Types of Gatekeepers
As with voice networks, there are several implementations of gatekeepers, both
from Cisco and other companies. Cisco employs three types of gatekeepers in
H.323 networks: Embedded gatekeepers, MCM, and a new high performance
gatekeeper.As discussed earlier, while any standards-compliant gatekeeper should
function correctly, Cisco gatekeepers offer several advantages.They have been
tested in AVVID implementations, and offer features beyond those defined by the
standard. Cisco also offers excellent support.
Several vendors have created gatekeeper implementations that run on Intel
and Sun platforms.While these implementations do perform the gatekeeper
functions, we highly recommend using Cisco’s gatekeeper implementation.This
not only assures compatibility with other AVVID components, but also provides
additional features.