Media port settings and clustering

The MCU has following media port modes and capacities:

Media port mode	Capacity
nHD	Up to w360p at 30fps.
SD	Up to w448p at 30fps.
HD	Up to 720p at 30fps or w448p at 60fps.
Full HD	Up to 1080p at 30fps (symmetric), or 720p at 60fps.

For information about the number of ports available on the different models of MCU, refer to MCU port matrix.

Each Full HD participant requires four media port licenses. Each HD participant requires two media port licenses. Each SD participant requires one media port license. Each nHD participant requires 0.5 of a port license.

On an MCU 5320, to achieve the full capacity in Full HD mode you would need to allocate 40 port licenses to the MCU. To achieve full capacity in HD mode you need to allocate a total of 40 media port licenses to the MCU. To achieve the full capacity in SD mode you need to allocate a total of 40 media port licenses to the MCU. Full capacity in nHD mode requires 24 licenses (because each nHD port uses half a license).

To check the port license allocation on your MCU go to Settings > Upgrade and scroll down to the Feature management section.

Clustering MCUs

Two MCU 5300s can be clustered to increase capacity. The cluster will provide the sum of the capacities of the individual units, for example, if you cluster two MCU 5320s that each support 10 x 1080p participants you will have a cluster that supports 20 x 1080p participants.

Refer to the Cisco TelePresence MCU 5300 Series Getting started guide for information on how to set up and manage your cluster.

Setting the cluster mode

One of the MCUs acts as the master unit and the second as a slave. Set the cluster mode of each MCU in the cluster using the Cluster mode drop down list then click Apply changes and restart the MCU.

You can check the cluster mode of an MCU by going to Status > Cluster. See Displaying cluster status on a master MCU and Displaying cluster status on a slave MCU for more information.

When you have configured the units as master and slave, do not use the web interface of the slave unit for normal operations. All statistics and configuration information for the cluster can be accessed via the web interface of the master unit. The slave web interface is only used for upgrading code and for network configuration.

Some general points

Some points to note about clustering:

Both units in a cluster must be running the same version of MCU software.
The media port mode used by the cluster is the one configured on the master MCU.
If you restart the master MCU the slave will also restart. All calls and conferences are terminated.
Call Detail Records (CDRs) are stored on and accessible on the master MCU.
Slave MCUs only have admin logins.

Upgrading clustered MCUs

If you need to upgrade the units in a cluster, first upload the new software images to each unit in the cluster and then restart the master. The slaves will automatically restart and the upgrade will be completed.

Configuring the media port mode

To change the media port mode go to Settings > Media ports and select the required media port mode from the drop down list then click Apply changes.

After enabling a mode, you must restart the MCU for changes to take effect.

Selected option

The selected option section shows you how many ports are available for each type of connection in the selected mode. The number of available ports will change when you switch between modes in the drop down menu. This is useful as it allows you to see the port availability before you enable either mode and restart the MCU.

Field	Field description
Media port mode	The required media port capacity. Choose from Full HD, HD, SD or nHD.
Full high definition video ports	The number of 1080p30 (symmetric) video ports available. Note: This is to transmit and receive at this resolution.
High definition video ports	The number of 720p30 video ports available.
Standard definition video ports	Up to w448p at 30fps.
nHD video ports	Up to w360p at 30fps.
Additional audio ports	The number of audio-only ports available. Each audio port can be used by one voice-only participant in a video conference. When audio-only ports are unavailable, voice-only participants will use available video ports. On HD-capable MCUs, the additional audio ports value is 0 when the Media port mode is either SD or nHD.