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Description
The Cisco Unity® IP Media Gateway products are integration devices designed to offer a high-quality connection between Cisco Unity or Cisco Unity Connection servers and your existing traditional private branch exchange (PBX). The Cisco Unity PBX IP Media Gateway (PIMG) is an 8-port, stackable integration device that emulates a digital or analog phone (station) on the PBX side and connects to the Cisco Unity server over a LAN or WAN using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The Cisco Unity T1 IP Media Gateway (TIMG) is a single-span, rack-optimized device that translates the digital voice channel of a T1 trunk into SIP for transmission over a LAN or WAN to the Cisco messaging system. (Refer to Figure 1.)
Figure 1. Cisco Unity PIMG and TIMG Architecture Overview
Key Features and Benefits
The Cisco Unity IP Media Gateway products provide a feature-rich integration between several traditional PBX switches and Cisco® messaging systems, offering a mechanism to get all the productivity benefits of a Cisco unified messaging or voicemail solution while protecting your existing PBX infrastructure investment. Using the PIMG or TIMG along with Cisco Unity or Cisco Unity Connection can become a central element in the coexistence of your traditional and IP environments, or it can offer a smooth and controlled migration path to a full Cisco IP Telephony solution.
Digital Connectivity
The digital PIMG can emulate a digital phone set to provide end-to-end digital signaling and voice transmission, offering better feature interoperability than many analog dual tone multifrequency (DTMF) connections for voicemail systems.
T1 Connectivity
The TIMG translates the digital voice channel of a T1 trunk into SIP for transmission over an IP network, providing up to 24 channels from one single-span TIMG.
No Analog Lines Required (Digital Integration)
In many cases, traditional PBX deployments have few or no analog lines available. Adding analog line cards and lines just to connect to a voicemail or unified messaging system can be expensive and difficult. Because the PIMG can connect directly to a digital phone line, or the TIMG directly to a T1 trunk, most PBXs will be able to natively connect directly to the PIMG with no hardware or software upgrades required.
No Peripheral Component Interconnect Voice Cards Required
The PIMG and TIMG connect to the Cisco Unity or Cisco Unity Connection server using an IP connection and SIP. Because this is an IP connection, no voice cards are required, and the connection does not use any peripheral-component-interconnect (PCI) slots in your messaging server.
Cisco Unity Failover Support
The PIMG can be configured to support Cisco Unity failover deployments. (Cisco Unity Connection does not support server failover at this time.) During setup, a primary server and a secondary server are defined. If a failover or failback occurs, the PIMG maintains visibility of the active server and can correctly route calls to and from the active messaging server.
Deployment Across a WAN
Because the PIMG uses SIP to communicate with the Cisco Unity and Cisco Unity Connection servers, it is not necessary for these servers and the traditional PBX to be co-located. When the traditional PBX and PIMG or TIMG boxes are geographically separated from the voicemail server across a WAN, care should be taken to ensure that the network meets the throughput and quality-of-service (QoS) requirements to effectively carry voice traffic.
If the Cisco Unity or Cisco Unity Connection system connects to the PIMG or TIMG units over a WAN, the requirements for the WAN network connections follow:
• For G.729a codec formatting, a minimum of 32.76 kbps guaranteed bandwidth for each voice messaging port
• For G.711 codec formatting, a minimum of 91.56 kbps guaranteed bandwidth for each voice messaging port
• No network devices between the PIMG and Cisco Unity server that implement Network Address Translation (NAT) without SIP support
• A maximum 200-ms network latency
PIMG Branch-Office Consolidation
The IP connectivity of the PIMGs and TIMGs enables simultaneous connection of up to nine PBXs to a single Cisco Unity or Cisco Unity Connection server. As long as the total number of ports is no greater then 72 for Cisco Unity Connection, or 96 for the Cisco Unity system, any combination of PBXs and stacked PIMGs or TIMGs is supported, allowing a single point of administration for organizations with multiple sites or PBXs. (Refer to Figure 2.)
Figure 2. PIMG Branch-Office Consolidation Architecture Overview
Supported Traditional PBX Integrations
Supported traditional PBX integrations are listed in the system requirements and supported hardware and software documents.
• For Cisco Unity:
Supported Hardware and Software, and Support Policies for Cisco Unity Release 5.x.
• For Cisco Unity Connection:
Supported Hardware and Software, and Support Policies for Cisco Unity Connection 2.x.
Additional traditional PBX integrations will be supported and documented as they are tested and qualified. To request a qualification for a PBX integration that is not currently listed, please send an e-mail to OOB_Requests@cisco.com.
Scalability
For Cisco Unity, multiple PIMGs and TIMGs can be connected to a single Cisco Unity messaging server to provide up to 96 simultaneous voice sessions.
For Cisco Unity Connection, PIMGs can be stacked and connected to a single traditional PBX to provide up to 72 simultaneous voice sessions to the Cisco messaging server.
Limitations
Please note that theCisco Unity PIMG has regulatory certification for sale in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe (CE countries) only.
Cisco Unity IP Media Gateway Specifications
Tables 1 and 2 give specifications for Cisco Unity PIMGs and TIMGs, respectively.
Table 1. Cisco Unity PIMG Specifications
Table 2. Cisco Unity TIMG (Single Span) Specifications
Ordering Information
The Cisco Unity IP Media Gateways can be deployed as part of either a Cisco Unity voicemail or unified messaging solution or a Cisco Unity Connection voicemail solution. Consult the online configuration tool and the appropriate ordering guidelines for more details about ordering Cisco Unity products.
The Cisco Unity PIMG comes with a power supply and a U.S. power cord. For use within other countries or regions, select the appropriate power cord option. All other cables or connectors (Ethernet cable, serial connectors, or digital phone lines) are not included and must be provided by the customer. Table 2 shows ordering information.
Table 3. Ordering Information
Firmware
Cisco recommends that customers use only the firmware versions for the Cisco Unity PIMG and TIMG that have been tested and qualified by Cisco. Firmware updates for the Cisco Unity PIMG and TIMG can be found on the Cisco Unity Utilities page at: http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/unity-PIMG.