Cisco® Unified Communications is a comprehensive IP communications system of voice, video, data, and mobility products and applications. It enables more effective, more secure, more personal communications that directly affect both sales and profitability. It brings people together by enabling a new way of communicating-where your business moves with you, security is everywhere, and information is always available...whenever and wherever it is needed. Cisco Unified Communications is part of an integrated solution that includes network infrastructure, security, mobility, network management products, lifecycle services, flexible deployment and outsourced management options, end-user and partner financing packages, and third-party communications applications.
Cisco Unified Presence is a crucial component for delivering the full value of a Cisco Unified Communications environment. It collects information about a user's availability status, such as whether the user is using a communications device such as a phone at a particular time. It also collects information regarding a user's communications capabilities, such whether Web collaboration or video conferencing is active. Using information captured by Cisco Unified Presence, applications such as Cisco Unified Personal Communicator and Cisco Unified Communications Manager (formerly Cisco Unified CallManager) can improve productivity by helping users connect with colleagues more efficiently by determining the most effective means for collaborative communication.
Product Overview
Cisco Unified Presence takes advantage of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) technology to support new voice services in the enterprise environment. SIP enhances the voice network by providing a core set of behaviors for session establishment and control that can be applied in a wide array of features and services. In addition to core SIP support, Cisco Unified Presence uses SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) technology to support both instant messaging and presence.
Cisco Unified Presence consists of a SIP presence engine and a SIP proxy function. The presence engine collects user presence information (such as busy, idle, away, or available status) as well as user capabilities (such as the capability to support voice, video, instant messaging, and Web collaboration) and compiles the data in a repository for each user. This repository is accessed by the applications and features that each user employs. Unique user rules and privacy can be applied by each user to help ensure that only authorized applications and users have access to presence information. The SIP proxy function facilitates efficient and accurate routing of both presence and general SIP messaging through the enterprise.
Cisco Unified Presence is tightly integrated with various desktop clients and applications. It helps Cisco Unified Personal Communicator, the Cisco enterprise desktop client, to perform numerous functions such as click to dial and phone control and voice, video, and Web collaboration. In addition, Cisco Unified Presence provides a core instant messaging service for Cisco Unified IP Phones connected to Cisco Unified Communications Manager. Cisco Unified Presence also supports interoperability with enterprise desktop applications such as IBM Sametime and Microsoft Office Communicator, allowing these desktop applications to operate in conjunction with Cisco Unified IP Phones supported on Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
Key Features and Benefits
Standards-Based SIP or SIMPLE Network Interface
Cisco Unified Presence provides a standards-based peering environment to any SIP- or SIMPLE-capable application or network. In effect, any user status that is maintained in the presence engine can be requested using the IETF standards for status and presence sharing. These SIP and SIMPLE standards define the accepted messaging to initiate and maintain a status request and to provide appropriate responses. Status information can be collected and distributed by the presence engine, depending on the needs of the services deployed.
This implemented interface provides a standardized way to interoperate with numerous Cisco partners building value-added services for Cisco Unified Communications customers.
Cisco Unified Applications Environment Interface
The Cisco Unified Applications Environment provides a mechanism to allow customers to rapidly create and deploy custom IP phone applications without the complexity associated with programming languages or interfaces. Applications developed in the Cisco Unified Applications Environment can read and write user reachability, device availability, and user status to and from the presence engine.
Cisco Unified Personal Communicator Network Interface
Cisco Unified Presence 6.0 is required to support the core functions for Cisco Unified Personal Communicator 1.2 (or later). Features include instant messaging, presence information, and storage of contacts as well as individual rules and preferences. Cisco Unified Presence also helps enable phone control and monitoring for click-to-dial services. A secure environment helps ensure the integrity of this personal information with such controls as user passwords, network connectivity information, and personal contact lists. A notification service advises Cisco Unified Personal Communicator users when changes are made to their configuration profiles.
Cisco IP Phone Messenger Network Interface
The Cisco IP Phone Messenger service included with Cisco Unified Presence provides Cisco Unified IP Phones with an instant messaging client complete with presence-aware contact lists. Real-time collaboration capabilities give phone users who are away from their PCs a quick way to check the presence status of colleagues (Figure 1). They can also send and receive short text messages, many of them available in a list of phrases and full sentences to save typing them on the phone keypad (Figure 2). Message recipients can reply to their messages or press the Dial soft key to call the sender without having to look up or dial the number (Figure 3).
Figure 1. Cisco IP Phone Messenger Contacts List
Figure 2. Selecting a Preconfigured Message
Figure 3. Receiving an Instant Message on a Cisco Unified IP Phone
Cisco IP Phone Messenger client features include the following:
• Support for Cisco Unified IP Phones 7905G, 7906G, 7911G, 7912G, 7920, 7921, 7940G, 7941G, 7941G-GE, 7960G, 7961G, 7961G-GE, 7970G, and 7971G and Cisco IP Communicator models in Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP) mode; and Cisco Unified IP Phones 7906G, 7911G, 7941G, 7941G-GE, 7961G, 7961G-GE, 7970G, and 7971G and Cisco IP Communicator models in SIP mode
• Manual setting of user status as available, busy, busy but interruptible, do not disturb, out of office, vacation, show as logged off, or unavailable
• Configurable contact list of up to 100 contacts per user that shows presence status based on phone activity and PC activity if using Cisco Unified Personal Communicator
• Capability to receive instant messages displayed on phone text display with audible and visible indication (flashing of the phone message waiting indicator light)
• One-button callback to instant message originator
• Capability to view and clear previously received instant messages
• Preconfigured messages to compose or reply to instant messages
Microsoft Outlook Calendar and Meeting Notification Integration
Cisco Unified Presence can incorporate Microsoft Outlook free and busy data when publishing a user's availability. This feature helps end users maintain their availability and status information automatically. Users logged into the Cisco IP Phone Messenger service can also view a list of meetings for the day, receive meeting notifications, view participant lists, and join conference calls through the single click-to-join feature. This feature requires the establishment of a gateway connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server. This feature works with both Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
Mobility Feature Enhancements
Mobile users with dual-mode phones (Wi-Fi and GSM) connected to Cisco Unified Communications Manager can now share the status of their mobile devices through Cisco Unified Presence. Busy, idle, and do-not-disturb information set on the mobile device is displayed automatically to users in the Cisco Unified Presence environment.
IBM Sametime Interoperability
Cisco Unified Presence integrates the IBM Sametime 7.5 client with the Cisco Unified Communications solution. Sametime users can initiate calls on their Cisco Unified IP Phone using the click-to-call feature. The integration also provides Sametime users with the capability to receive the Cisco Unified IP Phone status of users configured in their buddy lists. This feature requires the establishment of a gateway connection to the IBM Sametime Server.
Microsoft Office Communicator Interoperability
Cisco Unified Presence helps users with the Microsoft desktop environment interoperate with Cisco Unified IP Phones connected to Cisco Unified Communications Manager. It supports Microsoft Office Communicator click-to-dial and phone monitoring functions with all the associated features. Interoperability is made available by activating the Microsoft Office Communicator capabilities in Cisco Unified Presence and identifying those users who want to use Microsoft Office Communicator. The Cisco Unified Presence integration supports both Live Communication Server (LCS) 2005 and Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007. (Refer to Microsoft specifications for the full requirements and list of capabilities supported by Microsoft Office Communicator.)
SIP Proxy Services for Cisco Customer Voice Portal
Cisco Unified Presence provides the SIP proxy services needed to support large Cisco Customer Voice Portal 4.0 (and higher) deployments. Centralizing the Cisco Customer Voice Portal dial plan using Cisco Unified Presence helps reduce initial setup time and on-going administration of the Cisco Unified Communications solution. Customers can also choose to install redundant Cisco Unified Presence when high availability is required.
Product Architecture and Features
Software Structure
Cisco Unified Presence uses the same platform infrastructure as Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.0, following its appliance model principles. Cisco Unified Presence is a single software entity that provides access to administration with a GUI and allows initial setup and installation through a command-line interface (CLI) similar to those for other Cisco products. Information retrieval takes place through standard interfaces such as Cisco AVVID Extensible Markup Language (XML) Layer (AXL) and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).
Cisco Unified Presence 6.0 is a software product that must be loaded on a Cisco MCS 7825, 7835, or 7845 Media Convergence Server and run as a standalone application. It cannot be deployed with any other Cisco application co-resident on that hardware.
Serviceability
Cisco Unified Presence takes advantage of the same serviceability features as Cisco Unified Communications Manager. In addition, Cisco Unified Presence has capabilities in the following areas:
• Alarms: The presence engine and SIP proxy components have alarms for various failure scenarios and unexpected behaviors, and the Cisco IP Phone Messenger service has alarms to identify any abnormalities.
• Performance counters: Objects and counters are defined to support the presence engine and SIP proxy components, tracking metrics such as number of actual subscriptions, notifications, registrations, and instant messages sent through Cisco Unified Presence.
• Debug and trace utilities: System diagnostic interface (SDI) trace capability is supported to provide the capability to log, debug, and analyze specific trace data.
• Service activation: All Cisco Unified Presence components and services can be started, stopped, and restarted. Although core network components such as configuration agents are started automatically upon system bootup, various feature capabilities such as the presence engine and the SIP proxy require manual activation for startup.
• Monitoring: The Real-Time Monitoring Tool (RTMT) provides all alarming as well as trace and debug information.
Security
The Security module of Cisco Unified Presence 6.0 addresses internal environment security as well as external security among Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unified Personal Communicator, and external applications. Its functions include the following:
• Platform security: The appliance model defined for the common infrastructure within Cisco Unified Presence and Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.0 includes Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol and Secure File Transport Protocol (SFTP) for access to the platform, as well as HTTPS for access to management applications.
• Internal application security: Cisco Security Agent supports Cisco Unified Presence as part of the base application security.
• IP signaling and transport security: IP signaling and transport security are supported through Transport Layer Security (TLS) and IP Security (IPsec).
Administration Interfaces
The following administration functions are supported:
• System administrator GUI for provisioning of system data and default end-user data
• Bulk Administration Tool for creation of end users
• End-user GUI for provisioning end-user service data
SIP and SIMPLE Presence Capabilities
The following presence functions and capabilities are supported:
• SIMPLE core functions (from RFCs 2778 and 2779)
• Subscribe for presence
• Notify of presence
• Publish presence
• Watcher information and watcher information template package
• Presence event package
• Registration event package
• Resource list subscription
• Presence data information format and extensions
• Rich presence extensions
• Reachability rules and filtering
• Intercluster routing
SIP Proxy Capabilities
The following capabilities for proxy of SIP messages are supported:
• SIP core proxy functions (from RFC 3261)
• Instant message routing
• Method- and event-based routing
• Domain Name System service (DNS SRV) record capabilities
• Asserted identity
• Diversion indication
Localization
Cisco Unified Presence 6.0 supports the following languages: Arabic (Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia), Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French (Europe), Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Europe, Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish (Europe), and Swedish. Support for Thai and Turkish is planned for the next release of Cisco Unified Presence 6.1.
Product Specifications
Table 1 lists product specifications.
Table 1. Product Specifications
Item
Specification
Product compatibility
Cisco MCS 7825, 7835, or 7845 platform
Protocols
SIP, SIMPLE, HTTPS, AXL or SOAP, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), CLI, TLS, and Quick Buffer Encoding (QBE)
Connectivity
IP
Features and functions
Presence, SIP proxy, Cisco IP Phone Messenger, Cisco Unified Personal Communicator, and Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 interoperability
Memory
2 GB required
Reliability and availability
High availability through redundant Cisco MCS platforms
Programming interfaces
SIP and SIMPLE
System Capacity
Cisco Unified Presence software is required for the Cisco MCS platform. The user support levels listed in Table 2 may vary based on services and features.
Table 2. System Capacity
Cisco MCS Platform
User Support
Redundancy Mode (2 Cisco MCSs)
Cisco MCS 7825
1000
2000
Cisco MCS 7835
2000
4000
Cisco MCS 7845
5000
10,000
Ordering Information
To place an order, contact your local Cisco representative or visit the Cisco.com Website.
Cisco Unified Presence Software
Cisco Unified Presence software is required to provide the core service support (Table 3). The same software part number is used for the Cisco MCS 7825, 7835, and 7845 platforms.
Cisco Unified Presence can be installed on any of the Cisco MCS 7825, 7835, and 7845 platforms listed in Table 4.
Table 4. Cisco Unified Presence Hardware
Part Number
Description
MCS-7825-I3-IPC1
Cisco MCS 7825-I3 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7825-H3-IPC1
Cisco MCS 7825-H3 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7825-I2-IPC2
Cisco MCS 7825-I2 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7825-H2-IPC2
Cisco MCS 7825-H2 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7825-I1-IPC1
Cisco MCS 7825-I2 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7825-H1-IPC1
Cisco MCS 7825-H2 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7835-I2-IPC1
Cisco MCS 7845-I2 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7835-H2-IPC1
Cisco MCS 7845-H2 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7835-I1-IPC1
Cisco MCS 7825-I1 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7835-H1-IPC1
Cisco MCS 7825-H1 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7845-I2-IPC1
Cisco MCS 7835-I1 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7845-H2-IPC1
Cisco MCS 7835-H1 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7845-I1-IPC1
Cisco MCS 7845-I1 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
MCS-7845-H1-IPC1
Cisco MCS 7845-H1 for Cisco Unified Presence 6.0
Note: Cisco Unified Presence can also be deployed on HP and IBM bare metal servers that have consistent criteria with the Cisco MCS (Media Convergence Servers) identified above.
One device license is required for each presence-aware user within Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Table 5).
Table 5. Device Licenses for Presence-Aware Users
Part Number
Description
LIC-CM-DL-10=
CallManager Device License - 10 units
LIC-CM-DL-100=
CallManager Device License - 100 units
LIC-CM-DL-500=
CallManager Device License - 500 units
LIC-CM-DL-1000=
CallManager Device License - 1000 units
LIC-CM-DL-5000=
CallManager Device License - 5000 units
LIC-CM-DL-10000=
CallManager Device License - 10,000 units
LIC-CM-DL-25000=
CallManager Device License - 25,000 units
LIC-CM-DL-50000=
CallManager Device License - 50,000 units
LIC-CM-DL-100000=
CallManager Device License - 100,000 units
LIC-CM-DL-500000=
CallManager Device License - 500,000 units
Cisco Unified Communications Services and Support
Using the Cisco Lifecycle Services approach, Cisco and its partners offer a broad portfolio of end-to-end services to support the Cisco Unified Communications system. These services are based on proven methodologies for deploying, operating, and optimizing IP communications solutions. Initial planning and design services, for example, can help you meet aggressive deployment schedules and minimize network disruption during implementation. Operate services reduce the risk of communications downtime with expert technical support, and optimize services enhance solution performance for operational excellence. Cisco and its partners offer a system-level service and support approach that can help you create and maintain a resilient, converged network that meets your business needs.
For More Information
For more information about Cisco Unified Presence, contact your Cisco representative or visit http://www.cisco.com/go/voice/.
