A few years ago, I found a product that pretty much completed voice integration on my home Asterisk-based VoIP system.
As it was, I could accept calls over a variety of trunks and then route them around the house or to my office or soft-phone, or let them go to voicemail and wait for me or be sent to my e-mail inbox. And yet, I was still carrying around in my pocket an independent voice communications device: my cell phone.
When I thought about how I might like to integrate the cell phone, I came up with a simple goal: when I am at home, I want Asterisk to handle the cell phone like it handles any other trunk. When I leave the house, I want to be able to pick up the cell phone and walk away and have Asterisk still do the right thing (that is, not try to use it and fail).
My solution actually ended up being an analog solution: the XLink Bluetooth gateway. The XLink connects to up to three phones via Bluetooth and presents them on an FXO (line) port. The idea advertised on their web site is that you now hook up your home analog set(s) and use the cell phone like you use a landline. That’s OK, but is much more powerful if instead you connect this to an FXS analog telephony adapter for use on your VoIP system.
With this setup, you can treat the cell phone like an analog line in Asterisk, going through the ATA (I have the Cisco-Linksys-Sipura SPA3102). You can then set up an inbound route from the ATA–I just route it like any other call–and outbound routes–for example, for long distance calling, or 911.
What I like about this is that when I get home, I set my cell phone near the XLink (which happens to be in a convenient location) and then walk away. It connects by Bluetooth and now any calls I receive on the cell phone are presented to my home phones by Asterisk. When I’m ready to leave, I pick up the phone and go. The Bluetooth is disconnected and the XLink returns a reorder tone to the ATA if a call is attempted; the ATA understands the reorder tone and returns the proper failure code to Asterisk. In this way, Asterisk could even attempt routing to the cell phone when it is not there, and move on to the next possible route when the failure is detected.
The XLink really brings my home phone system together by including the cell phone without any additional work on my part except to take the phone out of my pocket when I come through the door.
An update for anyone reading these comments:
To configure the XLink’s disconnect supervision and to fine-tune any other controls on the XLink, you need to use the XWizard software (Windows only, sorry) provided by the vendor at http://www.myxlink.com/xwizard.aspx
For the most part, the XLink works out of the box, but the disconnect supervision was an issue I could not get beyond without specifying the polarity reversal method.
Consider that the device is marketed to be connected to residential analog phones. In that case, the logic connected to the XLink is a human holding a telephone. He or she can hear when the call has ended and hang up the line.
An ATA can sometimes do silence detection but it is more efficient to be explicit about the hangup by instructing the XLink to indicate it with polarity reversal and the ATA to detect it.
Thanks again Bill. Turns out the caller ID info passed on to the SPA via the XLINK is a little unconventional and therefore I had to add a caller ID pattern to match inside the SPA admin pages. Caller ID coming through fine now 🙂
I’m glad to hear of your success with the XLink. Caller ID worked immediately for me, except for the name portion. My cell phone only passes the number, not the name from the on-phone directory, over Bluetooth. I programmed the SPA-3102 to say “Wireless Caller” in the name field. (PSTN Line tab – Display Name field)
HI again Bill! I’ve now got a working setup with an Xlink and an SPA-3102. Polrity reversal is working a treat with hangup detection. 🙂
I’m currently trying to get the XLink to pass the callerid over to the SPA device on incoming calls. Did you have caller ID working straight from the outset?
Thanks for the polairity info, stuff like that can have you banging your head to figure out.
Keep up the good work with blog Bill!
I have the BT since I am only interested in providing a gateway to Bluetooth phones. You connect it to the FXO port on the SPA-3102. One thing to note: I configured the 3102 to detect polarity reversal to indicate hangup, and the Xlink to perform polarity reversal. With default settings, the adapter wasn’t able to supervise the line correctly.
Great info. I’m also looking to set up an Xlink with Asterisk. Did you use a BT or BTTN unit in your setup?
I also have an SPA-3102, what port you are connecting to?