Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One Overview

Understanding the Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One Console and Provisioning API

To learn more about the Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One Console and Provisioning API, please visit the following getting started guides:

Getting Started with the Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One Console

Getting Started with the Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One API

Overview

Restcomm Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One helps service providers enable their enterprise customers to send and receive SMS using their Unified Communication (UC) client. Enterprise customers can send either two-way SMS or an SMS to multiple destinations.

If you want to use the Restcomm Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One feature, you will need to complete the following steps:

  • Federate your UC server with Restcomm Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One

  • Reach out to Telestax Global Support Services (GSS) if you are bringing your own numbers (existing numbers).

    • GSS will do the setup from backend to SMS enable your (existing) numbers automatically whenever you create a new mapping.

    • By default, Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One assumes that you will buy a new number from Restcomm unless explicitly configured by GSS.

  • Create a mapping (via API or UI Console)

  • Start sending messages

Prerequisites

In order to complete the aforementioned steps, you will need:

  • An operational XMPP server on the public internet with valid, CA-issued certificates

  • An open firewall port to your XMPP server, allowing incoming traffic from xmpp.restcomm.com’s IP on port 5269

  • Working knowledge of cURL and a way to make HTTP API calls (either using cURL or Postman; we recommend Postman if you’re not familiar with cURL.)

  • An understanding of Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One API’s or Console on how to add mappings.

  • An activated linke:https://cloud.restcomm.com/#/signup[Restcomm Cloud account].

Federating your UC server

Federation is the process of establishing a server-to-server connection between your messaging environment and ours. Once this connection is established, the two servers will manage to stay connected on their own.

The process of federation is managed by the Telestax Global Support Services (GSS) organization and must be scheduled. Please contact your Telestax sales or GSS representative to schedule your federation interop.

Follow the steps below to federate your server:

  • Add your server’s IP addresses to our Whitelist using the Whitelist API as explained the Create IP Whitelisting section of Message Exchange(MX) for Cisco UC-One API documentation.

  • Create DNS SRV records on your DNS servers for our Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One server (cloud-xmpp-server.restcomm.com).

  • Ensure your server is on the public internet and has a firewall port open for port 5269

  • Ensure your firewall is allowing incoming traffic from cloud-xmpp-server.restcomm.com’s IP address

  • From a contact on your server, create a new contact and, for the IM address, enter interop@restcomm.com

  • Save the contact record and send a test message to interop@restcomm.com. This will initiate the server federation process. Our technical representatives will verify that the federation has been successfully completed.

Use an already federated XMPP server and XMPP client

Restcomm Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One has already been federated with a number of public servers. If you don’t have your own UC server to federate with, you can use XMPP.is and register an account there. If you don’t have a UC client, you are able to utilize any XMPP client. Pidgin and Audium have been successfully tested with Restcomm Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One. You can configure either of those clients with the previously created account from XMPP.is.

Setting up your first mapping

Note: You must have a valid, working Restcomm account in order to complete this step. If you do not have one, you can sign up here or contact us.

The purpose of an XMPP mapping is to associate a phone number with an existing XMPP contact on your UC server. For example, imagine you have a user with the XMPP address of joe@myserver.com and Joe’s desk phone is +1-919-555-1212.

An XMPP mapping will tell the Restcomm Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One service to send all inbound SMS messages sent to Joe’s number to joe@myserver.com. Additionally, any time Joe sends an outbound SMS from his XMPP account, it will be sent from his phone number.

You can set up your mapping in two different ways, either via the Restcomm Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One Console or via the API. For the purposes of this guide, we will use the Restcomm Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One Console and will be using a new number rather than an existing number.

Setting up a new mapping * Log in to your Restcomm account * Create new Mapping as explained in the Add Mappings section of the Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One Console documentation.

Receiving an SMS/message to your UC client

Once you’ve completed all of the steps above, you’re ready to test. Login to your UC client as your test user (in our case joe@myserver.com)., Then, using your mobile phone, send a text message to the number you added to Restcomm.

You should then see the message appear in your UC client.

Sending an SMS/message from your UC client

To send an SMS message from your UC client, perform the following steps:

  • Add a contact to your contact list in your UC client as you would normally.

  • In the IM Address field, enter the address in the format of phoneNumber@restcomm.com or, if you have a custom domain, phoneNumber@yourdomain.com. For example, if your cell phone number is 19195551212, then you would enter 19195551212@restcomm.com for the IM Address of the contact.

  • Once the contact is added, send a message from your client to the new contact.

  • Restcomm Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One will convert the message from a UC message to SMS and route it to the number provided.

  • The message will appear on the destination handset.

Use your custom domain

Restcomm message exchange supports usage of custom domains. For example you can use phoneNumber@mycompany.com instead of phoneNumber@restcomm.com

Setting up your custom domain

In order to use your custom domain with Restcomm message exchange, you need to:

  • Provide a valid certificate obtained by a trusted third party organization

    • You should provide a full chain certificate in PEM format, that obtains Root CA and intermediate CAs

  • You have to create a DNS SRV record pointing to Restcomm Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One. For example, the DNS SRV record for xmpp.mycompany.com should look like:

    _xmpp-server._tcp.xmpp.mycompany.com. 1 1 5269 cloud-xmpp-server.restcomm.com.
Pay attention to _ or . characters since they are important for DNS SRV records
DNS Records propagation might take some time to complete.

Setting up your domain with GoDaddy

For simplicity, let’s assume your domain is testxmpp.com and for UC-One you use sub-domain text.testxmpp.com. The next step is to make sure you set DNS SRV for your subdomain to point to our XMPP server (cloud-xmpp-server.restcomm.com). Below is a screenshot on how to set up DNS SRV on GoDaddy.

Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One - Setting Up a Your DNS SRV Record

Setting up your SSL certificate with GoDaddy

Prior to using white labeling, you must:

Make sure the order of the SSL Certificate chain is as follows: your domain certificate, your private key, authority issuing your certificate, root certificate.

For simplicity let’s assume your domain is testxmpp.com and for UC-One you are using the following sub-domain: text.testxmpp.com. In the steps below, we will explain how to generate a private key and certificate using OpenSSL.

  • Generate an openssl key (GSS bought a domain on Godaddy text.textxmpp.com)

$ openssl genrsa -out text.testxmpp.com.key 2048

  • Create your CSR or certification request file (notice the password below is just an example, please use your own strong password)

$ openssl req -new -key text.testxmpp.com.key -out text.testxmpp.com.csr

Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One - Creating CSR certification request

  • Copy the content of the newly created text.testxmpp.com.csr and paste it into the Godaddy CSR enrollment form.

  • When you receive the confirmation, download the certificate zip file from you Godaddy Dashboard

Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One - Download the certificate zip file

  • The content of the certificate zip file for Tomcat should look like the one below:

Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One - Content of the certificate zip

  • Combine the certificate from Godaddy with the openssl key you generated in step one

$ cat '/home/charles/Downloads/text.testxmpp.com/51e1fbfeeae30fdb.crt' '/home/charles/telestax/text.testxmpp.com.key' '/home/charles/Downloads/text.testxmpp.com/gd_bundle-g2-g1.crt' > text.testxmpp.combined.pem....

  • The newly created text.testxmpp.combined.pem will contain the certificate you need in order to create a new domain mapping in the Console UI. Copy and paste the content of the combine.pem to the Console UI.

  • If the mapping and the certificate are valid, you will see a confirmation message that the domain was successfully added.

Setting up a new domain in Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One via API

Find out more about setting up a new domain using the Message Exchange for Cisco UC-One API at Create Domain API documentation page.