Does ISR G2/G3 support secure audio conferencing?

[Nadav]

Hi everyone,

From what I can tell from the latest SRND 11.x, ISR G2 doesn't support secure (encrypted and authenticated) audio conferencing whereas MCUs do. See:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/srnd/collab11/collab11/security.html

However, I haven't seen this outside the SRND. A separate documentation states that PVDM3 (such as those on ISR G2s) can support secure conferences. See:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/interfaces-modules/voice-modules-interface-cards/qa_c67_553073.html

Which of these is correct? Can ISR G2 with PVDM3 support encrypted audio conferences? 

Moreover, I didn't find anything regarding secure conferences for ISR G3 (such as the 4000 series). Do they also not support secure audio conferencing with their onboard PVDM4s?

Does it matter if the conference is between homogeneous SIP or SCCP participants?

Thanks for your time!

[Nadav]

Feel free to chime in :)

[Jonathan Unger]

Hi There,

PVDM3 on ISRG2 does support secure audio conferencing. I think that section in the SRND is referring to secure Audio and Video conferencing (together), which the ISRs do not support. Video conferencing is no longer supported on PVDM3 anyways, and was never supported on PVDM4.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/unified-communications/tdm-gateways/bulletin-c25-735945.html

If you have a voice gateway that you are curious about you can issue the command "show voice dsp capabilities slot <number> dsp <number>" and look for the "Secure Credits" section.

Netcraftsmen has a good example on how to configure secure conferencing on ISRs.
http://www.netcraftsmen.com/configuring-secure-hardware-conferencing


I just checked on an ISR 4331 with PVDM4 and there are secure conference credits available. I was also able to enter the command "dspfarm profile XX conference security" without error, it looks like it would work just fine.

In terms of SIP/SCCP participants in a conference, it shouldn't matter as the phones are signaling to CUCM, and CUCM is signaling to the conference bridge via SCCP. The key point is the security level of your participants (not necessarily what protocol they use). The conference is only secure as the lowest security level participant.


For more information on secure conferencing, check out the "Security for Cisco Unified Communications Manager" guide, it is a good read!
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/security/11_0_1/secugd/CUCM_BK_C1A78C1D_00_cucm-security-guide-1101/CUCM_BK_C1A78C1D_00_cucm-security-guide-1101_chapter_01110.html

Does that help?