[color=red]< Question: >[/color]
Is it possible to setup the 6 [color=blue][ line ][/color] buttons on the Polycom phone like a regular PBX ?
< Example: >
On a PBX when a call comes in the first line rings and lights up. All phones attached to the PBX show the line lighted. When the call is placed on [color=blue][hold ][/color] any extension could pick the call up by pressing the lighted button.
[color=red]< Question: > [/color]
If the previous example is possible to do under Asterisk is it possible to have mutliple groups of phones with their own association to the six [color=blue][ line ][/color] buttons on the Polycom 601 ?
< Example: >
Company A has 15 phones and 5 incomming [color=blue][ lines ][/color] to answer.
Company B has 6 phones and 2 incomming [color=blue][ lines ][/color] to answer.
Company C has 30 phones and 6 incomming [color=blue][ lines ][/color] to answer.
Does anyone know if SLA/BLA ( [color=orange]Shared Line Apearence / Bridged Line Appearence[/color] ) is supported yet ? If not would SLA/BLA support functionality be added to a new SIP standard or the Asterisk code ?
[color=red]< Comments >[/color]
SLA/BLA is what small business is looking for when replacing an old [color=blue][b]KSU[/b][/color] and can be a deal breaker. Parking a call and paging someone to an extension number just doesn't work that well in small installations. I would be happy to pay part of a bounty to have this feature added. I'm sure SLA/BLA capatibility would increase the adaptation of Asterisk as a replacement for the [color=blue][b]KSU[/b][/color]. Digium should also see the value in the added sales in FXO cards for these type installations. In my opinion this is the bigest lack in feature support for Asterisk when it comes to small business.
I plan to talk with Digium tomorrow about this feature to get a better Idea of what it is going to take to implement. I'm new to Asterisk and learning more every day, if I'm in error to what is posted I hope someone out there reading this will help correct it.
So far the only thing I’ve heard was from our Techician, but I haven’t confirmed what he found. He stated that the Feature was being added to Asterisk in a future version, but I thought I would talk to Digium to see if this was true and what time frame it would be. Reading through all the posts I see conflicting information on all subjects. You kinda have to read between the lines when researching.
[color=red]SIP-B ( RFC 3261 ) [/color]Seems to be the answer SLA/BLA
It is not currently a standard, but several manufacturers have come together to support it. I have yet to find a link describing the new features in SIP-B. If anyone reading this finds information on the additional features supported in SIP-B please post a reply. I'm still researching when the standard may be adopted.
"Citel, Mitel, Polycom, Siemens and Sylantro — submitted its work to the Internet Engineering Task Force for consideration. " Cisco and others consider the current SIP standard as complete with no changes really needed, but this leaves small business out of the emerging technology. Small business needs KSU type features which SIP-B provides with SLA/BLA.
The current word on the street is that Asterisk will probably have at least some level of SLA/BLA in version 1.4, which according to digium.com should be due around June or July of this year. As far as I know there’s nothing official yet, just some developers saying that they’re strongly considering it due to the very high demand.
I went to a Astersisk meeting at Montreal. We had a 20 minute phone conference with Mark Spencer. I did asked more information about Asterisk and SCA. He didn’t clearly said that they were working on it. He said that for Asterisk to support this, there is a lots of job to do, it’s not as simple as it seem.
So don’t expect this in a near future a would say but we must continue to show our interrest for this.