WebEx/Spark Room Kit - H323 on VCS calling to MCU

[Marcos Lopes]

Hello folks!

Our customer just installed a WebEx(Spark) Room Kit Plus on their environment, registering it on their VCS Control (h323 protocol).

They related some quality problems (packet loss, video is freezing) when calling to a Virtual Room on the MCU 8510 (also registered on their VCS Control). it's important to note that point-to-point calls with another Cisco's endpoint (ex SX20) is working fine.

WebEx Room kit and MCU/VCS are in the same network.

Before I start to troubleshoot this problem, I'd like to know if this kind of enviroment is supported, because their Video infrastructure is too old. Below the software version from the devices involved :

VCS - 7.2.3
MCU - 4.1.59
WebEx Room Kit - 9.4

What do you think guys? I did'nt find anything about it on release notes.

Thanks,

Marcos Lopes

[PJMack]

The MCU software came out in January 2011, 7 1/2 years ago. Now while I would have guessed this would work fine, I guarantee you Cisco is not testing CE code with MCU code that old. The VCS is only handling signalling (assuming you're not interworking on this call scenario) so any call quality issues will likely be between the endpoint and MCU. 

Are you seeing excessive packet loss, jitter, etc?

Any reason why they can't upgrade that MCU software? No service contract I'm guessing....

[Wayne DeNardi]

I'd expect that you're possibly hitting one of the old MCU bugs (I can't recall which one it is off the top of my head, but I do remember a similar issue with other endpoints on an old MCU).  I'd recommend that you upgrade the MCU to the most recent software release which is 4.5(1.97).  We run this on our older MCUs and do not have any issues with the SRK+ endpoints running CE9.4.

I'd also highly recommend that you update the VCS, and assuming by the current software that it's an old Generation 1 VCS appliance, to the most recent supportable software version on that hardware platform (X8.7.3 if it's a Gen1) as the newer releases include quite a few fixes for Security Vulnerabilities since the old X7.2 version (such as BASH, Shellshock and Heartbleed which were a big deal when they were published in 2014).

[Gilmar Silva]

I faced a similar issue and, as Wayne said, upgrading to the version 4.5(1.97) will probably solve this issue.