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Voice/Fax NMs
Voice NMs and Voice/Fax VICs
This section describes the following voice network modules and voice/fax interface cards:
• NM-1V
• NM-2V
• VIC-2FXO
• VIC-2FXS
• VIC-2E/M
• VIC-2BRI-S/T-TE
Table 18-339: Platform Support and Minimum IOS Release
The Voice/Fax network modules for the Cisco 2600/3600 series enable voice and fax traffic to be routed over either an IP or
Frame Relay network. The Voice/Fax network modules slide into the 2600/3600 series network module slots and support
either one or two voice interface card (VIC) slots. The VICs are daughter cards that slide into the Voice/Fax network modules
and provide the interface to the telephony equipment. Just as the Cisco WAN interface cards (WIC) can be swapped with
other WICs, the Cisco VICs can be deployed interchangeably with other VICs.
Analog VICs currently available include a two-port foreign exchange station (FXS), foreign exchange office (FXO), and E/
M analog interface cards. Also available is the two-port digital ISDN User Side Basic Rate Interface (BRI) VIC. A Cisco
2600 and 3620 can support one Voice/Fax network module that contains up to two VICs, while a Cisco 3640 can support up
to three Voice/Fax network modules with up to a total of six VICs. The Cisco 3660 can support up to six Voice/Fax network
modules with up to a total of 12 VICs. Therefore, the maximum densities currently available are four Voice/Fax ports for the
Cisco 2600 and 3620, 12 Voice/Fax ports on the 3640, and 24 Voice/Fax ports on the 3660.
The voice/fax network module supports both Voice over IP, and Voice over Frame Relay applications, when used in the Cisco
2600 or 3600 series. The benefit of Voice/Fax over IP (VoIP) is that it is transport independent, because Layer 3 IP traffic can
travel over any Layer 1 or Layer 2 media including: leased lines, ISDN, serial connections, Frame-Relay, Ethernet, Token
Ring, and ATM. Using a router based solution for VoIP traffic reduces management costs, minimizes latency, has extremely
low failure rates, and compares favorably with most other VoIP vendors PC-based solutions, who can’t complete with Cisco’s
lower call latency. The Cisco Voice/Fax modules are H.323 compatible, and are interoperable with Microsoft NetMeeting
and LAN-based I/P Telephony solutions. They also support ITU standards G.729 and G.711 which allow near toll-quality
voice at 8kbps with G.729 enabled. Voice/Fax over Frame Relay (VoFR) may be appealing to users with homologous Frame
Relay networks who wish to eliminate the overhead of IP on the WAN.
Also available for end-to-end voice management solutions is the Cisco Voice Manager. It empowers network administrators
to install, control and lower the overall cost of owning corporate/enterprise voice networks built on VoIP technology by
enabling call quality management and call detail reporting. Built to scale, including an embedded web server, an SQL
database, and completely JAVA based, it is a web-based network management application that delivers easy-to-use yet
powerful solutions to configure, monitor and diagnose voice-over-IP (VoIP) networks. Cisco Voice Manager automatically
detects voice supported products, includes tools to troubleshoot network problems, and provides valuable mandatory call
history information. For more details refer to Cisco Voice Manager documentation available on the web.
You need both a voice network module, a voice interface card, and an IOS Plus feature set for a voice connection. You can
install one VIC (providing two voice ports) in a one-slot voice network module, and two VICs (four voice ports) in a two-
slot module. The VIC-2BRI-S/T-TE provides four voice channels in a single VIC and must be installed in an NM-2V to use
all four voice channels (installing the VIC-2BRI in an NM-1V will enable only two of the four voice channels). The VIC-
Product Number Cisco 2600 Cisco 3620/40 Cisco 3660
NM-1V 11.3(2)XA 11.3T 12.0(5)T
NM-2V 11.3(2)XA 11.3T 12.0(5)T
