Iwan Hoogendoorn

Hi,

This is a small explanation about Interdigit Timeout.
Interdigit timeout is called T302 within CUCM.

To change the interdigit timeout value go to
System => Service Parameters
Select the CUCM server and the “Cisco CallManager” Service.
Once there do search with “CTRL-F” to open up the find window in your browser.
Then search for “302″
This will bring you down to the “T302 Timer” settings field.
Enter the desired value in milliseconds and then click “Save”.
When you are done restart the CCM service.

Navigate to Cisco Unified Serviceabillity
Tools => Control Center – Feature Services
Now select the server then click the radio button for Cisco CallManager and click on “Restart”.

From CUCM in regards to the T302 timer:

T302 Timer :
This parameter specifies an interdigit timer for sending the SETUP ACK message. The timer restarts each time Cisco CallManager receives a digit.
When this timer expires, CUCM routes the dialed digits. For exact timer definitions, refer to the Q.931 specification.
This is a required field.
Default: 15000
Minimum: 3000
Maximum: 75000

All Units are in msec.

Hi,

I’ve come to the bluprint topic regarding MGCP…

This is how MGCP basically works.

A Media Gateway (MG) contains “simple” endpoints,

This endpoints can be:
– analog voice-ports (FXS/FXO)
- digital (T1-PRI/T1-CAS) voice trunks

The call Intelligence of these endpoints are provided by 1of the following:
– a Media Gateway Controller (MGC)
- Call Agent (CA)
- CUCM

There is a Master/Slave relationship between the MGC/CA and the MG.

In order to make everything work the MGCP sends messages over IP/UDP between the MGC and the MG.
The Voice traffic is also carried over IP/UDP.

MGCP messages have 8 commands or messages that are sent accross between MGC and the MG:

1) RQNT – NotificationRequest: CallManager can issue a NotificationRequest command to a
gateway, instructing the gateway to watch for specific events such as hook actions or Dual-Tone
Multifrequency (DTMF) tones on a specified endpoint. RQNT is also used to request a gateway
to apply a specific signal to endpoint (i.e. dial tone, ringback, etc).

2) NTFY – Notify: The gateway uses the Notify command to inform the CallManager when the
requested events occur.

3) CRCX – CreateConnection: CallManager uses the CreateConnection command to create a
connection that terminates in an endpoint inside the gateway.

4) MDCX – ModifyConnection: CallManager uses the ModifyConnection command to change
the parameters associated to a previously established connection.

5) DLCX – DeleteConnection: CallManager uses the DeleteConnection command to delete an
existing connection. The DeleteConnection command may also be used by a gateway to
indicate that a connection can no longer be sustained.

6) AUEP – AuditEndpoint: CallManager uses the AuditEndpoint commands to audit the status of
an endpoint associated with it.

7) AUCX – AuditConnection: CallManager uses the AuditConnection commands to audit the
status of any connection associated with it.

8 ) RSIP – RestartInProgress: The gateway uses the RestartInProgress command to notify the
CallManager that the gateway, or a group of endpoints managed by the gateway, is being taken
out of service or is being placed back in service.

There are three types of restart:
- Restart – endpoint in service
- Graceful – wait until call clearing
- Forced – endpoint out of service.

It is important to remember that this protocol is used for control purposes only. No voice data is transmitted through the MGCP protocol itself. All the voice data transfer occurs directly between the phone and the gateway. This diagram explains these relationships:

The Cisco 7960 IP phones in this example use the Skinny Call Control Protocol (SCCP) to communicate with the Cisco CallManager. The actual voice data is transferred through Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) directly between the two devices. MGCP is used by the Cisco CallManager only to control the gateway.

This diagram below describes how Cisco CallManager registers voice gateways in its database with use of MGCP. The acknowledgment (ACK) commands are standard TCP acknowledgements of the received command:

This below diagram shows a sample FXS call flow (dialing and connection):

I believe it’s very important to know this because there could be OEQ’s on this topic!

Hi,

I just added a new cheat sheet on my Cheat Sheet page.

This sheet are the basic ports that the CUCM is using to communicate with voice gateways and phones…

Have fun with it!

Hi,

I just bumped into a nice youtube video about Cisco Unified Survivable Remote Site Telephony Video …
Thank god they included subtitles with this movie …

I have to warn you tough … it’s a bit annoying how this lady pronounce SRST…

Have fun watching it!

Hi,

I’ve come to the part that I need to gather a lot of information on the CCIE voice blueprint specifics.
This in order to pass the OEQ part of the exam …
This is what I am using to study:

I am thinking of buying the INE CCIE Voice Core Knowledge Simulation package for $99 but I first need to know how big the pool is of questions they are offering.

I also created my own set of questions that is based in the content that can be found in the SRND guides…

When I have the feeling rhat I know enough to pass the OEQ part I am going to review the Cisco Networkers (Live) 2009 CCIE Voice Techtorial PDF.

There is also a very important document from Cisco with the ports that are used for the voice applications … I am sure that I don’t need to memmorize all the ports from the document. It;s important to read trough it and I highlighted the importand ports that I REALLY should know for the OEQ training…
You can download the document here –> Cisco Unified Callmanager TCP and UDP Port Usage (26)

I hope this is enough …

Hi,

Based on the Cisco CCIE Worldwide Statistics website and the website of  Antonio Soares’ stats page I created some cool charts.

Here you go and have fun!

Last 5 years

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Hi,

As I was telling you in my previous blog article Cisco Pagent is a set of tools…
Well what kind of tools and what can you do with these tools exactly?

Sit back and prepare yourself for some nice intel.

Pagent Tools

Traffic Generation, Count and Capture

• TGN—create and send packets
• PKTS—capture, fast-count, and display packets
• Template Compiler—language for defining packet formats
• Pagent Classic—create, send, capture, fast-count and display packets

IOS-Based Scripting

• SRE (Stimulus Response Engine)—respond to an event
• Router-Based Tcl—Tcl interpreter in privileged exec mode

Verified Traffic

• RVT/CVT (Router Verified Traffic/Control Verified Traffic)—generates and verifies traffic on a simulated network
• IVT/TCP and IVT/UDP—IOS Classic-based load-generation tools
• NQR (Network Quality Reporter)—A simple IOS-based tool that measures end-to-end network delay, jitter, packet drop, and out-of-sequence packets

Session Emulators

• TCP Session Emulator—generates TCP traffic
• HTTP Session Emulator—generates HTTP traffic
• FTP Session Emulator—generates FTP traffic

Large Network Emulators

• LNE-BGP, LNE-IGRP, LNE-EIGRP, LNE-OSPF, LNE-ISIS, LNE-RIP, LNE-LDP
• emulate routers that advertise large router networks

Modify Traffic

• PMOD (Passthru MODify)—allows a Pagent router to be inserted into a test network
• CSYN (Clock Synch)—assists the Network Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize clocks between two or more Pagent routers

Client Emulators

• ICE (IGMP Client Emulator)—emulates the behavior of a multicast client (receiver) in a multicast network
• DHCP Client Emulator—emulates DHCP client devices and each client gets an IP address allocated by the DHCP server Related Tool—NVT

NVT (Network Verification Tool)

• web browser-based GUI interface to the Pagent tools

Traffic Generation, Count and Capture

Traffic Generation, Count and CaptureTGN—Used to define and send packets on any combination of supported interfaces on arouter. The program has predefined templates to support the definition of specific packettypes. Packet lengths and the data in any header field can be set to constant, random orincrementing values. Packet definitions can be imported from the PKTS program capturebuffer.

PKTS—Used to capture and display incoming and/or outgoing packets from anycombination of interfaces on a router. It can fast-count packets, that is, it can count anddiscard packets at higher rates than IOS counters can support. PKTS supports the creationof filters that allow selective counting, capture or display.
Template Compiler—Provides a convenient, high-level language for defining packetformats. It adds new definitions to the Pagent tools TGN and PKTS at run time and allows
TGN traffic streams and PKTS filters to be defined using the new formats. It allows thedefinitions of multiple display methods that can be used to decode and display packets.

Pagent Classic—Pagent Classic is the original Cisco router and IOS based network traffictransmission and validation tool. It runs on any Cisco router and allows the user to defineand transmit virtually any packet in hex (including corrupted packets) on any interfacesupported by the hosting platform. It also allows the capture and hex display of packets onany interface. Its functionality has been superseded by the TGN and PKTS programs.

IOS-Based Scripting

SRE (Stimulus Response Engine)—An IOS-based scripting language for networking
applications. SRE scripts can be used to receive, manipulate, modify, and send packets, to
test and simulate protocol stacks.

Router-Based Tcl—Use of the TCL language allows you to develop scripts that will run
autonomously on the router, to define new router commands command options, run
automated tests, or define Pagent packet response procedures.

Verified Traffic

RVT/CVT (Router Verified Traffic/Control Verified Traffic)—Router Verified Traffic
(RVT) and Control Verified Traffic (CVT) are used together to test bridges and routers.
CVT can automatically create numerous traffic streams between many Pagent router
interfaces, for many different LAN media and network protocols. RVT can create modest
levels of verified traffic where every packet sent through the test network is validated for
correct sequence, data integrity, and length. RVT can also create fast-unverified traffic.

IVT/TCP and IVT/UDP—IOS Classic-based load generation tools. The TCP and UDP
tools generate traffic between one or more routers using the socket interface provided by
IOS. Traffic is specified in terms of one or more data streams between specific network
addresses, or endpoints. By default, the primary endpoint of each data stream sends
messages and the secondary endpoint echoes the messages back to the primary.

NQR (Network Quality Reporter)—NQR is an IOS-based program in the Pagent test tool
set, introduced in Pagent 3.7. It is a simple tool that measures end-to-end network delay,
jitter, packet drop, and out-of-sequence packets. Packets are sent from an NQR router into a
network, which is configured to route the packets back into one of the interfaces of the
NQR router. NQR processes the returned packets and calculates the necessary statistics.

Session Emulators

TCP Session Emulator—Generates TCP traffic. The tool provides configurable features
that enable a user to emulate various TCP application dialogs between a TCP client and a
TCP server. It emulates multiple hosts establishing thousands of TCP connections. All these
TCP sessions are short-lived, which is very typical for web or email traffic.

HTTP Session Emulator—Generates HTTP traffic. It emulates multiple HTTP clients
establishing HTTP connections to a HTTP server. It generates all kinds of HTTP traffic,
including all kinds of HTTP requests and HTTP responses.

FTP Session Emulator—FTPSE is a TCP application for transferring files. The FTPSE
Client Emulator generates real FTP traffic and emulates FTP client sessions which must talk
to a real FTP server. Currently FTPSE only supports the client side in passive mode

Large Network Emulators

LNE-BGP, LNE-IGRP, LNE-EIGRP, LNE-OSPF, LNE-ISIS, LNE-RIP,
LNE-LDP—LNE is comprised of seven programs to support six routing protocols. LNE is
used to emulate routers that advertise large router networks. It can emulate hundreds of
routers to emulate multiple peers to a router under test. To stress the router under test, LNE
can flap entire LNE routers, routes advertised by the LNE routers or route attributes.

PMOD—PMOD allows a Pagent router to be inserted into a test network so test traffic
passes through the router and then allows the traffic packets to be modified. Depending on
PMOD filters and configurations, the tool can selectively drop, alter, delay or timestamp
packets. It also allows test packets to act as triggers and can recalculate test packet IP, TCP
and UDP checksums.

CSYN—CSYN assists the Network Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize clocks between
two or more Pagent routers by confirming how closely the routers are synchronized. CSYN
causes multiple Pagent routers to display their time simultaneously so you can determine
how closely their clocks are set.

Client Emulators

ICE (IGMP Client Emulator)—ICE is used to emulate the behavior of a multicast client
(receiver) in a multicast network. The multicast clients utilize Internet Group Management
Protocol (IGMP) to interact with the router on the same subnet. TGN or IVT/UDP is used to
inject multicast traffic with different multicast group addresses.

DCE (DHCP Client Emulator)—DCE emulates DHCP client devices and each client gets
an IP address allocated by the DHCP server. It keeps track of IP address lease time and
responds upon lease expiration. It also provides all DHCP packet statistics as well as the
client’s DHCP state..

NVT

NVT is a web-based application with a graphical user interface front end to the Pagent
tools. It’s a network verification tool, used in a laboratory environment, to test:

• new hardware and network designs
• new software features
• upgrades

before deployment into the production network.

NVT emulates a busy network environment by:

• generating multiprotocol traffic
• verified data traffic
• routing protocol updates

NVT includes a set of pre-defined configurable fields, (i.e., standardized templates), in which you can create your own test scenarios:

• each template (as task) represents an individual test case
• profiles are a collection of tasks, and other profiles, grouped together to be
• executed serially or in parallel
• profiles are used to organize test scenarios

NVT monitors test performance by querying the network devices. Types of tasks include
a traffic generator, a traffic analyzer, session emulator, and routing protocol emulators, as
well as device queries.

Hi,

Today I am going to tell you guys something about 2 tools that was developed by Cisco (or at least developed for Cisco)

Before I am telling anything about these tools I need to say cannot provide any of these tools and I will not provide any information on how you can get these tools.

The first tool is called IOU.
The second tool (that exist of a set of around 16 tools) is called Pagent.

IOU which basically means “IOS on Unix” is a tool that can simulate multiple router instances.

Pagent is based on the Cisco IOS (Internetwork Operating System), and developed within Cisco. The test tools are included in special IOS Pagent images.

IOU
IOS on Unix is a fully working version of IOS that runs as a user mode UNIX (Solaris) process. IOU is build as a native Solaris image and runs just like any other program on Solaris. IOU supports all platform independent protocols and features. It is possible to connect multiple copies of IOU trough the network to form some kind of virtual network.
This way you can build a bigger network using multiple Sun Ultrasparc machines.
There is also a version that runs on OSX (Mac) but I don’t know much about this version. It’s probably the same as the Solaris version but especially for Mac.
What is also nice to know is that there are IOU images available with the Pagent software build in.
Nowdays there is a programs like Dynamips, Dynagen and GNS3 doing the same IOU is doing.
Cisco employees (engineers) are using IOU to test complex designs and features in order to support large customers.

Pagent
The primary function of the Pagent tool set is to provide cost effective test tools to the Cisco community. This tool is NOT available for the public and requires a serial number based on the hardware serial number. There are some cracked versions available out there on torrent websites but this will not be the scope of this blog.

Since the tools are based on production hardware and the IOS operating system, the tools are not able to test the datalink level. They cannot affect frame checksums, preambles, inter frame gap times, or inject hardware failures.
There are limitations to the rates that Pagent tools can transmit and receive packets. Due to the processing power of the main CPU, not all IOS based devices are able to transmit packets at full media rates.

The Pagent programs are best used for testing layer 3 protocols and above. That is, emulating routing
protocols, multicast, TCP sessions, HTTP sessions. Pagent images have a security scheme to prevent illegal distribution outside Cisco. When an router is loaded with a Pagent image for the first time, it presents a machine Id that must be converted to a license key. Once the license key is entered in the router, it is saved in the configuration so it is not required on subsequent downloads.

Pagent tools
• TGN (Traffic Generator) is used to define and send packets on any combination of supported
interfaces on a router. The program has predefined templates to support the definition of specific
packet types. Packet lengths and the data in any header field can be set to constant, incrementing
or random values. Packet definitions can be imported from the PKTS program capture buffer.
• PKTS (Packet Count and Capture) can capture and display incoming and/or outgoing packets from
any combination of interfaces on a router. It can fast-count packets, that is, it can count and discard
packets at higher rates than IOS counters can support. PKTS supports the creation of filters that
allow selective counting, capture or display
• Template Compiler provides a convenient high-level language for defining packet formats. It adds
new packet definitions to the Pagent tool set (TGN and PKTS) at run time and allows TGN traffic
streams and PKTS filters to be defined using the new formats. It allows the definition of multiple
display methods that can be used to decode and display packets.
• Router Verified Traffic (RVT) and Control Verified Traffic (CVT) are used together to test bridges
and routers. CVT can automatically create numerous traffic streams between many Pagent router
interfaces, for many different LAN media and network protocols. RVT can create modest levels of
verified traffic where every packet sent through the test network is validated for correct sequence,
data integrity, and length. RVT can also create fast-unverified traffic.
• PMOD (Passthru Modify) allows a Pagent router to be inserted into a test network so test traffic
passes through the router and then allows the traffic packets to be modified. Depending on PMOD
filters and configurations, the tool can selectively drop, alter, delay or timestamp packets. It also
allows test packets to act as triggers and can recalculate test packet IP, TCP and UDP checksums.
• TCP Session Emulator (TCPSE) is a tool for generating TCP traffic. The tool provides configurable
features that enable a user to emulate various TCP application dialogs between a TCP client and a TCP server. It emulates multiple hosts establishing thousands of TCP connections. All these TCP sessions are short-lived, which is very typical for web or email traffic.
• HTTP Session Emulator (HTTPSE) is a tool for generating HTTP traffic. It emulates multiple
HTTP clients establishing HTTP connections to a HTTP server. It generates all kinds of HTTP
traffic, including all kinds of HTTP requests and HTTP responses.
• FTP Session Emulator (FTPSE) is a TCP application for transferring files. The FTPSE Client
Emulator generates real FTP traffic and emulates FTP client sessions, which must talk to a real
FTP server. Currently FTPSE only supports the client side in passive mode.
• Large Network Emulators (LNE) is comprised of six programs to support six routing protocols:
BGP, OSPF, ISIS, EIGPR, IGRP and RIP. LNE is used to emulate routers that advertise large router
networks. It can emulate hundreds of routers to emulate multiple peers to a router under test. To
stress the router under test, LNE can flap entire LNE routers, routes advertised by the LNE routers
or route attributes.
• NQR) is , a tool to measure end-to-end network delay, jitter, packet drop, and out-of-sequence packets.

Next time I am going to go deeper into the pagent tools and I am going to give examples how LNE, TGEN, PKTS and much more is working.

Hi,

I proudly present the first cheatsheet that I made.

you can find it on the cheatsheet page.

Have fun and if you have any requests, remarks or questions just send me a mail.

Iwan Hoogendoorn

Hi,

Today I managed to get CME working on a GNS3/Dynamips router.
The steps that I followed:

- Create a new GNS3 Project
- Get the IOS version “c3725-adventerprisek9_ivs-mz.124-15.T6.bin”
- Get the CME files “cme-full-4.3.0.0.tar”
- Create a new 3700 router
- Edit the properties and change the PCMCI disk0 space to 99MB

- Create a cloud with a breakout to your real network with the Ethernet NIO interface

- When that is done connect 1 of the router interfaces to the NIO Cloud interface

- Start the Router
- Assign an IP address to the routers interface (the one that is connected to the NIO/LAN breakout interface) and if neccesary also put in a default gateway.
- Set up an TFTP server where you will put the “cme-full-4.3.0.0.tar” file on
- Make sure you can ping the TFTP server from the router (so that the TFTP server is accesable from the router)
- Do a “erase flash:” on the router
- Do a “format flash:” on the router in order to create a DOS filesystem
- Issue the follwing command

- From this moment on all files will be extractes into the routers flash.
- Before you can start you need to issue the following commands on the router

When this is done you can access the CME trough the browser with http:///telephony-service.html

Iwan Hoogendoorn