Preparing for the CCIE Voice Written Exam

Updated with Version 3 Information Here

Beginning to pursue the CCIE Voice written exam can be daunting.  But, I feel it's best approached as an extension of the Cisco CCVP certification.   Much of the suggested reading for the CCVP forms the groundwork for the CCIE Voice Written.

The CCVP certification covers Cisco Voice over IP, QoS Principles, and Implementing and Troubleshooting Cisco Unified Communications Systems.  Personally, I found that the CCVP gave me a nice introduction - but it did not provide me all that I needed to know in order to competently support Cisco Unified Communications system.  For me, there was no substitute for experience.

That said, the CCVP also did not prepare me to pass the CCIE Voice Written exam.  The CCIE Voice Written exam requires a much deeper understanding of the CCVP topics - plus many more topics that are not covered within the CCVP - see the blueprint below.  In fact, the first time I took the CCIE Voice Written (I passed on my second attempt) - I was really caught off guard at the shear scope of the topics you will need to know for the CCIE Voice written.

Don't make the same mistake - make sure you're prepared! 

CCIE Voice Written Blueprint

The following blueprint comes from Cisco's CCIE Voice section of their certification website.  

1. CallManager
         1. Codecs/Regions
         2. Redundancy (CM Groups/Device Pool)
         3. Dial Plan: Gatekeeper, SIP Proxy, Route Patterns, Route Groups, Route Lists, Digit Manipulation and Digit Analysis
         4. Music On Hold
         5. Conferencing (Audio and Video)
         6. Transcoding
         7. Media Termination Points
         8. CM Features: Extension Mobility, IPMA, Attendant Console, Call Park, Pickup
         9. Phone Settings
        10. CTI, TAPI and JTAPI Interface

2. QoS
         1. Link Efficiency: LFI, MLPPP, FRF.12, cRTP, VAD
         2. Classification and Marking
         3. Congestion Management: Queuing
         4. CAC: RSVP, GK
         5. Traffic Policing and Shaping
         6. LAN QoS
         7. CM CAC and GK. Hub and Spoke/Fully Meshed MPLS

3. Telephony Protocols
         1. SCCP
         2. RTP & cRTP
         3. MGCP
         4. SIP
         5. H323
         6. Analog and TDM Signaling

4. Unity
         1. Integration
         2. MWI, SMDI
         3. DPA
         4. Call Handlers
         5. Unified Messaging
         6. VPIM

5. IOS IP Telephony Skills
         1. SRST
         2. CME
         3. CUE

6. IP IVR/IPCC Express
         1. Speech Recognition
         2. ICD Functions
         3. Database Lookups
         4. VXML

7. Security
         1. DHCP Snooping
         2. MCS OS Hardening
         3. Phone Authentication and Encryption
         4. TCP/UDP Port List
         5. Firewalls and Application Layer Gateways (ALG)
         6. NAT

8. Infrastructure Protocols
         1. DNS
         2. TFTP
         3. NTP
         4. Inline Power: Cisco and 802.3af

9. Application Protocols
         1. IP Multicast
         2. Video
         3. Fax and Modem

10. Operations and Network Management 

Suggested Reading for CCIE Voice Written

The following list is from the mouth of Ben Ng (in charge of the Cisco CCIE Voice program), the following books are recommended reading to prepare for the CCIE Voice written exam.  This is still current as of today - but an update is in the works. 

For the CCIE Voice Written exam, I'd recommend the following (Cisco Press books). And please study it with the written exam blueprint topics in mind.

1. Cisco Voice over IP, Third Edition (Kevin Wallace)

2. Cisco Voice Gateways and Gatekeepers (Donohue, Mallory, Salhoff)

3. Voice over IP Fundamentals, 2nd Edition (Jonathan Davidson, James Peters, Manoj Bhatia, Satish Kalidindi, Sudipto Mukherjee)

4. Cisco IP Communications Express: CallManager Express with Cisco Unity Express (Danelle Au, Baldwin Choi, Rajesh Haridas, Christina Hattingh, Ravi Koulagi, Mike Tasker, Lillian Xia.)

5. End-to-End QoS Network Design: Quality of Service in LANs, WANs, and VPNs (Tim Szigeti, Christina Hattingh)

6. SIP Trunking (Christina Hattingh, Darryl Sladden, ATM Zakaria Swapan)

Sample CCIE Voice Written Questions

So, you think that you're ready to take the CCIE Voice Written exam now?  Well, before you shell out $300 for the exam - take the sample exam provided by Cisco below.  If it seems completely foreign - I suggest doing some more review!

Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to suggest that you carefully choose your study materials to those that do not violate any Cisco NDA agreements or other legal mumbo jumbo.  Hence, I have chosen only the Cisco sample exam questions below.

Cisco Learning Network Exam Practice 

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