WIFI-VoIP-PSTN and back
Fiasco:
Hi
Great and informative forum - I feel dangerously educated and would value the opinions of the obitalk grey beards on my plans....
I live in an old house with thick stone walls that limit the effectiveness of radio, wifi and DECT etc comms. I've managed to provide 802.11n wifi throughout the place using range extenders giving ADSL connectivity and internet radio - next is to tackle the phone system.
It's a simple residential set up, a single PSTN line into the property carrying both ADSL and telecoms. I have a mass market phone base station with cordless DECT handsets that deliver limited range which means calls are often missed or fail as the handset drops it's signal. I don't want to install DECT extenders as it seems a dying technology, so can I create an architecture that uses VOIP technology across my Wifi LAN to provide house wide call pick-up of calls arriving on the PSTN line? Specifically:
- install an OBi110 to bridge between the external PSTN line and the internal VOIP network
- use VOIP handsets to connect to the WIfi network, ultimately connecting to the OBi110
- use Asterix (maybe?) to manage the routing of handset calls to/from the OBi?
- keep my existing handset for use in the event of power failure.
Intuitively this feels similar to setting up a small, single line, office solution with all the inherent limitations I can live with at home, each handset having an extension number of its own.
Note - I'm not interested in moving to a full VOIP solution to replace my existing PSTN service, the few calls I make are done using the free minutes on my mobile contract and I need to continue paying for my landline and Broadband, but I do need to be able to reliably answer incoming calls on my existing number.
IT I can do, but telecoms is a world and vocabulary all it's own and getting it wrong could be an expensive mistake so stop me if I'm being stupid!
Thank you.
ianobi:
The simple answer is yes it can be done using just one OBi110. It's worth saying at this point that the OBi was not designed to be used this way, so there may be limitations that I have not yet seen.
I created something similar in my house connecting softphones, two OBi110s, cell phone used as a wifi handset etc. See:
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=4944.msg31966#msg31966
Ignore the digit maps for now, they are way more complex than you need. Do notice the caveats:
All devices (extensions) must be set to call without registration. (Not all voip phones can do this).
All devices (except OBiAPP/OBiONs) must be in the same router subnet.
All devices must be on static subnet addresses.
A further limitation may be that an incoming call can only be forked to a maximum of four different phones/devices.
You could plug the dect base unit into the OBi110 and use them where they work - the base unit only counts as one device, then go for voip phones etc for further away places.
I have a similar problem in my old three storey house. I find the dect phones work fine vertically - the base unit is on the ground floor. Floors and ceilings are wood and plaster so no problem. It's only horizontally that's a problem!
There are other solutions - asterix etc, but as you need the OBi110 anyhow, then you may as well squeeze the last drop of functionality out of it. I like saving money :)
Fiasco:
Great thank you for the help - I'll give it a go when the holiday distractions have subsided.
I've seen the same limitations with DECT signals; vertically through wood and plaster fine, horizontally through rubble and flint farmhouse walls it's quickly attenuated. No one seems interested in solving the problem using the now ubiquitous wifi - guess the money's in business solutions not the residential market.
One last question. The Asterix attraction was because I've a raspberry-pi looking for a project and there's a Asterix based PBX distro available. If I went that route would the (cheaper!) Cisco SPA3102 be a viable alternative, though having read the forums and the inherent difficulties it seems a big ask for a telecoms newbie?
drgeoff:
FWIW I haven't noticed that Wi-Fi is better than DECT at going through walls. Indeed I reckon that my European DECT phones hold up better than 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. Perhaps the fact that the transmit power of US DECT systems is only 40% of the level of the European DECT systems is significant.
ianobi:
Fiasco,
The Raspberry Pi / Asterix / ATA project is one I have considered for 2014, but I'm putting it off for now due to time being limited - I think it will need quite a big commitment. There are people on this forum who have experience of Asterix who may wish to comment.
Cisco v OBi - there are pros and cons. Where I live in the UK an OBi110 used to cost just £35 - that's cheap for what you get. However they seem unavailable at Amazon.co.uk just now. Both will do the basic PSTN to VOIP conversion that you need. I don't think that the Cisco will fork calls simultaneously to more than one device. The OBi110 does a lot more (which you may not want). However, that lot more allowed me to use it as a PSTN to VOIP bridge, VOIP to VOIP bridge, PBX etc. Also you get free access to the OBiTALK network allowing you to join OBi devices up around the world so bridging services in one country with those in another. This is just for future reference in your case!
In your case I would be tempted to buy an OBi110 and set up some tests using free softphones on Laptops and PCs to be the extensions. They cost nothing and would more or less simulate a VOIP phone experience and use pretty much the same OBi110 configuration.
Interestingly, the founders of Obihai also founded the companies that invented and developed ATAs. Those companies were bought by Cisco to obtain their ATA capabilities. The ATA world is a small one!
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