C HAPTER
10
Unified Communications
Networking
This chapter covers the networking components that are used with Cisco Unity to establish
communication with other messaging systems for voice mail, e-mail, and fax.
Messaging within an organization is vital for everyday business, with each organization
having specific requirements and needs to exchange information internally and externally.
This chapter explores the different ways in which Cisco Unity can be set up to provide
connectivity to other Cisco Unity systems and to non–Cisco Unity recipients, and describes
the components involved. It contains basic and advanced areas of Cisco Unity networking
with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes.
Cisco Unity Networking Fundamentals
This section explores the areas that are important to networking with Cisco Unity. It
explains directory replication, location objects, dialing domains, and the different types of
networking offered by Cisco Unity.
Before you implement networking between Cisco Unity and other messaging systems
(which may include another Cisco Unity server), you must first understand the basic
concepts and terminology on which it is built. This section defines all the fundamental
concepts for each of the later sections that concentrate on specific implementations of
networking.
To benefit fully from this section, it is recommended that you have these prerequisite skills
and knowledge. (If you need a quick review of either topic, see Chapter 1, “Cisco Unified
Communications System Fundamentals,” where you can find more information.)
An understanding of the standard features of Cisco Unity
An understanding of the Cisco Unity call flow
Defining Cisco Unity Networking
In Cisco Unity, “networking” is the general term for defining messaging between Cisco
Unity servers and Cisco Unity and other messaging systems. In these cases, messaging
systems may include voice mail, e-mail, and fax messaging.
256 Chapter 10: Unified Communications Networking
In Cisco Unity Version 3.x and earlier, networking had a limited meaning. It referred only to
the capability of one subscriber to call into voice mail and address a message to another
subscriber residing on a remote Cisco Unity server. This server may have been in a remote
Exchange site. Cisco Unity 4.0 expands the definition of networking by adding more
capabilities, which are described next. Whether or not you can use each of the new capabilities
depends on the type of telephone switch network you are using and the configuration of your
mail store.
In a Cisco Unity networked environment, any subscriber can leave a message for any other
subscriber in the organization by name or extension. Callers can dial into any Cisco Unity
server and the Cisco Unity Automated Attendant will transfer that call to the correct subscriber
in the organization, regardless of which Cisco Unity server the called subscriber is associated
with. Outside callers can also dial into any Cisco Unity server and find any subscriber by name
in the directory and be transferred to them, regardless of which Cisco Unity server the
subscriber is homed to. Finally, any number of Cisco Unity servers can be bound together in a
dialing domain so that subscribers can address messages and perform auto-attendant transfers
simply by dialing the same number they use to reach that person through the telephone system.
Figure 10-1 illustrates the different types of networking that Cisco Unity is capable of handling.
Figure 10-1 The Different Types of Cisco Unity Networking
The main goal of networking in Cisco Unity is to deliver messages from a Cisco Unity server
to a target, and from the target to a Cisco Unity server. The experience that a user has is very
simple: the caller leaves a message for someone who is a subscriber on the system. The caller
does not need to know what type of server the subscriber resides on, nor where they are
physically located. The target server may not even be a Cisco Unity server, in which case
communication protocols and software setup are used to make that message transfer to the
remote messaging system once the user leaves the message. This makes it transparent to the
user who is leaving a message.
U
U
Cisco Unity
System
U
U
Cisco Unity
or Other Target
Messaging System
Digital
SMTP
VPIM
AMIS
Bridge

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