Future of Cisco IP Communicator

[shanee420]

Hi,

One of our CUCM customers would like to have soft phone capability. The customer doesnt have CUP. So I was planning to propose the good old CIPC. Just to make sure Cisco has not discontinuted it, I looked at the release notes and found out there is a CIPC version 8.6 out. So that tells me the product is still alive and Cisco has not stopped developing it.

However, i chanced upon a slide (attached) in one of the UC 9 training presentations on Cisco Jabber for Windows where the roadmap for Jabber for Windows is discussed that says in 2H2012, there will be an option for modular deployement for Cisco Jabber for Windows which would allow Jabber deployement as a soft phone only client.

I am just wondering if that means, Cisco IPC is going to be phased out when that happens. If thats so, we should stop positioning Cisco IPC as a remote working solution.

Can anyone comment if its still reasonable to propose Cisco IPC as a soft phone solution? and what is Cisco's medium to long term strategy on Cisco IPC?

Regards,

Zeeshan

[shanee420]

I asked the same question from PDI helpdesk and after few emails back and forth, the response can be summarised as below:

• CIPC 8.6 is the last CIPC version. Cisco will not devleop it any longer. The client that Cisco will continue to develop is Cisco Jabber.
• Cisco Jabber for Windows can't be used without a CUP server as off now, that is, it can't be used for soft phone feature alone, however it's something on the roadmap with modular deployement option when that becomes available.
• Although stand alone Jabber as a softphone is on the roadmap, but no ETA yet. Also there is no commitment yet for an upgrade path from CIPC to Jabber soft phone only deployement(when it becomes available), and currently there is no replacement part number for the CIPC.
• Right now there is no other option from Cisco for soft phone only feature except CIPC and it will be available for few more years. Another option would be to use a third party soft phone

I hope this helps!

Regards,

Zeeshan

[Brett Hanson]

As we're in October now, is there any futher update on this?

Do we know if Jabber is now available as replacement for CIPC without CUPS?

Or is CUPS still required to use Jabber?

[skilambi]

You might want to post on the EAP community but nothing in 9.1 to change that. at least now you have desk phone video support but you still need CUPS.

Thanks

Srini

[Brett Hanson]

Thanks for that.

[jspilde]

From what I have read, Jabber for Windows: 1) does not support CDP and therefore does not support mac address based location with Emergency Responder.  2) does not add qos markings to the traffic; it requires a medianet enabled network to provide prioritization.  Without these features, I strongly question whether or not Jabber is a mature enough product to fit our environment as an IPC replacement.

Is there a roadmap to add these features?

[pauleversonCFH]

@jspilde - are you sure this is correct re QoS?

We have been using CUCILYNC for 2 years which has QoS marking support soI woud be surprised if Cisco didnt include QoS markng in Jabber? I hadn't even checked as I had just assumed it would be there. Its a critical feature....

[jspilde]

I hope it's not the case and that someone will correct me. I would be surprised if Cisco required Prime Collaboration and a Medianet enabled network just to mark QoS.  Please check out this thread https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2164563

FYI, I did install the Jabber v9.2.1 build 606 and captured packets from a call which show the voice stream as dscp 0.

Here's the installation guide http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/jabber/Windows/9_0_1/b_jabber_win_icg_chapter_0101.html#task_9A31721ACA2F46BD8B56E61159D6BA1A

Reading into this, I'm wondering if the Cisco Media Services Interface Windows service can mark the traffic without Prime Collaboration being present on the network?  I think the next step is to install this and test.  I'll post my findings.

[pauleversonCFH]

thanks Srini.

the gpo method is how we do it with CUCILYNC :)

[skilambi]

Medianet is not the only way to signal QOS. You can specify GPO policies to mark the traffic coming from Jabber or use ACL on the switching side to match the ports and mark accordingly

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/jabber/Windows/9_2/JABW_BK_C9731738_00_jabber-windows-install-config_chapter_010.html#JABW_CN_IDBE72E9_00

Srini

[jspilde]

Hi Srini,

Yes, I've since read that regarding GPO as well.  GPO would involve getting another team involved and an ACL means rolling out a switch and router config update.  I was hoping for something simpler like just deploying an application.  These extra steps will add time to rolling out the product.

Thanks for the info.

Regards,

Jason

[brmorris]

Hi Jason,

When running on Windows 7 Jabber is unable to mark DSCP directly for traffic.   This is due to changes Microsoft made to the Windows 7 operating system.   Windows 7 doesn't allow applications to mark QoS in packets in the same way XP could.   In Windows 7 only an administrator can mark packets.   Customers do not typically allow their users to run with administrator privilages so this would not work.  

There are several methods to work around this change in Windows 7.   You either leverage Medianet, Network ACL's or Windows GPO.   Network ACLs and Windows GPO both work on the basis that Jabber will create identifiable traffic streams based on port ranges.  Medianet works by providing meta data on traffic streams created by Jabber.

Bryan