Cisco IP Communications solutions provide the means for integrating
voice and data allowing users to take advantage of services such as
IP telephony, integrated services, and toll-bypass. These solutions
allow enterprises, managed network service providers, and service
providers to reap the advantages of Unified Communications such as
lower operating costs and increased productivity. Cisco Unified
Communications solutions also enable packet voice technologies
including voice over IP (VoIP) (including H.323, Media Gateway
Control Protocol (MGCP), and Sessions Initiation Protocol (SIP),
voice over Frame, voice over ATM (including AAL2 and AAL5
adaptation layers).
The IP Communications High-Density Digital Voice/Fax Network
Modules are an integral part of the Cisco Unified Communications
offering, delivering a versatile combination of digital voice,
analog voice, and data capabilities in a single network module form
factor. They not only provide the IP telephony gateway to Cisco UC
architectures for calls to and from the PSTN and the WAN, but also
allow enterprises to deploy networks with existing traditional
telephony equipment until they are ready to migrate to IP
telephony. Features include high-density digital voice and WAN
connectivity up to four T1/E1 ports, analog voice connectivity up
to four ports, and up to 50 conferencing and transcoding sessions1.
Enterprises can now deploy all these rich features on a single
network module, enabling connectivity to the PSTN, traditional
telephony equipment such as PBXs, key systems, analog telephones,
fax machines, and the enterprise WAN.
This product supports three network module versions, with the
option of zero, one, or two built-in T1/E1 ports, as shown in Table
2. Each built-in port can be conveniently software-configured to
support either T1 or E1 operation. Each network module also
supports a single VIC/VWIC slot that can be fitted with a Cisco
voice/WAN interface card (VWIC) or voice interface card (VIC). The
Cisco VICs are daughter cards that install into the network modules
and provide the interface to the PSTN and to telephony equipment
(PBXs, key systems, fax machines, phones). The Cisco VWICs are
daughter cards that provide the interface to the PBX, PSTN, and/or
WAN. Figure 1 shows a NM-HDV2-2T1/E1 with two built-in T1/E1 ports
and a VIC3-2FXS/DID in the VIC/VWIC slot.
Cisco VWICs supported include 1- and 2-port T1 and E1 interface
cards with optional drop-and-insert capability along with a G.703
interface card option. These cards cover a full range of digital
voice and WAN connectivity options. A variety of VIC options are
supported including 2-port foreign exchange station (FXS), direct
inward dial (DID), foreign exchange office (FXO), E&M (ear and
mouth) analog interface cards, 4-port FXS and 4-port FXO cards and
a 2-port ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) digital interface card
providing -40V phantom power. These cards cover the entire range of
analog connectivity options along with user-side and network-side
digital BRI connections. Please see Table 3 below for details on
options supported.
The IP Communications High-Density Digital Voice/Fax Network
Modules are used with the PVDM2 Packet Fax/Voice DSP modules,
providing scalability from 4 to 120 channels and featuring the
latest digital signal processing technology. A maximum of four
PVDM2s can be installed on each NM-HDV2 network module. The IP
Communications High-Density Digital Voice/Fax Network Modules that
are deployed on the Cisco 2811, 2821, 2851, 2911, 2921, 2951, 3825,
3845, 3925 and 3945 Unified Communications Routers can also be
conveniently used with the onboard PVDM2 DSP modules (on the 2800
and 3800 Series only). The PVDM2s are not supported on the Cisco
2900 and 3900 Series motherboards. Enterprises can conveniently
select the minimum number and density-type PVDM2s depending on the
voice channels they are deploying, and scale the number of PVDMs as
they expand. These PVDM2 can be configured for high-, medium- or
flex complexity via software. Flex complexity is the default
configuration, and in this mode, the network module will
dynamically negotiate the appropriate codec (medium or high) on a
call-by-call basis depending on the PVDM2s available.
Enhanced Cisco conferencing and transcoding features on the IP
Communications High-Density Digital Voice/Fax Network Modules are
available. The network modules provide a hardware-based conference
resource at branch offices to facilitate multiparty conferences,
thereby reducing the costs of delivering conferencing resources
across the WAN. Transcoding resources within the same network
module further reduces bandwidth consumption and costs by
compressing traffic across the WAN, and enabling communications
between devices that support different codecs. Up to 50 eight-party
G.711 ad-hoc conferences, and up to 32 eight-party multicodec
(G.711/G.729) ad-hoc conferences can be supported on a single IP
Communications High-Density Digital Voice/Fax Network Module.
The IP Communications High-Density Digital Voice/Fax Network
Modules are integrated in the Cisco 2811, 2821, 2851, 2911, 2931,
2951, 3825, 3845, 3925, and 3945 Unified Communications routers and
are interoperable with the full range of Cisco IP Communications
solutions-including Cisco IP phones, Cisco UCM, Cisco UCME, Cisco
Unity software, Cisco Unity Express, Cisco IP Contact Center
(IPCC), and Cisco IPCC Express. Up to four network modules can be
configured in a Cisco 3845 and 3945 Unified Communications Router,
supporting up to 480 and 720 voice channels in medium complexity
codec on the Cisco 3845 and 3945, respectively. The IP
Communications High-Density Digital Voice/Fax Network Module
combined with Survivable Remote Site Telephony (operating with
Cisco UCM) or Cisco UCME in a Unified Communications Router makes
an ideal single-box communications solution for IP telephony in
branch offices. Table 5 lists the maximum number of network modules
that are supported on a Unified Communications Router.