I will be soon deploying a complete Aterisk PBX system with all brand new SIP phones for a nursing home facility. I’ve been looking for a commercial grade, wide coverage, cordless phones that I can integrate with Asterisk. I would of course prefer SIP capable phones for this procedure, but I am not limited to that.
We need 10-15 cordless phones.
The facility is one floor, and around 80,000 sq feet. It is an older building (70’s).
I just need some suggestion/advice from the experts and people who have attempted this previously:
I’ve been looking at the Aastra 480i CT IP SIP Phone Basestation w/ Wireless Handsets. The limitations here are 4 handsets per basestation and I am not sure about the coverage of this system. I would be willing to get 2-3 basestations and 10-12 handsets I just feel like this is not quite the proper way to do it.
You can find it at: voipsupply.com/product_info. … ts_id=1007
I was thinking about 802.11b SIP phones. Of course they look great on paper, but then you have the problem with the spotty access points. I would really appreciate any suggestions on access points you may have. Should I go for MIMOs, even thou the terminals are merely 802.11b compliant. Any high gain access points / range extenders duos you recommend?
And of course I am open to any other suggestions you may have on the subject. Perhaps an all-in-one kit analog cordless system, with range extenders that can be integrated with Asterisk (each cordless terminal has needs its own extension).
As an alternative to Wifi phones (which I have not tested yet), you could use IAXyes,
for example set an IAXy and connect an analog Panasonic/or other cordless to the FXS port, this way you will have two proven technologies, with all theadvantages of both.
I’m not sure the IAXy may transfer the CallerID Info,
Option 2, if all extensions are on the same facility, therefore you may not need IAXys.
Set up analog extensions (FXS) on regular Digium hardware and connect the wireless bases of regular wireless phones to each FXS port besides the server, this way Digium hardware is able to pass callerID information AFAIK.
Yeah, I thought about both of these options. I wouldn’t want the project to get too far off budget, but if it must …
Anyways do you guys have any specific models in mind for analog cordless phones that will work on an 80,000sq feet building? I mean I doubt a regular 900MHz/2.4GHz basestation will propagate throughout the building. 5.4GHz … not a chance.
As far as Asterisk interconnection FXS would then be must. IAXys or ATAs or Digium cards etc. I would just be intersted on which phone/models to use for this application.
The EnGenius phones work great. They are expensive but we have about a 200,000 sq.ft. Manufacturing plant that is split into three buildings (all connected) and you can use those phones anywhere. All other phones including cell phones won’t work just about anywhere in the plant. I haven’t used them with Asterisk yet (I am still testing) but they should work fine because they are just an analog extension.
Do they need to be cordless? If so, why? Because of lack of phone wiring? One idea I had: get a bunch of “ethernet over powerline” adapters. At each site in the building, plug that into wall socket and use a corded SIP phone.
We have two 480i CT units in our office and have 4 or so more in use by customers. These phones work great, the wireless has a great range. Battery life on the cordless is acceptable, but not great.
I haven’t thought about the Ethernet over powerline, but you make a good point as far as the # of additional Ethernet drops needed. I have no idea if it would work in that environment and I don’t know how cost efficient its going to be. I mean I think it costs him around $60/Ethernet drop and then we will benefit from PoE.
I ended up keeping the 480i CT for my house and its a great quality phone, for a SOHO enviroment. The bad:
Buggy firmware, 1.3 seems ok
Funky interface
Cordless battery is terrible, maybe I have a bad one. In standby all day (with the handset ringing about 20 times a day) it dropped form a full charge to one bar by the end of business day. Add some talk time into that and you have to charge it every night.
Cordless range is great around the house, we tested it at the facility and not so much …
As for the EnGenius phones, I would love to test them, but I don’t think its going to fly at $800+/handset (is that accurate?). Maybe we’ll just buy 4 and have the nurses share custody . For the cordless portion we need 14 phones, and the budget can’t get too much over $4500.
I’ve deployed a site with SIP WiFi handsets. I wouldn’t recommend it as a solution. I think the technology is still too immature. The major problems are the reliability of the WiFi network (too many things can interfere and cause dropouts) and the battery life of the handsets (generally you’re talking about an hour’s talk time and 8 hours standby time).
Also, I’ve heard from other users that if you have a number of access points deployed to cover a large area, the calls get dropped as you move from being in range of one AP to another.
[quote=“mrm00”]I’ve deployed a site with SIP WiFi handsets. I wouldn’t recommend it as a solution. I think the technology is still too immature. The major problems are the reliability of the WiFi network (too many things can interfere and cause dropouts) and the battery life of the handsets (generally you’re talking about an hour’s talk time and 8 hours standby time).
Also, I’ve heard from other users that if you have a number of access points deployed to cover a large area, the calls get dropped as you move from being in range of one AP to another.[/quote]
That is indeed bad news. I am very skeptical about the current WiFi solutions. Sure there’s MIMO AP but no MIMO SIP handsets.
For the 802.11b “solution” I was thinking:
AP with Range Extenders or (probably better) APs in bridge mode. They would all have high gain antennas.
And then a 500mW amplifier. I am by no means a radio connoisseur, so I might not know what I’m talking about. Would I need a few of these? Is that too much power? Will it fry some brain cells? No clue …
Any other ideas?
I think the problems is the phones and not the Wifi.
AS far as ap,s I would look at proxim we use these in our WISP and have had good luck with them. Good amps along with a good higain antenna can make all the difference in the world when it come to coverage. Placemnt is critical as to not cause interference with each other. Forget about the dlink and similiar these are good for the living room in your house but not for what you are wanting to do.
. For the cordless portion we need 14 phones, and the budget can’t get too much over $4500.