Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express Overview
When Cisco first entered the IP telephony space, it did so with its flagship CallManager product line. CallManager was a dedicated server or servers that was a custom fit for medium to large businesses deploying thousands of phones at a single site or multiple locations. Although CallManager (now known as Cisco Unified Communications Manager) provided a cost-effective solution for these larger businesses, the startup price was far beyond the range that was affordable by small businesses.
As the CallManager product line developed, Cisco released a product known as Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST), which allowed a router to act as a failover device for Cisco IP phones if their CallManager server was unreachable. SRST was so fantastic, Cisco eventually turned it into a standalone solution (rather than just a failover solution) that could support a small office environment. The product was initially named IOS Telephony Service (ITS), which then became CallManager Express, which then became the Unified Communications Manager Express (CME) product used today.
Depending on the platform used, Cisco Unified CME can scale to support an environment of up to 240 IP phones. Table 4.2 gives the Cisco Unified CME IOS platforms available and the current maximum number of IP phones supported.
|
Platform |
Maximum Number of Phones |
|
8 |
|
|
Cisco IAD2430 Integrated Access Device |
24 |
|
Cisco 2801 Integrated Services Router |
24 |
|
Cisco 3250 Ruggedize Services Router |
10 |
|
Cisco 3270 Ruggedize Services Router |
50 |
|
Cisco 2811 Integrated Services Router |
35 |
|
Cisco 2821 Integrated Services Router |
50 |
|
Cisco 2851 Integrated Services Router |
100 |
|
Cisco 3725 Multiservice Access Router |
144 |
|
Cisco 3745 Multiservice Access Router |
192 |
|
Cisco 3825 Integrated Services Router |
175 |
|
Cisco 3845 Integrated Services Router |
250 |
The Cisco Unified CME system supports features you would come to expect from a time-division multiplexing (TDM) PBX or key system. These features can be divided into four categories: system, phone, trunk, and voice mail features. The major features in each category are included in the following list (current as of CME Version 4.3):
■ System Features
■ Account codes and Call Detail Record (CDR) field entry
■ Callback busy subscriber and camp-on
■ Per-phone call coverage rules
■ Call hold and retrieve
■ Call park: personal and directed
■ Call transfer and park recall
■ Call park assign to extension
■ Call pickup directed
■ Call pickup local group
■ Call pickup explicit group
■ Call transfer: consultative and blind
■ Call waiting
■ Computer telephony integration (CTI) with Microsoft CRM and Outlook using Cisco IOS Software Telephony Services Provider (TSP)
■ E911 with two emergency location numbers per zone, unlimited zones per site
■ Eight-party impromptu conferencing
■ Directory services using XML
■ Hunt groups: sequential, circular, parallel (blast), and longest idle
■ Hunt-group dynamic login and logout
■ Hunt-groups statistics: daily and hourly
Continue reading here: Licensing and Models for Cisco Unified CME
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