Wildix Management System (WMS) White Paper February 2007 Author: Giuseppe Innamorato Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 1
Index: 1. Management Summary...3 2. Document purpose...3 3. Document structure...3 4. WMS Architecture...4 4.1 WMS General Design...6 4.2 WMS overview...7 4.3 Managed and secure system access...9 4.4 User Management...10 4.5 Multi Edit configuration system...11 4.6 Voice mail management...12 4.7 Trunk Management...13 4.8 Dial Plan Management...14 4.9 Phone book and short numbers...16 4.10 Single Configuration Point (SCP) technology...17 4.11 Time Table...18 4.12 Network Configuration...19 4.13 Auto Provisioning...20 4.14 ACD with Queues and Agents...21 4.15 Interactive Voice Response (digital receptionist)...22 4.16 Call Monitoring...23 4.17 Call Detail Records...24 4.18 Backup & Restore...25 4.19 Access Control List...26 4.20 Jabber Protocol Support...27 5. Technology and market considerations... 28 Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 2
1. Management Summary Companies today need integrated communications to get the most out of their online businesses. However, they face a maze of vendors, technologies, deployment options and resource constraints as they tackle this very important issue. This document, addresses these communications challenges presenting a new technology for the Asterisk configuration and management. Organizations are faced with the challenge of providing secure and personalized access to e-telephony for users, customers, suppliers and partners in order to maximize business opportunities through the Internet. With WMS, organizations can now safely and fast configure the company telephony system based on Asterisk. 2. Document purpose The objective of this document is to provide an overview of the new Wildix environment for the Asterisk Base PBX management. 3. Document structure The document is divided in three sections: the first section explains the system architecture, the second section gives a description of the system functionalities, and the third section describe the involved technologies. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 3
4. WMS Architecture The WMS is a software system that allows a system administrator to easily configure an Asterisk based pabx. It has been developed taking in account both the telephony and computer needs. The system has a modular and scalable architecture and can be used from the smallest Wildix PABX up to the carrier grade system. All the components (operating system, asterisk, WMS, network and PSTN modules) are packaged in CF (compact flash) or DoM (disk on module) media in order to avoid mechanical parts and increasing the reliability. Whenever you need to update a component, it is possible to do it in a transparent way, via an Internet connection. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 4
With WMS an organization can quickly implement a distributed and convergent computer and telephony system in order to cope with today business needs. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 5
4.1 WMS General Design The development of a User Interface, capable to manage a system with a huge number of functionalities, like Asterisk, is a big challenge. The Wildix Team made a very big effort in designing and developing this first version of the WMS. The basic idea, was to create something that can help the system administrator, who has many pabx to install and manage, without introducing restrictions with a rigid User Interface, that allows to do only a fixed number of actions. WMS is the right environment where a system administrator can easily (i.e. without using vi editing file like extensions.conf) do everything around asterisk using a unique tool. In order to understand the philosophy of the WMS, the reader should think in terms of building blocks: a user/phone, an IVR, one trunk, a queue, an agent, a mailbox, etc. For each of the building blocks exists a graphical user interface component, that allows the complete object configuration and management. Now, in order to put the system running, all the building blocks must be chained together in a so called dialplan. The dial plan is the heart of the pabx system, the most dynamic part and the most difficult to freeze in a fixed field configuration system. The WMS uses a Template and Macro model (it will be shown later in this document section DialPlan) that are preconfigured in the system. There are templates for incoming calls (PSTN, VoIP, GSM Gateways), outgoing calls, internal calls and many others, that are ready to put the system up and running in very short time. A system administrator can easily modify a template, in order to add asterisk functions, using an editor embedded in the WMS user interface. In this way, we believe, we get a powerful tool for the pabx management without loosing any Asterisk potential; of course, at the template level you have to be familiar with the Asterisk DialPlan language ;-) Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 6
4.2 WMS overview Each page of the User Interface provides information about the system status in terms of: Memory Usage, CPU Usage and number of active communication channels. From the user interface it s possible to see who are the users registered in the system and monitor in real time the calls currently ongoing on the pabx (as well as the used trunk). Moreover, whit the Jabber protocol support, WMS users (using a jabber compatible instant messaging client) can see the telephony status (on call, available, not registered, etc.) of the user, both local and remote (distributed presence management). The WMS is an open environment and allows the integration of third party software solutions. Up to now there are available integrations for Hotel s (check-in check-out, morning call, etc.) and in-bound professional call-center solution. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 7
The functionalities, available for an system administrator, are the following: Managed and secure system access Multilanguage support User management Multi edit configuration system Voicemail management Trunk management Dial plan management Phone book and short number management Single Configuration Point (SCP) technology Time Table management Network configuration Auto provisioning ACD with queues and agent Interactive Voice Response graphic management Calls monitoring Call details record Backup and restore of configuration Access control list for different user profiles Jabber protocol support Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 8
4.3 Managed and secure system access The access to the WMS can be done in HTTP from internal local area network and for non critical functions (e.g. user phone book search). The system configurations are done with SHTTP secure protocol that is fully supported by WMS. It is therefore easy to manage a remote system (or several) through the Internet in a secure way. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 9
4.4 User Management With the menu item phones it is possible to define a new users (SIP and IAX2), modify or remove it. From this page the administrator can edit the features (eg. Set specific code for the call transfer), check if the phone is correctly registered, modify user and phone parameters, etc. All the activity can be done on a single phone/user or a group of them. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 10
4.5 Multi Edit configuration system With the multiedit capability the user can inherit configuration parameters from already configured users and phones. It is than possible to modify a parameter on a single, a group or all the phones in the system in a simple and fast way. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 11
4.6 Voice mail management As well as for the voice mail, all the configurations, on a single or multiple mail box, can be done from a single page. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 12
4.7 Trunk Management A trunk configuration is a question of seconds. From the same screen it is also possible to check the trunk status. The WMS is provided with some trunks preconfigured both for VoIP trunks and for PSTN trunks (to media gateways). Than the system administrator has a very few things to do (often nothing) in order to connect the system to the world. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 13
4.8 Dial Plan Management The dial plan is the complex part of each pabx. The WMS is provided with a preconfigured environment that contains all the common pabx features already set. Once the system administrator has made the basic configuration settings (physical connections, ip-address configuration, phones configuration), the users can place and receive calls, make conference call, transfer a call, pick up a call and so on. If special services are needed, they can be configured using this menu and little knowledge of the asterisk commands. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 14
All the specific configurations and pabx programming, are done from a window editor that is available in the WMS. The editor allows events set up and templates inclusion. The system administrator can create specific template and use them for different contexts. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 15
4.9 Phone book and short numbers The short number service is implemented together with a centralized phone book. The phone book it is also accessible from those phone who support XML (e.g. SNOM phones). It is possible to load the centralized phone book from a csv file. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 16
4.10 Single Configuration Point (SCP) technology Although VoIP increases the system flexibility, there can be an overhead in resource management (each phone is a network device). WMS supports a technology that helps the system administrator to manage from a single point (local or remote) all the phones connected to the system. All the phone configuration parameters can be changed from WMS user interfaces and are stored inside the pabx. It is also possible to reboot a phone directly from the WMS. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 17
4.11 Time Table From this page you can personalize the working hours at a very granular level. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 18
4.12 Network Configuration At this level the system administrator can completely manage the pabx network setting (as well the dhcp for phones and auto provisioning), set the time source, configure CDR fields for reporting, connect external devices for voicemail storage, configure the mail server for voicemail mail messages, and set general pabx and user preferences. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 19
4.13 Auto Provisioning The auto provisioning functionality was developed for those systems that has many phones to install and configure. It is based on dhcp and mac address association and allows to drastically reduce the set up time of a new installation. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 20
4.14 ACD with Queues and Agents The WMS supports, in a graphical user interface, all the asterisk s queues and agents functionalities. In this way it becomes very easy to realize a small inbound call centre or to personalize the system call flow for the different company departments. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 21
4.15 Interactive Voice Response (digital receptionist) The WMS Interactive Voice Responder is a Graphical GUI allowing you to organize the call flow in a flexible and powerful way. The above snapshot shows you the details about the multiple selections of the caller and for each option the graphic summarize the main parameters to manage the call routing. Every digits can refer to a row with the accomplished sub sections or to an final leaf. All sounds can be recorded or uploaded offering the maximal flexibility to the administrator. With the WMS IVR you will experience the simplicity of a web GUI mixed to the powerful of the Call Flow Management The IVR is often used together with the queues and agents in order to realize a more complex call centre. It can also be used simply for switching the incoming calls to the right person or department, or to develop custom application with database integration. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 22
4.16 Call Monitoring The WMS system monitor is useful when a system administrator wants to know, what the pabx is doing in a given moment. The monitor works in real time and is capable to show the active calls and in witch trunk the calls are active. It is often used for debug purposes. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 23
4.17 Call Detail Records The call detail records (CDR) allows to store all the information regarding a call issued from the pabx. The WMS stores them in the database (also remote RDBMS) and it is possible to query it for report analysis of the outgoing traffic. The CDR can be exported in CSV format for further elaborations using specific analysis tool. The WMS is already integrated with the blue s software from Telcen (www.telcen.it), that is one of the most popular traffic analysis tool. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 24
4.18 Backup & Restore With backup and restore functionality the system administrator can save/restore all the system settings and configurations. This functionality is also useful when multiple system must be deployed, the administrator can create a master configuration and than replicate it on the other systems. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 25
4.19 Access Control List The system administrator can personalize the WMS environment with the creation of different user profile assigning them specific functionalities (e.g. the end user can only use the phone book). Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 26
4.20 Jabber Protocol Support With the jabber protocol support a WMS user can monitor the phone status of a remote users. It is possible to know if a remote user is available or if it is already making a phone call. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 27
5. Technology and market considerations VoIP technologies became available in mid 90 s (the first commercial VoIP client was released from Vocaltec in 1996), when these technologies became fashionable during the Internet Fever. After that, they slowed down because of the lack of bandwidth and of the products state of the art. Thanks to the bandwidth diffusion available today (but also to the Skype phenomenon) VoIP started again, in the last years, to grow strongly. Another basic reason for the VoIP expansion was the SIP protocol spread, a relatively simple standard, with a great number of functionalities; thanks to SIP, several VoIP devices (phones, gateways, etc.) manufacturer, started to produce massively sophisticated and cheap products. In our opinion, the clue and the engine of the SME market improvement was the enormous Asterisk success as pabx software. Other than Asterisk, the VoIP success was determined by open products like SER, Open PBX, Free Box and SipX. All those products use standard technologies, but, what is more important, is that they are open and available technologies. We can find C language, MySQL, PHP, javascript, XML, Pyton, Java; all of them are working on the open platform par excellence: Linux. This mix of functionalities, technologies, communities, competences, products availability, have created a revolution in the telephony market (both VoIP and legacy PSTN) that is far to end. In the beginning, the traditional big players under-evaluated the phenomenon (CISCO doesn t belong to a traditional telephony vendor), but now they are trying to recover proposing VoIP solutions (SIP based) in order to loose no market share any more. The current scenario, about VoIP technologies, is at last wide, fragmented, evolving, enough (not completely) mature, but with a solid common denominator: the SIP protocol. The number of IP devices that are on the market is growing exponentially. Many carriers are proposing sip lines together with the SIP phones (or ATA adapter) and many companies are changing or integrating legacy pabx with VoIP pabx. The evolving scenario shows a strong trend to traditional technologies replacement, that means a huge market where the actors are small and medium companies, public authorities and private customers. In this new market, the players who provide telephony solutions aren t anymore the traditional ones but also computer companies and network integrators. The market is more wide, competitive and complex and therefore it is very important to realize plug and play products that are open to the software integration (one of the advantage of VoIP is the simplicity of the software integration). The WMS have, as main target, to be the bridge between the traditional and new, providing a system that is simple and flexible and able to cope with this new emerging market. Wildix Management System White Paper Status: Draft 0.1 Page 28