Cisco Systems OL-8131-01 User Manual

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Preparing to Install the Cisco Unified IP Phone on Your Network

Cisco Unified IP Phones enable you to communicate using voice over a data network. To provide this capability, the Cisco Unified IP Phones depend upon and interact with several other key Cisco Unified Communications Products, including Cisco Unified CallManager.

This chapter provides you with an important overview of the interaction between the Cisco Unified IP Phone 7905G and 7912G and other key components of the Voice over IP (VoIP) network.

This chapter includes the following topics:

• Understanding Interactions with Other Cisco Unified Communications

Products, page 2-2

• Understanding the Phone Startup Process, page 2-4

• Understanding Phone Configuration Files and Profile Files, page 2-8

• Providing Power to the Cisco Unified IP Phone, page 2-9

• Determining the MAC Address of a Cisco Unified IP Phone, page 2-12

• Adding Phones to the Cisco Unified CallManager Database, page 2-12

• Creating a SIP Profile, page 2-15

• Using Cisco Unified IP Phones with Different Protocols, page 2-17

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Chapter 2 Preparing to Install the Cisco Unified IP Phone on Your Network

Understanding Interactions with Other Cisco Unified Communications Products

To function in the IP telephony network, the Cisco Unified IP Phone must be connected to a networking device, such as a Cisco Catalyst switch. You must also register the Cisco Unified IP Phone with a Cisco Unified CallManager system before sending and receiving calls.

This section covers the following topics:

• Understanding How the Cisco Unified IP Phone Interacts with Cisco

Unified CallManager, page 2-2

• Understanding How the Cisco Unified IP Phone Interacts with the

Cisco Catalyst Family of Switches, page 2-3

Understanding How the Cisco Unified IP Phone Interacts with Cisco Unified CallManager

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Cisco Unified CallManager is an open and industry-standard call processing system. Cisco Unified CallManager software runs on a Windows 2000 or Linux server and sets up and tears down calls between phones, integrating traditional PBX functionality with the corporate IP network. Cisco Unified CallManager manages the components of the IP telephony system—the phones, access gateways, and the resources necessary for such features as call conferencing and route planning.

For information about configuring Cisco Unified CallManager to work with the IP devices described in this chapter, refer to Cisco Unified CallManager Administration Guide and Cisco Unified CallManager System Guide.

Understanding How the Cisco Unified IP Phone Interacts with the Cisco Catalyst Family of Switches

The Cisco Unified IP Phone 7912G has an internal Ethernet switch, enabling it to switch incoming traffic to the phone, to the access port, or to the network port. The Cisco Unified IP Phone 7905G do not include an internal Ethernet switch or an access port.

If a computer is connected to the access port, the computer and the phone share the same physical link to the switch and share the same port on the switch. This shared physical link has the following implications for the VLAN configuration on the network:

• The current VLANs may be configured on an IP subnet basis. However,

additional IP addresses may not be available to assign the phone to the same subnet as other devices connected to the same port.

• Data traffic present on the VLAN supporting phones may reduce the quality

of Voice-over-IP traffic.

You can resolve these issues by isolating the voice traffic onto a separate VLAN on each of the ports connected to a phone. The switch port configured for connecting a phone would have separate VLANs configured for carrying:

• Voice traffic to and from the IP phone (auxiliary VLAN)

• Data traffic to and from the PC connected to the switch through the access

port of the IP phone (native VLAN)

Isolating the phones on a separate, auxiliary VLAN increases the quality of the voice traffic and allows a large number of phones to be added to an existing network where there are not enough IP addresses.

For more information, refer to the documentation included with the Cisco Catalyst switch.

Understanding the Phone Startup Process

When connecting to the VoIP network, the Cisco Unified IP Phone goes through a standard startup process composed of the steps described in Tabl e 2-1 . Depending on your specific network configuration, not all of these steps may occur on your Cisco Unified IP Phone.

Table 2-1 Cisco Unified IP Phone Startup Process

Step Configuration Related Topics

1. Obtaining Power from the Switch

2. Loading the Stored Phone Image

You can connect the Cisco Unified IP Phone to a Cisco Catalyst switch with one of the modules that provides power to the phone (WS-X6348-RJ45V). See the “Providing Power to the Cisco Unified IP

Phone” section on page 2-9 for details.

If you use this optional configuration, the phone receives phantom power and powers up when you connect the Cisco Unified IP Phone to the switch. The phone then sends Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) notifications to the switch indicating that it is ready to receive CDP packets and indicating the power requirement for the phone. The switch allocates power and sends it over the network cable.

The Cisco Unified IP Phone has non-volatile Flash memory in which it stores firmware images and user-defined preferences. At startup, the phone runs a bootstrap loader that loads a phone image stored in Flash memory. Using this image, the phone initializes its software and hardware.

• Understanding the

Phone Startup Process, page 2-4

• Providing Power to

the Cisco Unified IP Phone, page 2-9

• Resolving Startup

Problems, page 7-2

• Understanding the

Phone Startup Process, page 2-4

• Resolving Startup

Problems, page 7-2

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Chapter 2 Preparing to Install the Cisco Unified IP Phone on Your Network

Understanding the Phone Startup Process

Table 2-1 Cisco Unified IP Phone Startup Process (continued)

Step Configuration Related Topics

3. Configuring VLAN If the Cisco Unified IP Phone is connected to a

Cisco Catalyst switch, the switch next informs the phone of the voice VLAN defined on the switch. The phone needs to know its VLAN membership before it can proceed with the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) request for an IP address.

4. Obtaining an IP Address

If the Cisco Unified IP Phone is using DHCP to obtain an IP address, the phone queries the DHCP server to obtain one. If you are not using DHCP in your network, you must assign a static IP address to each phone locally.

• “Understanding the

Phone Startup Process” section on page 2-4

• “Network

Configuration Menu Parameter Descriptions” section on page 4-10

• “Resolving Startup

Problems” section on page 7-2

• “Understanding the

Phone Startup Process” section on page 2-4

• “Network

Configuration Menu Parameter Descriptions” section on page 4-10

• “Configuring IP

Settings” section on page 4-7

• “Resolving Startup

Problems” section on page 7-2

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Chapter 2 Preparing to Install the Cisco Unified IP Phone on Your Network

Understanding the Phone Startup Process

Table 2-1 Cisco Unified IP Phone Startup Process (continued)

Step Configuration Related Topics

5. Accessing a TFTP Server

In addition to assigning an IP address, the DHCP server directs the Cisco Unified IP Phone to a TFTP Server. If the phone has a statically defined IP address, you must configure the TFTP server locally on the phone; the phone then contacts the TFTP server directly.

• “Understanding the

Phone Startup Process” section on page 2-4

• “Network

Configuration Menu Parameter Descriptions” section on page 4-10

• “Resolving Startup

Problems” section on page 7-2

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