AsteriskIntegration

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The goal is to provide an easy to install version of Asterisk, either for connection to POTS/Copper or as a completely VoIP solution. User would be walked through initial hardware setup. As Asterisk is already packaged, but at one major version behind, coordination with pkg-voip in Debian to pull in latest Asterisk would be needed. Further work would include packaging of the new Asterisk-GUI, as well as working on prebuilt zaptel modules. The goal is to provide an easy to install version of Asterisk, either for connection to POTS/Copper or as a completely VoIP solution. User would be walked through initial hardware setup. As Asterisk is already packaged, coordination with pkg-voip in Debian would be needed. Further work would include packaging of the new Asterisk-GUI, as well as working on prebuilt dahdi modules.
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An interesting solution is [[http://www.asterisknow.org/|FreePBX]], which Debian made some efforts to build a package, but never released it. It's in the pkg-voip subversion tree. However it would require a lot of work and testing to bring the packaging up to release-quality status. Furthermore, the upstream project is in a complete rewrite (version 3.0, probably out at the end of 2010), so we should consider wether it's worthwile to work on the current 2.6 version.
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'''Update:''' The [[http://www.asterisknow.org/|Asterisk Now]] GPL project by Digium, the original creators of Asterisk, is available in beta and provides a very nice and friendly UI wizard in the spirit of an "it just works" approach. AsteriskNOW is released as open source under the GNU General Public License (GPL). -- FabianRodriguez 2007-04-27 The [[http://www.asterisknow.org/|Asterisk Now]] GPL project by Digium, the original creators of Asterisk also provides a very nice and friendly UI wizard in the spirit of an "it just works" approach. AsteriskNOW is released as open source under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Starting with the 1.5,version, the system is now based on CentOS 5.3 with AsteriskGUI, parts of FreePBX and the new DAHDI drivers. -- JmDault 2009-11-20
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Starting from AsteriskNow 1.5, the system is now based on CentOS 5.3, with AsteriskGUI and the new DAHDI drivers. -- JmDault 2009-07-28 As of 2009-11-20, here is the status:
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Packages: everything is built in jmdault's ppa, waiting for review+upload by a MOTU. Packages already in Ubuntu: asterisk, dahdi, dahdi-dkms.

Other packages: everything is built in jmdault's ppa, waiting for review+upload by a MOTU.

Summary

The Asterisk PABX system can provide impressive capabilities to Ubuntu home and business users.

Rationale

With the increasing popularity of VoIP, provision of joined-up voice services would be a major asset for Ubuntu, especially if it installed and integrated usefully out of the box. Asterisk allows seamless use of landline phones with IP telephony which is a growing requirement for small and medium size businesses. An easy to install and admin Asterisk on Ubuntu solution is sorely needed, as the existing tools either require you to adopt another distro or fail to provide timely updates.

Use cases

  • Simon has a small business and wishes to reduce his phone costs. With the Ubuntu server install, he finds he is also equipped with a full-featured PABX system at no cost.
  • Raoul uses Asterisk to host a conference call which his SIP/H323 provider does not allow.

more use cases

Scope

The goal is to provide an easy to install version of Asterisk, either for connection to POTS/Copper or as a completely VoIP solution. User would be walked through initial hardware setup. As Asterisk is already packaged, coordination with pkg-voip in Debian would be needed. Further work would include packaging of the new Asterisk-GUI, as well as working on prebuilt dahdi modules.

Design

Implementation

An interesting solution is FreePBX, which Debian made some efforts to build a package, but never released it. It's in the pkg-voip subversion tree. However it would require a lot of work and testing to bring the packaging up to release-quality status. Furthermore, the upstream project is in a complete rewrite (version 3.0, probably out at the end of 2010), so we should consider wether it's worthwile to work on the current 2.6 version.

The Asterisk Now GPL project by Digium, the original creators of Asterisk also provides a very nice and friendly UI wizard in the spirit of an "it just works" approach. AsteriskNOW is released as open source under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Starting with the 1.5,version, the system is now based on CentOS 5.3 with AsteriskGUI, parts of FreePBX and the new DAHDI drivers. -- JmDault 2009-11-20

As of 2009-11-20, here is the status:

Packages already in Ubuntu: asterisk, dahdi, dahdi-dkms.

Other packages: everything is built in jmdault's ppa, waiting for review+upload by a MOTU.

  • Asterisk 1.6 - already in Debian experimental. Latest version is 1.6.2.0-beta4.
  • asterisk-gui. It's getting there, though it still has some bugs to iron out for production use. Latest version is 2.0.4.9.svn.4809
  • pre-built dahdi modules: need to use 2.0 final, since the 2.0-rc5 has some kernel panic problems. Latest versions: dahdi-linux - 2.2.0.2, dahdi-tools - 2.2.0
  • Use dkms instead of module-assistant to automatically compile the driver for new kernel versions
  • We also need to package Asterisk-addons for the MP3 module (music on hold) and the MySQL module (required for most management front-ends as well as most call center applications). Latest version is asterisk-addons - 1.6.2.0-rc1
  • asterisk-chan-capi: ISDN Channel driver. Latest version (1.1.2) can be taken from Debian, but needs to be rebuilt for the new Asterisk.
  • asterisk-prompt-fr-june: French-Canadian Sounds by June Wallack. Latest version 1.4.15
  • asterisk-core-sounds-es-gsm: Spanish sounds by Allison Smith. Latest version 1.4.15
  • asterisk-sounds-extra: Extra english sounds. Latest version 1.4.9
  • libasterisk-agi-perl: Perl Asterisk interface. Latest version: 1.01
  • op-panel: Flash operator panel for Asterisk. Latest version 0.30

Asterisk and Dahdi would need to be included in main. See MainInclusionReportAsterisk and MainInclusionReportZaptel.

Connecting analog telephone handset require a special FXS interface, or an ATA device. We could probably do the right thing with internal FXS interface and auto-configure for a regular handset, and document the configuration and use of most popular ATA, such as the Sipura/Linksys or the Digium IAXy.

Code

Data preservation and migration

Outstanding issues

References

BoF agenda and discussion

CategorySpec

AsteriskIntegration (last edited 2009-12-10 21:52:23 by pool-71-254-63-126)