Supported Platforms

Supported Platforms


Note

Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000V Series (CSR 1000V) is no longer supported from Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.4.1a onwards. If you are using CSR 1000V, you have to upgrade to Cisco Catalyst 8000V Edge Software (Catalyst 8000V). For End-of-Life information on CSR 1000V, see End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the Select Cisco CSR 1000v Licenses.

Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) supports various platforms running on Cisco IOS XE Software Releases.


Note

For information on migrating from existing Cisco IOS XE 3S releases to the Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3 release, see Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3 Migration Guide for Access and Edge Routers.

The following table provides information on Cisco router platform support for CUBE:

Table 1. Supported Platforms

Cisco Router Platforms

Cisco Router Models

Cisco IOS Software Releases

Cisco 4000 Series-Integrated Services Routers (ISR G3)

Cisco 4321 Integrated Services Routers

Cisco 4331 Integrated Services Routers

Cisco 4351 Integrated Services Routers

Cisco 4431 Integrated Services Routers

Cisco 4451 Integrated Services Routers

Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 onwards

Cisco 4461 Integrated Services Routers

Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam 17.2.1r onwards

Cisco 1000 Series-Integrated Services Routers (ISR)

Cisco 1100 Integrated Services Router series models ISR1100 4G/6G support CUBE features when running on IOS XE

Cisco IOS XE Gibraltar 16.12.1a onwards

Cisco Aggregated Services Routers (ASR)

Cisco ASR1001-X Aggregated Services Routers

Cisco ASR1002-X Aggregated Services Routers

Cisco ASR1004 Aggregated Services Routers with RP2

Cisco ASR1006 Aggregated Services Routers with RP2 and ESP40

Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 onwards

Cisco ASR1006-X Aggregated Services Routers with RP2 and ESP40

Cisco IOS XE Fuji 16.6.1 onwards

Cisco ASR1006-X Aggregated Services Routers with RP3 and ESP40/ESP100

Cisco IOS XE Everest 16.6.1 onwards

Cisco Cloud Services Routers (CSR)

Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000V series

Cisco IOS XE Denali 16.3.1 onwards

Cisco Cloud Services Routers (CSR)

Cisco Catalyst 8000V Edge Software (Catalyst 8000V)

Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.4.1a onwards

Cisco 8300 Catalyst Edge Series Platforms

C8300-1N1S-6T

C8300-1N1S-4T2X

C8300-2N2S-6T

C8300-2N2S-4T2X

Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam 17.3.2

Cisco 8200 Catalyst Edge Series Platform

C8200-1N-4T

 Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.4.1a

Cisco C8200L Catalyst Edge Series Platform

C8200L-1N-4T

Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.5.1a

Feature Comparison for Supported Platforms

The following table provides high level details of Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) features supported on different platforms.

Table 2. Feature Comparisons for Supported Platforms

Features

Cisco ASR 1000 Series Routers

Cisco ISR 4000 Series Routers

Cisco ISR 1000 Series Routers

High Availability Implementation

Redundancy Group Infrastructure

Redundancy Group Infrastructure

No

Media Forking

Yes (Cisco IOS XE Release 3.8S onwards)

Yes (Cisco IOS XE Release 3.10S onwards)

No

DSP Card Type

SPA-DSP

PVDM4

SM-X-PVDM

No

Transcoder registered to CUCM

No

Yes (Exists via SCCP - Cisco IOS XE Release 3.11S onwards)

No

Transcoder—LTI

Yes

Yes

No

Cisco UC Gateway Services API

Yes (Cisco IOS XE Release 3.8S onwards)

Yes

Yes

Noise Reduction and ASP

Yes

Yes

No

Call Progress Analysis

Yes

(Cisco IOS XE Release 3.9S onwards ; Recommended - Cisco IOS XE Release 3.15S)

Yes

Recommended - Cisco IOS XE Release 3.15S

No

SRTP-RTP Interworking

Yes - No DSP resources required

(Cisco IOS XE Release 3.7S onwards)

Yes - No DSP resources required

Cisco IOS XE Release 3.12S onwards

Yes - No DSP resources required

CUBE for SP Managed and Hosted Services

Yes

Yes

Yes

Unified SRST colocation with CUBE

Not supported

Yes (Cisco IOS XE Fuji 16.7.1 Release onwards)

Yes. From Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.5.1a

IPv6

Yes

Yes

Yes
Table 3. Feature Comparisons for Supported Platforms (Contd...)

Features

Cisco CSR 1000V Series Routers

Cisco 8000V Catalyst Series Edge Platforms

Cisco 8300 Catalyst Edge Series Platforms

Cisco 8200 Catalyst Edge Series Platforms

HA Implementation

RG Infrastructure

RG Infrastructure

RG Infrastructure

RG Infrastructure

Media Forking

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

DSP Card Type

No

No

NIM-PVDM

SM-X-PVDM

NIM-PVDM

Transcoder registered to CUCM

No

No

Yes (via SCCP)

Yes (via SCCP)

Transcoder—LTI

No

No

Yes

Yes

Cisco UC Gateway Services API

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Noise Reduction & ASP

No

No

Yes

Yes

Call Progress Analysis

No

No

Yes

Yes

SRTP-RTP Interworking

Yes - No DSP resources required

Yes - No DSP resources required

Yes - No DSP resources required

Yes - No DSP resources required

CUBE for SP Managed and Hosted Services

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Unified SRST colocation with CUBE

Not supported

No

Yes

Yes

IPv6

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Note

For more information on Unified SRST and CUBE Co-location, see Unified SRST and Unified Border Element Co-location.

Co-location of CUBE - High Availability (HA) with Unified SRST is not supported.

Virtual Cube

Overview

Virtual CUBE (vCUBE) is virtual deployment of Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) feature set.

From Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.4.1a, vCUBE is available for use with Cisco® Catalyst® 8000V Edge Software (Catalyst 8000V) series.


Note

H.323 protocol is no longer supported from Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.6.1a onwards. Consider using SIP for multimedia applications.

Feature Information

The following table provides release information about the feature or features described in this module. This table lists only the software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.
Table 4. Feature Information for vCUBE Support

Feature Name

Releases

Feature Information

vCUBE in Microsoft Azure

Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.6.3a vCUBE offer is introduced in Microsoft Azure for Cisco Catalyst 8000V Edge Software (Catalyst 8000V).

vCUBE Catalyst 8000V Edge Software (Catalyst 8000V)

Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.4.1a

vCUBE introduced for Cisco Catalyst 8000V Edge Software (Catalyst 8000V) in VMware ESXi environments and AWS environment.

vCUBE in Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Cisco IOS XE Gibraltar 16.12.4a vCUBE offer introduced in AWS for Cisco CSR 1000v Series Cloud Services Router

Prerequisites

Hardware


Note

  • The CSR1000V and Catalyst 8000V products may be used in several different public and private cloud environments. However, vCUBE is only supported when deployed on VMware ESXi, AWS, and Microsoft Azure platforms currently.

  • When you use a consolidated (.bin) image to upgrade a CSR 1000V medium configuration (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM) to Catalyst 8000V, you must change the virtual machine vRAM allocation to at least 5 GB to ensure advertised performance. When deploying in AWS environments, boot the router using individual packages rather than a consolidated image without the need for extra memory. Refer to Installing Subpackages from a Consolidated Package for details.

Software

  • Obtain the relevant license for the router platform. See vCUBE Licensing Requirements for more information.

  • In AWS platform, only Bring Your Own License (BYOL) is supported for vCUBE. Pay as You Go (Subscription) versions of the CSR 1000V and C8000V are not supported. Make sure you choose the vCUBE AWS Marketplace product listing. Refer to Cisco Virtual CUBE-BYOL for details.

  • In Microsoft Azure platform, only Bring Your Own License (BYOL) is supported for vCUBE. Pay as You Go (Subscription) versions of the C8000V are not supported. Make sure you choose the vCUBE Azure Marketplace product listing. Refer to Cisco Virtual CUBE-BYOL for details.

  • For more information about Cisco virtual routers, see CSR 1000V Data Sheet and Catalyst 8000V Data Sheet.

Features Supported

vCUBE supports most of the CUBE features available in IOS XE releases.


Note

From Cisco IOS XE Cupertino 17.8.1a onwards, Catalyst 8000V supports software MTP for Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

vCUBE does not support the following:

  • DSP-based features

    • Codec Transcoding, Transrating

    • Raw in-band to RTP-NTE DTMF Interworking

    • Call Progress Analysis (CPA)

    • Noise Reduction (NR), Acoustic Shock Protection (ASP), and Audio Gain

    • IOS-based Hardware MTP


Note

CUBE high availability is not supported on vCUBE when deployed in AWS and Microsoft Azure platforms.

Virtual CUBE Support on Cisco CSR 1000V or C8000V Series Routers

vCUBE media performance depends on the underlying host platform consistently providing packet switching latency of less than 5 milliseconds. The recommended hardware and virtual machine configurations ensure this performance when followed closely. For more information on how to monitor media performance, see Voice Quality Monitoring.

vCUBE Licensing Requirements

vCUBE with CSR1000V

vCUBE is enabled for the CSR1000V with the APPX and AX platform licenses. vCUBE processes and CLI commands are enabled when either of these licenses are enabled. Secure call features require the AX license. In common with all CUBE instances, CUBE smart licenses are required for each active session.

The following table details the license requirements for vCUBE on the CSR1000V.

Virtual CUBE Session License

Platform License

Features

Throughput License

CUBE Smart Licenses

APPX

No TLS / SRTP support

Session count * (signaling + bidirectional media bandwidth)

AX

All vCUBE features

For detailed information about licensing, see Cisco CSR 1000V Series cloud services Router Configuration Guide and Smart Licensing.

vCUBE with C8000V

vCUBE is enabled for the C8000V with the DNA Network Essentials with an appropriate bandwidth tier license.


Note

When upgrading to C8000V software from a CSR1000V release, an existing throughput configuration is reset to a maximum of 250 Mbps. Install an HSEC authorization code, which you can obtain from your Smart License account, before reconfiguring your required throughput level.

Virtual CUBE Session License

DNA Subscription

Features

Bandwidth Tier License

CUBE Smart Licenses

Essentials or above

All vCUBE features

Session count * (signaling + media bandwidth)

For detailed information on licensing, see Licensing.

Installation

You can install Virtual CUBE in two ways:

  • Install using an OVA file

  • Install using an ISO image

Enable vCUBE

Procedure

  Command or Action Purpose

Step 1

Power on the virtual machine.

Step 2

Enable platform and throughput licenses and register to a Cisco licensing server.

Step 3

Perform the steps Enable the CUBE Application on a Device to enable vCUBE.