Skip to main content
TrustRadius
Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE)

Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE)

Overview

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 IOSĀ® and Cisco IOS XE Software which runs on Ciscoā€¦

Read more
Recent Reviews

CUBE: Quick n' Easy

10 out of 10
October 22, 2019
Incentivized
Cisco Unified Border Element is being used as a primary PSTN circuit across the whole organization. We have HA (High Availability) with ā€¦
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Return to navigation

Product Details

What is Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE)?

Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(26)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-3 of 3)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Samuel Vitales | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
  • SBC functions.
  • Firewall demarcation.
  • Universal transcoding.
  • Dialplan administration.
  • TDM and SIP trunk support.
  • Web interface.
  • Log or debugs view.
  • HSRP redundancy depreciated.
Cisco CUBE is well suited in large enterprises with VOIP infrastructure, ISP with Tandem support, integration to MS Direct calls, contact center services with more than 100 agents, and businesses with several branch offices with TEHO needed to route calls between countries using the wan link. Cisco CUBE is less appropriate in small businesses with less than 10 users with legacy PBX systems.
  • Session border controller.
  • Transcoding.
  • Firewall.
  • Demarcation.
  • 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.
Cisco Jabber, Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager), Cisco Webex DX80
Yes
We replaced an Avaya IP Office central with TDM Trunks, we have some issues with E1 trunks and routing calls from branch offices or mobile agents. Now we're using CUBE for the last 3 years with SIP trunks and all Voice services from and to PSTN are way better than before with E1 trunks.
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Prior Experience with the Product
Cisco products help us a lot using it to accomplish several areas like TDM migration, demarcation, Tandem organization, firewall and VPN support, also supporting our routing protocol (BGP and OSPF) to communicate with our HQ in another country. Cisco support provided by TAC 24X7 was our main concern fulfilled by cisco against other brands.
I would like to compare in real-life scenario Cisco CUBE with other SBC, and check process handle, ease of configuration and deployment, documentation available online, community support to consult doubts, features or minors issues with the products, prices and guarantee is an important item as well. Cisco CUBE HW is guaranteed for life.
October 22, 2019

CUBE: Quick n' Easy

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
Cisco Unified Border Element is being used as a primary PSTN circuit across the whole organization. We have HA (High Availability) with redundant ITSP providers distributed across 2 locations for 100% availability.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • Call Cost (SIP Trunks are cheaper and more efficient way to make PSTN calls)
  • Transcoding and internetworking feature
  • Support of different codes
  • Support for multiple call control agents
  • Call accounting
  • High availability
  • Multiple vendor support
  • Multiple ITSP support
  • N/A
  • Widely supported
  • Cisco TAC assistance
  • Proven solution
I've been using Cube for years and I like the way Cube handles a call. Minimum administration required once everything is set up correctly.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
CUBE is currently deployed as an SBC for our enterprise SIP platform to bring the service into our CUCM environment as we transition off of a plethora of PRI circuits scattered across our locations. The reliability and ease of integration (through documentation and support) into our network has really allowed us to expedite our move away from legacy telco circuits.
  • 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.
  • 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.
If you are in an environment that is primarily Cisco and switching from PRI circuits or other non-SIP circuits and are generally considered to be on an enterprise-grade platform, CUBE is likely a solid choice for you. From my experience, I cannot speak to the video handling that CUBE offers as we do not employ that, so hopefully other reviews will provide insight on that.
  • 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.
To be fair to CUBE and AudioCodes, my experience with AudioCodes was over 4 years ago, so their interfaces and CLI may have seen some revisions/updates. CUBE provides a unified CLI experience with the rest of your existing enterprise Cisco environment, whereas AudioCodes blend of a UI and CLI feel a little "90's" in comparison. It certainly can be a tad more friendly to someone just getting a feel for network devices, but the actual feature set felt harder to use as a result.

I didn't have any reliability issues or stability issues with either device, though and the AudioCodes solution is less costly, generally speaking, if it will work for your environment.
Return to navigation