OpenPBX

Owned by Christian Richter
Jul 21, 2023

beroNet Open PBX

What it is

The Userapp beroPBX is a software application that can be used in combination to the asterisk userapp. It provides an Interface for simple asterisk configuration and contains the necessary scripts and applications to enable pnp configuration provisioning of snom phones. Also you can modify the supplied configurations or upload your own.

System prerequisites

You need to have the userapp asterisk as well as the asterisk-sounds userapp installed on your beroFix device, as the beropbx app only extends the usablitiy of the asterisk app through the use of a GUI implementation of something like a basic asterisk configurator. Also although not necessary it is pratical to have snom phones, because they can be provisioned via pnp and this makes management of your telecommunication infrastructure much more pleasant because many tasks can be automated. Of course you also need the OpenPBX app that can be found here: OpenPBX

Definitions

  • SIP-Phone

Is a hard(physically) or soft(software) phone capable of SIP communication

  • SIP-Trunk

A line or link that can carry many signals at once, usually an uplink to a switching center or nodes in a communications system

  • SIP-User

Is an account of an user that uses SIP communication, a SIP-User consists of at least a name, extension and in this case also a voicemail setting, an email address (which is used by the voicemail system) and a SIP-Group

  • SIP-Group

Is very similar to SIP-User but it also contains information about all SIP-Users that are in this group

  • SIP-Extension

(Is a logical device that correlates to some) phone (or trunk)

  • PBX

Private branch exchange

  • Asterisk

is a powerful software PBX telephone system

  • app/userapp

is a acronym for (user-)application

  • XML

Extensible Markup Language

Overview

The beroPBX userapp consists of 2 Parts:

  • Part I)

Enabling easy asterisk configuration via GUI

This part is based on the asterisk userapp and focuses on being an interface between the configuration files asterisk works with and the user. It's main task is extending existing configuring of the asterisk userapp and doing this in a more user friendly manner(GUI).

  • Part II)

Providing a configuration service to snom phones based on pnp. This part is focuses on provisioning of snom pnones via pnp. Its main task is providing a deamon who will answer provisioning requests and to actually provide the configuration in XML format.

Logical Frame

The Userapp beroPBX creates SIP-(user,trunks,extensions and groups).
SIP-user are used to identify a certain user. A SIP-trunk can carry multiple calls.
SIP-user can be called using their respective SIP-extension.
A SIP-group functions similar to the SIP-user, it has a SIP-extension that can be called, which if called relays the call to all members of the SIP-group so that their respective SIP-extensions receive a ringing signal.
The dialplan governs how each SIP-extension can behave in respect to call direction (inbound,outbound) and which ways calls are routed and not.
Also you can set actions that are to be executed if a certain condition is met e.g. if the called extension is busy, redirect the call to it's respective voicemail.
Each SIP-phone can be allocated to a certain SIP-user.
For each registered SIP-phone, you can store information like it's IP- and MAC-Address.
If you have snom SIP-phones, you can also provide them with custom configuration and you can even do this automatically via PnP provisioning.
The beroPBX userapp comes outfitted with a sample configuration for snom phones, which can be used as is or be modified to enable custom phone configuration.

Details

Idea/purpose

The basic idea of the OpenPBX software is to enable people with very little/basic knowledge of telecommunication to be able to configure their own call routing and dialplan without being forced of learning all of what is possible immediately. Also we find it is a nice experience to have a GUI that can help you to make your own configuration, because later you can then see what you did in the resulting configuration files.

Range of functions / software capability

Dialplan

(Main interface for defining in- and outbound rules for calls to and from the berofix device)
On this page you can define rules governing In- and Outbound calls. Before you can do this you have to add user's, which are allowed to used these rules.

 

 

By clicking on their respective button you can add/modify/delete an inbound rule or an outbound rule.

Add inbound rule

 

 

The inbound rule structure consists of the following as can also be seen above:

  • Trunk

SIP Peer that can provide or receive

  • Source (OAD)

OAD of the Call

  • Target (DAD)

DAD of the Call

  • Action (none, dial, hangup, voicemail)

What is to be done when a call is detected matching the Trunk/source/target

  • Extension

Number/Useracc for call processing

Add outbound rule

 

 

The outbound rule structure consists of the following as can be seen above:

  • Originating Extension

the valid extension for this rule

  • Target Number Prefix

a string of numbers that are prepended to calls which are governed using this rule

  • Target Number Min. Length

the minimum length of a number for it to be valid (for this rule)

  • Action{none, dial, hangup)

what is to be done when this rule applies

SIP Trunks

This is the main interface for configuring SIP trunks, on this page you can add/delete/modify SIP-trunks that can be used for receiving and sending calls to the openPBX/asterisk.

 

Add SIP trunk

 

 

The SIP-Trunk structure consists of the following as can also be seen above:

  • Name

Name of the SIP-Trunk, which is only used to identify this Trunk

  • User

The User that can be authenticated, this user can be used to differentiate between multiple SIP-Devices

  • Password

Similar to User, is a string of symbols used to authenticate a specific user

  • Registrar

This Host is used to register a SIP-Device

  • Proxy

This a host that will accept calls without registration and only redirects them somewhere

  • DTMF-Mode (rfc2833,inband,info)

DTMF-Mode Setting, set this according to your needs

  • Codecs ([all],alaw,gsm,ilbc,ulaw)

Here you can choose the codec that best fit's you needs, defaultly all codecs are allowed

  • Other Settings

asterisk specific special configuraion

Users and Groups

(main interface / overview of all SIP useraccounts, all SIP groups)

 

 

On this page you can {create/delete/modify}SIP-{User/Groups} and see an overview of all previously configured users and groups.

Add SIP User

The add/modify SIP-user structure consists of the following as can be seen in picture below:

  • Name

Name of the SIP Useraccount, used only for identification

  • Extension

Name/Number of extension, used for call processing

  • Password

Password used to authenticate a User trying to use this extension

  • Voicemail{[0],1}

En- / disables voice-mail for this sip user

  • Mail-Address

Email-Address to which voice-mail messages are sent

  • Devices

Here you can choose one or more devices from a list of known/registered devices (which are used by this sip user)

  • Other Settings

Asterisk specific special configuration

Add SIP Group

The add/modify SIP-group structure consists of the following as can be seen in the picture below:

  • Name

Name of the SIP Usergroup, used only for identification

  • Extension

Here you can define an extension that if called will call all users specified below

  • Voicemail

Voicemail setting for an SIP group

  • Mail-Address

Emailaddress to which voicemail messages are sent to

  • Description

Here you can enter a description that can be seen from that Users & Groups overview

  • Users

Here you can define which users are supposed to be part of a group

Devices/Phones

(Main interface / overview)

 

 

On this page you can see an overview of all previously configured phones. Here you can add/modify/delete phones and after configuration see them in the table displaying all phones and some basic information like name, IP-adress, MAC-adress. Also you are provided with basic remote control funtions to manage phones remotly (pushing configuration /resetting configuration /rebooting the phone /phone-webinterface)

Add Phone

The add phone structure consists of the following as can be seen in the picture below:

 

  • Name

Name of the phone, used only for identification

  • Type

Model/Type of Phone {snom{300,320,360,370,720,760,820,821,870}

  • IP-Address

If known enter the IP-Address of the SIP phone

  • MAC-Address

If known enter the MAC-Address of the SIP phone

Devices/Templates

(Main interface / overview)

 

 

The Table structure consists only of two coulumns as can be seen above:

  • Name

Name of the snom telephone profile template

  • Description

A Field for descriptions of this profile template

The beroPBX userapp provides a simple snom-default configuration template, which can be used or modified to your liking.
For more information on the configuration of snom-phone provisioning, please read the manual of your phone or other information provided by snom.
The snom_default profile template can be seen below:

 

Management/State

This is the default page of the beropbx, it displays useful information like current SIP Registrations and active channels used by currently running calls.

 

Management/Mail configuration

This is the interface for configuring E-Mail settings for later use e.g. Voicemail notification.

 

Management/PNP configuration

This is what the PNP configuration interface looks like. Here you can activate the PNP deamon and set rules defining which devices should be allowed to use this provisioning feature. Devices are distinguished by their respective MAC-address. It is also possible to allow all devices using snom's MAC-addresses range as seen in the following picture.

 

Management/Backup and restore

This is what the backup and restore interface looks like. You can download your current configuration or upload and restore an backup of your configuration.

 

Management/Userapp Management

This is the userapp management interace. Here you will find information on all installed userapp's. Also you can see how many slots they use as well as userapp relevant setting like userapp support, ssh support and ssh login password and remote shares. Note: What you see on the top left side, depends on installed userapps, in this case zeroconf-pbx, beroPBX and asterisk.

 

Management/BeroGUI

This is a redirect to the default main berofix page → Management/State. What you see here, depends on the modules installed on your berofix device, in this case two BF4S0 modules.

If you need scheduled remote assistance, you can request our on-demand support services: https://www.beronet.com/support