Cisco Voice Gateways and Gatekeepers

Released August 2006

Publisher(s): Cisco Press

ISBN: 9781587052583

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Book description

Cisco Voice Gateways and Gatekeepers

Understanding and configuring GW/GK in complex VoIP networks

Denise Donohue, CCIE® No. 9566

David Mallory, CCIE No. 1933

Ken Salhoff, CCIE No. 4915

Deployments of voice over IP (VoIP) networks continue at a rapid pace. Voice gateways are an essential part of VoIP networks, handling the many tasks involved in translating between transmission formats and protocols and acting as the interface between an IP telephony network and the PSTN or PBX. Gatekeepers and IP-to-IP gateways help these networks scale. Gatekeepers provide call admission control, call routing, address resolution, and bandwidth management between H.323 endpoints including Cisco IOS® voice gateways and Cisco® Unified CallManager clusters. IP-to-IP gateways allow VoIP calls to traverse disparate IP networks.

Cisco Voice Gateways and Gatekeepers provides detailed solutions to real-world problems encountered when implementing a VoIP network. This practical guide helps you understand Cisco gateways and gatekeepers and configure them properly. Gateway selection, design issues, feature configuration, and security and high-availability issues are all covered in depth. The abundant examples, screen shots, configuration snips, and case studies make this a truly practical and useful guide for anyone interested in the proper implementation of gateways and gatekeepers in a VoIP network. Emphasis is placed on the accepted best practices and common issues encountered in real-world deployments.

Cisco Voice Gateways and Gatekeepers is divided into four parts. Part I provides an overview of an IP voice network. Part II is dedicated to voice gateways, including discussions of Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP); H.323; Session Initiation Protocol (SIP); voice circuit options; connecting to the PSTN, PBX, and IP WAN; dial plans; digit manipulation; route selection; class of restriction; Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST) and MGCP fallback; digital signal processor (DSP) resources; and Tool Command Languaue (Tcl) scripts and Voice XML (VXML). Part III addresses voice gatekeepers, including detailed deployment and configuration. Part IV is dedicated to IP-to-IP gateways.

“With this book, the authors provide an in-depth look at the breadth of voice gateway features and capabilities, as well as providing voice gateway configuration guidance.”

–Christina Hattingh, Access Technology Group, Cisco Systems®

Understand the pros and cons of MGCP, H.323, and SIP, how they implement call signaling and describe call flow, and how to configure each protocol

Learn the various analog and digital voice circuit options used to connect a VoIP network to the PSTN

Configure and troubleshoot PSTN, PBX, and IP WAN connections

Build scalable dial plans and understand the different types of dial peers

Understand the various ways gateways control called and calling phone numbers

Examine call admission control (CAC) techniques

Configure Class of Restrictions (CoR) for both inbound and outbound calls

Deploy and troubleshoot SRST and MGCP fallback

Evaluate DSP considerations and resources

Support interactive voice response (IVR) and advanced call-handing applications using Tcl scripts and VXML

Deploy and configure basic and advanced gatekeeper functions

Configure and troubleshoot IP-to-IP gateways

This book is also recommended self-study training for the CCVP GWGK exam.

This IP communications book is part of the Cisco Press® Networking Technology Series. IP communications titles from Cisco Press help networking professionals understand voice and IP telephony technologies, plan and design converged networks, and implement network solutions for increased productivity.

Category: Cisco Press–IP Communications

Covers: VoIP gateways and gatekeepers

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