The Cisco® Unified Communications 540 (Figure 1) part of the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small
Business, is a critical part of the Cisco Smart Business Communications System. It is an affordable unified
communications appliance that provides voice, data, voicemail, automated attendant, video, security, and wireless
capabilities while integrating with existing desktop applications such as calendar, email, and customer relationship
management (CRM) programs. This easy-to-manage platform supports up to 32 phones and voice mailboxes and
provides flexible deployment options based on your needs, including support for a wide array of IP phones, public
switched telephone network (PSTN) interfaces, and Internet connectivity. This reference guide describes the
specifications and capabilities of the Cisco Unified Communications 540 (UC 540).
The Cisco UC 540 is available in two versions, an FXO (analog) model and a Basic Rate Interface (BRI) base model.
With ease of ordering as a focus area, each has its own product ID. In addition, there is one software licensing
product, multiples of which can be installed to achieve the desired user count. Table 1 lists the part numbers for the
Cisco UC 540.
Table 1. Product Part Numbers for the Cisco UC 540
Part Number Description
UC540W-FXO-K9 UC 540 system with 4 FXO, 4 FXS, and 1 voice interface card (VIC) expansion slot
UC540W-BRI-K9 UC 540 system with 2 BRI, 4 FXS, and 1 VIC expansion slot
L-UC-PRO-8U= Software license upgrade, authorizing an additional 8 users (eDelivery)
Interfaces and Modules
The Cisco UC 540 has built-in interfaces that offer fixed configurations, reducing complexity. In addition, this platform
offers one (1) voice interface card (VIC) slot to support additional Cisco VIC modules. Table 2 lists the built-in
interfaces, and Table 3 lists the modular interfaces supported on the UC 540.
Table 2. Built-In Interfaces Supported on the Cisco UC 540
Interface Description
Music-on-hold port Single 3.5-mm audio port
Onboard Ethernet ports
Integrated inline Power over Ethernet (PoE) ports 8 built-in PoE ports
FXS and direct inward dialing (DID) ports 4 built-in FXS ports (DID is available via the additional module listed in Table 3)
PSTN interfaces (FXO or BRI) 4 FXO or 2 BRI ports
WLAN interface An 802.11b/g access point is integrated into the UC 540, supporting up to 54-Mbps
connections. The access point can be used to provide integrated WLAN connectivity to mobile
clients—voice and data—resulting in mobility and enhanced productivity for users.
Table 3. Modular VIC Cards for the Cisco UC 540
Part Number Description
VIC-4FXS/DID, VIC3-4FXS/DID 4-port FXS/DID module
VIC2-2FXS 2-port FXS module
VIC2-2FXO 2-port FXO module
VIC3-2FXS/DID 2-port FXS/DID module
VIC2-4FXO 4-port FXO module
VIC2-2BRI-NT/TE 2-port BRI NT/TE module
VWIC2-1MFT-T1/E1 1-port T1/E1 for voice (ISDN Primary Rate Interface [PRI] and channel associated signaling [CAS]); data is not
supported
Licensing
The Cisco UC 540 includes eight user licenses. These licenses enable the use of Cisco Unified IP Phones and allow
users to access the IP PBX features, including voicemail. In addition, supplementary user licenses are bundled to
help with deployments that need a few extra licenses. For additional licensing needs, the L-UC-PRO-8U= may be
ordered. This increases the existing license count by eight. Table 5 lists the number of users supported based on the
hardware/license configurations. The UC 540 also has built-in licenses for unified communications features. Table 4
lists the license count bundled within the system for each feature. Guidance for licenses associated with voice
messaging on the UC 540 is included in Table 6.
Table 4. Licensing and User Capacity for the Cisco UC 540
License Configuration Description
UC540W-FXO-K9 or UC540W-BRI-K9 8 user licenses, 2 supplemental user licenses
UC540W-FXO-K9 or UC540W-BRI-K9 and one L-UC-PRO-8U= 16 user licenses, 2 supplemental user licenses
UC540W-FXO-K9 or UC540W-BRI-K9 and two L-UC-PRO-8U= 24 user licenses, 4 supplemental user licenses
UC540W-FXO-K9 or UC540W-BRI-K9 and three L-UC-PRO-8U= 32 user licenses, 4 supplemental user licenses
Table 5. Feature Licensing for the Cisco UC 540
Feature Number of Licenses Included
Virtual LANs (VLANs) 5
Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) 3
Broadcast SSIDs (BSSIDs) 1
VPN tunnels* 10
Remote teleworker sites 10
Users per teleworker site 5
Multisite deployments 5
* Includes IP security (IPSec), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), or generic routing encapsulation (GRE) tunnels.
Table 6. Voice Messaging Licensing for the Cisco UC 540
Configuration Voice Messaging Licenses
8-user system 16 mailboxes*
16-user system 24 mailboxes*
24-user system 40 mailboxes*
32-user system 48 mailboxes*
Sessions to voicemail and automated attendant 6
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) sessions 20**
* 32 hours of voicemail storage is available by default across all user configurations. Any combination of personal mailboxes and
general delivery mailboxes can be used.
** There are 20 simultaneous sessions available between IMAP Client and IMAP server. If all 20 sessions are used up, the
remaining session requests will be rejected by the IMAP server. IMAP clients will automatically attempt to establish session with the
server once some of the server ports are freed up. This does not limit the number of IMAP clients to 20.
Basic Call Center Capabilities
The Cisco UC 540 supports basic automatic call distribution (BACD) that can help answer outside calls with
greetings and menus and allow callers to select the appropriate departments. BACD also provides managed call
queues for calls that are waiting to be answered. Table 7 lists the BACD capabilities of the UC 540.
Table 7. Cisco UC 540 BACD Capabilities
Feature Number
Hunt groups associated with a BACD 10
Calls allowed in each call queue 30
Agents (members) for each hunt group 20
Statistics accumulated for all BACD groups 168 hours
Hunt groups used with automated attendant 3
In addition to BACD, the Cisco UC 540 integrates with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX). UCCX works
with up to a maximum of 12 users (agents and supervisor combined) on the UC 540.
Voice Resource Utilization
The Cisco UC 540 includes four digital signal processors (DSPs) that enable digitized voice processing on the
platform. The DSP resources available on the platform are used for various unified communications features, namely
support of analog and digital VICs, prescheduled or ad hoc voice conference calls, and translation of digitized voice
from a less complex codec (such as g711) to a more complex codec (such as g729)—typically used for deployments
that use IP trunking (SIP or H.323) for PSTN access or multisite interconnection.
Each DSP can support 16 g711 channels or 8 g729 channels. This enables a total of 64 g711 channels on the Cisco
UC 540. Table 8 indicates the DSP resource utilization based on the feature. Tables 9 and 10 show a few
deployment scenarios based on the combination of these features.
Table 8. DSP Resource Utilization on the Cisco UC 540
Feature DSP Resource Utilization
Support for built-in FXS ports 4 channels
Support for built-in FXO ports 4 channels
Support for built-in music on hold (MoH) port 2 channels
Support for T1/E1 voice/WAN interface card (VWIC) 24 channels*
Transcoding (g711 to g729) 2 channels
Conferencing** 16 channels
* Total DSP resources will depend upon the number of channels provisioned in the T1.
** Conferencing always uses up an entire DSP. The rest of the features can share a DSP. The number of sessions available will
vary depending upon the codec used in a conference call.
Tables 9 and 10 list maximum sessions for either ad hoc conferencing or meet-me conferencing. DSP resources
allocated for conferencing can be shared by both features, and a mix of these can be configured. Below are a few
examples based on Table 9. The concept of sharing conferencing resources applies to Table 10 as well.
Ad hoc 24x8 Meet-me 0x0
Ad hoc 12x8 Meet-me 12x8
Ad hoc 24x4 Meet-me 6x16
UC 500
Model
UC 540
Additional
Voice Card
(VIC)
None
2FXS
2FXS/DID
2FXO
4FXS
4FXS/DID
4FXO
2BRI NT/TE
The above examples indicate Sessions x participant.
The Transcoding column lists the maximum transcoding sessions that the system can be configured for, for a given
configuration of DSP. For example, the first row in Table 9 indicates that a maximum of three transcoding sessions
are available if three DSPs are allocated for conferencing.
If more transcoding sessions are required, DSP resources will need to be diverted from conferencing to transcoding.
For example, in the second row of Table 9, one of the DSPs is dedicated to transcoding, leaving two DSPs for
conferencing. Notice the increase in the number of transcoding sessions and the drop in the number of conferencing
sessions.
Table 9. DSP Resources: Scenario 1
SIP Trunk
Preferred Codec
No SIP Trunk or
G.711
G.729
Transcoding
sessions
recommended
No SIP Trunk or
G.711
G.729
Transcoding
sessions
recommended
No SIP Trunk or
G.711
G.729
Transcoding
Ad-hoc
Conference
(Sessions x
Participants)
Up to a maximum
of 24x8 or 48x4
Up to a maximum
of 4x8 or 8x4
Up to a maximum
of 24x8 or 48x4
Up to a maximum
of 4x8 or 8x4
Up to a maximum
of 24x8 or 48x4
Up to a maximum
of 4x8 or 8x4
Meet-me
Conference
(Sessions x
Participants)
Up to a maximum
of 24x8 or 12x16
or 6x32
Up to a maximum
of 4x8 or 2x16 or
1x32
Up to a maximum
of 24x8 or 12x16
or 6x32
Up to a maximum
of 4x8 or 2x16 or
1x32
Up to a maximum
of 24x8 or 12x16
or 6x32
Up to a maximum
of 4x8 or 2x16 or
Comments Transcoding
●
1 DSP for supporting voice ports and Transcoding
sessions
●
Remaining 3 DSPs used for Conferencing
●
1 DSP for supporting voice ports and Transcoding
sessions
●
1 DSP reserved for transcoding
●
Remaining 2 DSPs used for Conferencing
●
1 DSP for supporting voice ports and Transcoding
sessions
●
Remaining 3 DSPs used for Conferencing
●
1 DSP for supporting voice ports and Transcoding
sessions
●
1 DSP reserved for transcoding
●
Remaining 2 DSPs used for Conferencing
●
1 DSP for supporting voice ports and Transcoding
sessions
●
Remaining 3 DSPs used for Conferencing
●
1 DSP for supporting voice ports and Transcoding
sessions
A maximum of 3
Transcoding sessions for
this configuration
A maximum of 11
Transcoding sessions for
this configuration
A maximum of 2
Transcoding sessions for
this configuration
A maximum of 10
Transcoding sessions for
this configuration
A maximum of 1
Transcoding sessions for
this configuration
The hardware specifications for the Cisco UC 540 include physical specifications, environmental specifications,
power specifications, and regulatory compliance. Table 12 lists the physical specifications. Table 13 lists the power
requirements for the platform. Table 14 provides the environmental specifications, and Table 15 shows the
compliance information.
Table 12. Physical Specifications for the Cisco UC 540
Feature Description
Packaging type Desktop form factor (1.5 Rack unit high)
Console port (up to 115.2 kbps) 1
Auxiliary port* 1
* The auxiliary port on the Cisco UC 540 is the same as the console port. The port has an ability to auto-detect modem tones and
switch over to the auxiliary port functionality.
Table 13. Power Specifications for the Cisco UC 540
Feature Description
AC input voltage 100 to 240V AC
AC input frequency 50 to 60 Hz
AC input current 4 to 2A (100 to 240V)
AC input surge current 50 to 100A (100 to 240V)
Maximum inline power distribution 82W
Power dissipation (AC without IP phone) 80W
Power dissipation (AC with IP phone) 175W
90W (including external adapter)
180W (including external adapter)
Table 14. Environmental Specifications for the Cisco UC 540
Feature Description
Operating temperature 32o to 104oF
Operating humidity 10% to 85% noncondensing, operating
5% to 95% noncondensing, nonoperating
Nonoperating temperature 4 o to 149oF (–20o to 65oC)
Operation altitude 104oF (40oC) at sea level
87.8oF (31oC) at 6000 ft (1800 m)
77oF (25oC) at 10,000 ft (3000 m)
34.7oF (1.5oC) per 1000 ft
Dimension
(H x W x D)
Power supply dimensions
(H x W x D)
Rack height 1.5 rack unit (RU)
Weight (fully configured) 8 lb (3.63 kg)
Power supply weight 3 lb (1.36 kg)
Noise level (minimum and maximum) Normal operating temperature:
2.625 x 10.5 x 11.05 in.
(6.67 x 26.67 x 28.07 cm)
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