Polycom & Cisco Interoperability

[inderpreetsingh23]

Hello Everyone,

I have one Cisco MX300 and one Polycom VC device in my network. I want that these devices should be able to communicate with each other i.e I want to do Video Conferencing between these devices.

Is VCS required in order to enable Video Conferencing between these devices or they can communicate directly over IP to IP in my network?

Please suggest

Thanks

[Patrick Sparkman · Accepted solution]

Your question would be better placed in the TelePresence section of the forums where these devices are more actively discussed than in the Other Collaboration Subjects section you've posted in.  You can move your discussion by editing your post and changing the categories at the bottom.

You didn't specify what type of Polycom system you have, but if it can support H323 dialing, then both devices can dial each other directly via IP without the need of a VCS.

[inderpreetsingh23]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for the reply. Edited the post.

My POLYCOM device is HDX 7000

[Chris Swinney · Accepted solution]

Hi inderpreetsingh23

A Polycom HDX 7000 Support both e SIP and H.323, so the answer to your question is as Patrick suggested, yes they can dial each other without the need for additional 'stuff'.

Cheers

Chris

[inderpreetsingh23]

Thanks everyone for your help.

Query got sorted out

[inderpreetsingh23]

Hi Patrick,

One more question.

If I want to do Video Conferencing, outside my network only then VCS comes into picture?

Thanks

[Chris Swinney · Accepted solution]

Not necessary. You do not need a gatekeeper or SIP registrar at all if you are comfortable in using a Public IP address for each of your devices and punching a hole in your firewall, potentially multiple times for multiple devices. You might even be able to get away with putting some device behind NAT and firewall if you are only ever concerned about dialling out. However, if you do have multiple devices within an organisation, then the idea of a gatekeeper (VCS, but other makes and models are available) starts to make sense.

The VCS provide Gatekeeper (H.323) and Registrar (SIP) functionality, plus firewall traversal (VCS-E), call dial plan, bandwidth control etc. If you have multiple devices, each device would then register to the VCS, and the VCS would become the "gateway" for video traffic, into and our of your organisation. Your devices can then be protected behind firewalls and NAT. It maybe possible to use a single VCS Expressway, or in larger deployment you would use a VCS Control on the clean side of your network which would tunnel through to the VCS Expressway in the DMZ.

There is a bunch of really good documentation on this on the Cisco site with regard to the VCS deployment.

Cheers

Chris