Cisco CallManager configuration for Tesira using Tesira software

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Biamp’s SVC-2 card allows Biamp Tesira digital signal processors to make and receive phone calls over any Voice-over-IP (VoIP) system that adheres to the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) standard. This document details the steps required to configure a Cisco CallManager VoIP system to work with Biamp’s SVC-2 card.

Preliminary steps

Before configuring the CallManager system, there is some information that needs to be obtained. First, note the MAC address of the SVC-2 card. To do this, first connect to the configured Tesira system using the Tesira software. Then, double-click on the VoIP Control/Status block and select the “Network” tab. The MAC address of the SVC-2 card is listed at the top of the page. Note that the MAC Address will only appear here if you are connected live to the Tesira system.

For versions older than 9.0: Cisco changed license policy from version 9.0 onwards, so the below is not relevant for newer versions. But older versions required that the CallManager system has enough licenses available to handle an SVC-2. From CallManager’s perspective, the SVC-2 card appears as a third party SIP endpoint. Cisco required that a sufficient quantity of licenses be purchased from them before a third party SIP endpoint can be integrated into the CallManager system. To confirm this, log in to the CallManager system, and go to System—>Licensing—>License User Report. If you plan to use the SVC-2 card for a single extension, you will need 3 available licenses. If you plan to use the SVC-2 card for two separate extensions, you will likely need 6 available licenses. If unsure, please contact Cisco to confirm how many licenses are required for your application.

Cisco configuration

First, we'll focus on setting up the Cisco CallManager server.

Security Profile

The first step to setting up the CallManager system is to create a Security Profile. If your CallManager system already has an existing Security Profile that you'd like to use, you may be able to skip this step, although you should confirm that the existing Security Profile has the settings described below. Follow the steps below to create a Security Profile:

Go to System—>Security—>Phone Security Profile.
Click the "Add New" button.
Select the Phone Security Profile Type
1. If you plan to use the SVC-2 card for a single extension, choose Third-party SIP Device (Basic).
2. If you plan to use the SVC-2 card for two separate extensions, choose Third-party SIP Device (Advanced).
Click the "Next" button.
Enter a name and a description for the new Security Profile.
Leave the Nonce Validity Time at its default value of 600.
Set the Transport Type to either UDP or TCP (but not both). Tesira's default Transport type is UDP. Take note of the transport type used, as it will be used later as the Transport setting in the SVC-2 card.
Click the checkbox to Enable Digest Authentication.
Leave the SIP Phone Port at its default value of 5060 unless your particular situation requires SIP traffic to be transmitted on a different port. If this is the case, you'll need to specify this port in the SVC-2 card as well.
Click the "Save" button.

Add a new user

Once a suitable Security Profile has been created, a new user must be created. Follow the steps below to create a new user:

Go to User Management—>End User.
Click the "Add New" button.
Enter a user ID. Take note of this User ID, as it will be used later as the "Authentication User Name" in the SVC-2 card.
The password and PIN number are not required.
Enter a Last Name (this name is for internal descriptive purposes only).
Enter a password in Digest Credentials. Take note of the Digest Credentials password, as it will be used later as the “Authentication Password” in the SVC-2 card.
Enter the same password in “Confirm Digest Credentials”.
The remaining fields on this page can be left either blank or at their default values.
Click the “Save” button.

Add a new device

Once a new user has been created, a new device must be created. This device will link to the Security Profile and the user created in earlier steps. Follow the steps below to create a new device:

Go to Device—>Phone.
Click the “Add New” button.
Select the Phone Type.
1. If you plan to use the SVC-2 card for a single extension, choose Third-party SIP Device (Basic).
2. If you plan to use the SVC-2 card for two separate extensions, choose Third-party SIP Device (Advanced). Note that the Third-party SIP Device (Advanced) setting allows up to 8 lines, but the SVC-2 card uses a maximum of 2 lines. This results in a "partially registered" message from Call Manager. This is normal and not a cause for concern.
Click the "Next" button.
Input the MAC Address of the SVC-2 card. Note that the colons should not be included in the MAC Address (see screenshot).
The Description field will auto-populate once the MAC Address has been entered.
Select the desired Device Pool in which this device should be included. Ensure that the codec used by this device pool is supported by the SVC-2 card (the SVC-2 card supports the following codecs: G.722, G.711μ, G.711A, G.729AB, and G.723.1).
The remaining fields under the “Device Information” heading can be left at their default values.
For the Device Security Profile, choose the Security Profile created earlier.
For SIP Profile, choose "Standard SIP Profile".
For the Digest User, select the User created earlier.
The remaining fields under the “Protocol Specific Information” and “MLPP Information” headings can be left at their default values. If you experience problems dialing DTMF digits from the SVC-2 card, you may need to check the “Require DTMF Reception” checkbox.
Click the “Save” button.
Once your information is saved, you will be brought back to the configuration page for the device you just created. The only difference will be that there is an new “Association Information” section in the top left corner. If you’re in Basic (single extension) mode, you should see one line here. If you’re in Advanced (two extensions) mode, you should see up to 8 lines here.
Click on “Line [1] - Add a new DN”.
Enter the directory number for this extension. Take note of the directory number, as it will be used later as the “SIP User Name” in the SVC-2 card settings.
Set both the “Maximum Number of Calls” and “Busy Trigger” fields to 6. The SVC-2 card can support up to 6 call appearances per line.
The remaining fields on this page can be left at their default values.
Click the “Save” button.
If you’re setting up a 2-line configuration, click on the “Line [2] - Add a new DN” and repeat steps 16-19 above. Otherwise, the CallManager setup is complete.

Tesira configuration

Next, we'll focus on setting up the Tesira configuration to match the settings that were used in CallManager.

VoIP Control/Status block

Finally, after all CallManager settings have been entered, follow the steps below to set up the SVC-2 card:

Biamp SVC-2		Cisco Call Manager
Line / SIP User Name	=	Directory Number
Authentication User Name	=	User ID
Authentication Password	=	Digest Credentials

Open the Tesira software, and open the .tmf file for your project. Do not connect to the Tesira system yet, because the information below cannot be entered while you are connected to the Tesira system.
Right-click on the VoIP Control/Status block and select “Properties”. At the top of the Properties Sheet, select the DSP Properties tab.
Under the “Network General” category in the Properties Sheet, set “VLAN” to “Enabled” if your VoIP network uses a tagged VLAN. If the network uses an untagged VLAN or no VLAN, leave this value as “Disabled”. If VLAN is enabled, enter the correct VLAN ID.
Under the “Network General” category in the Properties Sheet, leave “DHCP” set to “Enabled” if the SVC-2 card will obtain an IP address automatically from a DHCP server. Otherwise, set “DHCP” to “Disabled”, and manually enter an appropriate static IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Gateway for the SVC-2 card.
Under the “Protocol SIP” category in the Properties Sheet, ensure that “Transport” is set to the same transport type you used in the CallManager settings (see “Security Profile”, step 7).
Under the “General” category in the Properties Sheet, click on the “…” symbol next to Line Properties. This will open the VoIP Line Properties window.
Select the Protocol tab.
In the SIP User Name field, enter the Directory Number you used in the CallManager settings (see “Add a New Device”, step 16).
In the SIP Display Name field, optionally enter a name for the extension for Caller ID purposes. Note that this name may be overridden by the proxy server, and therefore may not show up as the Caller ID name.
In the “Authentication User Name” field, enter the user ID you used in the CallManager settings (see “Add a New User”, step 3).
In the “Authentication Password” field, enter the Digest Credentials you used in the Call Manager settings (see “Add a New User”, step 6).
Select “Cisco” as the “Proxy Vendor”.
In the “Proxy Address” field, enter the IP address of the Cisco CallManager server. If you have separate Subscriber and Publisher servers, enter the IP address of the server that will act as the active registrar for end point devices. It is also worth stating that at this time Tesira devices do not support Cisco server redundancy and will only register to a single server. If a failover occurs the Tesira VoIP device will continuously register to the primary Cisco unit and will and the connection will heal upon this devices return.
If your network prioritizes VoIP traffic using Quality of Service (QoS), select the “Quality of Service” tab and enter the appropriate settings for your network. Otherwise, skip this step. By default, only the Diffserv attributes are available. If you prefer specifying QoS using TOS, select TOS as the QoS mode in the Properties Sheet and return to this page.
If you’re configuring two lines, select “Line 2” at the top of the page and repeat steps 8-14.
All other settings can remain at their default values in most cases.
Send the system configuration to the Tesira server (File—>Network—>Send Configuration). Once the configuration is loaded, the SVC-2 card will attempt to register with the proxy server. If you have a Dialer block associated with your SVC-2 card, you can see status messages returned from the SVC-2 card at the bottom of the Dialer block’s control dialog. If a status message is displayed in the Dialer block, this indicates there is a problem with the registration process. See SVC-2 status messages for a description of the possible status messages and their meanings.