High-Performance Gatekeeper
In IOS release 12.2(2)T, Cisco introduced a substantial enhancement to the
MCM gatekeeper.This new implementation introduces clustering of multiple
gatekeepers.This provides greatly improved, carrier class reliability, security, and
performance.The high performance gatekeeper is supported on the 2600, 3600,
M3810, and 7200 platforms.
Gatekeeper clustering is a Cisco feature that groups multiple gatekeepers logically
together.Although only one gatekeeper manages a zone, each gatekeeper
shares all its local zone information with the cluster.This allows the cluster to
effectively manage each zone. Another feature to increase performance is gatekeeper
load balancing. One gatekeeper can dynamically move registered H.323
endpoints to another gatekeeper based on a threshold on the gatekeeper being
met.Thresholds can be set on the number of calls, CPU utilization, or memory
utilization.This increases gatekeeper scalability as well.
The High Performance Gatekeeper offers performance and reliability
increases that appeal to enterprises, though this product also has features targeted
to a service provider network. One of these features is a robust, open application
programming interface (API).This is designed to allow service providers to
develop enhanced voice and virtual private network (VPN) solutions to offer to
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138 Chapter 5 • Voice and Video Gatekeeper Design
customers. Another feature is very detailed call information that can be reported
to a RADIUS server for billing purposes.