The Cisco Intelligent Information Network facilitates the evolution of networking to systems. It allows the network to be used as a strategic asset and provides capabilities that include:
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Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)—A simple broadcast protocol that devices use to advertise their presence, it operates in the background and facilitates communication between a Cisco Unified IP Phone plugged into a network and the network switch.
•QoS—Cisco provides an end-to-end solution to ensure quality of service. QoS starts at the phone and LAN distribution layer, where packets are classified and marked as high priority traffic. Traffic markings originating from Cisco Unified IP Phones are automatically trusted by the Cisco switch infrastructure, which typically remarks traffic from nontrusted end user workstations. Configuration is made easier through Cisco AutoQoS, which automatically handles a range of tasks traditionally done manually, including classifying applications, generating policies, configuring the proper QoS configurations, monitoring and reporting to test QoS effectiveness, and enforcing service-level consistency.
As traffic flows through the access layer, priority queuing and buffer management ensure that real-time traffic is prioritized over less time-critical data. Where bandwidth is most restricted, across the WAN, the Cisco solution provides RSVP for reserving the bandwidth needed for voice. Fragmentation and interleaving of large blocks of data ensure a steady stream of voice traffic, and voice packet header compression minimizes bandwidth consumed.
•VLAN—When a Cisco Unified IP Phone boots up on the IP network, it advertises its presence using CDP, and it requests an IP address lease from a DHCP server. The Cisco LAN switch learns of the new phones via CDP and automatically reconfigures to add that port to the VLAN used for voice.
With this feature, the LAN infrastructure can distinguish a phone from a PC and does not require manual configuration every time a phone is added, moved, or removed.
•Wireless—Cisco wireless access points allow Cisco wireless phone users to roam a campus without losing voice connectivity. If a user roams to a different site, the system will discover the new physical location for emergency 911 information purposes.
•Power over Ethernet (POE)—Eliminates the need for local power connections for every phone. Cisco switches can be configured with redundant power supplies connected to uninterruptible power supplies in a data center to ensure that the power to the phone is preserved, even when local power for other equipment at the desk is lost. Most Cisco Unified IP Phone models support the industry-standard 802.3af power and the Cisco pre-standard inline power.
•Gigabit Ethernet (GigE)—Allows certain Cisco Unified IP Phone models to take advantage of the emerging Gigabit Ethernet LAN infrastructure.