TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE)

Score9.9 out of 10

26 Reviews and Ratings

Get a Demo

What is Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE)?

The Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) is a session border controller, which provides session control, security, interworking, and demarcation. CUBE is a software product available for licensing on the Cisco IOS® and Cisco IOS XE Software which runs on Cisco enterprise routers, but is also available for licensing as a software load for a virtual container.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE).
View all reviews

Cisco CUBE, next generation SBC products

Incentivized
Samuel VitalesView profile
Cisco Collaboration Technical Lead in Information Technology at Trans industrias electronicas S.A. (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We migrated several TDM trunks to SIP trunks with Cisco CUBE, and now we have a better view and resource optimization thanks to Cisco CUBE where we centralized SBC, firewall, demarcation, transcoding, and Trans rating. Now we're using a couple of Cisco 44XX ISR CUBES with Box-to-Box redundancy and our communication improves due to CUBE's capabilities.

Pros

  • SBC functions.
  • Firewall demarcation.
  • Universal transcoding.
  • Dialplan administration.
  • TDM and SIP trunk support.

Cons

  • Web interface.
  • Log or debugs view.
  • HSRP redundancy depreciated.

Most Important Features

  • Session border controller.
  • Transcoding.
  • Firewall.
  • Demarcation.

Return on Investment

  • Positive impact, saving on monthly phone bills due to sip trunk migration.
  • Positive, using a couple of CUBEs to concentrate several SIP trunk.
  • Positive, using a couple of CUBEs to route several branch outbound and inbound calls.

Other Software Used

Cisco Jabber, Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Call Manager), Cisco Webex DX80

If you need an SIP adapter, try CUBE!

Incentivized
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees employees)

Pros

  • B2B UA
  • SIP profile
  • Multiple tenants

Cons

  • The way to configure is not so intuitive.
  • It cannot show SIP ladder diagram directly.
  • The learning curve is a bit steep.

Return on Investment

  • Very secure
  • Very flexible
  • License is a bit expensive

Alternatives Considered

Ribbon Session Border Controller (SBC)

Usability

CUBE: Quick n' Easy

Incentivized
Verified User
Contributor in Information Technology (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • Call accounting (Integration with 3rd party applications for ease of use and comprehensive CDR's)
  • Address hiding (Keeping your internal network secure with PSTN calls)
  • Internetworking between multiple protocols
  • SIP profiles (message/header customization)
  • Billing, cost counting

Cons

  • Syntax input should be easier to read and write. For I.E: voice, translations are similar to SED (Stream Editor). Sometimes regular expression is hard to understand for new users.
  • Virtual Cube software stability
  • Cube redundancy setup (defining control interfaces, tracks, setting thresholds and reloads). Redundancy setup should be an automated process, where a user can initiate a setup wizard and then just input key information such as the IP address of Cubes and the exclusive IP address, etc.

Return on Investment

  • N/A

Alternatives Considered

Mitel Applications Suite and Digium Asterisk

Other Software Used

VMware ESXi, Splunk Enterprise Security, Kaseya Traverse

Cisco CUBE deployment to reduce legacy PRI circuits

Incentivized
Verified User
Technician in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Pros

  • As with any Cisco appliance, the support from the TAC is one of the top benefits.
  • Familiar CLI if you're already working within a Cisco environment.
  • Basic configuration between CUCM and CUBE is fairly straight forward to set up.

Cons

  • The expense of the device to run CUBE may have you looking outside Cisco for options.
  • Requires additional DSPs for transcoding operations.
  • There's a bit of a learning curve in getting this set up to work with your specific provider when using this as a SIP gateway.

Return on Investment

  • With the deployment we were able to provide a consistent, easier to support, and central SIP solution. This is not specific to CUBE, but specific to the reason it was deployed.
  • We were able to disconnect legacy PRI circuits and reduce those costs.
  • We were able to go to usage based trunks to put our trunking costs more in-line with our actual usage.

Alternatives Considered

AudioCodes E-SBC

Other Software Used

Microsoft Visual Studio Code

Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) Review

Incentivized
Verified User
Contributor in Information Technology (10,001+ employees employees)

Pros

  • Interconnects VoIP networks, H.323 and SIP
  • Security (encryption, toll fraud prevention)
  • Ability to hide network topology

Cons

  • Price. These things are expensive if you get into using multiple appliances.
  • Advanced setup. If you are unfamiliar with Cisco collaboration products it may be extremely difficult for you to provision.
  • License management.

Return on Investment

  • Saving money on PRI cost by switching to ITSP connections. Massive savings.
  • TAC support is great. Having maintenance with Cisco gear is game changing for small IT shops.
  • Streamline security. Great place for a Demarc.