#1 most frequent
United States of America
69.0%256 installations of 371
What is Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE)?
The Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) is a session border controller, which provides session control, security, interworking, and demarcation. CUBE is a software product available for licensing on the Cisco IOS® and Cisco IOS XE Software which runs on Cisco enterprise routers, but is also available for licensing as a software load for a virtual container.
Categories & Use Cases
Who Buys & Uses Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE)
#2 most frequent
Canada
4.0%15 installations of 371
#3 most frequent
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
3.8%14 installations of 371
Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) - SIP Integration with Ms Teams is good to implement
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) as a virtual SBC to connect our SIP provider with Microsoft Teams Direct Routing. It ensures secure TLS communication, flexible SIP routing, and compatibility between systems. Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) gives us reliability, control, and scalability while supporting our hybrid voice environmen connecting the branches to the main office.
Pros
- Microsoft Teams Direct Routing
- SIP configurations
- Voice Security over network
Cons
- totally CLI (command line interface)
- troubleshooting steps
- required especific knowledge to implements
Return on Investment
- Migration to Ms Teams Direct Routing
- Less hardware phones
- Define a company standard for voice comunication
Usability
Alternatives Considered
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager)
Other Software Used
Microsoft Teams, Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager), Cisco Meraki MX
Cisco CUBE, next generation SBC products
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We migrated several TDM trunks to SIP trunks with Cisco CUBE, and now we have a better view and resource optimization thanks to Cisco CUBE where we centralized SBC, firewall, demarcation, transcoding, and Trans rating. Now we're using a couple of Cisco 44XX ISR CUBES with Box-to-Box redundancy and our communication improves due to CUBE's capabilities.
Pros
- SBC functions.
- Firewall demarcation.
- Universal transcoding.
- Dialplan administration.
- TDM and SIP trunk support.
Cons
- Web interface.
- Log or debugs view.
- HSRP redundancy depreciated.
Most Important Features
- Session border controller.
- Transcoding.
- Firewall.
- Demarcation.
Return on Investment
- Positive impact, saving on monthly phone bills due to sip trunk migration.
- Positive, using a couple of CUBEs to concentrate several SIP trunk.
- Positive, using a couple of CUBEs to route several branch outbound and inbound calls.
Other Software Used
Cisco Jabber, Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager), Cisco Webex DX80
If you need an SIP adapter, try CUBE!
Pros
- B2B UA
- SIP profile
- Multiple tenants
Cons
- The way to configure is not so intuitive.
- It cannot show SIP ladder diagram directly.
- The learning curve is a bit steep.
Return on Investment
- Very secure
- Very flexible
- License is a bit expensive
Alternatives Considered
Ribbon Session Border Controller (SBC)
Usability
CUBE: Quick n' Easy
Pros
- Call accounting (Integration with 3rd party applications for ease of use and comprehensive CDR's)
- Address hiding (Keeping your internal network secure with PSTN calls)
- Internetworking between multiple protocols
- SIP profiles (message/header customization)
- Billing, cost counting
Cons
- Syntax input should be easier to read and write. For I.E: voice, translations are similar to SED (Stream Editor). Sometimes regular expression is hard to understand for new users.
- Virtual Cube software stability
- Cube redundancy setup (defining control interfaces, tracks, setting thresholds and reloads). Redundancy setup should be an automated process, where a user can initiate a setup wizard and then just input key information such as the IP address of Cubes and the exclusive IP address, etc.
Return on Investment
- N/A
Alternatives Considered
Mitel Applications Suite and Digium Asterisk
Other Software Used
VMware ESXi, Splunk Enterprise Security, Kaseya Traverse
Cisco CUBE deployment to reduce legacy PRI circuits
Pros
- As with any Cisco appliance, the support from the TAC is one of the top benefits.
- Familiar CLI if you're already working within a Cisco environment.
- Basic configuration between CUCM and CUBE is fairly straight forward to set up.
Cons
- The expense of the device to run CUBE may have you looking outside Cisco for options.
- Requires additional DSPs for transcoding operations.
- There's a bit of a learning curve in getting this set up to work with your specific provider when using this as a SIP gateway.
Return on Investment
- With the deployment we were able to provide a consistent, easier to support, and central SIP solution. This is not specific to CUBE, but specific to the reason it was deployed.
- We were able to disconnect legacy PRI circuits and reduce those costs.
- We were able to go to usage based trunks to put our trunking costs more in-line with our actual usage.
Alternatives Considered
AudioCodes E-SBC
Other Software Used
Microsoft Visual Studio Code