Wish: Asterisk embedded ATA

[Saqqara]

The preferred formula for remote users on this forum seems to be having a pbx on each site. Obviously, that's too many moving parts in terms of extra hardware and nerd oriented software to be an ideal situation.

What I wish the industry would produce is a super ATA with some PBX features, perhaps embedding a streamlined version of asterisk.

1. Multiple voip trunks and configurable routes. I want to be able to have the device act as an extension of my PBX, but also to receive DID calls and place outbound calls directly with the SIP trunking provider.

The extra legs and latency having the PBX in the middle of a call unnecessarily results in bad quality. Consider that a call may be going half way around the world and back just to dial out to someone next door.

2. Voicemail redirect. I want the DID call to be redirected to my PBX after so many rings. An embedded system which can record the message and then email it would be useful too.

3. VPN client.

4. Ideally: Extensions. An ATA could be the gateway for other sip phones on the LAN.

If hackers could do for a PAP2T what DD-WRT does for a Linksys WRT54G series router, we'd really have something. Now that would be a worthy direction for PIAF. Because frankly while to most of us on this forum might appreciate having an PC at home dedicated to Asterisk to tinker with, we're in the minority.

 

[Alex728]

This any good?

http://www.rowetel.com/ucasterisk/store.html

 

[Saqqara]

Fascinating! Yes, very close, particularly their 1 port model.

As I still think of this as a remote "fat" client and not a full fledged server, another interesting option would be to have the administration handled remotely on the main PBX, aand the config files then copied down.

 

[Alex728]

its 100% open source (hardware too!) so might be worth discussing this on their community forum (the in depth bits of the coding required are beyond me unfortunately)

 

[diedaar]

An other project is Askozia http://www.askozia.com
Their claim / aim is:
Askozia®PBX aims to make the power of Asterisk® available to the average user in a slimmed down, embedded PC friendly form.
AskoziaPBX is more than another GUI for Asterisk. It is an embedded PBX solution which eases system upgrades, backups and provisioning.

Someone already build an appliance (maybe a bit expensive)
http://www.applianceshop.eu/index.php/appliances/opnaskozia-askozia-appliance-ip-and-isdn.html

There will be a (niche?) market for a solution like this, based on the provisioning part.

 

[hraynor]

Depending on what you refer to as embedded, you can get a single (Atom 230) or dual core (Atom 330) board and put something small and energy efficient together for around $200. And then you can run the full blown PIAF on it. COuld use either a real HD, SSD, or compact flash (though note that with CF you'll have to be worried about too many writes wearing out the card - something like AstLinux perhaps would be better if you use a CF card).

The MSI Wind (Atom 330) with case and PS sells for around $149 - all you need is RAM and a HD. If you need PCI slots, you could either go with the Intel board (around $82) and case (around $49) which would give you 1 PCI or the Jetway board and case (around $189 together) that would give you 2 PCI slots in a very small form factor. Jetway also has a version of the bundle that includes a CF drive in the front. The other advantage of the Jetway is that it includes brackets for wall mounting.

My components should be here tomorrow to finish mine (using an old 80 GB laptop drive for mine). I chose to go the Intel board with a Apex case.

WIth any of these with PCI slots you could use one or two Digium, Sangoma, or other cards.

Of course the other route would be to buy an Atom 270 netbook, Tiger Direct has refurb ones for $239 with $2.99 shipping... overall footprint is smaller than the above. (only single core though, 1 GB RAM instead of 2, exp to 1.5). (no PCI slots obviously either).

 

[jmullinix]

I have installed some systems running on the Intel D945GCLF2 motherboard, Jetway JC-104 case and Atom Dual core processor. They work swimmingly. The only gotcha's are, the NIC drivers don't install by default, so you will have to manually install them and only one of the PCI slots on the riser card works.

I install them with 2-GB RAM, a laptop hard drive and a Sangoma TDM card.

 

[klingon888]

Depending on how many calls you're looking at having simultaneously, look at Openwrt with Asterisk installed on a ASUS WL-500G router and external USB stick as the "drive". I have it installed and its able to handle up to 3 calls all using G711 codec even with MOH but of course only gsm format and not mp3. I've managed to port all my current Asterisk/Freepbx config over incl CallerID superfecta, so I have all the call routing functionality etc of an Asterisk system. You will not have the nice Freepbx GUI for config but its not a big deal to go back to the basics of modifying the conf files. And all this at only 5 watts and no moving parts! Awesome little router with surprising performance. Call quality has been as good as my dedicated Asterisk PC as long as I keep it to 3 simul calls. If anyone's interested going this route, I'll be happy to share my step by step.

 

[foneman]

gumstix

I have also heard of using the gumstix. it is about the size of a larger flashdive with NIC and or USB but cannot handle the GUI so only raw asterisk....I am thinking of getting one as a toy to play with and check out.

 

[Saqqara]

sip proxies

It seems to me I may be able to get some of what I need by revising the dialplan on the PAP2. To review; what I'm after is outside calls routing directly to and from the remote ATA from the carrier without an extra call leg through our PBX, but internal calls going through the PBX.

I would register directly with my SIP carrier for inbound and outbound, but set a dialplan provision on the ata for four digit extensions which appends @myofficepbxdomain.com.

http://forums.linksys.com/linksys/board/message?message.uid=209794#U209794

Then configure sip proxies on the PIAF server.

The catch is voicemail, but there are voicemail server config fields in the PAP2, I just need to figure them out, and determine if they will work with comedian mail.

Also, if the ATA is unhooked, voicemail wouldn't be handled.

 

[jroper]

Hi

You could install vanilla asterisk, and include AsteriskGUI version 2 to give you an interface to manage the system.

See instructions for ASteriskGUI here - http://www.fonicaprojects.com/wiki/index.php/Asterisk_GUI

Do not install over the top of FreePBX, it will trash your config files.

It's quite a nice interface, and I love their version of config-edit. Now if anyone can rewrite that as a FreePBX module....????

Joe