Product Description

Authorized Self-Study Guide

Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE)

Third Edition

 

Foundation learning for CVOICE exam 642-436

 

Kevin Wallace, CCIE No. 7945

 

Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE), Third Edition, is a Cisco-authorized, self-paced learning tool for CCVP foundation learning. This book provides you with the knowledge and skills required to plan, design, and deploy a Cisco voice-over-IP (VoIP) network and to integrate gateways and gatekeepers into an enterprise VoIP network. By reading this book, you will gain a thorough understanding of converged voice and data networks and also the challenges you will face implementing various network technologies.

 

Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE) presents you with information on the foundational elements of VoIP calls, the description of dial plans, and the implementation of gateways, gatekeepers, and Cisco Unified Border Elements (Cisco UBEs). The book gives you the information needed to implement and support data and voice integration solutions at the network-access level.

 

Whether you are preparing for CCVP certification or simply want to gain a better understanding of VoIP fundamentals, you will benefit from the foundation information presented in this book.

 

Cisco Voice over IP (CVOICE), Third Edition, is part of a recommended learning path from Cisco that includes simulation and hands-on training from authorized Cisco Learning Partners and self-study products from

Cisco Press. To find out more about instructor-led training, e-learning, and hands-on instruction offered by authorized Cisco Learning Partners worldwide, please visit http://www.cisco.com/go/authorizedtraining.

 

Kevin Wallace, CCIE No. 7945, is a certified Cisco instructor, and he teaches courses in the Cisco CCSP, CCVP, and CCNP® tracks. With 19 years of Cisco networking experience, Kevin has been a network design specialist for the Walt Disney World Resort and a network manager for Eastern Kentucky University.

 

• Integrate VoIP into an existing data network
• Design a VoIP network for optimal voice quality
• Examine the various call types in a VoIP network
• Configure analog voice interfaces and dial peers
• Perform call signaling over digital voice ports
• Implement H.323, MGCP, and SIP protocols on Cisco IOS® gateways
• Identify dial plan characteristics
• Configure advanced dial plans
• Deploy H.323 gatekeepers
• Implement a Cisco UBE router to provide protocol interworking

 

Companion CD-ROM

The CD-ROM contains a bonus 90 minutes of video demonstrations. Watch the author perform fundamental CVoice configuration tasks in a series of six video-on-demand labs.

 

This volume is in the Certification Self-Study Series offered by Cisco Press. Books in this series provide officially developed self-study solutions to help networking professionals understand technology implementations and prepare for the Cisco Career Certifications examinations.

 

Category: Voice over IP

Covers: CVoice exam 642-436

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70936 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 600 pages

About the Author

Kevin Wallace, CCIE No. 7945, is a certified Cisco instructor, and he teaches courses in the Cisco CCSP, CCVP, and CCNP tracks. With 19 years of Cisco networking experience, Kevin has been a network design specialist for the Walt Disney World Resort and a network manager for Eastern Kentucky University. Kevin holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Kentucky. Kevin also is a CCVP, CCSP, CCNP, and CCDP with multiple Cisco security and IP communications specializations.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

With the rapid adoption of Voice over IP (VoIP), many telephony and data network technicians, engineers, and designers are now working to become proficient in VoIP. Professional certifications, such as the Cisco Certified Voice Professional (CCVP) certification, offer validation of an employee's or a consultant's competency in specific technical areas.

This book mirrors the level of detail found in the Cisco CVOICE Version 6.0 course, which many CCVP candidates select as their first course in the CCVP track. Version 6.0 represents a significant update over Version 5.0 of the CVOICE course, because Version 6.0 integrates much of the content previously found in the more advanced Implementing Cisco Voice Gateways and Gatekeepers (GWGK) course.

A fundamental understanding of traditional telephony, however, would certainly benefit a CVOICE student or a reader of this book. If you think you lack a fundamental understanding of traditional telephony, a recommended companion for this book is the Cisco Press Voice over IP First-Step book (ISBN: 978-1-58720-156-1), which is also written by this book's author. Voice over IP First-Step is written in a conversational tone and teaches concepts surrounding traditional telephony and how those concepts translate into a VoIP environment.

Additional Study Resources

This book contains a CD with approximately 90 minutes of video, where you will see the author demonstrate a variety of basic VoIP configurations. The videos were originally developed for NetMaster Class (http://www.netmasterclass.com), a company specializing in CCIE Lab training. These video-on-demand titles are as follows:

• Analog Voice Port Configuration

• Digital Voice Port Configuration

• Dial Peer Configuration

• H.323 Configuration

• MGCP Configuration

• SIP Configuration

As an additional reference for readers pursuing the CCVP certification, the author has created a website with recommended study resources (some free and some recommended for purchase) for all courses in the CCVP track. These recommendations can be found at the following URL: http://www.voipcertprep.com.

Goals and Methods

The primary objective of this book is to help the reader pass the 642-436 CVOICE exam, which is a required exam for the CCVP certification and for the Cisco Rich Media Communications Specialist specialization.

One key methodology used in this book is to help you discover the exam topics that you need to review in more depth, to help you fully understand and remember those details, and to help you prove to yourself that you have retained your knowledge of those topics. This book does not try to help you pass by memorization, but helps you truly learn and understand the topics by using the following methods:

• Helping you discover which test topics you have not mastered

• Providing explanations and information to fill in your knowledge gaps, including detailed illustrations and topologies as well as sample configurations

• Providing exam practice questions to confirm your understanding of core concepts

Who Should Read This Book?

This book is primarily targeted toward candidates of the CVOICE exam. However, because CVOICE is one of the Cisco foundational VoIP courses, this book also serves as a VoIP primer to noncertification readers.

Many Cisco resellers actively encourage their employees to attain Cisco certifications and seek new employees already possessing Cisco certifications, for deeper discounts when purchasing Cisco products. Additionally, having attained a certification communicates to your employer or customer that you are serious about your craft and have not simply "hung out a shingle" declaring yourself knowledgeable about VoIP. Rather, you have proven your competency through a rigorous series of exams.

How This Book Is Organized

Although the chapters in this book could be read sequentially, the organization allows you to focus your reading on specific topics of interest. For example, if you already possess a strong VoIP background, you could skim the first two chapters (which cover foundational VoIP topics, including an introduction to VoIP and elements of a VoIP network) and focus on the remaining seven chapters, which address more advanced VoIP concepts. Specifically, the chapters in this book cover the following topics:

Chapter 1, "Introducing Voice over IP Networks": This chapter describes VoIP, components of a VoIP network, the protocols used, and service considerations of integrating VoIP into an existing data network. Also, this chapter considers various types of voice gateways and how to use gateways in different IP telephony environments.

Chapter 2, "Considering VoIP Design Elements": This chapter describes the challenges of integrating a voice and data network and explains solutions for avoiding problems when designing a VoIP network for optimal voice quality. Also, you learn the characteristics of voice codecs and digital signal processors and how to perform bandwidth calculations for VoIP calls.

Chapter 3, "Routing Calls over Analog Voice Ports": This chapter describes the various call types in a VoIP network. You then learn how to configure analog voice interfaces as new devices are introduced into the voice path. Finally, you discover how to configure dial peers, in order to add call routing intelligence to a router.

Chapter 4, "Performing Call Signaling over Digital Voice Ports": This chapter describes various digital interfaces and how to configure them. Also, you are introduced to Q Signaling (QSIG) and learn how to enable QSIG support.

Chapter 5, "Examining VoIP Gateways and Gateway Control Protocols": This chapter details the H.323, MGCP, and SIP protocol stacks, and you learn how to implement each of these protocols on Cisco IOS gateways.

Chapter 6, "Identifying Dial Plan Characteristics": This chapter describes the components and requirements of a dial plan and discusses how to implement a numbering plan using Cisco IOS gateways.

Chapter 7, "Configuring Advanced Dial Plans": This chapter shows you how to configure various digit manipulation strategies using Cisco IOS gateways. Additionally, you learn how to influence path selection. This chapter then concludes with a discussion of the Class of Restriction (COR) feature, and you learn how to implement COR on Cisco IOS gateways to specify calling privileges.

Chapter 8, "Configuring H.323 Gatekeepers": This chapter describes the function of a Cisco IOS gatekeeper. Also, you learn how to configure a gatekeeper for functions such as registration, address resolution, call routing, and call admission control (CAC).

Chapter 9, "Establishing a Connection with an Internet Telephony Service Provider": This chapter describes Cisco Unified Border Element (Cisco UBE) functions and features. You learn how a Cisco UBE is used in current enterprise environments and how to implement a Cisco UBE router to provide protocol interworking.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

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Customer Reviews

A Solid Book for VoIP Beginners
This book is very well written and easy to read. It's ideal for those who want to learn the basics of telephony networks and Voice over IP. It is more than just an exam prep book as the name suggests, it actually helps you build up a solid knowledge foundation for Voice over IP.

The author does a wonderful job in the first two chapters going through the fundamental concepts of traditional telephone networks including different call control architectures (distributed vs. centralized model); a variety of analog and digital signaling systems such as loop-start, ground-start, E&M, CAS and CCS; T1 multiplexing and framing; Digital-Analog/Analog-Digital conversion. The in-depth coverage on different signaling systems is especially helpful in understanding how each of them fits into the telephone system.

Before diving straight into VoIP and QoS, the author discusses different VoIP architectures as well as how to baseline voice traffic using traffic theory. A good thing about this book is that rather than simply focusing on the technical details of the three VoIP signaling protocols - H.323; SIP and MGCP, it also gives you a 10000-foot view of VoIP and how these signaling protocols fit into the whole picture. So that you understand the philosophy behind each of them and know how to choose the best one for your real life deployment.

The book does an excellent job in explaining how Erlang B calculation works as well as the bandwidth and packet size calculation for different CODECs. In order to help readers better understand VoIP signaling systems, the author also includes a detailed call flow analysis and basic sample configurations. Although it has some basic configuration examples, this book is not meant to be a configuration guide for Cisco CallManagers and routers.

QoS is covered briefly in the last chapter. Although the book doesn't have an in-depth discussion on congestion management and avoidance, it does provide you an overview of how different QoS mechanisms can be used to improve voice quality on a data network. It also shows you how to use the Cisco AutoQoS feature to simplify QoS configuration for VoIP. The last chapter also talks about how call admission control (CAC) is implemented in H.323; SIP and MGCP.

VoIP Security is not a major focus for this book. Although Chapter 5 talks briefly about the firewall and proxy requirements for VoIP.

The author primarily focuses on the Cisco implementation of H.323, SIP and MGCP in this book, but the fundamental concepts it presents are based on industry standards. All in all, this book is not only a must have for those who are preparing for the CVoice exam but also a great reference for voice network professionals.

Job Well Done!
I recently read Cisco Press's Cisco Voice over IP (CVoice) Self Study guide as I was studying for CVoice exam (core exam required for CCVP certification).

Usually I don't like to read certification guides as 9 out of 10 times they lack technical details and real world examples. The focus of certification guides is to help you pass the exam and nothing else. But I was pleasantly surprised as CVoice guide provides ample real world scenarios and lab exercises.

The book is divided into seven chapters and also contains a well written chapter on Cisco Voice Applications in appendix. For folks like me who are new to voice arena, the chapter in appendix is a must read as it is an excellent starting point to learn about Cisco's current Voice portfolio.

The book starts with a chapter on traditional telephony networks and an introduction to IP telephony networks; it then moves to analog and digital voice connections and covers topics like voice encoding, Nyquist theorem and different Signaling Systems. Chapter 3 and 4 cover information about voice interface configuration and dial peer configuration details. Chapter 5 is my favorite chapter as it discusses Voip fundamentals in a clear and concise manner. This chapter is almost 90 pages long and alone worth the price of this book. It goes over different Voip Network Architectures and also discusses different call processing components like Gatekeeper, Gateways etc. The chapter also discusses dial plans and different codecs bandwidth requirements. It also goes over traffic theory and voip security. Chapter 6 and 7 go over Voip Signaling and QoS topics and are very well written. Each chapter contains lab exercises and end chapter review questions with suggested solutions. My only suggestion to Cisco Press is to include companion CDs with Self Study guides that contains flash cards and additional practice tests with detailed answers and explanations. White papers and URLs from Cisco site will be icing on the cake.

Overall I really liked this book and will recommend to anyone who wants to learn about Voice over IP in general. Don't forget that book title reads "Foundation Learning for CCVP Voice over IP" and you may/will have to refer Cisco Connection Online or other Cisco Press titles for more in depth details on different topics.

I personally think it is one of those few certification guides that I will use even after passing my test. Five stars from my side for Kevin Wallace and Cisco Press!

Well organized study guide
I read Cisco Voice over IP, Second Edition, by Kevin Wallace (ISBN-13: 978-1-58705-262-0) because I worked with Cisco VoIP when it first came out, but have not kept current with new VoIP developments and improvements. Many of the books available today on Cisco VoIP are starting to get dated. I have found that Cisco Press is generally the best source for accurate and up-to-date information regarding Cisco tests. This book does a great job of covering both the basics and recent topics.

The material is well presented in this book. Kevin starts with the fundamentals and legacy POTs. He then covers basic VoIP and dial-peers. He covers H.323, SIP and MGCP signaling protocols in depth. There is a good chapter on MGCP - a protocol seldom used in enterprise networks that many of us need to learn for this test. The book wraps up with a chapter on QoS. Essentially everything you need to know to have a very strong understanding of VoIP is covered in this book. This book covers the latest ISR routers and call control methods.

Cisco Voice over IP, Second Edition also contains some good mini-labs that you can do with just 3 routers. The best way to really learn and retain is by reading and then doing. This is especially useful in a study guide when you plan on taking the test afterward. This book goes into more detail than is required for the test so it is a great reference book for real life - well after you have passed your test.

This book does its job as a self-study guide and was very instrumental in my studying. It is one of the best, most up to date Cisco VoIP books available today. It helped me pass the Cisco CVOICE test on my first attempt. I recommend this book for anyone studying for this test or just brushing up on VoIP in general.