VCS Starter pack questions

[jonwoloshyn]

Hello,

I have a couple of questions on the VCS Starter pack and some discrepencies between the data sheet and the deployment guide.

Here are links to the docs in questions

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps7060/ps11305/ps11315/ps11337/data_sheet_c78-697075.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/infrastructure/vcs/config_guide/Cisco_VCS_Expressway_Starter_Pack_Deployment_Guide_X7-2.pdf

1. Does the VCS Starter pack support protocol interworking?

The Data sheet says:

• Support for H.323-SIP Interworking Encryption

• Support for H.323-SIP Interworking DuoVideo

However the Appendix 3 of the deployment guide says Interworking Gateway is not supported

2. Does the VCS Starter pack support ICE?

Data sheet says yes, but Deployment Guide appendix 3 says no

3. Does the VCS Starter pack support TMS management? My customer wants to schedule calls and manage a small amount of endpoints

Thanks

Jon

[Magnus Ohm]

Hi

Answer to Q3

The appendix 3 seems to just compare the Provisioning part of the VCS Starter pack to the TMS VCS control provisioning part.

I don't see a reason for why you should not be able to add the starter pack to TMS and manage its configuration however provisioning cannot be managed by TMS with starterpack.

You can still make bookings with endpoints even if the VCS is not in TMS as long as the endpoints are registered to the VCS and can make calls to eachother. The endpoints must however be in TMS in order to be booked.

/Magnus

[jonwoloshyn]

Thank you

[Tomonori Taniguchi · Accepted solution]

> 1. Does the VCS Starter pack support protocol interworking?

VCS-E Starter Pack support H.323-SIP interworking (Registration Only and no separate Interworking option key is required).

Below is sample for call between H.323 Endpoint and SIP UA (both registered on VCS-E Starter Pack).

> 2. Does the VCS Starter pack support ICE?

VCS-E Starter Pack support ICE (should see TURN license on system overview).

Below is sample for call between two SIP UAs both enable ICE feature which media flow directly between two SIP UAs (Media routed: False).

> 3. Does the VCS Starter pack support TMS management?
> My customer wants to schedule calls and manage a small amount of endpoints
TMS support managing VCS Starter Pack for configuration management, software upgrade, etc.
But please note, as Magnus mention earlier, this is not including provisioning management.

[VTCpeter]

Hi,

This is indeed very confusing...

Thanks for clearing this up.

One more question though, when the call uses ICE, does this mean that the call will only use TURN licenses and no Traversal license? Or will it still use Traversal licenses?

[adimchev]

Hi Peter,

if the VCS does not take the media, i,e, both ICE clients can route media between them then VCS takes signaling and no media so in that case I believe traversal license is not required.

Should the VCS takes the media - then traversal license is consumed.

[gubadman]

It would also depend if your Starter Pack VCS has non-traversal call licenses as well though. If the VCS doesn't take media it should be a non-traversal call, with a non-traversal license consumed. However if your starter pack only has traversal licenses and no non-traversal licenses. The VCS will consure one traversal license for the call instead.

[VTCpeter]

But if I'm not mistaking the Starter Pack only supports traversal licenses right?

I will do some tests myself tomorrow.

But from the first tests I did it seems that when you have a Jabber to Jabber call (where ICE is supported) that VCS takes 9 TURN licenses and 1 traversal license (because no non-traversal call licenses are supported). Which is kind of silly if you ask me...

[gubadman]

For starter pack, yes you can only have traversal licenses. The VCS app takes the traversal license for the call and the Turn server app takes Turn licenses for the Turn processing - they are different apps which both have jobs to do in this call scenario, and to do those jobs they both need to be licensed.

[Tomonori Taniguchi]

Just for clarification.

VCS-E Starter Pack support only traversal call option.

VCS-E support both traversal call and non-traversal call option.

VCS-E will consume traversal call when making a media routed call and non-traversal call when making non-media routed call (i.e. ICE call, SIP-to-SIP call which both SIP UA have same IP address in SIP Contact Address and source IP address, and call between H.323 Endpoint without ASSENT/H.460.18 capability).

Prior to X5.0 release, VCS-E didn’t process non-traversal call if VCS-E didn’t have any available non-traversal call option.

From X5.0 release, VCS-E able to process the non-traversal call by consuming traversal call option if there is no non-traversal call option is available.

This provide more flexibly for license management on VCS-E.

Please note that this call handing only apply on VCS-E but not VCS-C (VCS Control).