VOIP gateways - feedback

Which PBX do you have right now? I've worked with some of the Patton equipment (mainly from the aspect of the opposite of what you seek to do, namely having a VoIP system connected to PSTN lines as a backup to the SIP trunk), even though I personally did not find it the most fun to configure, their support people aren't bad at all. The menu did not necessarily lend themselves to quick and easy configuration. However, once it was all configured (like I said, I leaned heavily on support), zero problems. Luckily I haven't had a storm blow out the configuration.

The benefit of VoIP is that it provides dual features single high-speed internet feed over which voice and regular data flow. Prioritization of VoIP/sip insures high quality pergormance for voice calls.
Before selecting a gateway by reputation/experience you have to define the ISP feed you are getting.

In your case, you wish to maintain the internal analog pbx, the cost savings from pstn might not materialize.
How many pstn lines do you have?

Arnold: About 30 users and 8 lines.
Masnrock: Nortel PBX. What size was your system? Which Patton system did you get? I am not looking for backup system as you describe - however I wouldn't mind reducing the PSTN to one line that I can fall back on if the Internet goes down. Besides the Patton system did you have to get any additional switches, connections at the phone end?

Also have DID and FAX.

Adtran is a gateway that has the capability of handling SIP trunk while feeding an Analog PBX.
The likely issue though for you is that you would not want to get your VOIP service from your local phone provider.
Does the location currently have an Internet feed that could sustain the calls you wish to handle? 8 lines suggests 8 simulteneous calls incoming/outgoing.

You mentioned DID, this means you have PRI feeds into the Nortel in addition to the 8 PSTNs??

Arnold:

You are correct - I don't want to get VOIP from my local phone supplier.  I want to buy whatever it takes to make and receive calls internally and externally using my existing equipment without relying on the local phone provider for anything but perhaps a single backup phone line.  I want to handle all by myself - get whatever gear I need to hook my PBX to a SIP.  As far as the DID I want that feature and I want also to be able to have in and out FAX - just don't want it from a phone company or a VOIP provider - only want to buy SIP and Internet from third parties.

The difficulty is your internet feed has to be known/router used to get Internet to have the capability of having an interface that could feed a gateway that can be configured to a sip trunk as well as having the option to output/input feed to block 66 from which the "lines" will go into the pbx.

You then have to locate a sip trunk provider who will provide you their own number initially until your existing number/s are ported to the new provider.

You might control how much equipment you have to get by evaluating the available sip trunk providers and their recommended/supported equipment.  And at the same time determine the source of your internet provider options.
Some, even third party providers use the local telephone carrier for the last mile connection. Some might rely on a cable provider.

DiD could you detail what it is you need/mean?
Usually, your pbx configuration will dictate how incoming calls are handled as far as number dialed and .......

To narrow your search based on your requirement, you are looking for an FXS gateway

Internet <=> FXS gateway <=> analog line block <=> your existing pbx
Since your existing pbx only has/uses 8 incoming lines, that means you have several unused lines to make it possible to handle the connection of .....

This way you could transition with minimal impact ..

Arnold: What Adtran are you using and what glitches did you encounter in setting UP

Masnrock: What Patton equipment did you work with? Which would be closest to my requirements?

The one being used is a PRI delivered 924e which might not suit your needs unless, you can split off a PRI from your router. The device has two 10/100 and 1 GIg port, as well as a plenum out (66punch block)
The in use is for feeds a Digital Cisco device so the setup is not what you are after..
The complexity in your situation is that you have to identify several providers to make sure the device you acquire matches their supported device list, etc. to avoid the situation that each vendor pointing at the other while you are stuck in the middle trying to get things to work.
Have used their 924 (e has fout e1/t1 ports while the other only has a single E1/T1 and a DSX (digital feed and a plenum to 66 punch block).

In this case the vendor delivering the Circuit configured had the Adtran.


If I were in your situation the first thing to consider evaluate is the existing Internet Connection/feed upload/download speeds.
Second, whether the number of simultaneous calls (incoming+outgoing)*90kb is well below the upload/download speeds of the feed.
Third, could the router from the ISP provider can be configured to prioritize VOIP/SIP/H.323 etc. while disabling ALG VOIP, H.323 on the router. Some routers have it enabled by default and could not be switched off and causes issues with SIP providers...
once the capacity is assessed and determined to be appropriate/workable (QoS and bandwidth allocation.....)
Then identifying the VOIP/SIP trunk providers to see the prices/features/etc. as well as what equipment they support/recommend.

Masnrock:  Any futher comments? I am particularly interested in 'glitches' during the rollout.

Sorry, had been pretty tied up lately. But to answer your question, the last piece of Patton equipment I had used was the Smartnode 4114, which is an FXO device. As Arnold has pointed out, you need something with FXS ports, but the right model depends on exactly how your VoIP service is getting delivered. The SN 4118 for example might work well for you.

Well, to tell you where my issues were... some of the options in the web interface did not quite work in a way as exacted. I was using the SN4114 with a 3CX system. And now that I think about it, I actually had 3CX work with it (Patton was one of their preferred brands). I had contacted Patton first, and they did try... but at the end of it all, the 3CX engineer actually programmed it. Patton had offered documentation, but that didn't do me any good. I had told them what I had attempted. Hard to say whether it was a 3CX-related quirk as they do have some strange things in their configurations.

As for your question on needing additional network equipment, the answer was no. The Patton I was using interfaced with the network (and that was the link to the 3CX) as well as the FXO ports. Was able to program into the 3CX myself to use the SIP as the primary (which it already was) and to use the PSTN lines as the backup.

What model is your PBX? I'm sure you've checked, but was wondering if there was a VoIP module that already existed for it. And how are you getting phone service to it now? T1 or just a handful of PSTN lines?

masnrock: No worries. I know how it is.

We have PSTN lines. I am not clear on what role 3CX plays in your environment - can you elaborate. Also what were the glitches as far as the users were concerned? What kind of problems did they notice?

3CX was the PBX in use. What I was doing was mostly the reverse of what you're doing. It is an IP based PBX that I had a SIP trunk on, and had to add PSTN lines as a backup.

From the user end once things were set up was fine. It was just the process of getting there. If you did not use the 3CX templates, setting up the Patton could become a nuisance. When I called 3CX their support engineer wasn't sure how to explain it so he did it for me. And I was watching a lot of commands, which seemed to imply there were a lot of crazy custom settings that Patton would not have known about.

Thanks.  Actually as you indicate your example is pretty well the opposite of mine so I'm afraid there is little value to me in your experience. I will ask the moderator to see if others can be rounded up to respond to this.

Your issue is that you are working your way through the middle.

VoIP/sip trunk provider <=> Internet <=> your ISP <=>  device/gateway that can connect to the VoIP/sip trunk provider <=>  LAN for computers
                                                                                                          \ block 66 or X FXS ports to meet your needs to connect/feed your analog pbx

You seem to be concentrating from my vantage point on the wrong thing.  IMHO, you should first identify the VoIP sip trunk providers. Once you identify those that include the features/...... They would often reference the supported equipment from which you can pick the one gateway that has the analog FXS ports that you need with possibly having the capacity to ....... Change to new one in the future....

I have integrated different type of legacy PBX with VoIP gateways or/and SIP trunks using Asterisk, Patton and Sonus gateways and in most scenarios the customer would keep both systems functioning for long time until users adapt to the new technology. Once that's done they get rid of the old tech and usually clients are happy to use soft SIP phone like in the case with 3CX or Skype for Business.

So I guess you can take the same approach in this case.

When you say VOIP gateway are you talking about a hardware device?  Can you give me the makes/models you have used?

The reference Mohammed referenced was asterisk, but because of all the combinations.

As I indicated before, your pursuit to identify a specific VoIP gateway without regard to the provider you might eventually select could lead to unanticipated additional cost should the provider you find does not include support for the device you chose and bought.

The main issue one runs into in such circumstances that they wind up with equipment and service where each vendor points at the other as the cause for the issues.

Further, I do not believe you answered the question on what type of data feed you currently have and whether it is sufficient for the type of service you are contemplating.

Further, it seems as though you are only looking for insight of those similarly situated to your exact plan.  As many said, plans change.
The age of the existing setup no matter how the users like and comfortable, Murphy's Law might eventually rear its ugly head in the most inopportune time.

Aging pbx, phones, lines.

Thanks for all the help.  I think I have some alternative ways to proceed.