage of any data outside the company, Cisco WebEx Meetings Server can be deployed
on-premises for scheduled web conferences.
• Integrate Cisco WebEx conferencing with on-premises voice and video conferencing through the CMR Hybrid
(formerly WebEx Enabled TelePresence) solution.
• Alternate deployment of entirely cloud based conferencing infrastructure available for customers concerned with
keeping capex costs low.
Note: Cisco TelePresence Management Suite does not support automatic failover to a secondary Conductor node if
the primary fails. If full redundancy of the other applications is not required, a single server may be deployed without loss
of functionality.
Benefits
This deployment provides the following benefits:
• Users have a consistent experience for launching and joining various types of conferences.
• A single conferencing platform provides on-premises rich media conferencing, allowing both audio and video users
to connect to the same resource and receive the best quality available to them.
• CMR Hybrid allows users to connect to meetings either from their video and voice devices or through the WebEx
cloud with a meeting client running on their desktop or mobile devices.
• It provides real-time, high-definition video conferencing, including the ability to share content easily over a dedicated
presentation channel.
If endpoints have access to the appropriate MRGL, they can request these resources. Resources local to the initiating
endpoint are preferred over remote resources (Figure 8).
A single TelePresence Conductor cluster can have multiple conference templates configured to provide a variety of
service levels and experiences for instant video conferences. With this architecture, administrators can segment their
users and provide restrictions on instant conference size, media properties, and additional features such as content
sharing.
Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Provisioning Extension (TMSPE) enables rapid provisioning of TelePresence
users and their respective personal CMRs for large-scale deployments. TMSPE runs on the same Windows Server as the
TMS application.
Administrators must create a CMR template in TMS to specify the base dial plan for CMR URIs and numeric aliases.
When users create and personalize their CMRs, they receive instructions for how to dial in to their meetings, and these
numbers and URIs are in line with the CMR template configured in TMS. As users create their CMRs, TMSPE provisions
and configures the necessary settings on TelePresence Conductor, and no further interaction is needed from an
administrator.
WebEx Collaboration Cloud is highly available and has redundancy built into the infrastructure to handle component
failure. Deploy Cisco WebEx SaaS using WebEx audio for web conferencing. Cisco highly recommends enabling HD
video for the optimal video experience and enabling SSO to allow integration with the organization’s LDAP directory for
access using common credentials.
For additional information on Cisco WebEx Software as a Service, see the product documentation.
Cisco WebEx Meetings Server builds on top of the Cisco Collaboration infrastructure and extends the implementation of
Cisco Unified CM to include conferencing. Connect Cisco WebEx Meetings Server and Cisco Unified CM by means of SIP
trunks to provide services for attendees dialing into the system and for system callback to attendees to join the meetings.
Deploy Cisco WebEx Meetings Server with redundancy to provide system availability in the event of component failures.
With high availability, the system uses the N+1 redundancy scheme and runs in active/active mode. In addition, Cisco
recommends enabling high-quality (HQ) video for the optimal video experience and integrating WebEx Meeting Server
with the organization’s LDAP directory so that users can use the same credentials to access the meeting scheduler.
For additional information on Cisco WebEx Meetings Server, see the product documentation.
As with other components in this architecture, deploy Cisco Unified CM, Cisco TelePresence Conductor, and Cisco
Expressway in cluster configurations to provide redundancy in case of a failure event.
Collaboration Edge
Business demand for video connectivity between organizations by leveraging the Internet has increased significantly over
the past few years. For many organizations, video and content sharing are fundamental requirements for conducting day-
to-day activities. Moreover, securely connecting mobile and remote site workers to each other and to headquarters is a
critical function that enables organizations to accomplish their business goals. The Cisco PA for Video addresses these
needs with the Collaboration Edge architecture in Figure 13.
Table 7 lists the roles of the Collaboration Edge components in this architecture and the services they provide.
Collaboration Edge Cisco Expressway-E The traversal server that enables secure mobile and remote access for
TelePresence endpoints and Jabber clients without a Virtual Private Network
(VPN). The Expressway-E resides in the DMZ. The solution also provides
business-to-business calling, protocol interworking, and cloud connectivity.
Cisco Expressway-C The traversal client that creates a secure, trusted connection through the firewall
to Expressway-E. The Expressway-C resides inside the organization’s network.
The solution provides mobile and remote access, business-to-business calling,
protocol interworking, and cloud connectivity.
Cisco Telepresence ISDN Gateway Enables interoperability with H.320 video endpoints
Recommended Deployment
• Deploy two Cisco Expressway-C and two Expressway-E servers in a clustered configuration to enable remote
Jabber and video endpoint registrations, and secure business-to-business connectivity through the firewall.
• Deploy video gateways if ISDN interoperability is needed.
• If full redundancy is not required, a single server pair (Expressway-C and Expressway-E) may be deployed.
• Deploy Expressway-C and Expressway-E at remote sites if the site has local Internet connectivity and an Internet
business-to-business architecture for video calls is required.
Benefits
This deployment provides the following benefits:
• Cisco Expressway provides secured calling, presence, instant messaging, and corporate directory services for
external Cisco Jabber and video endpoints without the need for client VPN connectivity.
• Cisco Expressway enables video communications between organizations, partners, and vendors over the Internet.
• Clustered servers enable high availability in the event of a hardware or software service failure.
Deploy Cisco Expressway-C inside the network, and deploy Expressway-E in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) by connecting
separate network ports on Expressway-E to the organization’s network and to the DMZ.
Cisco fully supports a virtualized Expressway-E in the DMZ; however, a dedicated server can be deployed based on the
company’s security requirements.
Figure 14. Traversal for Registrations Through Firewall with Expressway-C and Expressway-E (Mobile and Remote Access)
Figure 15. Traversal for Business-to-Business Calls Through Firewall with Expressway-C and Expressway-E
Cisco Expressway-C
Place Expressway-C in the trusted network inside the organization. Deploy Expressway-C to:
• Function as a traversal client and establish a secure connection to Expressway-E through the firewall.
• Establish connection to Cisco Unified CM.
• Integrate with an existing internal video network that uses H.323.
• Enable business-to-business calls to external entities by providing firewall traversal service on behalf of internal
endpoints.
• Enable mobile and remote access capabilities and call signaling for Cisco-supported endpoints, directing them to
Cisco Unified CM for SIP registration and/or the IM and Presence Service. (See the Endpoints section for
information on which endpoints support mobile and remote access.)
Cisco Expressway-E
Because Expressway-E is reachable directly from the untrusted, external network, it should be placed in a DMZ for
security. The organization’s firewall policies control communications to and from this server. Deploy Expressway-E to:
• Function as a traversal server and allow secure communications to and from Expressway-C.
• Enable voice and video connections to other organizations using SIP or H.323 on the Internet.
• Provide secure communications to cloud-based services, such as CMR Hybrid services to the WebEx cloud.
• Provide DNS SRV lookup service to resolve outbound calls and to receive inbound calls over the Internet .
• Process registration and IM and presence information from Cisco endpoints on the external network, and use
secure traversal communications to pass the information to Expressway-C.
• Provide interworking between protocols (between SIP and H.323, and between IPv4 and IPv6) for business-to-
business communications
Users on Cisco Unified CM have to dial the full SIP URI to reach a user or device from a different organization over the
Internet.
For call routing over the Internet, use public DNS service records. DNS SRV records map a domain to an edge system
servicing that domain for that protocol. For example, if a remote user dials alice@company.com, then the remote system
uses DNS to query for the host offering the SIP service for the domain company.com.
The mobile and remote access functionality also leverages Expressway-C and Expressway-E. Both B2B and mobile and
remote access services are supported on the same server. For large deployments, Cisco recommends deploying these
services on different Expressway-C and Expressway-E pairs.
For any existing internal H.323 endpoints which are already registered to a third party gatekeeper, Cisco recommends
trunking this gatekeeper to the Expressway-C. This allows the Cisco SIP endpoints and any existing H.323 endpoints to
communicate. If an existing H.323 gatekeeper is not present, Cisco reccomends registering those endpoints to a Cisco
Video Communication Server (VCS). Cisco recommends using the VCS to handle the function of SIP-to-H.323
interworking for registered devices only. This allows the interworking to occur when needed but not unnecessarily.
A separate Expressway-E is required in the event Lync clients are connecting back into the enterprise through Microsoft
Access Edge. The Expressway-E provides TURN services to Lync on behalf of the receiving Cisco endpoints.
Applications
While many additional applications from Cisco and our Ecosystem partners are available, this chapter focuses on a
subset of core applications that are necessary for most collaboration environments. In addition to the call processing and
media processing components, the Cisco PA for Video includes:
• Cisco Prime Collaboration for user and device provisioning
• Cisco TelePresence Management Suite for conference scheduling and Collaboration Meeting Room (CMR)
administration
Table 8 lists the roles of the application components in this architecture and the services they provide.
Applications Cisco Prime Collaboration Assists the administrator by automating many of the steps necessary to
Deployment install a Unified CM cluster with IM and Presence Service
Cisco TelePresence Management Provides the intermediary functions between components to facilitate
Suite (TMS) scheduled meetings
TelePresence Management Suite Provides a web scheduling portal and other video user-specific provisioning
Provisioning Extensions (TMSPE)
TelePresence Management Suite Provides integration for scheduling using the organization’s Microsoft
Extension for Microsoft Exchange Exchange environment
(TMSXE) – optional
Recommended Deployment
A single deployment of Cisco Prime Collaboration is required per organization. Resiliency for the deployment is provided
through cold standby tools within virtual machine applications. The Prime Collaboration applications connect with the
various components using either command line or HTTPS access based on administrator credentials for each component.
Benefits
Cisco Prime Collaboration provides the following benefits:
• A consistent, unified approach simplifies the management of Cisco collaboration technologies.
• Features such as bulk-based provisioning, device MACDs, and consolidated views, simplify user and service-
related configuration and administration.
• A self-service portal eases support by enabling users to make authorized changes.
Recommended Deployment
Deploy a single instance of TMS for the organization, and leverage the integrated system navigator folder structure to
organize all endpoints and infrastructure devices. Even multinational and global organizations can benefit from a single
instance of TMS for facilitating video connections.
For Cisco BE6000 deployments, TMS and all of its supporting components can be installed on a single Windows server
instance. This is called a TMS Regular Deployment and is subject to the following constraints:
• TMS Solution — TelePresence Management Suite (TMS), TelePresence Management Suite Provisioning Extension
(TMSPE), and TelePresence Management Suite Extension for Microsoft Exchange (TMSXE) all reside on a single
virtual machine
• TMS
◦ Maximum of 200 controlled systems
◦ Maximum of 100 concurrent participants
◦ Maximum of 50 concurrent ongoing scheduled conferences
• TMSXE
◦ Up to 50 endpoints bookable in Microsoft Exchange
• TMSPE
◦ Up to 1000 Collaboration Meeting Rooms
For larger deployments, TMSXE must be installed separately. See the Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Installation
and Upgrade Guide for details on larger deployments.
Deploy the Microsoft SQL database on a separate server from the TMS application server. The instance of SQL may be
shared by other applications within the organization. The server hosting these SQL databases must be configured with the
same time zone and NTP source as the TMS application servers
For the redundancy design to work effectively, a network load balancer (NLB) must be deployed in front of the
TMS/TMSPE application server, as shown in Figure 17. The virtual IP address (VIP) of the NLB is what is given to
endpoints and applications for accessing TMS, including the DNS records for the TMS web traffic. Each application server
has the key services write a small keep-alive time stamp in the SQL database. Those time stamps are what trigger a
failover event. In addition to the writing to the database, there is direct server-to-server communications between nodes
using HTTPS and direct file sharing (DFS) for the Windows operating system files needed by the application. This API
connection between the two servers can also trigger a failover event.
Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Extension for Microsoft Exchange does not support redundancy in this
deployment due to it residing on the Cisco TMS server.
Benefits
• A properly configured and deployed TMS instance with the software extensions provides end users with a user-
friendly and feature-rich experience.
• Users can schedule conferences for video, audio, and Web participants through a single unified interface. In
addition, participants can launch the conference session with one button to push (OBTP) on supported endpoint
devices.
• Even multinational and global organizations can benefit from a single instance of TMS for facilitating video
connections.
Figure 18. Preferred Architecture for Cisco BE6000H Small Video Deployment
Note: If full redundancy is not required, a single server may be deployed without loss of functionality.
Considerations
To achieve this compact solution, restrictions are in place for the capacity and functionality of TMS, TMSPE, and TMSXE.
These restrictions include:
• TMS
◦ Maximum of 200 controlled systems
◦ Maximum of 100 concurrent participants
◦ Maximum of 50 concurrent ongoing scheduled conferences
• TMSXE
◦ Up to 50 endpoints bookable in Microsoft Exchange
• TMSPE
◦ Up to 1000 Collaboration Meeting Rooms (CMR Premises)
Appendix
Product List
This product list identifies the Cisco products in the Preferred Architecture for Video, along with their relevant software
versions.
Product Product Description Software
Cisco Unified CM and IM and Presence Call control, instant messaging, and presence services 10.5(2)
Service
Cisco Expressway-C and Expressway-E Mobile and remote access and business-to-business communications X8.5
Cisco Prime Collaboration Standard Provisioning and monitoring services for voice and video deployments. 10.5(2)
Cisco TelePresence Conductor Video conferencing resource management XC3.0
Cisco TelePresence Management Suite Scheduling, web conferencing integration, and other advanced video 14.6
(TMS) features
Cisco Jabber Soft client with integrated voice, video, voicemail, and instant messaging Jabber 10.6
and presence functionality for mobile devices and personal computers
Cisco EX Series Video endpoint for the desktop with Remote Access TC7.3
Ordering Information
For more information on ordering BE6000, see the Cisco Business Edition 6000 Version 10.6 Ordering Guide. For pricing
guidance on an optimal solution, including the best software licensing, see the Cisco Quick Pricing Tool. (A login account
is required to access these resources.)