What protocol does the NBX use

[BLP]

Hello - What protocol does the NBX SS3 (V5000) use for signaling, call setup, and data transmission.



Thank you,

BLP

[merlin_1]

Unicast traffic .

UDP ports 2093 2094 2095 and 2096

[bosoxfan_1]

If the NBX is in non-SIP mode, for call signalling and voice we use propietary protocols

If in SIP mode, call signalling to 3com phones is still

prorietary, but to SIP phones it is SIP (of course)

When in SIP mode, voice is always RTP, even to 3com phones.

[Boris L. Perlovsky]

Great, this is helpful.



Port 1040 TCP is also used, correct?



Doesn't the NBX use multicast to communicate with the phones for download, time update, and conference calling, etc?



In non-SIP mode is the protocol a proprietary version of h.323, or different? Is there anything it's similar to?



BLP

[merlin_1]

The NBX uses Multicast for time and date updates and conferencing



Yes TCP port as well ...

[bosoxfan_1]

yes, TCP port 1040 is used for call setup in non-SIP mode.

NBX uses multicast to download phones, for time updates, conferencing, paging, music on hold/transfer.



The audio in non-SIP mode is called "H3" audio but has absolutely nothing to do with h.323.. totally different.

[ted_2]

My boss tells me that he used to have an NBX 100 that supported sip and the other protocol simultaneously.  We have a client with an NBX v3000 and want to do the same thing. Is it doable?

[bosoxfan_1]

NBX 100's never supported SIP.. . only 64mb of memory.. just not enough memory to run SIP in those older boxes.

V3000 does support SIP... not sure what you mean when you say "running both protocols at once".. when

you change to SIP mode, some of the real old devices are not supported anymore like the 1102 phones (not

the 2102), some of the older line cards and PRI cards... Check the 6.0 Admin Guide for what is supported and what is not or if you have a specific question post it here

Thanx !

[ted_2]

Thanks for the answer, it was a while back and maybe he meant the "ip on the fly", which I just heard about.

As to what I meant when I said 2 protocols at once, I mean SIP and whatever the native protocol is, about which I am clueless.  By now you'll have figured out that I'm not a phone tech, but a router and networking guy.  We're trying to get a remote phone working at one of my client's owner's house. I found out that he has an older phone at home and asked him to take a new one that supported IP to the house.

As I mentioned, he has an NBX 3000 running 6.0, and I understand that IP support is built into that rev of software. Although we can't use SIP because he still has a bunch of the old phones in the office where the switch is, we're going to utilize the IP functionality to make the phone at the house work.

Oh, maybe a bit of background would help. He has been running the old phone at his house for some time over a VPN through a Cisco ASA, and experienced a variety of problems, all of which have been resolved except for the occasional one way audio that occurs with some frequency. Current thinking is that this is caused by the router in the office, which is a Cisco without the K9 option, being overloaded trying to keep up with normal demand plus the decrypting chores that the K9 would offload were it there.

We're going to eliminate the asa and the VPN and just use straight IP with QoS to connect to the switch and see if that doesn't help.

Any ideas about resolving this, in case this doesn't work, would be very much appreciated.

[bosoxfan_1]

yes, V3000 does support IP mode.. first of all, make sure the NBX is in "standard IP" mode or "IP on the FLy".

IP phones will not work if V3000 is in "ethernet only" mode) You can find this under System Wide Settings/Network Protocol.

It is much easier if you discover the phone on the same subnet first, then take it home. On the Phone put

in the IP address and mask of the NBX and gateway of his home subnet. He should be good to go.

 Make sure UDP ports 2093-2096, TCP 1040, &IGMP/DVMRP are all open and enabled across the WAN.


 

Unless multicast is enabled across the WAN, which it usually is not, he will not be able to do any of the features that require multicasting like conferencing. Also, the time is sent via a multicast so time on his phone will be off.

Hope this helps !

[ted_2]

One more thing has come up.  In talking to a guy that is a phone tech, he told me that when using "ip on the fly", and the remote phone calls a local phone that is using ethernet, the switch assigns the local phone an IP so it can talk to the remote phone.

Is this right? If so, does that mean that all of the phones support IP? I thought that the early ones, the 10 series didn't. Again, I don't know much about these phones, that's what I was told.

What I don't want to do is change the switch to "ip on the fly" and break a bunch of local phones.

Thanks again for help,

Ted

[bosoxfan_1]

All of the phones support IP, even the older one.

If you are running IP on the Fly, essentially the NBX is acting like a DHCP server for the phones.

So, you have a remote IP phone that calls a phone that is a layer 2 phone on the NBX... That phone now needs

an IP address to talk to the other phone so the NBX sends it to the phone to use during this conversation. It is the NBX that provides the IP address to the local phone, not the switch.. When the conversation is over, the IP address goes back in the pool to be used again.

That is why users must make sure that the addresses they have in their IP on the Fly pool do not overlap with addresses given out by DHCP.

Hope this helps !

[merlin_1]

Ethernet only allows the system to only do layer 2 mac level communications to other NBX tels .

Ip on the Fly allows the NBX to work in 2 modes at the same time , Ip on the Fly and Ethernet only .

Tels in the local subnet next to the NBX will use ethernet only . Remote tels will use IP on the Fly . Now , when a remote tel calls a local tel , the NBX will give the local tel a temp IP address and make it a layer 3 call . Once they hang up , the IP address goes back into the pool and waits for the next layer 3 IP call . A  remote tel calls and makes an outboudn call . The NBX will give the digital line card or the Analog line card an ip address using the same method .

Local tels will use the layer 2 mac to make a call , unless it is an IP tel or a layer 3 call . So all calls in the same subnet as the NBX will use the Layer 2 protocol until it needs to switch to layer 3 or IP over the network .

[ted_2]

That is good news indeed. So since this phone was already on that subnet, discovered, if you will, do we need to take it back and have it get discovered again after we enable ip on the fly?

[bosoxfan_1]

No need to rediscover the phone.. Just change your NBX to IP-on-the-fly, put in the IP address range that you want to give out and reboot the NBX.. that is it !

[ted_2]

Excellent, thank you very much for your informed assistance.