Cisco Voice Over IP (CVoice): Authorized Self-Study Guide

by Kevin Wallace

Provides readers with all the critical information needed to implement and support data and voice integration solutions at the network-access level. In addition, this book prepares the reader for the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1587052628
• ISBN13: 9781587052620
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Cisco Press
• Length: 478 Pages
• Weight: 2.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.6" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Well organized study guide

I read Cisco Voice over IP, Second Edition, by Kevin Wallace (ISBN-13: 978-1-58705-262-0) because I worked with Cisco VoIP when it first came out, but have not kept current with new VoIP developments and improvements. Many of the books available today on Cisco VoIP are starting to get dated. I have found that Cisco Press is generally the best source for accurate and up-to-date information regarding Cisco tests. This book does a great job of covering both the basics and recent topics. The material is well presented in this book. Kevin starts with the fundamentals and legacy POTs. He then covers basic VoIP and dial-peers. He covers H.323, SIP and MGCP signaling protocols in depth. There is a good chapter on MGCP - a protocol seldom used in enterprise networks that many of us need to learn for this test. The book wraps up with a chapter on QoS. Essentially everything you need to know to have a very strong understanding of VoIP is covered in this book. This book covers the latest ISR routers and call control methods. Cisco Voice over IP, Second Edition also contains some good mini-labs that you can do with just 3 routers. The best way to really learn and retain is by reading and then doing. This is especially useful in a study guide when you plan on taking the test afterward. This book goes into more detail than is required for the test so it is a great reference book for real life - well after you have passed your test. This book does its job as a self-study guide and was very instrumental in my studying. It is one of the best, most up to date Cisco VoIP books available today. It helped me pass the Cisco CVOICE test on my first attempt. I recommend this book for anyone studying for this test or just brushing up on VoIP in general.

Great for Self-Study or Reference

Finally, a book I trust when studying for a test. While other vendors may very well contain all of the content necessary for exam preparation, Cisco Press is the only one I feel 100% sure about when taking Cisco exams. If you come from a data background like myself (not voice), the chapters on voice technologies and analog/digital voice are essential. While you may never have to work with PBXs or care what signaling is used in other countries, its all fair game for test takers. I really never knew how deficient my knowledge of the old voice world was until reading this book. Local Loop Signaling, Trunk Signaling, the Nyquist Theorem (which seems to exist in every book I own), its all in here. As dry as some of these topics are, the understanding of the brick-level voice construct helps in troubleshooting issues with your telco. If you arent buying this book for test preparation, youll be able to appreciate the chapters on voice interface configuration, configuring dial peers, dial plans, and troubleshooting. It gives details on setting up the above including the syntax of commands. I also own the CallManager Fundamentals book and the Gateway/Gatekeeper study guide. Youll find many of the same commands in this book as the other two. This book is broader in its scope than the Fundamentals or Gateway book. I always look for troubleshooting tools more than anything else books (any command I can put in my arsenal). I maintain a network as opposed to implement new networks for companies, so Im faced with network complications that consultants largely get to avoid. The Comparing Call Control Models was likely the most useful to me. Whether you use SIP, H.323, or MGCP (we use MGCP), there are plenty of show and debug commands at your disposal and are listed in the text. While I had these commands in other books as well, I personally cant get enough of troubleshooting techniques in books. Keeping the network up and supporting end users is what keeps me employed. My only gotcha with any book is end of chapter test-type questions. I never completely trust answer keys in the back of books and I thought I found errors in at least one question in this book. It was easy for me to catch because I knew the right answer but be on the lookout. In all, I'd recommend this book for test takers and non-test takers. It covers some materials (dial peers, signaling and call control protocols, etc..) that are covered in other classes (Gateway/Gatekeeper class for one) and can be used as a quick reference.

A Solid Book for VoIP Beginners

This book is very well written and easy to read. It's ideal for those who want to learn the basics of telephony networks and Voice over IP. It is more than just an exam prep book as the name suggests, it actually helps you build up a solid knowledge foundation for Voice over IP. The author does a wonderful job in the first two chapters going through the fundamental concepts of traditional telephone networks including different call control architectures (distributed vs. centralized model); a variety of analog and digital signaling systems such as loop-start, ground-start, E & M, CAS and CCS; T1 multiplexing and framing; Digital-Analog/Analog-Digital conversion. The in-depth coverage on different signaling systems is especially helpful in understanding how each of them fits into the telephone system. Before diving straight into VoIP and QoS, the author discusses different VoIP architectures as well as how to baseline voice traffic using traffic theory. A good thing about this book is that rather than simply focusing on the technical details of the three VoIP signaling protocols - H.323; SIP and MGCP, it also gives you a 10000-foot view of VoIP and how these signaling protocols fit into the whole picture. So that you understand the philosophy behind each of them and know how to choose the best one for your real life deployment. The book does an excellent job in explaining how Erlang B calculation works as well as the bandwidth and packet size calculation for different CODECs. In order to help readers better understand VoIP signaling systems, the author also includes a detailed call flow analysis and basic sample configurations. Although it has some basic configuration examples, this book is not meant to be a configuration guide for Cisco CallManagers and routers. QoS is covered briefly in the last chapter. Although the book doesn't have an in-depth discussion on congestion management and avoidance, it does provide you an overview of how different QoS mechanisms can be used to improve voice quality on a data network. It also shows you how to use the Cisco AutoQoS feature to simplify QoS configuration for VoIP. The last chapter also talks about how call admission control (CAC) is implemented in H.323; SIP and MGCP. VoIP Security is not a major focus for this book. Although Chapter 5 talks briefly about the firewall and proxy requirements for VoIP. The author primarily focuses on the Cisco implementation of H.323, SIP and MGCP in this book, but the fundamental concepts it presents are based on industry standards. All in all, this book is not only a must have for those who are preparing for the CVoice exam but also a great reference for voice network professionals.

Authorized Self Study Guide - Cvoice

I was glad to see this book begin with some basics on America's existing telephone systems and how they came to be. Some folks anxious to `just pass the test' may want to skip past this material but they will be hurting themselves. IP voice is not a technology unto itself. It is a means of integrating with or portion-replacing the current telephone systems we use. That being said, let me state that this text is complete as a stand alone book and is not simply a boot camp prep document for the exam. It does however serve very well in that capacity. My point is that whether you are pursuing the certification or not, the book belongs on the shelves of anyone planning, perusing or working in the VOIP (voice over internet protocol) arena. By the time you finish chapter two you will have covered reasonably our current telephone systems, the legacy systems they grew from and how we are positioning ourselves for the move towards IP telephony. There is an interesting lab exercise at the end of chapter two. It builds fundamental connectivity between two devices but does not begin to touch on the VOIP required parameters. This is resolved as you move into chapter three which steps right into voice card / interface configuration. The book is targeted towards Cisco's deployment of VOIP of course but, I felt some more attention could have been given to SIP (session initiated protocol) as this will probably exist in almost any VOIP enabled network. Chapter five, which contains some of the SIP information covered in the text, does an excellent job of covering the various fundamentals of VOIP. If you're curious about VOIP in general, this chapter does a better job than many dedicated books on the subject. The discussion of QOS and Cisco's AutoQOS do a good job of covering the priority treatment required for a good VOIP user experience and the ways to simplify that within a Cisco architecture. QOS is one of those technologies that is fundamentally simple but can require a high level of micro-tuning depending on the existing environment you plan to integrate VOIP into. I am acquainted with more than one large institution that has chosen to keep the VOIP network non-integrated with the existing network. This removes some of the capitalization on the installed hardware/software base but pays that loss back in ease of deployment. Final thoughts on the book are to recommend it highly to those seeking certification as well as those already dealing with VIOP deployments or administration.

Job Well Done!

I recently read Cisco Press's Cisco Voice over IP (CVoice) Self Study guide as I was studying for CVoice exam (core exam required for CCVP certification). Usually I don't like to read certification guides as 9 out of 10 times they lack technical details and real world examples. The focus of certification guides is to help you pass the exam and nothing else. But I was pleasantly surprised as CVoice guide provides ample real world scenarios and lab exercises. The book is divided into seven chapters and also contains a well written chapter on Cisco Voice Applications in appendix. For folks like me who are new to voice arena, the chapter in appendix is a must read as it is an excellent starting point to learn about Cisco's current Voice portfolio. The book starts with a chapter on traditional telephony networks and an introduction to IP telephony networks; it then moves to analog and digital voice connections and covers topics like voice encoding, Nyquist theorem and different Signaling Systems. Chapter 3 and 4 cover information about voice interface configuration and dial peer configuration details. Chapter 5 is my favorite chapter as it discusses Voip fundamentals in a clear and concise manner. This chapter is almost 90 pages long and alone worth the price of this book. It goes over different Voip Network Architectures and also discusses different call processing components like Gatekeeper, Gateways etc. The chapter also discusses dial plans and different codecs bandwidth requirements. It also goes over traffic theory and voip security. Chapter 6 and 7 go over Voip Signaling and QoS topics and are very well written. Each chapter contains lab exercises and end chapter review questions with suggested solutions. My only suggestion to Cisco Press is to include companion CDs with Self Study guides that contains flash cards and additional practice tests with detailed answers and explanations. White papers and URLs from Cisco site will be icing on the cake. Overall I really liked this book and will recommend to anyone who wants to learn about Voice over IP in general. Don't forget that book title reads "Foundation Learning for CCVP Voice over IP" and you may/will have to refer Cisco Connection Online or other Cisco Press titles for more in depth details on different topics. I personally think it is one of those few certification guides that I will use even after passing my test. Five stars from my side for Kevin Wallace and Cisco Press!