making asterisk feel like home outside north america

Escape from North America:Elastix localization for the

world!

Agenda• What might we want to change?• Where can we change it?• How can we change it?

• But first, a quick test...

A bit about me...• Chartered Engineer• Telecoms for the last 20+ years...• A firm belief that Telecoms is fun• Background in Civil Aviation air-ground

comms, Wireless Local Loop, Computer Telephony

• Qualified trainer• dCAP qualified Asterisk specialist• Contributed the ‘Internationalization’

chapter (9) to Asterisk: The Definitive Guide

A bit about TeleSpeak...• Founded in 2006• Located close to Oxford, UK• Whole business is focussed around Asterisk

– Elastix Training Partner– Digium Authorised Training Partner– Xorcom certified Distributor/Support Specialist

• Permanent Asterisk Training Facility– Consultancy– Support

HOW TO LOCALISE YOUR

IMPLEMENTATIONS

What might we needto change?

• System prompts– (language, accent)

• Caller ID– (reception and

transmission)• Tones

– (generation and recognition)

• Telephony interfaces– (physical and

electrical)• Times and dates

– (not only the actual time zone, but the way times and dates are read out)

Let’s start with tones

Let’s start with tones

• Tones – IP devices (e.g. SIP)• Tones – analogue channels• Tones – internal calls

Where do we changethose tones?

• Tones – IP channels (SIP phones, ATAs)– On the device!!

• Tones – analogue channels– /etc/dahdi/system.conf

• loadzone = uk• defaultzone = uk

• Tones – internal calls– /etc/asterisk/indications.conf

• country = uk

Whereexactly?

binbootdevetchomeliblost+foundmediamiscmntnetoptprocroot (~)selinuxsrvsystmpusrvar

asterisk

dahdi**

src asterisk-1.6.x.x.tar.gzasterisk-1.6.x.xdahdi-linux-2.x.x.tar.gzdahdi-linux-2.x.xdahdi-tools-2.x.x.tar.gzdahdi-tools...

extensions.conf

sip.confchan_dahdi.conf

/ The /etc/asterisk directory is createdwhen Asterisk is installed

**system.conf lives in the /etc/dahdidirectory as it is not part of Asterisk

This is the home directory of the ‘root’user – if you are logged in as ‘root’ andstart a terminal from the graphicalenvironement, you will start in this directory

The /usr/src directory is where we put theLibPRI, Zaptel and Asterisk tarballs

libpri-1.x.x, dahdi-xxxx-2.x.x and Asterisk-1.x.xsubdirectories will be created in /usr/srcwhen we ‘untar’ the tarballs

The Linux file system

indications.conf

Time and date localisation

• Actual time and date for the system is set in Linux

• Asterisk can be made aware of many time zones– These zones can be used to change the

way times and dates are presented, and even spoken

Where can you changetimes and dates?

• When would you need to do this?• It mainly comes down to voicemail!!!

– Accordingly, configuration occurs in/etc/asterisk/voicemail.conf

– The [zonemessages] section is where the timezone, time and date presentation and pronounciation are set

– The voicemail context (e.g. [default]) is where each mailbox is assigned a zone, if required

Where can you changetimes and dates?

/etc/asterisk/voicemail.conf

[zonemessages]central=America/Chicago|'vm-received' Q 'digits/at' IMpUK=Europe/London|'vm-received' a b d 'digits/at' HM

[default]809=>1234,David Duffett,dd@xyz.com,,tz=UK810=>0000,Mark Spencer,markster@digium.com,,tz=central

Changing the language (or accent) of system

prompts• By default Asterisk stores system prompts (sound files) in /var/lib/asterisk/sounds

• Within this directory sub-directories are used for the storage of differing prompts

Changing the language (or accent) of system

prompts• E.g.– /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/en/ for English– /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/es/ for Spanish

• Filenames need to be known to Asterisk– E.g. hello.gsm would contain

• “hello” in /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/en/hello.gsm

• “hola” in /var/lib/asterisk/sounds/es/hello.gsm

So where do you specifythe language?

• In the channel...• So for SIP, it would be in sip.conf (or

sip_xxxxxxx.conf• For IAX2, it would be in iax.conf• For analogue or digital channels

(connected by a Digium card) it would be in chan_dahdi.conf or dahdi-channels.conf

• Or in the dialplan

Specifying the languagein the Channel

/etc/asterisk/sip.conf[general]language=escontext=custom-internaldeny=0.0.0.0/0

[dd-phone]type=friendlanguage=fr

/etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf (the dialplan)[custom-internal]exten => _6001,1,Playback(hello)

Specifying the languagein the Dialplan

/etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf (the dialplan)[custom-internal]exten => _6001,1,Playback(hello)

[language-menu]exten => s,1,Background(choose_language); 1 for French, 2 for German, 3 for Spanishexten => s,n,WaitExten(5)exten => 1,1,Set(CHANNEL(language)=fr)exten => 2,1,Set(CHANNEL(language)=de)exten => 3,1,Set(CHANNEL(language)=es)exten => _[1-3],n,Goto(custom-internal,6001,1)

What about Caller ID?

• Many different formats around the world

• In the UK we use V23 (FSK)

• Asterisk can be made to understand different types of Caller ID signalling

• ...and to send it to analogue phones too!

Setting the Caller ID format

/etc/asterisk/chan_dahdi.conf or dahdi-channels.confgroup=1signalling=fxo_kscidsignalling=v23 ;BT standard cidstart=polarity ;start indicationsendcalleridafter=2 ;the number; of rings before sending the datacontext=from-analoguechannel => 1-4

group=2signalling=fxs_kscallerid=asreceivedcontext=from-outsidechannel => 5-8

Telephony Interfaces

• Physical characteristics

• Electrical characteristics– UK uses 50V DC to power phones– UK uses 75v ac @ 75Hz to ring phones

Basic telephony

FXS - Station

FXO – Office

Physical characteristics

Hybrid

Speaker

Microphone

Impedance = Z

Telephone Line with an impedance = Y

Digium Analog Interfaces

Basic rate interface (BRI)

DB1 B2

B = BearerD = Data

2324 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718192021222324 1 2 3 4 5202122

1 framingbit (fb)

1 frame = 125s x 24 time slots + 1 fb = 1.544 Mbps T1

CAS – T1 robbed bit

2324 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718192021222324 1 2 3 4 5202122

1 framingbit

1 frame = 125s x 24 time slots + 1 fb = 1.544 Mbps T1

ISDN – NI2, AT&T

Primary rate interfaces (PRI) – North America

Primary rate interfaces (PRI) – Everywhere

else...

31 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 0

1 frame = 125s x 32 time slots = 2.048 Mbps

framingoctet

signallingoctet

E1

ISDN – Euro ISDN, QSIGCAS – MFC R2, E1LS

Observe the Protocol

Digium Digital Interfaces

PRI connectorisation• What is the impedance of the line?

– Europe 120 ohm, North America 100 ohm commonly• Typically RJ45 connectors

– Might be 75 ohm • Typically BNC connectors

• To connect equipment to the national PSTN, approval is often required

• Digium hardware is approved in many countries• If connecting to a internal PABX, approval is not required

We all need approval

Questions or comments?

Recap• What might we want to change?

– Language or accent of prompts, time zone

– Tones, telephony interfaces• Where can we change it?

– Asterisk, DAHDI, or individual devices• How can we change it?

– Configuration files in Asterisk or DAHDI– Web interface (or provisioning) for

IP phones and ATAs

http://ofps.oreilly.com/titles/9780596517342/

Table 9.1. Internationalization cheat sheet

What to change Where to change it

Call progress tones

•IP phones—on the phone itself•ATAs—on the ATA itself•Analog phones—DAHDI (/etc/dahdi/system.conf)

Type of PRI/BRI and protocolDAHDI—/etc/dahdi/system.conf and /etc/asterisk/chan_dahdi.conf

Physical PSTN connections•Balun if required for PRI•Get the analog pair to middle 2 pins of the RJ11 connecting to the Digium card

Caller ID on analog circuits Asterisk—/etc/asterisk/chan_dahdi.conf

Prompt language and/or accent

•Channel—/etc/asterisk/sip.conf, /etc/asterisk/iax.conf, /etc/asterisk/chan_dahdi.conf, etc.•Dialplan—CHANNEL(language) function

Voicemail time/date stamps and pronunciation

Asterisk—/etc/asterisk/voicemail.conf

Tones delivered by AsteriskAsterisk—/etc/asterisk/indications.conf

May all your Elastixdeployments feel at

home!

TeleSpeak

Training

Thank youdavid.duffett@telespeak.co.u

k