Dialing to WebEx SIP address of SX10 from an External H323 video endpoint

[VCsupport17]

Hello Community,

I'm new with Spark cloud/WebEx.

We have a device SX10 that was activated and registered on Webex cloud and has a SIP URI given to the device by Webex. External H323 endpoint cannot be able to call the SIP UR of the SX10 Webex room device. Is this not supported?

This external H323 endpoint can be able to call any H323 with public IPs.

[Jonathan George]

I don't think that's possible. A Webex cloud registered endpoint is a SIP endpoint and it should be possible to make a SIP call to it (firewall/ports allowing). H.323 inter-op is not supported.

If you want to bridge such a call then you could use a Webex meeting, which will accept SIP, H.323 (including IP dialling).

[Jonathan George]

Just to add - depending on where your H.323 are registered it might be possible to transcode from H.323 to SIP (e.g. VCS) - but the fact remains you'll have to do something to transcode between H.323/SIP - the Webex bridge would be the simplest approach.

[VCsupport17]

Hi Jonathan,

Thank you for the answer. Now its clear to me.

So what are the benefits of an endpoint registered to webex cloud?

I can see some disadvantages here:

1. External H323 endpoints cannot be able to call directly on the webex endpoint and its an additional work for employees to create a webex meeting first to be able to join an external endpoint.

2. The webex endpoint cannot call directly to IP address.

3. Accessing the endpoint on its web interface is no longer working using the admin credentials. Managing the endpoint is on the webex admin on the cloud but limited settings only.

[Jonathan George]

For the use cases you state then yes, you could say there are some disadvantages - hence it is important to understand those use cases.

However, I believe the ability to cloud registered the endpoints is a massive benefit. Previously a customer would have had to invest in some form of call control/registration platform (VCS, CUCM etc.) and magically configure this up. Now, I simply add the device in Control Hub, generate the 16 digit registration code, power up the device, enter the code and I have a fully functioning SIP endpoint. In a prior life I wrote this:
http://www.meetingzone.com/en-gb/Blogs-Resources/Productivity-Blogs/ArticleID/309

I believe this truly brings Cisco's video experience to customers that would previously have found this too expensive and too complex to deploy.

Access to the admin settings for the device is possible from the Advanced Settings on Control Hub and I believe the limitation of having to be on the same network as the device for this to work has been removed (or will be soon). You can also setup a specific admin account to access those settings if you don't want to give people admin access through Control Hub.

Honestly, I think the benefits far outweigh the limitations, but as I said that depends on what you are actually trying to achieve in the first place.

[JJ77]

I agree with Jonathan's response and adding some more benefits 

1. A remote site registered to cloud saves internal network link traffic , this is very much helpful if you have a centralized VCSC-VCSE architecture wherein the remote devices need to traverse all the way to central site for call routing  
2. Software upgrades are automated (whether you like it or not :-) )
3. Device settings are accessible and most of the settings are available on web access except the SIP settings
4. On Webex control hub, the analytics options provide insights on all type of reports that used to be  prepared manually by admins (usage reports etc)
5. The call quality drastically improves due to high bw allocation on Cisco Cloud back plane and optimal routing (call speed defaults upto 6mb and this can be changed based on local speed / infra)
6. SIP is the new standard for all media communication and H.323 though robust but eventually will fade out in usage 

I am looking forward to more enhancements from Cisco specially since i have seen the control hub a year ago with little to no option on device access and customization.

In my opinion even Cisco is evolving in its offering and seriously taking inputs from customers for future enhancements

Regarding the admin login-Once the device is on cloud you will not be able to login with admin creds, the work around is to access the device from control hub and then you can create a user though you can create a user with username admin but still you can create a generic user and then assign admin role