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ManuEvans
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Asterisk container?

Tue Oct 04, 2022 6:48 am

Now that containers have landed, we're one step closer to the one big goal that I've desperately wanted to deliver to my customers for years, which is integrating VoIP into the customer router rather than shipping additional devices which are confusing and error-prone for people.

Since Mikrotik seem to refuse to ever include an FXS port on any of their devices, I'm hoping a USB connected FXS port can close the gap here and allow people to connect a phone to their router.
Alternatively, a DECT antenna dongle might also do the trick.

Has anybody experimented with this yet? Is it a goal that anybody has thought about? Are there USB parts available to close the gap? (I have only found USB FXO device, not FXS)
Maybe Mikrotik could create an USB->FXS device on their product line and then leave the software to the community, since 'tik do not seem to have any interest in adding asterisk to their software.
If the software matures, then it could be investigated for integration into the base OS in the future...
 
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loloski
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Re: Asterisk container?

Tue Oct 04, 2022 3:39 pm

most likely it won't happen your clear cut solution would be if you are using ODN Network there are a lot of ONU device has fxs interface built in on the router, if you are still deploying using traditional copper then you are out of luck :)

even you load asterisk in container you still need dahdi driver from asterisk to load not to mention even usb -> fxs device exist it won't recognize in ROS because of the the strip down nature of the kernel in ROS
 
pe1chl
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Re: Asterisk container?

Tue Oct 04, 2022 4:32 pm

Why don't you recommend the client to use VoIP phones instead of the oldfashioned POTS phones?
Those are usually much easier to use. And you do not need adapters, just connect them to the local network (can be powered using PoE as well).
 
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sirbryan
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Re: Asterisk container?

Fri Oct 28, 2022 9:09 pm

For residential/super-small office, there's not enough disk storage on those routers to do containers; you'd need the USB port for that. I'd stick to Linksys/Cisco SPA122's or similar if you really need POTS handoff. Otherwise use VoIP handsets (including WiFi-capable ones).

Most of the home routers also don't have enough RAM. You might (and I'll be experimenting with this soon) get something to work on a hAP AC3 (256MB of RAM), but that's pushing it.

The hAP AX2/3's have 1GB of RAM, as well as RB3011's and RB5009's. I will definitely be playing with pi-hole, AdGuardHome, Asterisk, and others on those. (RB4011's also have 1GB of RAM but just 1GB of NAND; I wouldn't put a container on the NAND anyway. If RouterOS opened up network-attached-storage to containers, then RB4011 and CCR2004-1G-12S+2XS could be utilized.

For small/branch office, you've got some beefier options.

CCR2004-16G-2S+ has 4GB of RAM, 4 cores and a USB3 port (the other CCR2004's do not have USB). Install CAPsMAN and/or UniFi controller, along with Asterisk or FreeSwitch, and you've got a UDM Pro replacement (sans NVR).

CCR2116 is more expensive than the CCR2004, but you've got 16GB of RAM, 16 cores, and internal NVMe storage, for a much beefier system that could run a lot of containers. That, in a data center, could run several hosted PBX solutions so your customers don't even need anything running on their routers at home.
 
shedii
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Re: Asterisk container?

Sat Oct 29, 2022 9:42 am

(RB4011's also have 1GB of RAM but just 1GB of NAND; I wouldn't put a container on the NAND anyway.
So, what are the drawbacks to running a container on the NAND disk?
 
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sirbryan
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Re: Asterisk container?

Sun Oct 30, 2022 2:23 am

NAND has much fewer available writes than SLC/MLC/TLC flash, so unless it's mostly a read-only container (no logs), you run the risk of literally wiping out your NAND drive in a short amount of time.

Things like iperf or netinstall might be fine, but logging voip calls with Asterisk or DNS queries in pi-hole/AdGuardHome would be a bad idea.
 
pe1chl
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Re: Asterisk container?

Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:06 pm

If MikroTik would finally give in and provide a RAMdisk on all models (not only on models with 16MB flash), it would be possible to run the container in RAMdisk.
Most users do not require 1GB of RAM on their router, my 4011 with quite complicated config has only 100MB in use so 90% free.

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