MGCP gateway cannot issue call for about 5 min after resetting it

[Hatem_Hamdi]

Hi all,

I have an mgcp gateway (a 2821 router) with 4 E1 connections to PSTN. I have a strange problem with this gateway which is every time i reset one of the E1 ports I will not be able to issue outbound calls from that port for about 5 minutes.

I cannot tell you how annoying is that. Every time I update a route pattern or add a new one I have my gateway out of service.

Please advise.

Best Regards,

Hatem

[rupam_chakra1983]

Is the gateway shows registered during the poblem

[Hatem_Hamdi]

Yes the gateway is registred during the problem and It can recieve inboud calls but no outbound calls can be issued.

[paolo bevilacqua]

Switch to H.323 or SIP, that ar much more robust and feature rich protocols.

[Hatem_Hamdi]

Well that's unfortune. I really like the fact I don't have to care about the dial peers and the translation rules in the gateway.

[paolo bevilacqua]

A very small price to pay in exchange of superior flexibility, stability, and ease of troubleshoot.

Beside, at the very minimum, only one DP and no transaltion rules are necessary.

[philip.e.denton]

You have to care about dial-peers and translation rules in the gateway for SRST to work (at your remote sites anyway)!

[paolo bevilacqua]

Good point Philip.

Even at the hub site, what happens if your single-server fails ?

For good results, you must become familiar with DPs and stuff, like it or not.

[philip.e.denton]

You thank your Cisco guy for convincing you to spend the extra money to buy a Pub/Sub pair instead of cheaping out with a CUCMBE...

...or configure SRST

[paolo bevilacqua]

Another possibility is that with a proper SRTS in CME mode, you discover that you don't need a server at all

[Hatem_Hamdi]

Thank you guys. I really appreciate your help. hopefully I am using two cucm servers PUB and SUB so I don't have to care about SRST. I really would like to know why MGCP is that Bad.

Hatem Hamdi

[philip.e.denton]

Well... MGCP is convenient, that's for sure.  Just put a few basic commands on your gateway and then complete your gateway config with a nice, pretty GUI interface (CUCM).

On the other hand, I'm told the MGCP protocol itself has a lot of overhead compared to H.323 and SIP - probably because those protocols are largely transactional where MGCP maintains more state information with keepalives and whatnot.  On top of that, whenever you change your gateway configuration in CallManager a whole new copy of the config is pushed down to the gateway.

Also, because MGCP is proprietary it's constantly evolving to support Cisco's new features.  In my humble opinion H.323 and SIP are leaner and more stable in general.

But that's just my 2 cents!

[Tracy Larson]

Here is the main difference between H323 and MGCP.........

Lets use driving a car for the example.

H323

You are in the drivers seat driving the car, you know where you are going so you take yourself there all by yourself.

MGCP

You are in the drivers seat driving the car, your wife is in the back seat telling you where to go and where to turn.

Hope that sums up the difference.

Please rate if helpful *pats self on back*

[Hatem_Hamdi]

Nice example !!!

[paolo bevilacqua]

Really funny.. rated.

Especially because one can add any kind of logical unfortunate conclusion to the second case