Cisco CallManager Fundamentals (2nd Edition)

Cisco Systems has lately become aggressive in promoting applications of the IP network infrastructure equipment that the company has traditionally sold. Cisco CallManager--the subject of Cisco CallManager Fundamentals--is essentially an IP-based Public Branch Exchange (PBX) that enables companies to carry their voice and data traffic on a single network infrastructure. This book explains how CallManager (originally developed by Selsius Systems) goes about providing call-control services to IP telephony devices and performing reliably as a corporate telephone switch, and offers insight into how the product may evolve. The volume provides systems architects, engineers, and implementation technicians with the details they need to build strong CallManager systems.

Written by members of the CallManager development team and extensively edited for accuracy, Cisco CallManager Fundamentals uses prose and remarkably clear network diagrams to make its points. People looking for a detailed understanding of how CallManager works will find themselves delighted. While technicians looking for click-this, click-that procedures will be generally disappointed (such didactic techniques are not typical of Cisco Press books), they will find a fair number of sections that explain, in general terms, how to do such administrative work as loading users' names into a CallManager database and routing calls to emergency numbers. --David Wall

Topics covered: All aspects of Cisco CallManager, versions 3.0x and 3.1, of interest to the people who design, implement, and maintain the IP telephony solution. Matters of system architecture (with plenty of information about hardware and network requirements), call routing, media processing, and reporting are all covered. Does not include details of CallManager's integration with the Intelligent Contact Manager (ICM) business-rules engine, or much information on external Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) applications.