Cisco Unified Communications Manager is the call processing entity of the Unified Communications infrastructure and is responsible for call setup and teardown.  In addition to this base level of processes it is also responsible for many feature related services such as basic presence, conferencing, music on hold, and single number reach.

Call setup and teardown refers to the process of one IP phone calling another and the phone checking with the Unified Communications Manager (UCM) to ensure that the other party exists and is available.  Once these basic things have happened the next part of the process is for the first phone to figure out how to reach the other phone.  This is handled by basic routing and switching  but also now coupled with the UCM and its dial plan.  Once the two phones have determined that they are aware and reachable they begin to communicate independently of the UCM and have a point to point IP stream between the two respective endpoints.  This can be seen to be quite efficient with respect to bandwidth utilization.   Other systems that require an IP stream between the IP PBX and the respective endpoints at all times but this is not as efficient from a bandwidth perspective.

Comment (0) Read More...

Communications Manager formerly CallManager is the application foundation of the Unified Communications infrastructure.  This component provides traditional telephony features as well as the foundation for advanced features such as presence, mobility, preference, and rich media collaboration.

The comparable traditional telephony component would be the PBX (Private Branch Exchange) or key system.  These are the traditional telephone systems that have been around for decades and are now being replaced at a rapid rate with new yet mature and emerging  technology such as Cisco's Unfired Communications Manager.  It is a known fact that Cisco is now the leader in the telephony market space and is displacing the likes of Avaya and Nortel.

Comment (0) Read More...

In the Unified Communications environment the router is a required element.  In a Unified Communications (UC) environment the router can play many roles all of which are critical to the infrastructure. 

First and foremost we can see the router doing what it does best - routing.  This provides in some cases the ability for VLAN's to communicate.  An example would be a user on the data network attempting to use their softphone which has to communicate to the servers on the voice VLAN.  This is enabled by the router and this is why it is required in this particular situation.

Comment (0) Read More...

Not going to bore you with the technical jargon on this one but put it into plain old English.  In the Unified Communications world the router is quite important and I'll explain why.

Among the traditional things the router does we see that in the UC world it does quite a bit more like provide connectivity to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).  Additionally, it can provide services such as voicemail and what is known as Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST).  These services allow the router to provide critical services in the event of a WAN outage and keep this site an island unto itself.  The router allows the "island" to become self-sufficient due to the fact that all these services are localized at the remote location.

Comment (0) Read More...