Overview of Hybrid Calling for Webex Devices

Hybrid Calling for Webex Devices


Note

Hybrid Calling for Devices (device connector) is not supported within the Dedicated Instance (DI) for Webex Calling.

There is no requirement for an Expressway-based solution (device connector) because you can use the pre-configured inter-op SIP trunk between Webex Calling Multi-Tenant and Dedicated Instance. Devices registered to Unified CM in your DI use the trunk to connect with Webex-registered devices.

You can use Webex Edge for Devices for devices registered in your dedicated instance, or you can register your devices to Webex Calling.

Hybrid Calling for devices in Workspaces

You can use Hybrid Calling for Webex Devices to provide hybrid call functionality for Room, Desk, and Cisco Webex Board devices that are added to Workspaces in Control Hub. Webex devices are registered to the cloud, and when they are enabled with Hybrid Calling, they also connect to the enterprise. Webex devices in the Workspace become a part of your existing on-premises dial plan, allowing these devices to call user extensions or the PSTN, and receive incoming calls.

Call directly from the device—Although the devices in a Workspace are registered to the cloud, you can provide them with a line and PSTN service that is served through your Unified CM deployment. People can call these devices to join a meeting; people can also use these devices to dial other extensions or numbers.

Call from Webex App while connected to the device—From Webex App, users can also call phone numbers while connected to a cloud-registered Webex device that is enabled for Hybrid Calling. They can call someone's mobile phone number or the local pizza place directly from Webex App and have the call take place on the Webex device.

Webex Device Connector is a lightweight piece of software that connects your Unified CM configuration with cloud configuration and Webex devices registered to the cloud. You can use the software automate synchronizing Unified CM configuration to device in your Control Hub-managed organization. You get the software from Control Hub and install it on a Windows or Mac device or virtual machine in your network that can access your premises environment and the devices themselves.

Hybrid Calling for devices associated with users (Personal Mode)

You can also add Hybrid Calling to Room, Desk, and Board devices that are associated with a user in personal mode. These devices don't need to be added to Workspaces. Webex devices in Personal Mode become a part of your existing on-premises dial plan, allowing these devices to call user extensions or the PSTN, and receive incoming calls.

They appear in Control Hub under devices and are associated with users in your organization. They register to the cloud and share the same directory number that is tied to a user's Webex App account if they're already enabled for Unified CM calling (https://www.cisco.com/go/webex-teams-ucm-calling).


Note

On a personal mode device enabled for Hybrid Calling, if a user dials a number on the device, the call goes through the enterprise like a typical PSTN call. However, a SIP call always goes through the Webex cloud rather than the enterprise.

Calling functionality for users

Calling for Webex App users is outside of the scope of this document. The Webex Device Connector-based architecture for Hybrid Calling only supports Webex devices registered to the cloud. If you want to provide calling features to users in your organization, see this deployment guide to set up Webex App users with Unified CM calling; this deployment model uses a Webex App client-based integration into your Unified CM environment.


Note

Hybrid Calling with the Call Connector architecture is end of life (EOL) and no longer supported.

Hybrid Calling for Webex Devices architecture

Figure 1. On-premises and cloud components for Hybrid Calling for Webex Devices.

This diagram shows the on-premises and cloud components that comprise the Hybrid Calling for Webex Devices architecture. This architecture provides call connectivity to Webex cloud-registered devices in a Workspace (created in Control Hub), so that these devices can use the Unified CM dial plan. You manually synchronize configuration between premises and cloud by running a sync in the Webex Device Connector software.

Global Hybrid Calling architecture

If you have a global deployment and use a single SIP destination for Hybrid Calling, traffic from Webex to enterprise goes through a single DNS SRV and can’t be routed to an Expressway cluster based on the location of the caller or called users. This causes media to hairpin through this node even if the caller and called users are on the other side of the world, causing potential latency.

With Multiple SIP Destinations for Hybrid Calling, when a call is made from Webex to the enterprise, Webex directs the call to an Expressway (SIP Destination) that is associated with the the Webex device in a Workspace in Control Hub configuration.

This deployment options provides the benefit of selecting the most appropriate downstream route for each call.

For more information, see Recommendations for global Hybrid Calling deployments.