Requirements for Calling

Licensing

Webex Calling is available through the Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan. You must purchase an Enterprise Agreement (EA) plan (for all users, including 50% Workspaces devices) or a Named User (NU) plan (some or all users).

Webex Calling provides three license types ("Station Types")

  • Professional—These licenses provide a full feature set for your entire organization. This offer includes unified communications (Webex Calling), mobility (desktop and mobile clients with support for multiple devices), team collaboration in Webex App, and the option to bundle meetings with up to 1000 participants per meeting.

  • Basic—Choose this option if your users need limited features without mobility or unified communications. They'll still get a full-featured voice offer but are limited to a single device per user.


    Basic licenses are only available if you have a Named User subscription. Basic licenses aren’t supported for Enterprise Agreement subscriptions.

  • Workspaces (also known as Common Area)—Choose this option if you're looking for basic dial-tone with a limited set of Calling features appropriate for areas such as break rooms, lobbies, and conference rooms.

This documentation later shows you how to use Control Hub to manage these license distributions across locations in your organization.

Bandwidth Requirements

Each device in a video call requires up to 2 Mbps. Each device in an audio call requires 100 kbps. Phones at idle need minimal bandwidth.

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)

Webex Calling requires PSTN services, choose from these three options:

Local Gateway for premises-based PSTN

Both Value Added resellers (VARs) and Service Providers (SPs) can provide PSTN access to Webex Calling organizations. Local gateway is currently the only option to provide premises-based PSTN access. You can deploy the local gateway as standalone or in integration with the Cisco Unified Communications Manager. See Get Started with local gateway for details.

Supported devices

Webex Calling supports Cisco Multiplatform (MPP) IP Phones. As an administrator, you can register the following phones to the cloud. See the following Help articles for more information:


For a complete list of supported devices for Webex Calling, see Supported Devices for Webex Calling.

Cisco Webex Room, Webex Board, and Desk Devices are supported as devices in a Workspace that you create in the Control Hub. See "Cisco Webex Room, Webex Board, and Desk Devices" in Supported Devices for Webex Calling for more information. However, you can provide these devices with PSTN service by enabling Webex Calling for the Workspace.

Firewall

Meet the firewall requirements as documented in Port Reference Information for Cisco Webex Calling.

Local Gateway Requirements for Webex Calling

General prerequisites

Before you configure a local gateway for Webex Calling, ensure that you:

  • Have a basic knowledge of VoIP principles

  • Have a basic working knowledge of Cisco IOS-XE and IOS-XE voice concepts

  • Have a basic understanding of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

  • Have a basic understanding of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM) if your deployment model includes Unified CM

See the Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) Enterprise Configuration Guide for details.

Hardware and Software Requirements for Local Gateway

Make sure your deployment has one or more of the local gateways (Cisco CUBE (for IP-based connectivity) or Cisco IOS Gateway (for TDM-based connectivity)) that are in Table 1 of the Local Gateway for Webex Calling Ordering Guide. Additionally, make sure the platform is running a supported IOS-XE release as per the Local Gateway Configuration Guide.

Certificate and Security Requirements for Local Gateway

Webex Calling requires secure signaling and media. The local gateway performs the encryption, and a TLS connection must be established outbound to the cloud with the following steps:

  • The LGW must be updated with the CA root bundle from Cisco PKI

  • A set of SIP digest credentials from Control Hub’s Trunk configuration page are used to configure the LGW (the steps are part of the configuration that follows)

  • CA root bundle validates presented certificate

  • Prompted for credentials (SIP digest provided)

  • The cloud identifies which local gateway is securely registered

Firewall, NAT Traversal, and Media Path Optimization Requirements for Local Gateway

In most cases, the local gateway and endpoints can reside in the internal customer network, using private IP addresses with NAT. The enterprise firewall must allow outbound traffic (SIP, RTP/UDP, HTTP) to specific IP addresses/ports, covered in Port Reference Information.

If you want to utilize Media Path Optimization with ICE, the local gateway’s Webex Calling facing interface must have a direct network path to and from the Webex Calling endpoints. If the endpoints are in a different location and there is no direct network path between the endpoints and the local gateway’s Webex Calling facing interface, then the local gateway must have a public IP address assigned to the interface facing Webex Calling for calls between the local gateway and the endpoints to utilize media path optimization. Additionally, it must be running IOS-XE version 16.12.5.