CiscoWorks IP Communications Service Monitor 1.0 (CiscoWorks IPCSM) provides near real-time evaluation and reporting on the quality of the calls over an IP communications infrastructure. CiscoWorks IPCSM uses a small, inexpensive sensor to monitor and analyze the Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) streams flowing between an IP phone, another IP phone, a gateway, and/or a telephony service, such as voice mail. CiscoWorks IPCSM is a component of the CiscoWorks IP Communications management solution, which provides real-time operations management information about the IP Communications deployment and underlying IP network, as well as many diagnostic tools and services that help ensure efficient IP telephony deployments and subscriber satisfaction.
The CiscoWorks IPCSM consists of two elements: a hardware sensor and a software application. The Cisco® 1040 hardware sensor is a small, FCC Class B certified device that monitors voice-specific RTP data streams. The Cisco 1040 sensor evaluates the data streams and calculates a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) value for each monitored call stream. The end-user experience is captured, analyzed, and reported every 60 seconds. Table 1 describes the primary features of the CiscoWorks IPCSM.
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Table 1. CiscoWorks IP Communications Service Monitor 1.0 Features
Feature
Description
Voice-quality monitoring
Provides near real-time information about the end-user experience of active IP telephony calls in the user's network.
Voice quality alerts
Performs telephony service call-quality monitoring by analyzing RTP streams flowing between IP phones or other IP Communications components and can generate a SNMP trap if a user-defined MOS threshold has been violated.
Ease of installation and use
The Cisco 1040 sensors behave in a manner similar to Cisco IP phones. They use Power over Ethernet (PoE) using the standard IEEE 802.3af and obtain configuration information and operating software from a Trivial FTP (TFTP) server.
Scalability and redundancy
Up to 10 Cisco 1040 hardware sensors are supported by a single instance of the IP Communications Service Monitor software. Multiple instances of the software can be installed in a monitored network to provide a distributed and redundant mechanism to capture and analyze IP telephony call-quality metrics. Each Cisco 1040 sensor can monitor 80 RTP streams with optimal span port configuration i.e. in a typical setup the best practice is to deploy the 1040 sensors in pairs and as close to the IP phone. From the origination phone standpoint there are two RTP streams involved, one leaving the phone and the other coming into the phone, for the 1040 sensor closer to the origination phone the RTP stream coming from destination phone into origination phone is important because of the impairments picked up by the packet traversing from destination phone to origination phone and this is the RTP stream that the administrator must worry about to determine the user experience. The span port can be configured in such a way that the span destination port will have visibility into ingress packets only and there by monitoring 80 RTP streams.
Northbound interfaces
The CiscoWorks IPCSM can generate SNMP traps when a user-defined MOS threshold has been violated. The traps can be directed to other CiscoWorks applications or other "manager of manager" applications.
Availability
CiscoWorks IPCSM contains encryption technologies controlled by the U.S. government, which is restricted for some types of U.S. exports. Users who want to download software will be prompted to apply for permission to access the encrypted files.
Table 2 lists ordering information for CiscoWorks IP Communications Service Monitor.
Table 2. Ordering Information
Part Number
Description
CWIPCSA-1040
CiscoWorks IP Communications Service Monitor
CWIPCSA-1.0-2PK
CiscoWorks IPC Sensor A 1.0 package with 2 sensors
CWIPCSA-1.0-6PK-K9
CiscoWorks IPC Sensor A 1.0 package with 6 sensors and CiscoWorks IPCSM 1.0 Software
CWIPCSM-1.0-K9
CiscoWorks IPC Service Monitor 1.0
CWIP-1.0-MB-1K-K9
CiscoWorks IP Communications Management Mid-Market Bundle (CiscoWorks IP Communications Operations Manager 1.0 - maximum 1000 phones + CiscoWorks IP Communications Service Monitor 1.0 + CiscoWorks 1040 Sensor A 1.0 - 2 pack)
For More Information
For more information about CiscoWorks IPCSM, please visit http://www.cisco.com, contact your local account representative, or send
e-mail to the Cisco Systems®product marketing group atask-ciscoworks-ipcsm@cisco.com.
