angryciscoguy

CM 7.1.5 was released last week. Release notes here.

Some of the more interesting features…

 Cisco Mobile 8.0 Support

Cisco Unified Communications Manager supports SIP base dual-mode mobile phones with Cisco Mobile 8.0. Cisco Unified Communications Manager supports the new Cisco Dual Mode for iPhone device type for iPhone, which specifies a SIP-based dual-mode mobile phone that is capable of leveraging VoIP connectivity over the enterprise WLAN.

Universal IOS Transcoding

Cisco Unified Communications Manager 7.1(5) and later leverages the IOS-based DSP universal transcoding to do codec conversion between a wide range of codec combinations to enable disparate endpoints to communicate with each other.

In earlier releases, Cisco Unified Communications Manager used only a subset of the IOS-based DSP transcoding capability, requiring that one side of the connection had to be G.711. Cisco Unified Communications Manager now allows all types of transcoding requests to IOS-based DSP transcoders. It detects transcoders capable of doing universal transcoding and allocates these resources for any-to-any transcoding requests.

Midcall Codec Support

This feature allows Cisco Unified Communications Manager to handle changes in codec, IP address, or port information during an audio or video call. A new check box, Require SDP Inactive exchange for mid-call media change, in the SIP Profile Configuration window allows you to enable or disable sending mid-call media changes without breaking the existing media path with an inactive SDP.

Fujitsu Mobile Phone Support (SIP)

Two new third-party SIP phones are now supported in Cisco Unified Communications Manager: Fujitsu PHS Access Unit and Mobile Access Manager. These devices are supported through CTI to initiate calls and perform XSI DeviceDataPassThrough requests only.

This month Cisco released the Unified Communications SRND for 8. At 1200 pages, I’m still poking through it, but on first glance it seems the new Service Application Framework is going to be a big deal for those larger deployments.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/srnd/8x/uc8x.html

So, I am seeing a lot of Cisco phone proxy installs lately and thought I’d put together a quick cheat sheet for the configuration that you will see in 99% of your installs. This of course is where you are not encrypting voice on the internal side so no fancy CAPF CTL to CM junk. The config is actually rather basic in this scenario (when you know what you are doing and understand the components involved).

Prerequisites:

• ASA 8.0.4 code release
• ASA already configured and working as basic firewall with inside and outside connectivity.
• A minimum of 2 Global (external) IP addresses for this feature
• Basic ASA configuration knowledge
• Basic Cisco Communications Manager knowledge
• > 2 working braincells

IP Configuration:

• Internal CM address    192.168.1.1 (required)
• Internal CM address    192.168.1.2 (optional)
• External TFTP Address #1  1.1.1.1 (required)
• External TFTP Address #2  2.2.2.2 (optional)
• External Media Address 3.3.3.3 (required and must be dedicated to this feature)
• External phones must be pointing to external TFTP IP address(es) as configured by ASA.

Config:

Below configuration includes the extra input as required. A show run will not show all these commands and will additionally show  auto generated configurations that are part of this config but not seen below. (for more details, see prerequisite #4 and #6). Additionally this config does not show you how to get the URL functions of the phone working (Enterprise Parameters setup in CM). That usually involves one of the 2 following configs: reverse http proxy to CM that you use to point the ip phones to (more secure, requires http reverse proxy server); pinhole in ASA (port forward) to point the external adddress ports to the internal http ports on the CM server (less secure).

So on to the ASA config…

(more…)

Metreos was purchased by Cisco not too long ago for a phone proxy appliance that sat in a DMZ to allow ip phones to register across the internet to your call manager (err communications manager) cluster without the use of any vpn appliance nor exposing your CM to the internet. Cisco rebranded the appliance an sold it for short period of time as the Cisco Unified Phone Proxy. August saw the release of ASA code 8.04 which now includes this functionality and replaces this appliance. This is a licensed feature that you purchase per the number of proxy’ed connections you require, however ASA allows 2 connections for testing without any additional licensing.  Alternatively you can purchase a secure cm bundle that includes the asa and proxy licenses along with cm. The license is called “UC Proxy Session”. It’s notable that even the lowend IP Base version ASA 5505 has this functionality of which I am using to test this out myself.

To configure this, simply head to your asdm and navigate to Configuration/Advanced/Encrypted-Traffic-Inspection/Phone-Proxy and run through the fields. It’s very straight forward. For those looking to go cli or want more details, navigate here for the official documentation.