Components for an IP Phone system

[sidarthar]

Hi there - I'm very new to IP Telephony and was looking for some information on what the key components of an IP Phone system was. Here's what I have gathered

• The IP Phone itself
• Switch
• Router

Is there anything else I need besides the above (I've been seeing a lot of Cisco Unified Communications Manager - what's this for?)

Finally, would appreciate it if anyone could give specific model numbers for the components for a basic setup of approximately 100 IP Phones (Cisco IP Phone 8800 Series) 

Thank you. 

[Aaron Harrison · Accepted solution]

Hi

The best way to think of it is 'what do you have in a normal phone system' and what replaces each part in a VOIP one?

PBX - the brain of the phone system - this is basically Comunications Manager; it manages your dial plan, configuration etc.

Phones - easy, replace with IP Phones.

PSTN Connections - replaced with Voice Gateways; you need these to connect to anything non-IP, e.g. E1/T1 ISDNs, or FXO/FXS lines. A fancy voice gateway for IP-to-IP if you have a SIP service provider is CUBE (basically a voice gateway with more software licensing rather than physical interfaces)

Wires - instead of a room full of mind-boggling cables extending to every corner of your building, you have a nice easy network of routers/switches, WAN circuits and VPNs. Oh, and of course you do have a network of Cat5 cables extending to every corner of your building.

Aaron

[sidarthar]

Hi Aaron, 

Thank you very much for your fantastic reply which addresses all my queries. One final question, what device do I need to get to install the Communications Manager - can it be installed on any Windows machine or is there a specific device needed?

Many thanks!

[Aaron Harrison]

Hi

You have two options:

Communications Manager Express - runs in IOS, on a router. 

Communciations Manager - comes in lots of varieties, but is a Linux appliance that can be installed into VMware.

It would be best to speak to your Cisco partner about this, there are lots of options to consider.

Aaron

[sidarthar]

Thank you very much.