CLTECH: Cisco Collaboration Infrastructure Overview

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:10So in this skill, we go over what exactly is a Cisco

0:12Certified Technician and what it exactly

0:14means to be CCT Collaboration certified.

0:17We also go over the infrastructure overview

0:20in regards to a collaboration environment.

0:22We talk about voice gateways, dial peers, and call legs.

0:25Then finally, we discuss Cisco converged networks.

0:28So with that, I thank you for taking the journey with me,

0:30and I'll see you in the next video.

0:00[AUDIO LOGO]

0:10So what exactly is a Cisco Certified Technician, or a CCT

0:13Certification?

0:14That's exactly what we'll be talking about in this Nugget.

0:16We'll go over what it means to be a Cisco Certified

0:18Technician.

0:19We'll go over the CCT Collaboration and the topics

0:22in that exam.

0:23And we'll also discuss how the CCT

0:25compares to other physical certifications,

0:27like CCNA and CCNP.

0:29Let's get started and dive in.

0:30When it comes to a Cisco Certified Technician,

0:32these are entry exams that one can take, especially when

0:36they're new to the industry.

0:37So you may ask, I've heard of CCNA, or I've heard of CCNP,

0:40but what is a Cisco Certified Technician?

0:43So let's go over to Cisco's site.

0:45And we see here that we have a CCT, a Cisco Certified

0:49Technician for Collaboration, for Data Center,

0:52and also for Routing and Switching.

0:54So as we see, this is an entry-level certification.

0:57And especially if you're new to collaboration, or data center,

1:00or routing and switching, these certifications

1:03can help you get familiar with the technology

1:06to help you support them.

1:09You see the CCT Collaboration really

1:11focuses on the skills for on-site support

1:14and the maintenance of Cisco collaboration endpoints

1:17and operating systems.

1:18So you may be the front line in support.

1:21So when there's an endpoint not working,

1:23it may be your job to further investigate and troubleshoot

1:27the issue.

1:27Or maybe you have to replace an endpoint that has gone bad.

1:31Or maybe you deploy these endpoints

1:33when a new site is spun up.

1:34But you become a critical piece of the puzzle

1:37because in the event something is not working,

1:39your other team members will look at you

1:42to see what troubleshooting steps

1:43that you perform to determine that we have an issue.

1:46So you would be expected to know the voice and video

1:49endpoints, the interfaces on these endpoints,

1:52along with the accessories.

1:54We also should be comfortable with

1:56the command-line interface, along

1:58with basic troubleshooting skills.

2:01And I'm running out of space there.

2:03But you may determine that some hardware and endpoint

2:06had to be replaced.

2:07Or if the upgrade on the software or firmware

2:12on the endpoint fails, you could troubleshoot

2:15as to why it failed.

2:15So looking at the Cisco certifications,

2:17we see Associate.

2:18We see Professional, and then we see the Expert.

2:21This chart doesn't have the entry certifications listed.

2:25So many folks with some experience already,

2:27they go toward their CCNA.

2:30Then depending on what track they want to go to,

2:32they go for their CCNP, the professional level.

2:35And then you have the option, if we

2:38choose to take that mission, to try for the CCIE.

2:41And that will be your expert level.

2:43And here at CBT Nuggets, we have some great training

2:45for many of these exams.

2:47So I personally worked on some of this content

2:49here at CBT Nuggets that help you

2:51get your CCNP Collaboration.

2:54But just know that the CCT Collaboration exam, again being

2:58entry, will prepare you for future tracks

3:01in your certification journey.

3:02But if certification is not your goal,

3:04it will definitely help you to be able to provide support

3:08for your environment when it comes

3:10to the endpoints for the collaboration environment.

3:12I want to note, if you go to this link here,

3:14right there, here we see additional information

3:17about certifications, including your entry-level

3:20certifications.

3:21And here's where you would find your entry-level certification

3:24of CCT.

3:25Then eventually throughout your career,

3:27you advance, and you can get higher tier certifications.

3:30So at this point, you may be thinking,

3:32what are some topics that I expect to see on the exam

3:35or be expected to be familiar with?

3:37So if you scroll down a bit, here

3:39are the topics that this particular exam will go over.

3:42We have the collaboration environment.

3:44That's 35%.

3:45And we can see this is an entry exam

3:47because notice a lot of the keywords--

3:48describe, introduce, identify.

3:51And you may see for the CCNA or the CCNP exams,

3:56they use keywords such as explain, or troubleshoot,

4:01or configure, and deploy.

4:04So we have one section on the collaboration environment.

4:07We have another section just dedicated

4:09to different endpoints and hardware

4:12that you may see in the field.

4:13And then finally, we see a section

4:15here for service knowledge.

4:16This is a big chunk right there.

4:18So we verify-- or how do we verify IP connectivity?

4:22We also go over the command line and go over some commands.

4:25How do we manage the software on these endpoints?

4:28We also go over how we replace hardware

4:30due to a hardware failure.

4:32Maybe you're upgrading the endpoint.

4:33So even though this is an entry certification,

4:35there is a lot of good information

4:37here, especially if you're new to Cisco Collaboration.

4:40So in this Nugget, we went over what is a Cisco Certified

4:43Technician.

4:44We focus on the CCT Collaboration

4:46and also saw the topics for that exam.

4:48And also, we discussed the CCT compared

4:51to other physical exams or certifications,

4:54like the CCNA and the CCNP.

4:57So with that, I hope this has been informative for you.

4:59I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:10Depending on how old or young you are,

0:12you may or may not remember having an analog phone

0:14line in your home.

0:15I remember my mother having a phone book with everyone's name

0:18and phone number notated that she

0:20would reference every time she would make a phone call.

0:22In this Nugget, we'll talk about the traditional voice

0:25system along with the voice over IP infrastructure,

0:27and we'll see what the benefits and differences are.

0:30So let's dive into our infrastructure overview.

0:32For many of us, when we were younger,

0:34we had an actual telephone within our home.

0:37We had a phone number assigned to that telephone line.

0:40And this was all possible because we had a voice circuit

0:42delivered from the PSTN.

0:44And this voice circuit was delivered via a copper wire.

0:50And this came from the CO, or the central office.

0:53You can think of the CO as this building

0:56that had a bunch of switching equipment inside that building.

0:59And the equipment belonged to the telephone company.

1:04And it's connection from the CO that was delivered to your home

1:07or to your business is what connected you to the PSTN.

1:11So then, within your home, you had the RJ11 port

1:14that this phone plugged into, and then once you went off

1:17hook, you heard a dial tone.

1:18So then, Pedro here may dial 773-555-7000.

1:24Then, if this pet store picks up,

1:26we now have a dedicated connection from Pedro's home

1:29to that pet store.

1:30And this was referred to as circuit switching.

1:33Why?

1:33Because we have a dedicated circuit

1:36established between both parties so they can talk to each other.

1:39So in this scenario, we had a dedicated phone number,

1:42and anyone can dial this phone number

1:44and make this phone inside Pedro's home ring.

1:48So when Pedro talks into his receiver there,

1:51his voice, or the sound wave of his voice,

1:55is converted to electrical signals.

1:59And the signals travel over that copper wire

2:03until they reach their destination.

2:05And then whoever Pedro is talking to over here,

2:08these signals then get converted back to some waves,

2:10and that's what that person hears.

2:13So with the analog line, we're using the properties

2:17of electricity to transmit your voice

2:20from one side to the other.

2:22So as I mentioned here, your phone

2:24was connected to an RJ11 port.

2:26So going out to the web, on Amazon,

2:29now it's kind of hard if you quickly glance at it,

2:31but you can see the differences between ports.

2:34This port is smaller in size than a network connection,

2:39which is an RJ45.

2:41Then we're looking at [INAUDIBLE] out here.

2:43Here's our RJ11 telephone plug.

2:45And then we see two pairs of copper wire.

2:48And here we have one, two, three, four, five, and six.

2:53So we have two pairs of copper wire here,

2:55but only three and four are used for the telephone line.

2:59Now the other pair, two and five,

3:01could be used for an additional line--

3:04the takeaway being that we are only

3:05using one pair of copper wire for the phone connection.

3:10So with Pedro's example, we had one telephone at his home,

3:13but you easily could have a business

3:15that had multiple lines going to the building.

3:18So, for example, this building may

3:20have three sets of phone lines for each business.

3:23Larger companies had a PBX, but you

3:26could have lines connected to that PBX,

3:29and all your phones could be connected to that PBX,

3:33and that PBX may give you ability to do functions

3:36like call transfer, maybe voicemail, put a call on hold,

3:40but many features that you would find in an enterprise

3:43environment.

3:43But if calls were meant to be internal,

3:46then all that could be handled within the PBX itself.

3:50But in the event we need to make a phone call

3:52to the outside world, then the PBX

3:54would run that call for you.

3:56So as we stated, when Pedro here talks into the receiver,

3:59the sound of his voice gets converted

4:01to electrical signals.

4:03These signals is what's actually routed or sent

4:07over the infrastructure to the other side.

4:09And then those signals are converted back

4:11into sound waves.

4:12So the sounds coming out of Pedro's mouth

4:15is converted into electricity.

4:18And it works very well, but you could get light noise.

4:22So you may have static underlying

4:24could have a crackling sound going on.

4:27Maybe you have a buzzing, or some describe it as a hum.

4:31And if you've worked with analog lines before,

4:34you probably have seen all this.

4:35So what causes that line noise?

4:37Maybe you have bad wiring.

4:40And these could be lines that are not

4:41terminated properly or punched down,

4:44or maybe you could have rodents.

4:46These rodents are actually chewing up your infrastructure.

4:48And throughout my career, when we

4:50used to deal with analog lines and punch blocks,

4:52I've been to locations where wires have been chewed by rats.

4:56So for whatever reason, the rodents

4:57decided to chew through this wire,

4:59therefore, put in their bellies, or causing

5:02an interruption of service with that phone

5:03line at that location.

5:05We could have bad weather causing line noise.

5:09Remember, these copper wires are buried in the ground.

5:11So I remember one site that we had,

5:14every time it rained, it was guaranteed

5:16that we would get a phone call about that site having

5:19line noise.

5:20And come to find out, the ground around this building,

5:23when it would rain, the water would just collect.

5:26It looked like a lake.

5:28And what would happen is once that moisture would dry up,

5:30and then the line noise would go away.

5:32So rain or even lightning may be the issue there.

5:37You also may have an issue with corrosion.

5:40These analog lines may have been around for a very long time,

5:44so they may be exposed to chemicals or other things that

5:46may corrode the line and, therefore, inducing line noise.

5:50Then, finally, we have electrical interference,

5:53and that comes into play when you are close to a power line,

5:58for example.

6:00So the signals, sometimes, to reach a destination

6:03have to travel over long distances.

6:06So throughout the infrastructure,

6:07there could be many-- in fact, there

6:09is-- there's many central offices that a phone call may

6:13have to travel through.

6:14So to reach your destination, your call

6:16may go through this CO there and eventually

6:19be connected to this CO and then be routed to your destination.

6:23The takeaway here really being that these signals may

6:25have to travel a long distance.

6:26So there could be repeaters along the way,

6:29and the job would be to regenerate

6:33those signals along the way until they

6:35reach their destination.

6:36So here we are boosting the signal

6:39as it fades over long distances.

6:42But keep in mind, not only are we

6:44we're generating those electrical signals, which later

6:48are converted to our voice, but we're also regenerating

6:51any noise that may be online.

6:53So these repeaters not only amplified or regenerated

6:57Pedro's voice, but also the noise,

6:59therefore making that conversation between Pedro

7:02and the destination not too pleasant.

7:04But then we see this transition of going from analog

7:07to digital.

7:08And here, we are converting the sound of the voice

7:12to 1's and 0's.

7:13This is done using PCM, pulse-code modulation.

7:17And this is used to digitally represent

7:20the sampled analog signals.

7:23So PCM is converting the analog over to the digital.

7:28We're converting our voice through a series of numbers.

7:30Then, when we reach our destination,

7:32those series of numbers are converted back to our voice.

7:35So then this helps us with our line noise

7:37because the DigitalOcean voice stream

7:39is less susceptible to noise than analog signals,

7:43or those electrical signals being sent over that copper

7:46wire.

7:47You may have heard me use a key word when converting

7:49from analog to digital.

7:51We do so by sampling the analog sound.

7:55So the analog sound is sampled 8,000 times per second.

8:01So that's 8,000 samples, and each sample

8:05is assigned a numerical value.

8:09So we take the sound of your voice here,

8:11and this may be the sound wave, again, over 1 second.

8:15And then this is sampled 8,000 times.

8:18And then each one of these samples

8:19will have some type of numerical value to reference that sample.

8:23So human speech can be heard from 200 Hertz

8:27all the way to 9,000 Hertz.

8:29But you can understand human speech from 300 Hertz

8:33to about 3,400.

8:35And when I use the word understand,

8:37there's enough quality there in this range

8:40to really understand the speech from the other side,

8:42but also sense their mood.

8:43There was a gentleman named Harry Nyquist.

8:47I definitely suggest you look them up

8:49if you want this information in much greater detail.

8:52But he found that you can reconstruct these sound waves

8:56by taking samples that are twice the highest

8:59audio frequency being used.

9:01So to break that down, because it does sound confusing,

9:04he was looking at the range between 300 Hertz and 4,000

9:09Hertz.

9:09So Nyquist wanted to reconstruct the audio stream

9:12by taking samples twice the highest audio frequency

9:16be used.

9:17So we have 4,000 times 2, which gives us our 8,000.

9:22And we're doing this every second.

9:24So we're taking 8,000 samples every second,

9:27and each sample is 8 bits, so if we say 8,000 times 8,

9:33that gives us our 64,000 bits per second.

9:37If this number looks familiar, each voice call

9:40is about 64 kilobits per second.

9:43This is also referred to as a DS0,

9:45and if you have worked with T1 and E1 circuits,

9:49each channel within that circuit is 64 kilobits per se.

9:52But the takeaway here is that we are taking our voice

9:55and really digitizing that voice by using numbers

9:59to represent the sound of our voice instead

10:01of the electrical signals, like with the analog circuit.

10:04Then we have voice over IP.

10:06For voice over IP, we're taking our voice,

10:08you're still converting it to numerical values,

10:11but this time, we're putting those values in a packet,

10:14and then sending that packet across the network.

10:18So our voice is being carried over the IP network.

10:21So we are not using telephone lines to send our voice.

10:25We're sending our voice over the internet.

10:28With voice over IP, we're using the internet

10:31to make and receive phone calls.

10:33So with voice over IP, we are reducing

10:35the cost of communicating because we don't need

10:37many phone lines or circuits going to our infrastructure

10:41because we are using the IP network.

10:43And because of that, we save tons

10:45on cabling because we can already

10:47use our wired or wireless infrastructure

10:51within our environment to carry our voice.

10:53So we have our savings here because we're

10:55going over the internet to make our phone calls.

10:57We save on cabling.

10:59And then we can use voice over IP via other applications

11:02within our infrastructure-- maybe voicemail or maybe

11:05teleconferencing or even instant messaging.

11:08So with voice over IP, we have many pieces

11:10that make up this puzzle.

11:11We have our IP phones.

11:13We also have our voice gateways that give us connectivity out

11:17to the PSTN.

11:18We could have other gateways like CUBE, Cisco Unified Border

11:22Element, and this connects us to an ITSP.

11:25Now what's the difference between ITSP and PSTN?

11:27PSTN, which is Public Switch Telephone Network--

11:30with PSTN, we are connecting to those analog type of circuits

11:35that we've discussed so far.

11:37These are dedicated circuits that

11:39are established from our source to our destination.

11:42You may have a connection out to the ITSP, or the Internet

11:45Telephony Service Provider.

11:48This is where we route our calls or make or receive

11:50calls via the internet.

11:52We also have call agents, and our example here

11:55is CUCM, or Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

11:59And this is how we control our IP phones

12:02and the different endpoints in our environment.

12:04We have other application servers in our environment.

12:06You could have Cisco Unity Connection for voicemail.

12:10Or maybe we have a call center, so we

12:11have Contact Center Express or Contact Center Enterprise.

12:15You may have IM and Presence for messaging,

12:18or you could have a Cisco Meeting Server.

12:21The takeaway being that we could have other applications

12:23within our voice over IP infrastructure.

12:26You could have endpoints here that

12:27allow you to take part of a video conference.

12:30So this unit may have a camera and a microphone

12:32that you can use.

12:33So now you're using video and audio from the same endpoint.

12:38Now here, I've shown physical endpoints,

12:40but you could have software endpoints like Cisco Jabber.

12:44And Cisco Jabber [INAUDIBLE] cell phones

12:46allow you to use them just like you would use your endpoints

12:49to make or receive calls.

12:51And this could be on your desktop or laptop,

12:54maybe a tablet, or maybe your mobile device.

12:58So in voice over IP, we have some components

13:00that are needed.

13:02For example, we need signaling.

13:03And signaling helps us control, establish, and also terminate

13:09voice calls within our environment.

13:11So here we are exchanging information

13:13between two endpoints.

13:14And these messages, as we said, are

13:16used to set up and terminate the call.

13:20Now the PSTN uses a protocol called

13:23SS7, or Signaling System 7.

13:25And this protocol really defines how

13:28the PSTN exchanged these messages and control service.

13:32And the protocol does do more, like call forwarding,

13:34voicemail, call waiting, but SS7 is being used by the PSTN

13:38to set up the calls, route the calls, and turn them down.

13:42For voice over IP, we have multiple protocols

13:45that can be used, for example H. 323 and SIP, SIP standing

13:49for Session Initiation Protocol.

13:51But just like SS7, these are signaling protocols

13:55being used for voice over IP.

13:57So these are also used to set up and terminate and route

14:01the phone calls.

14:02Now H. 323 still being used today.

14:04It was once widely used, but now that title goes to SIP.

14:08But both of these are known as peer-to-peer protocols,

14:13which gave way to the latest CUBE, for example,

14:16the Cisco Unified Border Element, if running SIP,

14:20this has enough intelligence to set up and terminate the call

14:24itself--

14:25those calls being made to the ITSP

14:27or those calls coming in from the ITSP.

14:30Now take the example of using other similar protocols,

14:34like the Skinny Protocol, or the session--

14:36or Skinny Client Control Protocol,

14:38or MGCP, the Media Gateway Control Protocol.

14:43These are known as client-server protocol.

14:49So if you have a voice gateway running any of these two

14:52protocols here, for example, it's

14:54not intelligent enough to set up and terminate calls or even

14:57interpret call control messages.

14:59It needs a call agent like CUCM for example.

15:02And that call agent will manage that voice gateway

15:05and also provide call control.

15:06So let's say we had a analog telephone connected

15:09to this voice gateway.

15:10And someone picked up the receiver,

15:12and the phone went off hook.

15:14If voice gateway is running MGCP or the Skinny Protocol,

15:18does not know enough to send out on the phone.

15:21It needs to contact a call agent, being CUCM,

15:25and CUCM in return will tell that voice gateway

15:28to play dial tone.

15:30The real advantage here of using these client-server protocols

15:34is that the CUCM or the call agent in this example

15:37really manages those gateways down to the call control.

15:41So, for example, CUCM may have the dial plan,

15:44so the voice gateway does not have to be made aware

15:46of a dial plan.

15:47But in the event the CUCM is down, for whatever reason,

15:49then that voice gateway is not intelligent enough

15:54to interpret those call control messages.

15:56Let me make some room to screen here, but if we're running SIP,

15:59this gateway has enough intelligence

16:01to initiate and terminate those phone calls

16:03without the need of CUCM.

16:05It does require more configuration

16:07because you do have to configure a dial plan on that endpoint.

16:11That is not the case if you're using MGCP

16:14because you're are relying on that call agent

16:17to provide that dial plan for you.

16:19Now, in some networks, you might find a gateway

16:22that's called a gatekeeper.

16:24And in the event you had many voice

16:27gateways in your environment, the gatekeeper

16:28can help manage call routing between all of your gateways.

16:32The gatekeeper runs H. 323, but it provides Call Admission

16:36Control, which helps prevent the oversubscription of voice

16:39over IP networks.

16:39It also allows us to keep a certain level of audio quality

16:43within our network by providing bandwidth control

16:45and management.

16:46Now with SIP being so dominant, you

16:48may not see a gatekeeper much in many environments,

16:51but they're still out there.

16:52Then we have codecs and codec is really

16:55compression and decompression.

17:02And codecs are used to convert the analog signal over

17:06to a digital.

17:07So for the PSTN, G. 711 is the codec that is being used.

17:13G. 711 is being used to convert the analog to a digital 64

17:17kilabit per second voice string.

17:20That's for the PSTN.

17:21When it comes to VoIP, you could use other codecs

17:25in your environment, for example G. 729.

17:27This also takes the analog signal

17:30and converts it to digital, but it uses 8 kilobits per second.

17:34And it does this using compression.

17:37In the event that bandwidth is an issue,

17:39that 8 kilobits per second looks more

17:41attractive to you on a protocol basis than 64

17:45kilabits per second.

17:46So in the case of G. 729, not only

17:48are we performing this analog to digital conversion,

17:51but we're also adding compression.

17:53So when this package reaches destination,

17:55it then has to decompress those packets

17:58and then convert it from digital to analog.

18:01In this Nugget, we started our discussion

18:02about the infrastructure overview.

18:04We looked at the traditional telephone system

18:06and also discussed voice over IP.

18:08In the next Nugget, we'll continue our conversation

18:10by looking at voice gateways and see what part they

18:13play within our infrastructure.

18:14So with that, I hope this has been informative for you.

18:17I'd like to thank you for being.

0:10So, in this Nugget, we'll continue our infrastructure

0:12overview by talking about voice gateways.

0:14Voice gateways play a critical part in our environment

0:16by routing calls into and outside of our environment.

0:19We also talk about dial peers and call legs

0:22and the relationship between both.

0:24So let's get started.

0:25Start talking about voice gateways.

0:26Talking about voice gateways, they

0:28help CUCM, our Unified Communications Manager,

0:32to be able to communicate with non-IP devices

0:36these non-IP devices are really telephony devices.

0:39Maybe we're talking about an analog phone line,

0:42maybe we're talking about a PBX.

0:45So, those voice gateways are critical because they

0:47allow us to connect the PSTN to our voice Over

0:51IP infrastructure.

0:52Let's go on to Cisco's website and let's look

0:54at some of these gateways that are currently in production

0:57today.

0:57We have the Cisco 1900 Series.

0:59Now, we can see dates here as far

1:01as end-of-sale date, which was 2020.

1:03And then, end-of-support date, 2025.

1:07There are branch routers that can be used as voice gateways

1:10with the ability to insert certain modules

1:12in the back device, based on wherever your requirements are

1:16in regard to connecting to maybe a PBX or out to the PSTN.

1:21Those who have the 2800s Series, along with the 3900 Series,

1:24then followed by the 4000 Series.

1:26Now, at the time of this recording,

1:28this is probably the model that you will see deployed most,

1:32but it's always critical to always know

1:34when your products are either end-of-sale or end-of-support.

1:39So, we notice, going back to the 2900 Series routers,

1:42we see that the end-of-sale is 2017

1:44and end-of-support is 2022.

1:47We don't see that for the 4000 Series.

1:49So, maybe you're expanding voice over IP to a few new sites

1:52and you want to purchase and deploy this model.

1:56Usually, you have to purchase this equipment through a Cisco

1:59partner and they should be recommending what hardware

2:01you should be purchasing.

2:03Let's take a look at documentation.

2:04And, if I do a search for sale, here we

2:08see end-of-sale and end-of-life announcement

2:10for select ISR products.

2:12So let's click on this.

2:13Now, the keyword here being "select."

2:15For the 4400 Series, there are certain models.

2:18You have a 4431.

2:20You have a 4451.

2:23And you also have a 4461.

2:25The 4431 and 51 are affected by this announcement,

2:29but the 4461 is not.

2:31So it's really important to know what's

2:33deployed in your environment when you're

2:34reading these announcements.

2:36So if I scroll down, we have an end-of-sale of November 2022.

2:40We're currently in July 2022, at the time of this recording.

2:44And then, the end-of-support date, we see, is 2027.

2:47So, we have these still deployed and they're under contract,

2:50we should be good.

2:51But, in regards to purchasing, we or your Cisco partners

2:54should be doing some research as far

2:55as what we should be purchasing long-term.

2:58And here, we have the Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series.

3:01And, if you scroll down a bit, here's a picture of them.

3:04We see some information about this platform,

3:08but I want to scroll down.

3:09We have a section of Unified Communications,

3:12so here, we see we have some voice functions like the SRST

3:15and that stands for Survivable Remote Site Telephony.

3:18In the event that WAN connection is down,

3:20you still have some limited functionality when

3:22it comes to your telephony.

3:23And that's critical for sites that

3:25really depend on that function.

3:26And we also see that this can function as a CUBE.

3:29And this can run a version of Communication Manager,

3:31that being, Communication Manager Express.

3:34So my takeaway here is that there's many different options

3:36that we can deploy when it comes to our voice gateways,

3:39but we always want to look at the latest and greatest

3:41hardware, when the end of sale is,

3:44and how long Cisco will support their product.

3:47Because, for example, in the event

3:48that you have a bunch of these deployed in your environment

3:51and, we can see, six months from now,

3:53there'll be end-of-support, then I

3:55should be in the planning stages of replacing these

3:58within my environment.

4:00Because what you don't want is for you

4:01to have a serious issue with one of these voice gateways,

4:04you Contact Cisco support or Cisco TAC and the answer

4:08that they give you is, "Sorry, can't help you,

4:10that hardware is no longer supported."

4:12So, here we have a 2911.

4:14I actually have this in my lab environment.

4:16But, before we start diving into the ports,

4:19we want to talk about the operating system.

4:21So the 1900 Series, along with the 2800, along with the 3900,

4:26all run Cisco IOS.

4:30When we're talking about the 4000 Series,

4:33this gateway runs IOS XE.

4:37So Cisco's IOS has been around for a very long time,

4:40since the 1980s, and it's still being used.

4:42And today, the IOS is a monolithic architecture.

4:47So what does that mean?

4:48The IOS runs a single image and all the processes

4:52share the same memory space.

4:56So, here, we have no separation of CPU or memory processes.

5:01Within Cisco IOS, if there is a single process that crashes,

5:05then that voice Gateway would become unresponsive.

5:08So it affects the entire gateway.

5:10IOS-XE a modular operating system,

5:15so processes are run on different modules.

5:19Therefore, unlike the IOS, if one process or module fails,

5:23it does not affect the entire router or voice Gateway

5:26like IOS would.

5:28In face, IOS-XE wrote a copy of IOS,

5:32so that is why many of the commands are identical.

5:35And finally with IOS-XE, the data plane

5:38is separated from the control plane.

5:41So the data plane is really responsible for moving packets

5:44from source to destination.

5:45So, we're actually forwarding the IP packet.

5:49With the control plane, we determine which path to use.

5:53So this is where you would find your routing protocols you also

5:56build and maintain the routing table,

5:58we're going back to this voice Gateway, the 2911.

6:01We see here that--

6:03I have a card right there.

6:05This is a voice WAN Interface Card for viewing.

6:10And this would be used to connect to a PRI.

6:12So, maybe I have a T1 or an E1 circuit.

6:16So, within the US, you will have a T1,

6:18which is 24 channels, each channel

6:22being 64 kilobits per second.

6:25Now, if you're outside the US and Canada,

6:28you may see an E1 that gives you 32 channels.

6:31But, in this example, we have our voice Gateway here

6:34where, one side, we have the IP network and, on the other side,

6:39we have connectivity out to the PSTN and that voice

6:43Gateway bridges both networks together.

6:45Next we have some additional ports here.

6:47So, here we have an FXO card and on the other side

6:51we have a FXS card.

6:53So, with the FXO or Foreign Exchange Office,

6:56this gives us our connectivity via the analog lines

7:00to the PSTN.

7:01That's how you would connect or integrate these analog circuits

7:05into your IP network.

7:07You may have four lines going to this FXO card, each line

7:11having a phone number associated with that line.

7:13So if someone calls that number associated

7:16with one of those lines, PSTN would

7:19know to reach this voice Gateway as its destination,

7:21then somehow be routed to your internal IP network.

7:25You also have FXS or Foreign Exchange Station.

7:28So in one of our past jobs, we had facilities

7:31throughout the city and they had their own gas stations

7:35where the vehicles would stop and get fuel.

7:37These gas stations had an analog phone

7:40located near the gas pumps, so in the event they needed help.

7:43So, instead of having an expensive voice-over IP phone,

7:47we had these cards that connected these analog phones,

7:51so at that point, someone who needs help

7:53can pick up that phone and be routed to someone internally.

7:56Or, maybe you have some type of analog paging system or maybe

8:00a fax machine and those would be connected to this type of card

8:04to connect those devices to our IP network.

8:07So if you haven't worked with these cards

8:08before it's kind of difficult to remember what's what.

8:11So, I tell myself the FXO is used to connect

8:15to the central office.

8:16There's an "o" in office, there's an "O" in FXO.

8:19And then, for FXS, I remember that "s"

8:21stood for "station," so I told myself,

8:23it connected to a telephone, a fax machine or paging device,

8:27for example.

8:28So for every call that occurs in our environment,

8:31we have call legs and we have dial Peers.

8:33So, we saw that we have voice ports that we just went over

8:36and those ports connect us to telephony devices.

8:40Could be those analog phones that we

8:41spoke about, those gas stations, could be a fax machine,

8:45or it could be a connection to the PSTM.

8:49Or, we can't forget, you could be connecting to the ITSP.

8:52So, when a call is made, we have call legs

8:55all the way from the originating device

8:58going to our destination.

9:00So we can think of these call legs as static routes,

9:03if you're familiar with routing and switching.

9:06We have POTS that appears, that have

9:09to deal with a port of some kind.

9:11So, we define what port that we're going over, if that's

9:14a FXO, FXS or maybe a T1 or E1.

9:19Then, we have a voice over IP down here where the destination

9:24is an IP address.

9:26So, that's how we distinguish between the two, between a POTS

9:29dial peer and a voice over IP dial peer.

9:32So, when a call is made, CUCM has a call leg from itself

9:36to the CUBE, this example.

9:39So, in the perspective of the CUBE,

9:41here's the inbound dial peer, then that call

9:43has to go out the ITSP.

9:45And then, we have the outbound dial peer.

9:47And then, on the other side--

9:49so, this could be a company A, company B--

9:52it receives a call from the ITSP.

9:55Here's an inbound call to that CUBE.

9:58And then, we have an outbound call to that customer.

10:01So, without peers, we're specifying

10:03the origin and the destination of each call leg.

10:07Then, we can define certain characteristics

10:10with each dial peer.

10:12And we're going to find things like the CODEC they use.

10:14Also, can find the DTMF to be used for the call,

10:18how to interpret those digits that are being pressed.

10:21So, call leg is, really, a logical connection

10:24between two endpoints.

10:25There's a call leg between CUCM and the CUBE.

10:28And then, from CUBE out to the ITSP.

10:30As we solve the destination, we have the inbound call leg going

10:34from the ITSP to the CUBE.

10:35And then, the outbound call leg from the CUBE to the PSTN.

10:39So that, by itself, is four call legs alone.

10:41We have two here.

10:43And then, we have two at the destination CUBE.

10:46In this video, we talk about voice gateways,

10:48the different types of voice gateways

10:50that are available today.

10:51We also talked about some of the ports that

10:53are being used on these voice gateways

10:54to communicate with these analog lines or circuits

10:57or out to the PSTN.

10:58And we also had a brief discussion

11:00about call legs and dial peers.

11:01For that, I hope this has been informative for you.

11:03I'd like to thank you for viewing.

0:00[MUSIC PLAYING]

0:09So in this Nugget, we're talking about Cisco converge networks.

0:12We'll talk about the benefits of having a converged network.

0:15And also, we'll touch upon quality of service.

0:17Let's jump right in, and talk about Cisco converged networks.

0:21So converge is defined as moving towards the same point

0:25or coming together.

0:26Now, let's talk about an environment here that's not

0:29converged.

0:29So we can have a network here for our data.

0:32So these may have our PCs, our servers, printers, for example.

0:37But these are your traditional devices

0:40that you would find in a data network.

0:41You might have a separate network

0:43entirely for your voice.

0:44So you may have some analog endpoints in your environment,

0:48or maybe you have a PBX.

0:50And the infrastructure for your voice

0:51is completely different than for your data.

0:53So you have different cabling, you

0:55may have different components that manage and control

0:58that voice system.

0:59So these may be non IP based.

1:01You also may have the same with video.

1:03Maybe you have different video endpoints

1:05throughout your infrastructure.

1:07And you also may have different components

1:09along with different cabling, but again, the takeaway here

1:12that it's not IP-based.

1:14So you may have your staff or folks

1:16that manage the IP network.

1:18And then you may have a different staff

1:20that manage the phone system, or you may not.

1:23You may contract the maintenance of that phone system or voice

1:28system to a different person.

1:30So maybe Sharon here, is the one you

1:32call when there's a problem with the voice system,

1:35or you need to make a change of some sort, she comes in

1:38and she manages the phone system.

1:39You may have different folks that

1:41manage the video environment, or you

1:44may have someone else, like maybe Harper, for example.

1:47She comes in, she's a contractor also,

1:49just like Sharon, manages the video system

1:52for your environment.

1:53So we can see here, there's three different networks

1:55for different services for your business.

1:57So all these networks are maintained separately,

2:01and may have different technologies or protocols

2:04in order to provide that voice and video service.

2:06So the answer here, if you have a converged network,

2:10if you have data, voice, and video,

2:12those services can be provided on the same network,

2:15the same data network.

2:16So these services are all provided via the IP network.

2:20So now you have your desktops, your laptops, your servers.

2:25Now you have your endpoints.

2:27When it comes to phones and video, you have your tablets.

2:32You may have some time clocks in your environment, where people

2:35punch you in and punch out.

2:36But the point being is all these services

2:38are not provided on that same network.

2:41So now your infrastructure is no longer

2:43separated into different networks, it is combined.

2:47Now all these services can be managed

2:49by the same team, your IT staff, and no longer

2:53do you have to have folks with specialized skill sets,

2:56or those contractors, having to manage

2:59those other services for you.

3:00Since we have an IP-based network,

3:02cabling is a lot easier because we're all

3:04going toward wired network cables or possibly wireless.

3:08When choosing a vendor, now you don't

3:10have to choose one vendor for data, one for voice,

3:13and one for video, you could just

3:15choose one vendor like Cisco.

3:17And Cisco can provide all these services

3:19for you and your environment.

3:21It also becomes easier to deploy services.

3:23Because now when you're having a meeting--

3:25I don't know why the guy is jumping and doing a split--

3:28but now you can have a meeting with your staff.

3:30And now we can talk about deploying data

3:33and other services like voice and video to maybe a new site.

3:37And that communication becomes a little bit easier

3:39because all these services are IP-based.

3:41They all go over the same network.

3:43So having a converged network is extremely beneficial.

3:46But now we have additional traffic on our network.

3:49So there are certain things that we have to keep in mind.

3:51We have to keep in mind the amount of bandwidth

3:53that we have or were expecting to use.

3:55So here's our speed test for my home internet,

3:58and you can see I have a pretty good connection,

4:01but I'm getting 500 megabits up and down.

4:04So upload and download.

4:05Notice I said megabits per second, not megabytes.

4:11So with megabit, we are measuring the speed.

4:15So in this instance, the speed of my internet.

4:17With megabytes this is a measurement of data.

4:20So it could have a file that is 10 megabytes in size.

4:25So what's the relation between the two?

4:27So eight megabits is equal to one megabyte.

4:32Now these terms are often misused.

4:34So let's go over a few examples.

4:36For my connection, it is 500 megabits per second.

4:39So here we have converted this to how much data

4:43I can transfer per second.

4:44And let me bring over my calculator.

4:46So I take my 500 and I divide that by 8.

4:49Why?

4:50Because there's eight megabits in one megabyte.

4:53This gives me my value of 52.5.

4:56So if my internet was 500 megabits per second,

4:58that's how much data I can transfer per second.

5:02And also we see here how much data that would be per minute.

5:06So what happens if we have a slower connection?

5:08Let's say our site has 100 megabits per second.

5:12So that would equate to 12.5 megabytes per second,

5:16and over a minute I can transfer 750 megabytes.

5:20What if my connection was 25 megabits per second?

5:22I can then transfer it about three megabytes per second,

5:26or 188 megabytes per minute.

5:28So now we know with megabits, we're

5:30talking about how fast our network is,

5:32then we have megabytes, which is the amount of data.

5:35So we have an example here.

5:36Let's say you're downloading a Linux ISO,

5:39and the ISO happens to be 2 gigabytes in size.

5:43And 2 gigabytes is actually 2,048 megabytes.

5:47So going back to my connection of 500 megabits,

5:49that would take me about 32 seconds to download.

5:51If my connection was 100 megabits per second,

5:53it would take me about two minutes and 43 seconds.

5:56And if I had a 25 megabit connection,

5:58that would take me 10 minutes and 55 seconds.

6:01So all this to say, the a faster connection you have,

6:04the more data that we can transfer.

6:05Let's go back to my calculator.

6:07We'll take our 2 gig file, and we

6:09divide that by the transfer rate of 62 megabytes per second,

6:14and that's based in my connection

6:16is 500 megabits per second.

6:18So do that.

6:1962.5, hit equal, and there you see my 32 seconds right there.

6:25There are some websites out there,

6:27in the event you don't want to do this calculation.

6:29So we take our 2 gig file.

6:31Let's say our connection was 500 megabits per second.

6:34And then we have our time to download that file.

6:39Next we have our delay, also known as latency.

6:43It's the time it takes for a packet

6:46to get from source all the way to destination.

6:51So for voice, how much time does it

6:52take, once I speak into the receiver,

6:55for that sound to get to its destination?

6:58And for this, the value for our latency or delay,

7:03should be 150 milliseconds or less.

7:06This is one way.

7:07Let's go to our command prompt.

7:09Let's do a ping to cisco.com.

7:14And here we see our round trip times.

7:16So when using ping, this is actually giving you the round

7:19trip time in milliseconds.

7:22And going out to the internet, that's pretty good.

7:24If I were to ping my CUCM server I

7:26have deployed in my environment, you see that at that time

7:29is a lot less.

7:31So here we have our times out on the internet,

7:33and our times internal to my network.

7:36So in the event we have noticeable delay

7:38in our environment, that delay in conversation

7:41could have people talking over each other, which of course,

7:45can be very frustrating.

7:46And we have jitter, which is also delay,

7:48but this is delay not from the source to destination

7:53but between packets.

7:56So let's say we have phone A, and we have phone B.

8:01So phone A is sending packets to phone

8:03B. Let's say the first packet takes about 10 milliseconds

8:07to reach the destination.

8:08The second packet takes about 20 milliseconds,

8:11then we have some congestion.

8:12So a third packet may take 50 milliseconds.

8:15So this jumps to about 75, maybe 100 milliseconds,

8:20and then jumps back down to 10 milliseconds.

8:23So here, the delay between packet one and two

8:25is 10 milliseconds.

8:26The delay between two and three, 30 milliseconds,

8:29three and four, 25.

8:31Then between four and five is another 25,

8:33and then here, we have 90.

8:36So here, jitter is the delay between packets,

8:40and our goal is to be 30 milliseconds or less.

8:43And here we see a little bump.

8:45Overall, with a lot of packets being sent,

8:46you definitely don't want to see this above 30 milliseconds

8:50continuously.

8:50If you have congestion within your network and see that,

8:53you may have distorted voice, or your users

8:56complain of distorted voice, along with gaps of silence.

9:03And then we have packet loss.

9:04So when talking about packet loss,

9:06we're talking about the number of packets

9:08that were received compared to the number of packets

9:12that were sent.

9:13So for example, if we send 100 packets and only 95%

9:18were received by your destination,

9:20then this will give us a 5% packet loss.

9:24And this often happens when there

9:25is congestion on the network.

9:27Now our goal here, for our voice and video environment,

9:30is to have a packet loss of 1% or less.

9:33So not knowing our goals for our voice and video environment,

9:36how do we ensure that we maintain those requirements?

9:40And the answer would be quality of service.

9:43Now, quality of service is used when there

9:45is congestion on the network.

9:47So let's say you have these packets attempting

9:49to leave our network, and there's no congestion.

9:53By default, the router treats these packets,

9:55or these packets, as first in and first out,

9:58or known as best effort.

10:01So I'm sure that many of us have been at airport.

10:04And before you board that flight,

10:05sometimes if you catch a super late flight,

10:08there's not a lot of people on that plane.

10:10So when it's time to board, they have this little door,

10:12or the boarding gate, and this door

10:14is what allows you to eventually board that plane.

10:17So when the agent tell everyone to get in line

10:19to board that plane, then that small group of people

10:22gets in line, and they all quickly

10:24are able to get on that plane.

10:26So this is first in, first out, best effort.

10:28Now, what if this was a popular flight and this plane,

10:31for example, could carry close to 200 people,

10:34and then someone screamed out, everybody get in the plane

10:37right now, and you had 200 people barge

10:40trying to get to that door?

10:42At that point you have congestion and pretty much mad

10:44chaos.

10:46The same thing that happens to our network

10:47when there is congestion.

10:49The router will have problems processing those packets,

10:52because maybe that interface on the router

10:54can only take so much bandwidth.

10:56So therefore, this presents an issue.

10:58So how does the router deal with the congestion?

11:01And that would be our quality of service.

11:03So let's talk about some of the data that's

11:05really important in our environment, first one

11:08being mission critical.

11:09These are apps that are critical to your business,

11:12and voice and video could be part

11:14of that list along with some other applications that may be

11:18crucial for your environment.

11:19Then you have transactional applications,

11:22maybe these are your databases that

11:24require real time responses.

11:26You have your best effort, maybe this is your web browser, maybe

11:30FTP.

11:31And then you have your scavenger,

11:33this could be your streaming, if that's

11:36allowed in your environment, or maybe your YouTube.

11:39But what applications fit under what

11:41category really depends on your environment.

11:43So maybe YouTube, for example, is a big part of your business.

11:47So that may be a mission critical app

11:50for your environment.

11:51So email may be mission critical for you,

11:54or it may be best effort.

11:56The reason being because a lot of your business

11:58is not conducted via email.

12:00So it's different for every environment.

12:02So as we stated by default, the router

12:05will treat that traffic is first and in, first out or best

12:07effort.

12:08And the packets come in, then those packets

12:10are then transmitted.

12:11But what if we have congestion in our network?

12:14Then the router will queue that data,

12:16so the data is waiting to be transmitted.

12:18But eventually the queue may get full,

12:20especially if there's some really bad congestion

12:23on the network.

12:24So what happens to that data that's

12:25not able to make it into that queue?

12:28That data is then dropped therefore

12:31impacting some services within your environment.

12:33And if we're dropping voice packets,

12:35then your users may complain about poor quality,

12:38which is a situation that you don't want to be in.

12:41So with quality of service we can do things like mark

12:43and classify traffic.

12:44So with voice, we can give this a tag,

12:47and I'll give it a letter.

12:49A tag of a, for video, we'll give it a tag of B,

12:52and then for data, we'll give this a tag of C.

12:54So we're marking or classifying this traffic.

12:57And these markings help identify this traffic

13:00as it crosses our network.

13:02So going back to our example at the airport,

13:04let's say that when you purchase your ticket,

13:06and this is the case with many airlines,

13:09one ticket says zone A, the other ticket says zone B,

13:13and one ticket may say zone C.

13:15So here, we are providing a marking

13:17on that airplane ticket that identifies

13:20what zone that they're in.

13:21On that, we can prioritize traffic,

13:22and why do we want to prioritize?

13:25Because if we affect our voice and our video,

13:27people will either hear the poor quality.

13:30So you might have chopped off words gaps and silence.

13:33At that point you can't really have a conversation

13:35with the other person.

13:36If we're dropping video traffic, they also

13:38might have choppy audio or their video may freeze,

13:42or-- but the end user would definitely see an impact there.

13:46And then with data.

13:47This could be maybe web browsing.

13:49So they might not see a hiccup there because with web traffic,

13:53they may see that page take a little bit longer to load,

13:56but really wouldn't see it as service impacting,

13:58as you would see voice and video.

14:01Because the reality is people are more patient for website

14:03to load compared to their audio or video being choppy,

14:07and not being able to have a conversation or a meeting.

14:10So I might say that my A traffic goes out first,

14:14has the highest priority.

14:15Our B traffic is next in line, followed by my C traffic.

14:19So we've marked our traffic.

14:20We now prioritize our traffic, and we do this via policy

14:24that we create.

14:25Then at that point, we will queue the traffic

14:27appropriately.

14:27So in the event we have congestion with our network,

14:30our voice traffic will be processed first,

14:33they have a higher priority, followed by our traffic,

14:35which is our video, then followed by our data traffic.

14:40We potentially may still have traffic drop,

14:42but at least we're getting priority

14:44so voice and video are less likely to drop

14:47than other traffic.

14:49Going back to our airplane example,

14:51we assign zone A, B, or C, to our customers tickets.

14:55And then the agent will load the zone A folks

14:57first on that plane, followed by zone B, and followed by zone C.

15:01So we're prioritizing the traffic there.

15:03So when it's time to board that plane,

15:05all the A folks get in line, followed by the B folks,

15:09then followed by the zone C folks.

15:11So this is our queue.

15:13So what happens if we have someone that comes in late,

15:16and they actually have a ticket with zone A?

15:18They could walk up here with many people online,

15:21and say, hey, I have an A ticket.

15:23So, therefore, I have priority.

15:25And I'll stand right there.

15:26So in this Nugget, we discussed converge networks,

15:29and that's when we're taking all of our services

15:31and combining them to a single network.

15:33And we also talked about quality of service,

15:35which we have to take into consideration,

15:37especially when we're introducing

15:39other services like voice and video into the IP network.

15:42And quality of service allows us to give that traffic

15:45special treatment, prioritizing that traffic,

15:50making it less likely to be dropped in the event

15:53that there is congestion on the network.

15:55So in the event you want to know more,

15:57go deeper within quality of service,

15:59there's excellent content here at CBT Nuggets that

16:01will definitely help you out.

16:02So that I hope this has been informative for you.

16:04I'd like to thank you for viewing.