Standard telephony functions such as placing and receiving calls, putting calls on hold, call transfer, conferencing, and speed dialing.
Cisco IP Communicator works like a traditional telephone, allowing you to place and receive phone calls, put calls on hold, speed- Monash University Go to product viewer dialog for this item. Cisco IP Communicator - (v. 8.6) - License - 1 User - Win cisco ip communicator
A defining characteristic of CIPC is its Graphical User Interface (GUI), which mimics the physical layout of the Cisco Unified IP Phone series (specifically the 7900 series). Standard telephony functions such as placing and receiving
: Optimized for use over VPN or low-bandwidth connections, often requiring the "Optimize for low bandwidth" setting to maintain call quality. Hardware IP phones can tag packets at the
Quality of Service is paramount in voice communication. Hardware IP phones can tag packets at the network switch level (Layer 2 Cos) or within the packet itself (Layer 3 DSCP). Because CIPC ran on a general-purpose OS, it relied on the Windows networking stack and the network adapter drivers to tag packets.
Cisco IP Communicator represents a pivotal era in the history of Unified Communications. It successfully proved that enterprise-grade telephony could be virtualized and delivered via software, paving the way for the "softphone" to become a standard business tool. While it has been superseded by more modern, cross-platform applications, its legacy remains in the current architecture of soft-clients that prioritize feature parity with hardware desksets while leveraging the processing power of modern computing devices.
Cisco IP Communicator is designed to function as a logical endpoint within the Cisco Unified Communications ecosystem. Its architecture mirrors that of Cisco’s hardware counterparts, relying on standardized VoIP protocols.