Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise Solution Reference ...

Chapter 2 Deployment Models
Connectivity to Central Site from Unified MA Site
Highly Available WAN Failure
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Remote Agent Over Broadband
If connectivity to one of the central sites is lost from a Unified MA site, all phones and agent desktops
will immediately switch to the second central site and begin processing calls. Failover typically takes
between 1 and 60 seconds.
By definition, a highly available (HA) WAN should not fail under normal circumstances. If the HA WAN
is dual-path and fully redundant, as it should be, a failure of this type would be highly unusual. This
section discusses what happens in this unlikely scenario.
If the HA WAN is lost for any reason, the Cisco Unified CallManager cluster becomes split. The primary
result from this occurrence is that Unified ICM loses contact with half of the agent phones. Unified ICM
is in communication with only half of the cluster and cannot communicate with or see any phones
registered on the other half. This causes Unified ICM to immediately log out all agents with phones that
are no longer visible. These agents cannot log back in until the highly available WAN is restored or their
phones are forced to switch cluster sides.
Remote Agent Over Broadband
An organization might want to deploy Unified CCE to support remote agents (for example, at-home
agents) using a Cisco Unified IP Phone over a broadband internet connection. This section outlines the
remote agent solution that can be deployed using a desktop broadband asymmetric digital subscriber line
(ADSL) or Cable connection as the remote network. While this remote agent solution is still possible,
Cisco recommends using the Cisco Unified Mobile Agent solution (available with Unified CCE 7.1) for
remote agents.
The Cisco Voice and Video Enabled IPSec VPN (V3PN) ADSL or Cable connection uses a Cisco 830
Series router as an edge router to the broadband network. The Cisco 830 Series router provides the
remote agent with V3PN, Encryption, Network Address Translation (NAT), Firewall, Cisco IOS
Intrusion Detection System (IDS), and QoS on the broadband network link to the Unified CCE campus.
Unified MA V3PN aggregation on the campus is provided via LAN to LAN VPN routers.
Advantages
A remote-agent deployment results in money saved for a contact center enterprise, thereby
increasing return on investment (ROI).
Remote agents can be deployed with standard Unified CCE agent desktop applications such as Cisco
CTI OS, Cisco Agent Desktop, or customer relationship management (CRM) desktops.
This model works with ADSL or Cable broadband networks.
The Broadband Agent Desktop Always-on connection is a secure extension of the corporate LAN
in the home office.
Remote agents have access to the same Unified CCE applications and most Unified CCE features in
their home office as when they are working at the Unified CCE contact center, and they can access
those features in exactly the same way
This model provides high-quality voice using IP phones, with simultaneous data to the agent desktop
via existing broadband service.
Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise 7.x SRND
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