Editor Reviews:

Product Description:

Exposes the inner workings of Cisco CallManager to help you maximize your Cisco IP Communications solution

• Read new content on QSIG, SIP trunks, video support, hunt lists and line groups, time-of-day routing, and new features added in CallManager releases 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 4.0, and 4.1
• Review content from the first edition that has been fully revised and updated to CallManager release 4.1
• Learn how to deploy and manage a CallManager solution
• Understand the components that make up CallManager call routing through the use of basic to advanced examples that solve enterprise call routing problems
• Gain a full understanding of how CallManager manages media resources and processes information for conferencing, transcoding, annunciation, and more
• Learn detailed information about North American and international dial plans, trunk and station devices, media resources, and much more 

Cisco CallManager Fundamentals, Second Edition, provides examples and reference information about Cisco® CallManager, the call-processing component of the Cisco IP Communications solution. Cisco CallManager Fundamentals uses examples and architectural descriptions to explain how CallManager processes calls. This book details the inner workings of CallManager so that those responsible for designing and maintaining a Voice over IP (VoIP) solution from Cisco Systems® can understand the role each component plays and how they interrelate.

This book is the perfect resource to supplement your understanding of CallManager. You’ll learn detailed information about dial plan management and call routing, hardware and software components, media processing, call detail records, system management and monitoring, and the history of CallManager. The authors, all members of the original team that developed and implemented the CallManager software and documentation from its early stages, also provide a list of features and Cisco solutions that integrate with CallManager.

This second edition of Cisco CallManager Fundamentals covers software releases through release 4.1. With this book, you will gain a deeper understanding of the system and find answers to questions not available in any other source.

This book is part of the Cisco Press® Fundamentals Series. Books in this series introduce networking professionals to new networking technologies, covering network topologies, example deployment concepts, protocols, and management techniques.

Amazon.com Review:
Cisco Systems has lately become aggressive in promoting applications of the IP network infrastructure equipment that the company has traditionally sold. Cisco CallManager--the subject of Cisco CallManager Fundamentals--is essentially an IP-based Public Branch Exchange (PBX) that enables companies to carry their voice and data traffic on a single network infrastructure. This book explains how CallManager (originally developed by Selsius Systems) goes about providing call-control services to IP telephony devices and performing reliably as a corporate telephone switch, and offers insight into how the product may evolve. The volume provides systems architects, engineers, and implementation technicians with the details they need to build strong CallManager systems.

Written by members of the CallManager development team and extensively edited for accuracy, Cisco CallManager Fundamentals uses prose and remarkably clear network diagrams to make its points. People looking for a detailed understanding of how CallManager works will find themselves delighted. While technicians looking for click-this, click-that procedures will be generally disappointed (such didactic techniques are not typical of Cisco Press books), they will find a fair number of sections that explain, in general terms, how to do such administrative work as loading users' names into a CallManager database and routing calls to emergency numbers. --David Wall

Topics covered: All aspects of Cisco CallManager, versions 3.0x and 3.1, of interest to the people who design, implement, and maintain the IP telephony solution. Matters of system architecture (with plenty of information about hardware and network requirements), call routing, media processing, and reporting are all covered. Does not include details of CallManager's integration with the Intelligent Contact Manager (ICM) business-rules engine, or much information on external Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) applications.

Rating : - WARNING! This book is outdated!
One of the other customer reviews for this book (which may have been removed by now because I have complained about it) says: "This book has been updated to include the 4.1 version, a big improvement over the old book which covered 3.0 or maybe 3.1."

But clearly, that customer was referring to the 2nd Edition of the book - this book that you are looking at is the First Edition; in other words, it IS the old book which only covers version 3.1. I know, because I just bought it for $20 and now I will throw it away and buy the 2nd Edition.