Cisco Packet Voice Digital Signal Processor Modules (PVDMs) for Cisco Unified Communications Solutions

Product overview

The Cisco^® Packet Voice Digital Signal Processor Modules (PVDMs) enable the Cisco Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms Family and the Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) to provide rich-media capabilities such as high-density voice connectivity, conferencing, transcoding, media optimization, transrating, and secure voice for Cisco Unified Communications solutions. These new modules support unprecedented scale while allowing for a smaller solution footprint than ever before.

On-Board Motherboard PVDM (PVDM4-X)

PVDM Enhanced Services Module (SM-X-PVDM)

PVDM Network Interface Module (NIM-PVDM-X)

Features and benefits

The PVDMs support digital voice connections, conferencing, universal transcoding, and media optimization services:

●      T1/E1 voice: One of the primary uses of PVDMs is to packetize digital voice into IP packets to enable Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) digital voice applications.

●      Conferencing: PVDM modules support ad hoc and meet-me conferencing with various codecs in conjunction with Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express.

●      Universal transcoding: In conjunction with Cisco IOS^® Software, the PVDMs support universal transcoding, which allows conversion from any supported codec to any other supported codec.

●      Transrating: The PVDMs support transrating, in which the same codec is repacketized in order to connect dissimilar networks that have different codec packetization periods.

●      Voice-quality management: The PVDMs perform compression, voice-activity detection, jitter management, and echo cancellation. The echo cancellation offered in the PVDMs has a tail length of 128 milliseconds and complies with ITU-T G.168.

●      Energy savings: The motherboard PVDMs (PVDM4s) offer multiple power-saving modes, including a power-saver mode when the module is not in use. In power-saver mode, each PVDM4 can save up to 5 watts of power.

The analog voice modules (FXS, FXO, and E/M) and Basic Rate Interface (BRI) digital voice modules for the Catalyst 8000 and the 4000 Series ISRs contain built-in, nonconfigurable Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) and do not require any additional PVDMs for voice packetization.

Refer to the PVDM Q&A for commonly asked questions.

Form factor and options

The Cisco PVDMs are available in three form factors with four supported densities in each form factor:

●      Motherboard PVDMs (PVDM4) for densities up to 256 channels (Figure 1)

●      PVDM enhanced Services Modules (SM-X-PVDM) for densities up to 3080 channels (Figure 2)

●      NIM PVDM for densities up to 256 channels (Figure 3)

The motherboard PVDMs are supported on all Cisco 4000 Series ISRs except the ISR 4461. They can be plugged directly into the single slot on the router motherboard or into the Network Interface Module (NIM) that supports T1/E1 ports. A PVDM4 module plugged into the motherboard delivers IP-based voice services such as conferencing, media optimization, and transcoding only.

A PVDM4 module plugged into the T1/E1 NIM would be used for voice T1/E1 connectivity. Any excess channels can be reused toward other IP-based services supported on the motherboard slot. Enhanced DSP architecture accommodates a new packet-processing engine optimized for rich-media voice applications, while concurrently supporting the TDM-IP voice framework.

The PVDM enhanced services modules are supported on all Catalyst 8300s and ISRs that contain an SM-X slot - namely the Cisco 4331, 4351, 4451 and 4461 ISRs.

The PVDM network interface modules are supported on Catalyst 8300s and ISR 4461 all of which contain NIM slots.

The SM-X modules and the NIM PVDM modules support only IP-based voice services and cannot be used for TDM applications.

Table 1 lists the various PVDM options along with their slot requirements.

Table 1.        Cisco PVDM Part Numbers and Slot Requirements

Codec support and capacity

The PVDM4 modules support a wide range of codecs of different complexities. They support all codecs supported by the Cisco 2800/3800 High-Density PVDMs (PVDM3s). Table 2 lists the codecs supported on the PVDM4 and SM-X-PVDM modules, and Table 3 gives the channel densities of the PVDM4, SM-X-PVDM and NIM-PVDM modules. Table 4 lists the media-enhancement features.

Table 2.        Voice, Fax, and Modem Codec Support on PVDMs

Table 3.        Channel Densities of PVDM4, NIM-PVDM-X and SM-X-PVDM Modules

Table 4.        Media-Enhancement Features

Cisco platform availability and performance

The PVDM4 modules are supported on all Cisco 4000 Series ISRs except the ISR 4461. The platform motherboard has one slot for the PVDM4 module. You can plug any additional PVDM4 modules into the T1/E1 NIMs.

The SM-X-PVDM modules are supported on the Catalyst 8300 and the Cisco 4000 Series ISRs with a SM-X slot. Table 5 provides details on the platform support. Tables 6 and 7 give information on platform performance for transcoding and conferencing, respectively.

The NIM-PVDM-X modules are supported on the Catalyst 8300 and the ISR 4461.

Table 5.        Platform Availability for SM-X-PVDM Modules

All SM-X-PVDM modules require minimum of 8GB RAM

Table 6.        Platform Performance for Transcoding

Table 7.        Platform Performance for Conferencing

Note that the 4000 Series ISRs do not support the PVDM3 modules, and the 2900 and 3900 Series ISRs do not support the PVDM4, SM-X-PVDM and NIM-PVDM-X modules.

Product specifications

Table 8 gives the specifications for the PVDM4 and SM-X-PVDM modules.

Table 8.        Module Specifications

Ordering information

To place an order, visit the Cisco Ordering Home Page and refer to Table 1. To download software, visit the Cisco Software Center.

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Information about Cisco’s environmental sustainability policies and initiatives for our products, solutions, operations, and extended operations or supply chain is provided in the “Environment Sustainability” section of Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report.

Reference links to information about key environmental sustainability topics (mentioned in the “Environment Sustainability” section of the CSR Report) are provided in the following table:

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