Expressway 8.8 registration - in action

In the previous post I've shared that the latest Expressway 8.8 supports endpoint registration:
http://pandaeatsbamboo.blogspot.com/2016/07/expressway-88-video-endpoint.html

I want to give it a try therefore I have upgraded my lab Expressway C to the latest version 8.8.  First of all there is a getting started wizard, and it will let you decide what role the Expressway will play and it will customize the UI accordingly and hide those that are not needed.



New license types are introduced (Room systems, Desktop systems), and it aligns with the UCM licensing model.  You will need UCL Enhanced / CUWL for desktop systems, and Telepresence room system license for Room systems.





I've some difficulties in using the endpoint activation wizard to register it to Expressway.  However it works well when I manually do it on the codec web admin page.  Under SIP configuration:



It is now registered, it can be seen from the codec admin page:


From the Expressway admin page:

This is how it looks on the DX70 itself:

Expressway 8.8 - Video Endpoint registration

This is something that catches my attention in the release notes.  In the previous release, one of the major difference between VCS and Expressway is the ability to register video endpoints.  While VCS allows endpoint registrations, Expressway works together with UCM and all the endpoints are registered to UCM as single call control.  For UCM centric customers with 3rd party video endpoints, they will need to deploy a pair of VCS just for 3rd party video endpoints registration.

Now with Expressway 8.8, it allows endpoint registrations, which means you can have your DX, SX and MX endpoints register directly to Expressway.  It also allows 3rd party endpoint registration, however for this release, only SIP endpoints are supported.  H323 will be supported in future releases.

The licensing model for Expressway registrations will follow the UCM UCL / CUWL / Telepresence room systems licensing, instead of the VCS way.  It allows you to starts small with relatively less investment.  It also makes it easier for existing UCM customers to understand this new licensing model on Expressway.

Can you run Expressway alone without UCM for video centric deployment?  Technically you can, however you will lose advance UCM capability such as Jabber, Extension Mobility, SNR, Shared Line, Multiline, VM/UM, etc.  If you want to have these capabilities in your environment, registering these endpoints to the UCM is suggested, with Expressway as your collaboration edge for B2B, MRA, CMR Cloud, etc.

Release notes:
http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/expressway/release_note/Cisco-Expressway-Release-Note-X8-8.pdf

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Related post:
Collaboration Edge - Step-by-Step integration guide with UCM:
http://pandaeatsbamboo.blogspot.com/2014/06/collaboration-edge-expressway-step-by.html