Configuring Cisco Gateways and Trunks

This chapter covers the following topics:

• Describing the role of the gateway in an IP telephony infrastructure
• Comparing analog and digital gateways with respect to interfaces and the types of telephony devices that they can connect
• Describing the core gateway requirements that a gateway must have to support an IP telephony network
• Describing the gateway communication protocols that Cisco CallManager supports
• Adding and configuring H.323, MGCP, and non-IOS MGCP gateways in Cisco CallManager and on the gateway to interface to the IP WAN and PSTN and support analog phones and faxes
• Choosing the appropriate trunk type to satisfy deployment requirements for call-control requirements and call routing
• Configuring non-gatekeeper-controlled trunks in Cisco CallManager Administration to enable calling to remote clusters across an IP WAN
• Describing the SIP signaling protocol and how it is implemented in Cisco CallManager
• Explaining how to create a SIP trunk and route calls to a SIP endpoint

Voice gateways and trunks provide the bridge between an IP telephony network and the public switched telephone network (PSTN), and between Cisco CallManager clusters. This chapter prepares you for integrating Cisco gateways and trunks in a Cisco CallManager solution.

You will learn about analog and digital gateways, recommended gateway requirements, gateway protocols, the types of trunks that Cisco CallManager supports, and how to configure gateways, intercluster trunks, and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunks.