Limiting number of calls between VCS zones/subzones?

[Nizam Hafiz Md Ishak]

Hi,

I'm wondering if there's a way we can limit the number of calls between two subzones, zones or VCSs.

The scenario as below:

VCS-E (owncompany) << -----neighbor/traversal/DNS zone over internet------ >> VCS-E (partner)

My intention is to limit only 5 video calls coming in from VCS-E(partner) so that the 6th call (endpoint dialing in) will be blocked.

I know that we can control the total bandwidth between zones using links & pipes but that does not stop the remote end to lower their call rate and dial in with more endpoints.

Thanks.

[Alok Jaiswal · Accepted solution]

Hi Hafiz,

did you try to disable the "downspeed per call mode" under the bandwidht configuration??

try to disable the "downspeed per call mode" to off under VCS config--.>bandwidth-->configuration.

this will not allow the calls to get downspeed but it should get blocked because of insufficient bandwidth.

Thanks

Alok

[Nizam Hafiz Md Ishak]

Hi Alok,

It works in a certain way but I have no control over their bandwidth so what happened was they call in at a lower bit rate to fit in more calls when they found out that we limit the bandwidth. This ended up using more of our MCU ports & traversal license allocated for the partner.

So what I really need is to only allow 5 concurrent calls coming in from that zone so that the max number of MCU port & traversal ports that they use is 5 concurrent.

[Alok Jaiswal]

Hi Hafiz,

Can't say what topology you want to implement and how it is design as in specific subzones and what is the bandwidth restriction you are putting.

we need a bit more information to conclude some thing what you are trying to achieve.

thnx

Alok

[Nizam Hafiz Md Ishak]

Hi Alok,

MSE <> VCSC <> VCSE <> VCSE (partner)

The subscribed bandwidth is 10Mbps between partner VCSE and my VCSE. But we only provide 5 travesal license for parter use on our VCS and only 5 MSE ports when they want to do multipoint calls.

So the idea is to limit the calls coming in from the neighbor zone facing customer VCSE to 5 concurrent calls only regardless of what call rate thei using.

example 1: Call rates at 2Mbps = 5 total session (this is the ideal scenario)

example 2: Call rates at 512kbps = ~9 total calls where the utilization is still withing the 10Mbps (not good because they are making more calls and using more of the license allocated to them.

[Alok Jaiswal]

Thanks Hafiz for clearing the picture.

So basically what you want is to limit the number of calls to 5 in correlation with bandwidth as well. correct ?

interesting scenario. I need to check.

cheers

Alok

[Martin Koch]

how can I limit the number of simultaneous calls in zone (either sub,- neighbor or traversal zone).

NOT neccesaary dependent on the bandwidth, but sure that in addition should not harm.

The main point is to limit the number, especially if you have a shared VCS-E with traversal

zones to customer VCS-C which would mean a cost factor by license usage.

The block downspeeding would not really help and might also be bad if you need it as its a

generic vcs setting.

If you have defined in theory the customer shall get 5 calls with 2mbit each, you could cap the link to 2mbit per call and 10mbit, but if he sets up his

endpoints to use 1mbit he would get 10 calls through instead of 5.

So a max number of calls for a zone feature seems to miss. I would +1 on that feature request.

[Nizam Hafiz Md Ishak]

Hi Martin,

You're exactly spot on with what I'm trying to achieve here. However I don't see how to go about this and hoping there's a solution to this.

[peterputt]

Hi Hafiz,

I'm facing a very similar problem - have you found a solution for that?

Regards,

Peter

[Martin Koch]

Peter, like I had written before, that functionality does not exist.

Maybe Alok could take it and forward it as a feature request:

Limit the amount of calls via links/pipes/zones

[dblittlewood]

Hi Martin, did you ever work out a solution for this?  I think even in the latest versions of Expressway we don't have this functionality.

[Patrick Sparkman]

This function still doesn't exist today, suggest you contact your Account Manager and have them create a feature request for you.

[Nizam Hafiz Md Ishak]

Hi Peter,

Unfortunately no solution for this. I've checked with our local Cisco support here as well but the feature just doesn't seems to exist. The best we can do is to limit the bandwidth but it still doesn't solve our problem totally.

[MIKE ZINNER]

Well, since you seem to know how many calls they are making, how about a charging them an overage fee when they do that.  Something by site/hr or some other penalty.  It's not fair for your other customers to let them continue to do this.  At least until Cisco can come up with a way to limit the number of calls, short of hooking them up to an Expressway with 5 licenses total.