- Preface
- Introduction
- Video Infrastructure Components
- Basic Video Concepts
- Call Control Protocols and IPv6 in IP Video Solutions
- Quality of Service and Call Admission Control
- Dial Plan
- Deployment Guidelines for Video Networks
- Collaborative Conferencing
- Security for Video Communications
- Glossary
- Index
Introduction
This document focuses on the two-way interactive video solutions available from Cisco, including Cisco TelePresence and Cisco Unified Communications, and it provides an explanation of the overall solution, technology components, and deployment considerations. With the TelePresence and Unified Communications product families, Cisco offers a wide range of video solutions from interactive video applications for large boardrooms down to mobile users. Cisco also offers a comprehensive set of one-way video applications such as streaming video, digital signage, video surveillance, and even media transformation, which are not covered in this document.
Each solution, Cisco TelePresence or Cisco Unified Communications, can be deployed as a standalone solution or together as an integrated solution. Figure 1-1 illustrates an example of a video architecture that supports both TelePresence and Unified Communications video endpoints. This specific example also shows access to the PSTN for voice calls, ISDN for legacy video, and the Internet-based video device.
Figure 1-1 Cisco TelePresence and Unified Communications Video Architecture
This architecture incorporates the endpoints and infrastructure components listed in Table 1-1 and Table 1-2, respectively.
Addressing complex customer requirements is possible due in part to the large number of Cisco TelePresence and Unified Communications video endpoints and infrastructure components. However, a large number of options can make choosing the right solution difficult.
As you will see throughout this document, Cisco TelePresence and Cisco Unified Communications endpoints and infrastructure components share the same protocols, audio and video codecs, and similar deployment considerations. This document explores deeper into the following areas related to Cisco TelePresence and Cisco Unified Communications:
•
Video components
Video components consist of devices such as video endpoints, call control, conferencing, gateways, and management platforms.
•Basic concepts and terminology of video solutions
TelePresence and video in general introduce a lot of new terminology and concepts that are not found in other technologies. In just the past few years many new products and features have been introduced with the advancement of video endpoints, conferencing devices, and error concealment.
•Call control protocols
Call control protocols handle the setup and processing of media flows across the network. A number of video call control protocols are used for transporting interactive video over various network media.
•Quality of Service (QoS) and call admission control
Interactive video is very sensitive to delay, loss, and jitter. Allowing admission to the network only when bandwidth is available and guaranteeing media flows that meet Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are key factors to any successful video deployment.
•Dial plan
Dial plans provide call routing between video devices and devices external to an enterprise, such as video intercompany calls over the Internet and the PSTN, as well as PSTN audio-only calls. Dial plans might need special attention, depending on the method used to address endpoints or to support advanced feature sets.
•Deployment scenarios
There are a number of deployment scenarios available for interactive video deployments. Deployment scenarios are based on a number of factors such as the number and type of endpoints, and they focus on all aspects of call control, video services, and network design.
•Business-to-business (B2B)
Business-to-business video communications is becoming more important as video continues to be deployed and used by more companies. There are a number of ways to allow business-to-business video communications, depending on the call control platforms and endpoints used in an enterprise.
•Conferencing
Conferencing allows more than two devices to communicate in a single meeting. There are a number of options for initiating a conference and a number of different platforms available for conferencing video endpoints.
•Security
Security for video calls is a must for many enterprises, especially those using video for business-to-business communications. There are a number of methods available for encrypting signaling traffic and media, and a number of factors that must be considered when deploying secured video communications.
In addition to this document, a number of design and deployment guides have been written to help users choose the correct architecture. These guides not only help with video architecture, but in many cases they also outline the network requirements to ensure proper handling of video calls across the network. The following design and deployment guides cover the deployment of both Cisco TelePresence and Cisco Unified Communications video:
•Cisco Unified Communications System SRND
http://www.cisco.com/go/ucsrnd
•Cisco TelePresence Network Systems Design Guide
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/ns340/ns414/ns742/ns819/landing_vid_tPresence.html
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