Advanced Gateways for Simple and Secure Collaboration
Product Overview
Collaborating with someone should be as simple and secure as a phone call. But often it’s not. Tools that enrich interaction such as video and content sharing typically are confined to enterprise locations or to users who are on the same network or using the same kind of application or device. It breaks down when employees leave the office. Or when they reach out to suppliers, customers, or partners who aren’t using the same system, network, or device. These barriers force people to use less-productive means such as the phone or email. Meanwhile they miss out on the stronger relationships, faster decision making, and competitive edge that comes with the best forms of collaboration.
Cisco® Expressway Series is an advanced collaboration gateway that helps solve these problems. It works with Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Business Edition, and Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) to help make collaboration more universal. The main uses for Cisco Expressway Series include:
● Mobile and remote access: Cisco Expressway makes collaboration as easy outside the enterprise as it is inside by simplifying the end-user experience. Using secure mobile access based on Transport Layer Security (TLS), Cisco Jabber® mobile users can access all their collaboration workloads (video, voice, content, instant messaging, and presence) without the extra step of establishing a VPN. Cisco Expressway also enables single-sign-on capabilities for Cisco Jabber users, integrating directly with the enterprise authentication and authorization methods in place. Both these capabilities help provide mobile experiences simply from anywhere on a range of devices with Cisco Jabber clients, and complements common IT department BYOD security policies. In addition, teleworkers can use their Cisco endpoints (Cisco TelePresence® EX Series, MX Series, and SX Series; Cisco TelePresence Integrator C Series; and Cisco DX Series), without a VPN, making collaboration at home as easy as in the office.
● Cisco Jabber Guest support: Cisco Expressway is integral for enabling Cisco Jabber Guest. Together, using mobile and browser-based collaboration, the two products enable new ways of securely and easily interacting with “guests,” whether they are consumers, other businesses, or even temporary employees.
● Open business-to-business federation: Cisco Expressway also simplifies external collaboration. Using Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) dialing, organizations can securely collaborate with customers, partners, and suppliers and do so as easily as sending an email. No prearrangements needed. They can collaborate with partners or customers just as if they shared an office.
● Cisco cloud connectivity: Cisco Expressway also helps people meet more easily. It supports Cisco Collaboration Meeting Rooms (CMR), bringing together Cisco’s industry-leading collaboration infrastructure and proven, scalable Cisco WebEx® cloud conferencing services to deliver an outstanding meeting experience. Now transparently integrate voice, video, and data sharing for video-optimized meetings available to anyone, anywhere, on any device. Cisco Expressway acts as the gateway connecting on-premises Cisco and third-party systems to the Cisco WebEx cloud. And it has the intelligence to recognize CMR Cloud subscription users and does not consume a call license for these attendees.
● Video interoperability: If your organization already has third-party video systems, Cisco Expressway can help you migrate to Cisco when you’re ready. Cisco Expressway provides video interoperability with standards-based Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) or H.323 systems.
Figure 1 illustrates a deployment with Cisco Expressway-C and Expressway-E forming a secure traversal link enabling video, voice, content, instant messaging, and presence collaboration outside the firewall. Cisco Expressway works with most firewalls and complements existing security policy, requiring only minimal firewall configuration.
The Cisco Expressway Series supports flexible deployment options. It can be deployed on the Cisco Expressway CE500 and CE1000 Appliances or as a virtualized application for VMware and similar virtual environments.
Features and Benefits of Cisco Expressway Series
● Increased competitiveness: Cisco Expressway helps enterprises speed decision making and business processes with real-time video, voice, content, instant messaging, and presence collaboration beyond the firewall.
● Enhanced workforce mobility: Cisco Expressway embraces mobility and device proliferation trends. It provides simple and secure access for a range of Cisco Jabber unified communications clients, with single-sign-on capabilities and without the need for a separate VPN client, thus complementing common bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategies.
● Improved productivity and agility: Cisco Expressway empowers people to collaborate with colleagues, customers, and partners in a more timely and effective manner while helping reduce travel costs.
● Interoperability: Cisco Expressway supports open standards and provides interworking between disparate systems to help enhance return on your existing investments and increase the number of contacts with whom you can connect. Supported standards include IPv4 to IPv6, H.323 to SIP, and Microsoft Lync 2013 H.264 SVC to advanced video codec (AVC). Support is also provided for Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to enable content sharing with Lync users.
● Flexibility: Cisco Expressway supports businesses of all sizes as part of the Cisco Business Edition solutions or an enterprise Cisco Unified Communications Manager deployment, or its services can be enabled through the cloud using Cisco HCS.
● Simplified licensing: Mobile and remote access using Cisco Expressway is included as part of Cisco Unified Workspace License (UWL) Standard and Pro and Cisco User Connect License (UCL) Enhanced and Enhanced Plus agreements. For Cisco HCS deployments, it is included in the Cisco HCS Foundation and Standard license bundles.
Features and Benefits
Table 1 lists the features and benefits of Cisco Expressway.
Table 1. Features and Benefits
Feature |
Benefit |
User Interface |
|
Web browsers supported |
● The web interface supports Internet Explorer 8, 9, 10, and 11; Firefox 3 or later; and Chrome
|
Management interfaces |
● Support for industry standards such as HTTP and Secure HTTP (HTTPS), XML, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP v1, v2, and v3), Secure Copy Protocol (SCP), and Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol
● Embedded setup wizard for initial configuration
● Support for call logging and diagnostics
● Local time-zone-aware
|
Language |
● English, Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish
|
Endpoint Support and Session Management |
|
Supported endpoints |
● Cisco Expressway is compatible with any standards-compliant SIP orH.323 video conferencing or telepresence device but does not support local registration of these standards-compliant endpoints.
● Cisco TelePresence EX Series, MX Series, andSX Series; Cisco TelePresence IntegratorC Series; Cisco DX Series; and CiscoJabber,registered to Cisco Unified Communications Manager via Cisco Expressway mobile and remote access
● Microsoft Lync 2013
|
Session control |
● Support for H.225/Q.931 and H.245 call-control-routed mode and non-call-routed mode
● Support for H.323 SIP Interworking Encryption
● Support for H.323 SIP Interworking DuoVideo
● Support for URI dialing
● Support for direct call signaling among neighbored Cisco Expressways and VCSs, border controllers, and gatekeepers
● Support for call policy management (RFC 3880)
● Support for call routed mode
● Support for call loop detection
|
Zone control and bandwidth management |
● Support for remote zone monitoring
● Support for remote zone redundancy
● Support for up to 1000 neighbor zones (including Cisco Expressways andVCSs, border controllers, gatekeepers, and SIP proxies)
● Support for subzone area definition for bandwidth management
● Support for flexible zone configuration with named zones and default zone
● Support for forwarding of requests to neighbor zones
● Support for interzone bandwidth management: Definable call by call
◦ Maximum bandwidth per call
◦ Maximum aggregate bandwidth for all neighboring zones
● Support for intrazone bandwidth management: Definable call by call
◦ Maximum bandwidth per call
◦ Maximum aggregate bandwidth
● Support for auto-down-speeding if call exceeds per-call maximum
● Support for gateway load balancing
● Support for automatic network failover
● Support for capacity warnings for users and administrators
|
Network |
● Support for Domain Name System (DNS) addressing
● Support for IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously
● Support for IPv4 and IPv6 translation services
|
Firewall Traversal |
|
Traversal services |
● Cisco Expressway technology
● Serial tunnel (STUN) discovery and STUN relay services
● Firewall traversal STUN-compliant
● H.460.18/19-compliant
● H.460.18 client-proxy support
● Support for H.460.19 multiplexed media
● SIP support
|
Remote collaboration services supported |
● XMPP for IM
● HTTPS for logon, provisioning and configuration, contact search, and visual voicemail services
● SIP for session establishment, register, and invite using Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition and Cisco HCS
● Real-Time Transfer Protocol (RTP) and Secure RTP (SRTP) for audio and video
● Binary Floor Control Protocol (BFCP) for content sharing
● Single sign-on for Cisco Jabber 10.6 and later
|
Network |
● Support for DNS addressing
● Support for IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously
● Support for IPv4 and IPv6 translation services
|
Scalability and Capacity |
|
Single Cisco Expressway virtual machine capacity |
● The capacity of one Cisco Expressway (small and medium-sized virtual machine) follows
◦ Up to 2500 proxied registrations to Cisco Unified Communications Manager
◦ Up to 100 video calls or 200 audio calls
|
Single Cisco Expressway virtual machine capacity |
● The capacity of one Cisco Expressway (large virtual machine) follows:
◦ Up to 2500 proxied registrations to Cisco Unified Communications Manager
◦ Up to 500 video calls or 1000 audio calls
*
*Assumes 10-Gbps interface |
Cisco Expressway CE500 |
● The capacity of one Cisco Expressway CE500 is as follows:
◦ 1-Gbps network interface
◦ Up to 2500 proxied registrations to Cisco Unified Communications Manager
◦ Up to 100 video calls or 200 audio calls
|
Cisco Expressway CE1000 |
● The capacity of one Cisco Expressway CE1000 is as follows:
◦ 1- or 10-Gbps network interface
◦ Up to 2500 proxied registrations to Cisco Unified Communications Manager
◦ Up to 500 video calls or 1000 audio calls
*
*Assumes 10-Gbps interface |
Clustered Cisco Expressway capacity |
● Up to 6Cisco Expressway appliancesand virtual machines can be deployed as a clust to increase capacity and provide redundancy
● Clustering increases the maximum call capacity by up to 4 times
|
Microsoft Lync interworking capacity |
● The maximum number of calls interworked to Microsoft Lync is 100. It is highly recommended that a separate Cisco Expressway-C server bedeployed for use as a dedicated Microsoft Lync gateway.
|
System Security and Resilience |
|
Security features |
● Secure management with HTTPS, SSH, and SCP
● Secure file transfer
● Inactivity timeout
● Capability to lock down IP services
● Authentication required on HTTP(S), SSH, and SCP
● H.235 authentication support
● Transport Layer Security (TLS) for SIP signaling
● Roles-based password-protected GUI user access
● Capability to enforce strict passwords
● Capability to disable root access over SSH
● Automated intrusion protection
|
Resilience and reliability |
● Capability to deploy Cisco Expressway in a redundant (6) cluster
● Capability to share licenses across a cluster
● Capability to replicate configuration for clusters
|
Supported RFCs |
|
RFC |
● 2543, 3261, 3264, 1889, 3265, 3325, 3515, 3891, 3892, 2327, 4566, 5626, 5627, 5389, and 5766
|
Product Specifications for Virtualized Environments
Cisco Expressway can be deployed virtually or as an appliance. Table 2 lists the Cisco Expressway virtualized application specifications.
Table 2. Cisco Expressway Virtualized Application Specifications
Product Feature |
Product Specification |
||
Virtualized Application Specifications |
|||
Servers for virtual environment |
● Cisco UCS® B-Series Blade Servers or C-Series Rack Servers or third-party servers that meet the minimum requirements
● VMware vSphere or vCenter server running VMware ESXi, which includes Cisco UCS E-Series Servers on Cisco Integrated Services Routers (ISRs)
For full details of host requirements, refer to the Cisco Expressway Series virtual machine deployment guide. |
||
Virtual Machine Host Requirements |
Small Deployment |
Medium-Size Deployment |
Large Deployment |
vCPU |
2 core |
2 core |
8 core |
Reserved CPU resource |
3600 MHz (2 x 1.8 GHz) |
4800 MHz (2 x 2.4 GHz) |
25600 MHz (8 x 3.20 GHz) |
Reserved RAM |
4 GB |
6 GB |
8 GB |
Disk space |
132 GB |
132 GB |
132 GB |
Network interface card |
1 Gbps |
1 Gbps |
10 Gbps |
Product Specifications When Deployed as an Appliance
Cisco Expressway can also be deployed as an appliance on the Cisco Expressway CE500 and CE1000 appliances. Table 3 shows the features and benefits of these appliances, Table 4 lists the specifications, and Table 5 provides standards compliance information.
Table 3. Appliance Features and Benefits
Cisco Expressway CE500 and CE1000 Appliance Features |
|
Table 4. Product Specifications for the Cisco Expressway CE500 and CE1000 Appliances
Item |
Platform Specification |
Cisco Expressway CE500: 1 3.30-GHz Intel Xeon processor (E5-2643/130W 4C/10-MB Cache/DDR3 1600 MHz) |
|
Cisco Expressway CE1000: 2 3.30-GHz Intel Xeon processors (E5-2643/130W 4C/10-MB Cache/DDR3 1600 MHz) |
|
Cisco Expressway CE500: 16-GB memory (DDR3-1600-MHz RDIMM/PC3-12800/dual rank/1.35V) Advanced error-correcting code (ECC) |
|
Cisco Expressway CE1000: 32-GB memory (DDR3-1600-MHz RDIMM/PC3-12800/dual rank/1.35V) Advanced error-correcting code (ECC) |
|
Network Interfaces |
Cisco Expressway CE500: Broadcom 5709 Dual-Port 1 Gbps with TOE iSCSI for Cisco UCS M3 servers |
Cisco Expressway CE1000: Intel X520 Dual-Port 10-Gbps SFP+ Adapter |
|
Cisco Expressway CE1000 only: RAID 1 configuration, hardware controller (MegaRAID 9271 w/o Supercap, 2 X4 internal SAS connector) |
|
2 1TB SAS 7.2K RPM 3.5-inch HDD/hot plug/drive sled mounted |
|
● Integrated Emulex Pilot-3 Baseboard Management Controller (BMC)
|
|
One KVM console connector (supplies 2 USB, 1 VGA, and 1 serial connector) |
|
Indicator to help direct administrators to specific servers in large data center environments |
|
Additional interfaces including a VGA video port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, an RJ45 serial port, 1 Gigabit Ethernet management port, and dual 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports |
|
1RU: 1.7 x 16.9 x 28.5 in. (4.32 x 43 x 72.4 cm) |
|
32° to 104°F (0° to 40°C) (operating, sea level, no fan fail, no CPU throttling, turbo mode) |
|
-40° to 158°F (-40° to 70°C) |
|
10% to 90% noncondensing |
|
5% to 93% noncondensing |
|
0 to 10,000 ft (0 to 3000m); maximum ambient temperature decreases by 1°C per 300m) |
|
0 to 40,000 ft (12,000m) |
Table 5. Regulatory Standards Compliance: Safety and EMC for the Cisco Expressway CE500 and CE1000 Appliances
Specification |
|
Licensing Information
Cisco Expressway Series virtual application software is available at no additional charge to customers who have a license and valid support contract for Cisco Unified Communications Manager Version 9.1.2 or later or for Cisco HCS 9.2.1 or later. Standard and Professional Edition Cisco UWL or Enhanced and Enhanced Plus Cisco UCL agreements support mobile and remote access for Cisco Jabber unified communications clients; Cisco TelePresence System EX Series, Cisco TelePresence MX and SX Series, and Cisco TelePresence Integrator C endpoints; and Cisco DX Series endpoints. Cisco HCS Foundation and Standard license bundles offer similar support for Cisco HCS deployments.
Each concurrent call session terminating on a system not using Cisco Unified Communications Manager or Cisco HCS (for example, business-to-business calls, Cisco Jabber Guest, and Cisco Collaboration Meeting Rooms) requires a Cisco Expressway Rich Media Session license. In addition, each concurrent call requiring interworking also requires a Cisco Expressway Rich Media Session license. Examples of such calls include H.323-to-SIP interworked calls and H.264 SVC-to-H.264 AVC calls.
Ordering Information
To order Cisco Expressway, visit the Cisco Ordering homepage and refer to Table 6.
Table 6. Ordering Information for Cisco Expressway
Product Name |
Part Number |
Cisco Expressway Series Virtualized Applications |
|
Cisco Expressway-C Virtual Edition |
EXPWY-VE-C-K9 |
Cisco Expressway-E Virtual Edition |
EXPWY-VE-E-K9 |
Cisco Expressway CE500 Appliance |
EXPWY-CE500-BDL-K9 |
Cisco Expressway CE1000 Appliance |
EXPWY-CE1K-BDL-K9 |
Ordering Options for Cisco Expressway Series |
|
Cisco Expressway Rich Media Session License (Required for concurrent calls to/from any endpoint or application not registered to Cisco Unified Communications Manager. For example, business-to-business calls, Cisco Collaboration Meeting Rooms, Cisco Jabber Guest, and interworked calls, for example, H.323 to SIP, H.264 AVC to H.264 SVC) |
LIC-EXP-RMS |
Enhanced Microsoft Collaboration key for Cisco Expressway (Required to enable Microsoft Lync Gateway functionality) |
LIC-EXP-MSFT |
Service and Support
Cisco offers a wide range of services programs to accelerate customer success. These innovative services programs are delivered through a unique combination of people, processes, tools, and partners, resulting in high levels of customer satisfaction. Cisco Services can help you protect your network investment, optimize network operations, and prepare your network for new applications to extend network intelligence and the power of your business. For more information about Cisco Services, visit Cisco Technical Support Services online.
Cisco Capital
Financing to Help You Achieve Your Objectives
Cisco Capital can help you acquire the technology you need to achieve your objectives and stay competitive. We can help you reduce CapEx. Accelerate your growth. Optimize your investment dollars and ROI. Cisco Capital financing gives you flexibility in acquiring hardware, software, services, and complementary third-party equipment. And there’s just one predictable payment. Cisco Capital is available in more than 100 countries. Learn more.
For More Information
For more information about the Cisco Expressway Series, please visit http://www.cisco.com/go/expressway or contact your local Cisco account representative or authorized Cisco partner. Product specifications are estimates and subject to change without notice.