The Cisco® Unified Communications system of voice and IP communications products and applications enables organizations to communicate more effectively-helping them to streamline business processes, reach the right resource the first time, and impact the top and bottom line. The Cisco Unified Communications portfolio is a key part of the Cisco Business Communications Solution-an integrated solution for organizations of all sizes which also includes network infrastructure, security, and network management products, wireless connectivity, and a lifecycle services approach, along with flexible deployment and outsourced management options, end-user and partner financing packages, and third-party communications applications.
PRODUCT OVERVIEW
Cisco Emergency Responder enhances emergency calling from Cisco Unified CallManager. It helps assure that Cisco Unified CallManager sends emergency calls to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for the caller's location, and that the PSAP can identify the caller's location and, if necessary, return the call. Cisco Emergency Responder can also notify customer security personnel of an emergency call in progress and the caller's location.
Cisco Emergency Responder helps Cisco Unified CallManager customers comply more effectively with their legal or regulatory obligations and reduce their risk of liability related to emergency calls.
KEY FEATURES AND BENEFITS
Automatically Tracks IP Phone Location
Cisco Emergency Responder tracks wired Cisco Unified IP phones connected to supported Cisco LAN switches. Changes in phone locations can be detected within minutes. Wireless Cisco Unified IP phones, third-party IP phones, and IP phones of any type connected to unsupported LAN switches are tracked by their IP address. The locations of analog phones connected to foreign-exchange-station (FXS) ports are manually configured in Cisco Emergency Responder.
Provides Emergency Call Routing Instructions to Cisco Unified CallManager
When an emergency call is placed, Cisco Unified CallManager forwards the call to Cisco Emergency Responder for routing instructions. Cisco Emergency Responder determines the appropriate route for the caller's location, and returns this information to Cisco Unified CallManager, which then forwards the call to a voice gateway to reach the correct PSAP through the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Identifies Caller Location to LECs and PSAPs
Local exchange carriers (LECs) rely on the calling party number associated with an emergency call to route emergency calls to the appropriate PSAP. PSAPs also rely on the calling party number to identify the caller's location through a query to the PSAP's Automatic Location Information (ALI) database. Cisco Emergency Responder replaces the calling party number associated with an emergency call with one that corresponds to the caller's location, an emergency location identification number (ELIN). With Cisco Emergency Responder, customers can create and maintain a correspondence between ELINs and emergency response locations (ERLs), and export records for inclusion in the ALI databases used by PSAPs.
Eliminates Administration for IP Phone Relocation
Unlike traditional private branch exchanges (PBXs), Cisco Unified CallManager allows relocation of Cisco Unified IP phones without administrative intervention. Similarly, Cisco Emergency Responder eliminates the need to update the ALI database when an IP phone relocates. Location records in the ALI database are indexed by ELINs, which are associated with a phone only at the time an emergency call is placed. This setup prevents presentation of outdated location information to the PSAP. Line numbers of relocatable IP phones are not sent to PSAPs and thus are not used to access location records.
Supports Emergency Callback
Although Cisco Emergency Responder provides dedicated ELINs rather than ordinary telephone line numbers with emergency calls, these ELINs are configured for direct inward dialing (DID) and can be used by PSAPs to return emergency calls, if necessary. Emergency calls can even be returned directly to phones with non-DID line numbers. Cisco Unified CallManager sends inbound calls addressed to ELINs to Cisco Emergency Responder, which exchanges the ELIN for the line number of the emergency caller, and returns the calls to Cisco Unified CallManager for completion.
Alerts Customer Security Personnel to Emergency Calls in Progress
Cisco Emergency Responder provides various means of alerting customer security personnel to an emergency call in progress. Calls can be placed to desired extensions, announcing the location of an emergency caller. Alerts also appear in a Web browser-based user interface, or can be sent by e-mail, for example, to an external paging system.
Logs Emergency Calls and Location Record Changes
Cisco Emergency Responder maintains a call history log, including the date, time, line number, and location from which an emergency call is placed. It also records changes to location records for auditing purposes.
PRODUCT ARCHITECTURE
Locating Phones
Cisco Emergency Responder uses Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) interfaces to Cisco Unified CallManager and supported LAN switches to determine IP phone location. It periodically queries Cisco Unified CallManager for the MAC and IP addresses of newly registered IP phones. Cisco Emergency Responder then interrogates the LAN switch infrastructure to determine the location of IP phones. Wired Cisco Unified IP phones, including Cisco IP Communicator, use Cisco Discovery Protocol to announce their presence to the adjacent LAN switch, and appear as neighbors, identified by their MAC address, in the Cisco Discovery Protocol MIB. Wired Cisco Unified IP phones use either Cisco Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP) or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to register their MAC address as well as their IP address with Cisco Unified CallManager. Products such as wireless Cisco Unified IP phones, third-party IP phones, and IP phones of any type connected to unsupported LAN switches (including the switches incorporated in Cisco Unified IP phones) do not appear as Cisco Discovery Protocol neighbors of supported LAN switches, but can be tracked by their IP address, which they register with Cisco Unified CallManager using SCCP or SIP.
Routing Emergency Calls
Cisco Emergency Responder registers a computer-telephony-integration (CTI) route point for emergency calls with Cisco Unified CallManager, and exercises control over emergency calls using Java Telephony Application Programming Interface (JTAPI). Any one emergency number can be controlled, such as 911 in North America, 999 in the United Kingdom, or 112 in the European Union, but multiple emergency numbers, including separate numbers for fire, police, and ambulance, are not supported. Cisco Emergency Responder modifies the called and calling party numbers to direct the call to the route configured on Cisco Unified CallManager appropriate for the caller's location and to provide an appropriate ELIN for the LEC to route the emergency call and for the PSAP to identify the caller's location.
Configuration
Cisco Emergency Responder requires configuration of ERLs details, LAN switch and port details, IP subnet details, and manually configured phone details. These large-volume configuration tasks can be accomplished through export and import of files in comma-separated-value (.csv) format, as well as through the Web browser-based administrative user interface. ALI records can be exported in a variety of standard formats, as defined by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). These records are forwarded to the ALI database through LEC-defined procedures or by third-party services.
Emergency Alerting
Cisco Emergency Responder provides various forms of alerts for customer security personnel. The Web browser-based user interface displays critical information about emergency calls in progress; historical details as well as details of emergency calls in progress are also available to the user. Cisco Emergency Responder uses CTI ports registered with Cisco Unified CallManager to place emergency announcement calls to security personnel. E-mail alerts generated by Cisco Emergency Responder can be sent to an external paging system.
Routing Emergency Callback
Cisco Emergency Responder also registers a CTI route point for calls returned by the PSAP, and uses JTAPI to replace the ELIN appearing as the calling party number with the line number from which the most recent corresponding emergency call was placed. Cisco Emergency Responder allows multiple ELINs per ERL and assigns them in rotation to emergency calls from that ERL, allowing concurrent callback to as many emergency callers in an ERL as there are ELINs assigned to that ERL.
Redundancy
Configuration information is stored in a persistent database. Dynamic phone location tracking results are stored in memory. Both persistent and dynamic information can be replicated to a secondary Cisco Emergency Responder server, which registers distinct CTI route points with Cisco Unified CallManager to control emergency calls and PSAP callback if the primary Cisco Emergency Responder server does not respond to Cisco Unified CallManager.
A redundant pair of Cisco Emergency Responder servers constitutes a server group. A server group supports a Cisco Unified CallManager cluster, and must be co-located with it. Cisco Unified CallManager clustering over the WAN is supported; Cisco Emergency Responder servers can be separated from Cisco Unified CallManager servers by no more than a 40-millisecond round-trip delay.
Multiclustering
Cisco Emergency Responder servers or groups can work together to track IP phones registered with a Cisco Unified CallManager cluster supported by one Cisco Emergency Responder server or group but connected to switches supported by another server or group. Such an arrangement of Cisco Emergency Responder servers or groups, called a Cisco Emergency Responder cluster, enables proper treatment of emergency calls even when IP phones are relocated from a site served by one Cisco Unified CallManager cluster to a site usually served by another. Note: Cisco Emergency Responder 1.3 servers or groups cannot participate in a Cisco Emergency Responder cluster with earlier releases of Cisco Emergency Responder. Existing Cisco Emergency Responder servers or groups must first be upgraded to Cisco Emergency Responder 1.3.
Multilevel Administration
Cisco Emergency Responder supports multilevel administration by four distinct user groups. Location administrators can manage configuration associated with ERLs and ELINs, including the assignment of switch ports to locations. Network administrators manage configuration associated with LAN switches and discovery of IP phone locations. System administrators have unlimited access, whereas general users such as security personnel can view emergency call history and receive Web browser-based alerts.
Network Management
Cisco Discovery Protocol, SNMP, and syslog provide critical information for managing Cisco Emergency Responder as part of a Cisco Unified Communications deployment. CiscoWorks Campus Manager Topology Services uses Cisco Discovery Protocol announcements from Cisco Emergency Responder to map its logical location. The SYSAPPL-MIB provides static and dynamic information about critical software components of Cisco Emergency Responder, including call processing, phone location tracking, administration, and database services. Syslog events can also be collected and analyzed by CiscoWorks Campus Manager.
Testing
Test calls placed by Cisco Unified Operations Manager are supported through the configuration of synthetic phones and test ERLs on Cisco Emergency Responder. Test calls verify the basic operation of Cisco Unified CallManager and Cisco Emergency Responder, but are not sent to a PSAP, do not generate alerts, and are not included in emergency call history logs.
PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS
Table 1 gives specifications of Cisco Emergency Responder.
Table 1. Product Specifications
Platform Compatibility
• Cisco 7800 Series Media Convergence Servers (MCSs)
• Cisco IP Telephony Operating System
• Cisco IP Telephony Applications Backup and Restore System
– Content Addressable Memory (CAM) inspection locates phones with no Cisco Discovery Protocol capability.
• IP address-based tracking locates IP phones not connected to supported LAN switches.
• Manual phone configuration locates phones not subject to MAC or IP address-based tracking, such as analog phones connected to voice gateways.
Emergency Call Processing
• Offers configurable emergency number, such as 911, 999, or 112
• Assigns an ELIN corresponding to the phone location
• Directs call to a gateway connecting to the appropriate PSAP
• Directs PSAP callback to the emergency caller
ERL Administration
• ERL assignment by port, card, or switch
• Alerting information by ERL
• Multiple ELINs per ERL
• Manual phone assignment to ERL
• ERL audit trail, which tracks ERL configuration changes
• ERL debug tool, which identifies phone location for verification and troubleshooting
Data Export/Import Capabilities for Large Volume Administration
• ERL and ALI details
• LAN switch details
• Switch port details
• IP subnet details
• Manually located phones
ALI Record Exports
• NENA formats
• Formatting tools for specific LECs
Security End-User Alerting and Tools
• Automatic Web alerts
– Immediately displays emergency call summary data for acknowledgement
– Provides links to detailed location information for acknowledged emergency calls
– Records acknowledged emergency calls in a call-history log, and includes an editable comment field
• Automatic phone announcements
• E-mail alerts, including e-mail-based paging
• Tool to find current phone locations
Server Redundancy (Active and Standby)
Remote Servers and Groups
Secure User Authentication
• Password encryption
• Support for Microsoft networked user account services
• Support for Microsoft Active Directory
Four Levels of User Authorization
• Location administration
• Network administration
• System administration
• Security end user
Optional Security Script to Enhance System Security
Cisco Security Agent
Compatibility with Antivirus Agents
• Network Associates McAfee VirusScan Enterprise
• Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition
Backup and Restore Utility that Performs Scheduled or On-Demand Backups
Support for the Cisco Unified Operations Manager Network Management Application Suite
• Topology services
• SNMP
• Syslog
• Test calls
ORDERING INFORMATION
To place an order, visit the Cisco Ordering Home Page and refer to Table 3.
Table 3. Ordering Information
Product Name
Part Number
Cisco Emergency Responder 1.3 Software Plus Cisco Emergency Responder 1.X User License 100 Phones
SW-CER-1.3-SVR=
Cisco Emergency Responder 1.X (1.2 or Higher) User License 100 Phones
KEY-CER1.X-100=
Cisco Emergency Responder 1.X (1.2 or Higher) User License 500 Phones
KEY-CER1.X-500=
Cisco Emergency Responder 1.X (1.2 or Higher) User License 1000 Phones
KEY-CER1.X-1K=
Cisco Emergency Responder 1.X (1.2 or Higher) User License 5000 Phones
KEY-CER1.X-5K=
Cisco Emergency Responder 1.X (1.2 or Higher) User License 10000 Phones
KEY-CER1.X-10K=
CISCO UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES AND SUPPORT
Using the Cisco Lifecycle Services approach, Cisco Systems and its partners offer a broad portfolio of end-to-end services to support the Cisco Unified Communications system. These services are based on proven methodologies for deploying, operating, and optimizing IP communications solutions. Upfront planning and design services, for example, can help you meet aggressive deployment schedules and minimize network disruption during implementation. Operate services reduce the risk of communications downtime with expert technical support. Optimize services enhance solution performance for operational excellence. Cisco and its partners offer a system-level service and support approach that can help you create and maintain a resilient, converged network that meets your business needs.
