Cisco PGW 2200 Softswitch [Cisco PGW 2200 Softswitch]

The Cisco® PGW 2200 Softswitch is a multiprotocol carrier-grade soft switch designed to support media gateway control functions and interworking in next-generation networks (NGNs) for IP-IP, IP-public switched telephone network (PSTN), and PSTN-PSTN connectivity and to connect these networks to both standards-based Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) services and Intelligent Network (IN) services. The Cisco PGW 2200 supports both SIP interworking, H.323, a wealth of PSTN protocols with more than 90 country variants for interconnection across the world. Currently used in more than 500 customer networks, the Cisco PGW 2200 scales cost-effectively from service provider-hosted enterprise networks to very large service provider applications.

Product Overview

The Cisco PGW 2200 supports multiple roles in NGNs, including call routing based on internal routing and analysis databases in proxy or back-to-back user agent (B2BUA) mode and interfacing to route servers or application servers . With flexible database tables, powerful routing control commands, and the creation of extensive attributes against trunk groups, the Cisco PGW 2200 can be used as a flexible component in many networks, including H.323 and SIP, and newer distributed architecture networks for example TISPAN (Telecoms and Internet Converged Services and Protocols for Advanced Networks and Next-Generation Network), expanding on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) framework for both SIP- and non-SIP-oriented networks.

The Cisco PGW 2200 has interworking capabilities for SIP, H.323, ISDN User Part (ISUP), Primary Rate Interface/Q Interface Signaling Protocol (PRI/QSIG) and Digital Private Network Signaling System (DPNSS), and Intelligent Network services using SIP and Intelligent Network Application Protocol (INAP). The soft switch can autonomously make routing and analysis decisions using its onboard database, making it a single-box solution. The fully 64-bit database also allows it to scale to large service provider deployments. The Cisco PGW 2200 maintains every critical component needed in these networks, such as full hot standby redundancy, standard billing interfaces, and Lawful Intercept (LI) capabilities. The soft switch can control media gateways such as the Cisco MGX® Series, Cisco Integrated Services Routers and Cisco universal gateways such as the Cisco AS5300 and AS5400 Series, and support services such as interactive voice response (IVR) or IP call centers, interconnecting with Cisco Unified Intelligent Contact Management (ICM) servers.

The Cisco PGW 2200 is capable of extremely high performance in a single 1U to 5U rack unit and will scale beyond this capacity across multiple units for higher capacity, co-located or across geographic regions for additional redundancy. In its smallest configuration, an entire soft switch, media gateway and time-division multiplexing (TDM) backhaul functionality can fit in less than 9 cm of rack space with no compromise on SIP or PSTN features.

A command line and graphical interface is available to support configuration and manageability, and the industry-standard interfacing allows for easy integration into existing applications.

The Cisco PGW 2200 Release 9.7(3) operates on Sun Microsystems hardware running the Solaris 10 Operating Environment.

Cisco PGW 2200 Applications

Next-Generation Network Communications

The Cisco PGW 2200 allows the creation of SIP-based distributed networks by operating as a core IP Multimedia System (IMS) architecture component; it can also perform multiple roles in the mobile and PSTN arena within the TISPAN framework. The softswitch performs these roles by operating in the call session and gateway control space, including control of gateways such as the Cisco MGX and Cisco AS5300 and AS5400 Series. It performs resource and media control using standards-based media gateway protocols, allowing next-generation services and interoperating with PSTN networks worldwide. The Cisco PGW 2200 provides Breakout Gateway Control Function (BGCF) and Media Gateway Control Function (MGCF) capability, communicating with session border controllers (SBCs), and provides a combination of SIP functions such as enabling topology hiding, quality of service (QoS) and resource control, and PSTN functions.

Service Provider-Hosted Call Center Applications

The Cisco PGW 2200 can interwork with third-party and Cisco products such as Cisco Unified Contact Center (also known as Cisco IPCC, IP Contact Center), Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unified CallManager, allowing for the deployment of a range of customer-care scenarios coupling Web-based customer and attendant portals tightly integrated to a diverse range of network services such as consultative transfer and location-based routing for optimizing customer management and the customer experience.

Business Voice and Hosted Unified Communications

Through SIP or H.323, service providers can offer multisite voice and data, and voicemail and messaging using applications such as Cisco Unity® Unified Messaging. The Cisco PGW 2200 can transparently interwork services from the enterprise network into the service provider network. Service providers can also offer services such as TDM private branch exchange (PBX) interconnection using the protocols available on the Cisco PGW 2200, and can interwork both new and existing services with Cisco Unified CallManager by using the Cisco PGW 2200 for full feature transparency across the network. An operator Web portal allows the entire business voice solution to be monitored and configured with flexibility, and the alarm and management subsystems include Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and configuration through text and graphical interfaces.

Fixed Mobile Convergence

The proven interoperability between the Cisco PGW 2200 and a diverse range of networks, media gateways, and application servers allows its use as a component to support a variety of applications, such as Fixed Mobile Convergence, where the soft switch can be used with the application server for functions such as "forking" of calls to fixed and mobile destinations for higher call-completion rates, call reattempt, and call rerouting. The industry-standard capabilities can accelerate deployment of services by helping ensure interoperability with third-party vendors' products.

National and International Transit

Carriers can take advantage of the PSTN interconnection capability of the Cisco PGW 2200 and transport traffic via IP over optimal routes using Least Cost Routing and Time-of-Day Routing capabilities. Pre- and post-paid services can be enabled, and Intelligent Network AIN or INAP functions for services such as 800 and 900 numbers. The onboard database infrastructure allows for a proven local number portability (LNP) capability of an extremely large number of subscribers today. The Cisco PGW 2200 provides revenue assurance through fault-tolerant billing and network security testing against all its interfaces, and regulatory compliance including Lawful Intercept capability.

Cisco PGW 2200 Release 9.7

Release 9.7(3) Overview

Major highlights of Cisco PGW 2200 Release 9.7(3) include database improvements for greater capacity and infrastructure changes for an immediate performance boost, with room for further capacity and speed improvements. The Cisco PGW 2200 supports advanced logic for early and midcall redirections and for SIP-SIP and any-to-any protocols. For H.323, the Cisco PGW 2200 is the first in the world to support H.323 Annex M.1, allowing the smooth migration from TDM to IP PBXs in hosted communications scenarios without loss of any supplementary service. In addition to its MGCF capability, the Cisco PGW 2200 has evolved to incorporate breakout gateway control functions (BGCFs) that can determine the best exit point for session establishment out of an IMS or SIP core network. The PGW 2200 road map includes Interconnect Border Control Function (I-BCF) functionality for IP-IP service control.

Product Evolution

The strong feature set of the Cisco PGW 2200 has allowed for a wealth of applications for voice networks. The Cisco PGW 2200 can be used for transit services, and large-scale network-access-server (NAS) farms for dialup Internet access. The proven H.323 capabilities of the Cisco PGW 2200 help service providers allow direct voice-over-IP (VoIP) interconnection to enterprise customers. In addition, a rich level of SIP functions is present in the Cisco PGW 2200 for service provider interconnection. For service provider-hosted IP telephony solutions, the Cisco PGW 2200 allows for direct IP connections to voice gateways and IP PBXs such as the Cisco Unified CallManager, with phones communicating through Skinny Call Control Protocol (SCCP) and SIP.

Cisco PGW 2200 Release 9.7(3) and Today's Requirements

Today, service providers are building NGNs, and the B2BUA capabilities of the Cisco PGW 2200 can be used to provide SIP interconnection functions. The H.323 capabilities allow for integrating hosted IP PBXs to the NGN core. The H.323 Annex M.1 capability of the Cisco PGW 2200 allows transparent interworking of supplementary services, thereby allowing service providers to not only offer PBX-to-PSTN and mobile calls, but also capture the important PBX-PBX traffic, leading to PBX-international VoIP traffic as well.

The Cisco PGW 2200 can directly communicate with SBCs such as the Cisco XR 12000 Series through SIP.

Cisco PGW 2200 Summary

Cisco's SIP industry leadership, comprehensive SIP, PSTN, PBX, H.323, and Intelligent Network protocol support, and its patented universal call model have provided a world-class design with a rich feature set to enable creation of NGNs and services. The unique capabilities, proven interoperability, and strong record of performance of the Cisco PGW 2200, and Cisco's VoIP expertise and strong support infrastructure are critical strengths to ensure that Cisco PGW 2200 deployments can provide an excellent soft-switch solution.

Technical Summary

Tables 1 through 4 give features and technical information about the Cisco PGW 2200 Softswitch.

Table 1. Key Features

Feature	Description	Benefits
Enhanced SIP support	An extensive SIP feature set includes B2BUA mode, midcall services, performance and network congestion handling (for example, reconfigurable transmissions), and enhanced SIP services interworking to all protocols, including H.323.	This support offers interoperability with a range of SIP endpoints and other SIP entities in SIP and mixed networks.
All-IP architecture	All hardware can be geographically distributed and is fully redundant.	This feature offers redundancy and graceful scalability across sites.
Multiprotocol support	Call handling and supplementary services are supported for any-to-any protocol, not limited to SIP-SIP.	Features can interwork across different networks and can be migrated easily as the network evolves.
Interconnection capability	The Cisco PGW 2200 offers immediate interconnection to public and private, circuit, and packet networks worldwide, according to ITU-T, ETSI, ANSI, IETF, TISPAN, and Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specifications.	A wealth of knowledge and interconnection history allows the Cisco PGW 2200 to operate in many countries.
Advanced routing and analysis	The Cisco PGW 2200 offers an extensive feature list, available from Cisco. Examples include service and policy creation based on Time-of-Day Routing for network usage optimization, call limiting for class of service to carriers, decision making based on Calling Party Number/Called Party Number (CGPN/CDPN), release cause code and other parameters, digit and parameter modification such as Nature of Address (NOA), codec preferred routing, overload and congestion procedures, and digit buffering for international gateways. Full number translations based on longest match provide for rapidly modifying CGPN/CDPN or redirecting numbers. Trunk-group properties can be configured in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format for ease of maintenance.	The wide feature set allows for flexibility in many critical areas of operation. Features can be configured within the real-time database, allowing changes to be updated and deployed rapidly.
Enterprise and call center capability	A range of features such as blind and consultative call take-back and transfer are provided.	The Cisco PGW 2200 can be used for multitenant hosted services. In the small configuration the Cisco PGW 2200 is also suitable for enterprise-managed applications.
Application layer integration	The soft switch supports the following protocols: SIP, Signaling System 7 (SS7) INAP, ANSI AIN and Domain Name System (DNS). E.164 Number Mapping (ENUM) is available in Q3 2007.	The IP and PSTN capabilities allow for greatest compatibility in deploying services.
Midcall triggering	This feature supports extensive events, for example SIP REFER, dual tone multifrequency (DTMF), and QSIG Facility support.	Services can be active and benefit from user and network input during the call.
Network management	Cisco MGC Node Manager (MNM) monitors multiple Cisco PGW 2200 nodes and allows for graphical configuration, monitoring, and generating reports and displays. Command-line interface (CLI) support is also available, in addition to support for SNMP and RADIUS. Database modifications require no downtime.	The soft switch provides for simple integration into existing management tools and portals as well as ready-to-use text and graphical interfaces.
Lawful Intercept	The soft switch has been tested with mediation devices from multiple vendors, using the Cisco Service Independent Intercept (SII) architecture.	The mediation devices allow for immediate Lawful Intercept connection between the Cisco PGW 2200 and many country-specific mediation interfaces across the world.

Table 2. Protocol Support

Protocol Family	Description	Benefits
SIP	• SIP, RFCs 2543 and 3261 • SIP-GTD (Generic Type Descriptor, 98-percent compatible with ITU-T Q.1980.1, Narrowband Signaling Syntax) • RFC 3204, MIME media types for ISUP (SIP-T) • RFC 3311, SIP UPDATE • RFC 3323, SIP Privacy • RFC 3325, SIP P-Asserted-Identity • draft-ietf-sip-privacy-04 Remote Party ID • Q.1912.5 ITU ISUP SIP interworking • RFC 3455, P-Headers (for 3GPP IMS) • RFC 3515, SIP REFER • draft-levy-sip-diversion-08 SIP Diversion header • SDP RFCs 2327, 3264, and 4566	Allows for the creation of industry-standard SIP networks and ensures a high level of compatibility interfacing into SIP networks from multiple vendors
H.323	• H.323 Versions 2 and 4 (H.225 and H.245) • H.323 Annex M.1 • H.246 Annex C • H.323 encoding of G.726 Annex B	ITU standards-based VoIP communications with proven interoperability with a large range of H.323 endpoints and strong interworking capabilities to SIP and PSTN networks; Annex M.1 can allow for complete interworking of services between TDM PBXs and IP communications, such as Cisco Unified CallManager
Gateway control	• IETF MGCP (RFC 3435) • H.248.1 Version 2 available in Q3 2007, including H.248.4, 8, 10, 14, 15, and 17	Standards-based communication to gateways for media connection and border control functions
Enterprise	• ITU-T Q.931 Digital Subscriber Signaling System Number 1 (DSS1) • AT&T 41459 ISDN PRI • ETSI ISDN PRI ETS 300 102 • ETSI/ECMA QSIG EN 300 172 and related supplementary services • BTNR 188 DPNSS 1 and ND1301:2001/03	Protocol and service interworking support for connection to corporate voice networks worldwide
SS7	• ITU-T ISUP Q.761-764, Q.767, ETSI ISUP V1-V2-V3, BTNR TUP/IUP, and ANSI ISUP (90+ country variants) • ITU-T TUP Q.721 • ITU-T INAP CS-1 and Q.121X • ITU-T TCAP Q.771-774 • ITU-T SCCP Q.711-714 • ANSI AIN 0.1 (T1.667), Transactional Capabilities Application Part (TCAP), and SCCP	World-class SS7 support, including feature interworking to any protocol, IP, and PSTN
Signaling backhaul	• Backhaul Session Management (BSM) over Reliable User Datagram Protocol (RUDP) (draft-ietf-sigtran-reliable-udp-00.txt) for DSS1 or QSIG Facility/Non-Facility Associated Signaling (FAS/NFAS) • Extended ISDN User Part (EISUP) over RUDP (inter-PGW) • SIGTRAN MTP3 User Adaptation (M3UA) (RFC 3332) over Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) (RFC 2960) (ISUP) • SIGTRAN M3UA (RFC 3332) over SCTP over IP (TCAP/SCCP) • SIGTRAN SUA (RFC 3868) over SCTP (TCAP/SCCP) • SIGTRAN IUA (RFC 3057) over SCTP (DSS1 or QSIG)	Cisco pioneered, reliable, fully redundant carrier-grade signaling backhaul using standards-based protocols
Other IP interfaces	• DNS • Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) • Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol • SNMP • RADIUS • HTTP	Standard interfaces for compatibility, hardened and tested for vulnerability prevention

Table 3. Hardware Support

Device Type	Supported Hardware	Benefits
Signaling gateways	• Cisco IP Transfer Point (ITP) implemented on the Cisco 2811 IP Transfer Point LinkExtender (ITP-L), Cisco 7204 and 7206, Cisco 7301 and Cisco 7600 Series. Also available on the Cisco 2651XM Series (end of sale), and the Cisco 7500 Series (end of sale) • Cisco Signaling Link Terminal (SLT) on the Cisco 2611XM (2 link) and Cisco 2651XM (4 link) (both end-of-sale products) • Cisco Integrated SLT on Cisco AS5350 (end of sale), and Cisco AS5350XM, AS5400HPX (end of sale), and AS5400XM	To support the widest range of requirements, a large family of signaling backhaul support is available, from integrated functions within the media gateway to the equally cost-effective ITP-L and the higher-performance Cisco ITP.
Media gateways	• Cisco AS5350, AS5350XM, AS5400HPX, and AS5400XM Universal Gateways • Cisco MGX 8880 (Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) and Trunking Gateway Control Protocol (TGCP); H.248 support committed for Q3 2007) with voice interworking services module (VISM-PR) and voice switch services module (VXSM) • Cisco 1700, 2600, 2700, and 3700 Series access routers • Cisco 2800 and 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers	The Cisco universal gateways or integrated services routers can be used for many networks, including hosted solutions, and the larger Cisco MGX series can be used for high-density TDM and VoIP traffic. A single Cisco PGW 2200 can support 1000 gateways for expansion.
Cisco PGW 2200 hardware platforms	• Sun Netra 210, Netra 240, Netra 440, and Sun Fire X4600 • Sun Fire V120 and Sun Fire V210 (both end of sale)	The highly cost-effective carrier-grade Sun Netra 210 and Netra 240 are ideal for many networks. The Sun Netra 440 and X4600 are capable of higher throughput.

Table 4. Configuration Metrics

Device Type	Sizing Information per Cisco PGW 2200	Benefits
Signaling gateways	Up to 96 signaling gateways (M3UA), 8 through SCCP User Adaptation (SUA); up to 1536 M3UA signaling paths	Graceful scaling of signaling interfaces
Media gateways	Up to 1000 media gateways (MGCP), 150 (ISDN/QSIG) or 256 (NAS for dialup access)	Graceful scaling of VoIP and PSTN network size
SS7 point codes	Up to 1536 destination point codes (DPCs), 6 originating point codes (OPCs), and 8 capability point codes per OPC	Large number of OPCs and DPCs possible, for the greatest flexibility in PSTN interconnection

Product Migration Options

The recommended Cisco PGW 2200 release for existing deployments and all new networks is Release 9.7(3), which is now available. Release 9.7(3) is backward-compatible with earlier releases.

For More Information

For more information about the Cisco PGW 2200, visit http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/vcallcon/ps2027/index.html or contact your local Cisco account representative.

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Cisco PGW 2200 Softswitch

Cisco PGW 2200 Softswitch

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