The Cisco Analog Telephony Adaptor

The Cisco Analog Telephony Adaptor (ATA) is a small gateway device that provides an interface between Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP), used for IP phones, and a standard analog phone. Thus, the ATA lets you register an analog phone with Cisco CME as if it were an IP phone. The Cisco ATA device comes in two models: the Cisco ATA 186 and Cisco ATA 188 (shown in Figure 4-10). The models look similar from the front, but from the rear you can see the additional Ethernet port available on the ATA 188.

Figure 4-10. Cisco ATA 186 and ATA 188

 

Hardware

Both the ATA models connect one or two analog telephones. The hardware features for the ATA 186 include the following:

• Function button
• Two RJ-11 Foreign Exchange Station (FXS) ports
• RJ-45 10Base-T Ethernet uplink port
• Network activity (ACT) LED
• Power connector

One of the major differences between the two models is that the Cisco ATA 188 has two RJ-45 10/100-Mbps Ethernet ports, whereas the Cisco ATA 186 has only a single10 Mbps Ethernet port. One of the ports on the Cisco ATA 188 is an uplink port, and the other one is a data port.

The FXS interfaces can be used to connect two standard analog telephones or fax machines. The Cisco ATA is connected to the network via an Ethernet interface and can be configured via DHCP or manually. The Cisco ATA needs a 5V DC external power supply to operate. Inline Ethernet power does not apply to the Cisco ATA devices, because they do not support phones on Ethernet ports.

Note

Cisco CME 3.2 does not support a fax machine using SCCP. A fax machine on a Cisco ATA device must use H.323.

 

Configuring the Cisco ATA

A Cisco ATA by default uses DHCP to obtain the network's parameters. You can change this behavior by manually disabling DHCP. Configuring the Cisco ATA manually is different from configuring the phones. Instead of a visual display, the Cisco ATA has an English-only IVR menu that lets you configure the parameters.

You can also view and edit the parameters via a web browser. Accessing the parameters via a browser requires the Cisco ATA to have network connectivity. Thus, a newly installed Cisco ATA can be configured either via DHCP or manually via the IVR menu.

You can access the IVR menu by connecting a phone to the first RJ-11 port on the Cisco ATA. Activate the IVR by pressing the LED lit button on the Cisco ATA when the phone connected to the RJ-11 port is in an off-hook state. As soon as the ATA receives the IP address, you can access the web configuration page (see Figure 4-11) located at http://ipaddress/dev, where ipaddress is the ATA's IP address.

Figure 4-11. Web Configuration Page for the Cisco ATA

You should configure each FXS port on the Cisco ATA as a separate device on Cisco CME. The Media Access Control (MAC) address for the first analog port is the MAC address of the Cisco ATA itself. The MAC address of the second analog port on the Cisco ATA is created by dropping the leftmost two digits and adding 01 to the rightmost digits. For example, if the MAC address of the Cisco ATA device is 0007.0EA2.6032, the MAC address of the second port is 070E.A260.3201.

The Cisco IP Communicator Softphone