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CCIE Voice Strategy – Friend or Foe?
Strategy is one of the necessary skills you will develop, practice and fine tune along your journey to becoming a CCIE. It is a tool that will assist you in maintaining focus, precision and best utilization of the limited time you have to complete that task at hand. Thus it is an understatement to say when sitting the Voice lab it is critical you have a good strategy.
Let’s play a game and see how your strategy is coming along. We will use a topology made up of 3 sites:
Headquarters (HQ) and Site A (Remote site) which both have endpoints and gateways registered to CUCM and also a third site (Site B) which is a standalone CUCME.
Take the configuration tasks below and arrange them in the order you would complete them and advise why.
1. Gateways at HQ and SITE A are using the MGCP protocol and registered to CUCUM. SITE B is using H.323
1.1. Ensure inbound calls are functional
1.1.1. PSTN at HQ and SITE A is sending 10 digits
1.1.2. PSTN at SITE B is sending 8 digits
1.2. All Phones must be able to dial emergency services.
2. Verify phones at the CUCME are registered and have the ability to make and receive calls.
2.1. Preserve Calling Restrictions
2.2. At SITE B, calls from CME phones outbound to International numbers should be blocked between 8pm and 7am every day.
3. Inbound calls to SITE A Phone 2 should flow directly to voicemail during closed hours of 5pm to 7am.
4. Calls into HQ phone 2 if not answered within 3 rings should then ring simultaneously at both desk phone and mobile device. The user at this device should have the ability to call in and disable this feature.
5. Calls to Long Distance Numbers from HQ phones should be routed out of the HQ gateway with the SITE A gateway as a backup.
6. Ensure users at all sites can dial Local, LD and International numbers using “9” for outbound access.
6.1. The International dialing prefix for HQ and SITE A is 011 and for SITE B it is 00.
6.2. The Long Distance access code for HQ and SITE A is “1” followed by 10 digits and for SITE B it is “0” followed by 8 digits
6.3. Local Dialing for HQ and SITE A is 7 digits where the first digit is between “2-9” and for SITE B it is 8 digits where the first digit is between “1-9”
6.4. Calling Name and full E164 number should be displayed unless listed otherwise
7. Ensure all registered phones are in the appropriate time zone and contain the correct date format.
8. The voicemail integration between CUCM and UC is SCCP. Phone 2 at HQ and SITE A should be setup with a voicemail account. Ensure that the default password is “12345” and that the users do not have to go through the process of self-enrollment.
9. Make sure that calls within the HQ or SITE A site use g711ulaw and calls between sites use iLBC (Internet Low Bit Rate Codec). Allow a total of two calls into and out of each of the branch sites.
10. Ensure that if there is WAN congestion at SITE A, HQ phones are still able to call SITE A phones without any user intervention.
Post your proposed strategy below. The next blog posted will outline a solid strategy along with explanations. Enjoy!
Amy Ryan – CCIE #24677
Technical Instructor – IPexpert
First off, Amy this is a great post and I appreciate it. I had to sit down and think about this one.
I would first break this up into three distinct sections, with two area’s having subsections’. These subsections are because of extended services that are required outside of the normal UCM configuration.
1. Phone registration
a. Task Numbers ( 2, 7, 9, 10)
2. Gateway registration
a. Task Numbers (1, 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 6.4, 1.2)
b. Task Number (8,3)
3. Dial-plan / Feature MVA
a. Task Numbers( 5, 6, 6.1, 6.2, 6,3, 2.1, 2.2)
b. Task Numbers ( 4)
1. Phone Registration – All of these fall under normal requirements for registering phones to UCM/E with the exception of the AAR requirement on task 10. By placing task 10 into the initial configuration group you instill the thought process of placing the needed configuration on all appropriate interfaces on the initial configuration rather than coming back after configuration and possibly missing something.
2. Verify phones at the CUCME are registered and have the ability to make and receive calls.
7. Ensure all registered phones are in the appropriate time zone and contain the correct date format.
9. Make sure that calls within the HQ or SITE A site use g711ulaw and calls between sites use iLBC (Internet Low Bit Rate Codec). Allow a total of two calls into and out of each of the branch sites.
10. Ensure that if there is WAN congestion at SITE A, HQ phones are still able to call SITE A phones without any user intervention.
2A. Gateway Registration – Initial gateway registration and testing of services without complex dial-plan implementation is usually a good thought process, allowing for a simplified troubleshooting and allowing for additional service integration such as needed here.
1. Gateways at HQ and SITE A are using the MGCP protocol and registered to CUCUM. SITE B is using H.323
1.1. Ensure inbound calls are functional
1.1.1. PSTN at HQ and SITE A is sending 10 digits
1.1.2. PSTN at SITE B is sending 8 digits
6.4. Calling Name and full E164 number should be displayed unless listed otherwise
1.2. All Phones must be able to dial emergency services.
2B. Voice Mail Services- Allowing Integration after phone and gateway registration but before complex dial-plan allows for again simplified trouble shooting and application specific restrictions to be put into place without cumbersome dial-plan configuration.
8. The voicemail integration between CUCM and UC is SCCP. Phone 2 at HQ and SITE A should be setup with a voicemail account. Ensure that the default password is “12345” and that the users do not have to go through the process of self-enrollment.
3. Inbound calls to SITE A Phone 2 should flow directly to voicemail during closed hours of 5pm to 7am.
3A. Dial-Plan – By placing extensive dial-plan requirements together you are able to get a better idea of global requirements, allowing for simplified configuration, as well as keeping Class of Restrictions coupled closely with dial-plan enables the ability of building a situation specific COR design. As this design only needs a simplified COR line/device to block International during off hours.
6. Ensure users at all sites can dial Local, LD and International numbers using “9” for outbound access.
6.1. The International dialing prefix for HQ and SITE A is 011 and for SITE B it is 00.
6.2. The Long Distance access code for HQ and SITE A is “1” followed by 10 digits and for SITE B it is “0” followed by 8 digits
6.3. Local Dialing for HQ and SITE A is 7 digits where the first digit is between “2-9” and for SITE B it is 8 digits where the first digit is between “1-9”
5. Calls to Long Distance Numbers from HQ phones should be routed out of the HQ gateway with the SITE A gateway as a backup.
2.1. Preserve Calling Restrictions
2.2. At SITE B, calls from CME phones outbound to International numbers should be blocked between 8pm and 7am every day.
3B. MVA – I separate this task as most people (including myself) have a harder time implementing and troubleshooting this product.
4. Calls into HQ phone 2 if not answered within 3 rings should then ring simultaneously at both desk phone and mobile device. The user at this device should have the ability to call in and disable this feature.
Great! Looking forward to the answers