Before installing a Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone, review the requirements in the following sections.

After setting up the wireless network to support voice communications and configuring the wireless IP phones in Cisco Unified Communications Manager, you are ready to install the phones. The following sections contain installation information.

After charging the battery and configuring the wireless IP phone, you are ready to power on the phone and connect to the WLAN.

To power on the Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone, press and hold the Power On button until the phone begins its startup process by cycling through these steps:

1. The phone displays the Cisco Systems screen.

2. The phone screen displays these messages as the phone starts up:

   • Locating Network Services

   • Configuring IP

   • Network Up

   • Configuring Unified CMList

   • Registering

3. The following information displays on the main phone screen:

   • Current time and date

   • Primary directory number

   • Main screen icons for four menus and Help

   • Your current options on status line

   • Softkey labels (Messages and Options)

When the phone passes through these stages with no errors, the phone has started up properly. Now the phone is in standby mode and is ready to place or receive calls.

The signal icon in the upper left corner shows the strength of the signal between the wireless access point and the phone. The phone must have an adequate signal to successfully place or receive calls. If the signal icon displays only one bar, the weak signal can cause problems with phone performance.

When connecting to the wireless VoIP network, the Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone goes through a standard startup process, as described in the following list. Depending on your specific network configuration, not all of these steps may occur on your wireless IP phone.

1. Powering on the phone. The Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone has nonvolatile flash memory in which it stores firmware images and user-defined preferences. At startup, the phone runs a bootstrap loader that loads a phone image stored in Flash memory. Using this image, the phone initializes its software and hardware.

   For more information, see Phone Power and Startup and Connectivity Problems.

2. Scanning for an access point. The Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone scans the RF coverage area with its radio. The phone searches its network profiles and scans for access points that have a matching SSID and authentication type. The phone associates with the access point with the highest RSSI that matches with its network profile.

   For more information, see Cisco Unified Wireless AP Interactions and Startup and Connectivity Problems.

3. Authenticating with access point. The Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone begins the authenticating process.

   • If set for Open, then any device can authenticate to the access point. For added security, static WEP encryption might optionally be used.

   • If set to Shared Key, the phone encrypts the challenge text using the WEP key and the access point must verify that the WEP key was used to encrypt the challenge text before network access is available.

   • If set for LEAP, EAP-FAST, or PEAP, the username and password are authenticated by the RADIUS server before network access is available.

   • If set for EAP-TLS, the phone requires one or more of the following certificates:

     • a client certificate and the RADIUS root certificate

     • the CA certificate

   • If set for Auto (AKM), the phone looks for an access point with one of the following key management options enabled:

     WPA, WPA2, or CCKM

     The username and password are authenticated by the RADIUS server before network access is available.

     WPA-Pre-shared key, WPA2-Pre-shared key

     The phone authenticates with the access point using the pre-shared key.

     For more information, see Authentication Methods.

4. Configuring IP network. If the wireless IP phone is using DHCP to obtain an IP address, the phone queries the DHCP server to obtain one. If you are not using DHCP in your network, you must assign a static IP address to each phone locally.

   In addition to assigning an IP address, the DHCP server directs the wireless IP phone to a TFTP server. If the phone has a statically defined IP address, you must configure the TFTP server IP address locally on the phone; the phone then contacts the TFTP server directly.

   For more information, see:

   • DHCP Settings

   • Disable DHCP

   • Startup and Connectivity Problems

5. Downloading Load ID. The wireless IP phone checks to verify that the proper firmware is installed or if new firmware is available to download.

   Cisco Unified Communications Manager informs devices using .cnf or .cnf.xml format configuration files of their load ID. Devices using .xml format configuration files receive the load ID in the configuration file.

   For more information, see Phone Configuration Files and Profile Files.

6. Downloading configuration file. The TFTP server has configuration files and profile files. A configuration file includes parameters for connecting to Cisco Unified Communications Manager and information about which image load a phone should be running. A profile file contains various parameters and values for phone and network settings.

   For more information, see:

   • Set Alternate TFTP Server

   • Phone Configuration Files and Profile Files

   • Startup and Connectivity Problems

7. Connecting to Cisco Unified  Communications Manager.

   The configuration file defines how the Cisco Unified IP Phone communicates with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. After obtaining the file from the TFTP server, the phone attempts to make a TCP connection to the highest priority Cisco Unified Communications Manager on the list.

   For more information, see:

   • Cisco Unified Communications Manager Interactions

   • Startup and Connectivity Problems

8. Registering to Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

   If the phone was manually added to the database, Cisco Unified Communications Manager identifies and registers the phone. If the phone was not manually added to the database and autoregistration is enabled in Cisco Unified Communications Manager, the phone attempts to autoregister itself in the Cisco Unified Communications Manager database.

   For more information, see:

   • Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone 7925G, 7925G-EX, and 7926G Deployment

   • Add Users to Cisco Unified Communications Manager