Walkthrough Wednesday: Integrating Video Mesh into the Hybrid Workplace - Q&A

[Cole Callahan]

Q: Can we use Video Mesh for Hyrbrid calling (audio calls) as well? from CUCM to cloud registered devices. Its working for us but want to make sure its supported officially 
Akshit Dayal - 13:05
A: yes 1-1 calls work. Typically the 1-1 calls are cloud registered devices - cloud devices. However CUCM to cloud would also be hosted on video mesh. The reverse Cloud to CUCM will not be hosted on videomesh as this is a callback to CUCM registered devices and this particular scenario is not supported on video mesh today
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Q: Is there plans to have the WebEx application to leverage video mesh like WebEx Formally known as Teams did?
Akshit Dayal - 13:10
A: Webex App (formerly teams) with no Meetings cross launch is supported on video mesh today. Support for Meetings client or Webex App with Meetings cross launch is planned for 2H CY 2021
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Q: would this session be recorded?
Cole Callahan - 13:14
A: Yes, this session is being recorded. I will email the recording to all attendees of today's event
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Q: What is the media legs restrictions with Mesh?
Akshit Dayal - 13:30
A: Depends on the image being deployed. for 3x23vCPU images its 1-1 switched calls

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Q: How can administrators ensure that transcoding to VMN is not necessary? Can we check this in any way with Control Hub or on VMN directly to become aware of the necessity?
Akshit Dayal - 13:30
A: No , not today. If you deploy VMNLite then its an image with reduced transcoding resources
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Q: Is there any better way to figure out which node of the cluster was used by particular client/device than going through client/device logs? Troubleshooting in Control Hub mention just the cluster name...
Akshit Dayal - 13:15
A: the architecture is such that it choses the most optimal node to land users on, having node level user info doesnt really serve any useful purpose, the more useful info is at the cluster level. Would be interested to know the specific node level info use case 
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Q: With Video Mesh Node, does an endpoint or user still send multiple video streams the VMN based on requested resolution by other participants?
Akshit Dayal - 13:28
A: yes, that totally depends on the endpoint. 
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Q: Will this slide deck be available after the call?
Cole Callahan - 13:15
A: Yes, the recording and slides of this event will be available on this event's dedicated community post - https://community.cisco.com/t5/announcements/walkthrough-wednesday-integrating-video-mesh-into-the-hybrid/m-p/4315782#M338
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Q: Is there plans to enable Filters in VMS when you collect PCAPs to allow more relevant Traffic to be captured when troubleshooting 
Akshit Dayal - 13:38
A: no but you can load the PCAP in wireshark and apply the necesary filters 
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Q: Is there still a 'minimum number of users to see efficiency' formula to see if Video Mesh Node would be useful to us? At one Cisco Live presentation, it was mentioned that since a minimum number of video channels have to be sent to the cloud for thumbnail view or other views, video mesh node isn't always efficient with respect to internet bandwidth savings. Is there a tool available to help us with this?
Akshit Dayal - 13:16
A: video mesh is ideally useful for consolidating meetings with > 2 users in the same location. We dont have a calculator today, 
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Q: would a call coming from PSTN to enterprise number assiagned for webex audio edge be able to join video mesh ?
Akshit Dayal - 13:19
A: yes. The edge audio Media goes to the cloud and flows back in to video mesh via a media cascade. this call leg wont be directly hosted on the video mesh instead of going to the cloud
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Q: when video mesh will be supported in the meeting app? and in non-space meetings in the unified app?
Akshit Dayal - 13:20
A: Video mesh supports non space meetings. It also supports PMR, and scheduled meetings. What video mesh doesnt support is the Meetings client today. Support coming 2H CY 2021
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Q: Is it possible to have only video mesh resources in the cloud? nothing onsite?
Akshit Dayal - 13:22
A: as in video mesh hosted in public cloud ?
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Q: Is there any future plans to include Cisco WebEx Meeting Application for Cascade link with Mesh or it's done.
Akshit Dayal - 13:22
A: 2H CY 2021
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Q: Are there any limitations to the views that SIP devices received when calls are mixed with a local video mesh and a cascaded cloud connection?
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Q: I think Lelio means the "old" information that the cascading link to the cloud sends out up to 6 screens. Therefore it seems to be optimizing stream bandwidth from the 7th participant onwards. Right?
Akshit Dayal - 13:24
A: Only requested streams are sent out. if all 4 participants are on prem no media is sent out. Its very usecase dependent 
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Q: What is limitations to number of Media calls to Media Mesh per node with CMS 1000 Hardware.
Akshit Dayal - 13:27
A: Based on our testing its 150 call legs if the deployment model is 3x23vCPU VMNLite images on the same CMS1k hardware. 
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Q:  hello Akshit, so the video mesh is fully supported in the unified app (for all types of meetings)? and not supported in the meetings app?right?
Akshit Dayal - 13:31
A:  we have support for all PMR, scheduled and space meetngs as well as 1-1 calling cases involving cloud registered devices. What isnt supported today is webex app with meetings cross launch or webex meeting app. If you have webex app without meetings cross launch then its supported on video mesh. Support = Call hosted on video mesh instead of the cloud as long as the video mesh resource is available and reachable by the client
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Q: hello Akshit, so the video mesh is fully supported in the unified app (for all types of meetings)? and not supported in the meetings app?
Akshit Dayal - 13:26
A: we have support for all PMR, scheduled and space meetngs as well as 1-1 calling cases involving cloud registered devices. What isnt supported today is webex app with meetings cross launch or webex meeting app. If you have webex app without meetings cross launch then its supported on video mesh. Support = Call hosted on video mesh instead of the cloud as long as the video mesh resource is available and reachable by the client
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Q: Is there a link to cascade bandwidth requirements for Video Mesh?
Akshit Dayal - 13:33
A: Typicalls the Max cascade BW is limited to under 20Mbps per meeting. Real values are way under this limit. 
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Q: During scheduled upgrades, what happens if there's active sessions on the node? Does it wait till all is clear or does it automatically moves the session to another node?
Akshit Dayal - 13:34
A: it will wait for the ongoing call to finish. 
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Q: Is there any roadamap to see the active call detaisl (calling & called number) in Video mesh nodes
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Q: I noticed when the Connectivity test when the service is degraded (Not Fail) is there a plan to show degraded instead of labling it by color?
Akshit Dayal - 13:37
A: red = degraded. Color is typically a better way to indicate degraded quality over words for accessibility reasons , 
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Q: is it possible to take backup for VMN?
Priority: N/A
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Q: Does the VMN support E2EE?
Akshit Dayal - 13:40
A: If all the clients support E2EE in a meeting and the meeting does not involved PSTN or transcoded calls then video mesh will simply switch the streams and the E2EE nature of the meeting is maintained. Video mesh will not decrypt any switches calls. Alternatively if you or your customer is Security aware /concerned you could also check out private meetings on video mesh
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Q: Are there any documents or KB articles that clearly outline the benefits of VMN? For example, higher resolution, etc?
Priority: N/A
Akshit Dayal - 13:43
A: In 3 words: BW savings, Security, Quality . For more details please check the deployment guide 
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Q: Is there an API available for the video mesh servers to access things like current calls so we can gather data to post to our internal monitoring systems?
Akshit Dayal - 13:43
A: Not today but thats something we are looking at it in the future
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Q: Will there be any clear use cases documented that explain how internet bandwidth is used? It's great to say that internet bandwidth is saved, but, if you have a meeting with 10 on prem and one off-prem, and off-prem requests grid view, it seems like there will be almost no bandwidth savings.
Akshit Dayal - 13:47
A: its very case dependent. In your example if the on-prem participant requested grid view then all the streams sent would be hairpinned from video mesh instead of the cloud. 
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Q: how to assign which video mesh server the video endpoint can utilize ?
Akshit Dayal - 13:44
A: for SIP endpoints you can do so. But for Switched/cloud registered devices you cannot since our algortihm picks the best node location to ensure the best call quality
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Q: Maximum number of nodes in Mesh cluster?
Akshit Dayal - 13:45
A: not a hard limit but if you plan to deploy > 100 please check with us first. 
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Q: Will endpoints automatically determine if the WVM is the optimal connection, e.g. we have the WVM in NY and have an office in India. Will the India endpoints determine if going directly (spark protocol) to the Webex Cloud is closer/lower latency vs utilizing our private WAN and going to WVM?
Akshit Dayal - 13:46
A: yes it does that. if RTT < 250ms video mesh picks the on-prem VMN resources. > 250ms will select cloud resources. 
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