[asterisk-biz] Wireless SIP phones?

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 11:14 -0700, Rehan Allah Wala wrote:
> I would recommend to use Nokia e series rather then any linksys or dlink
> 
> they are just better and are 2 in one
> 

yeah but more expensive :)

If you just want wireless you have options, there are DECT base stations
that convert to sip, that lets you have multiple handsets with one base
(normally), you have a protocol similar to GSM for authentication of the
handsets (ETSI makes many mentions of GSM in the DECT spect) and if you
get GAP (the encryption algorithm for link layer encryption) generally
you can mix and match handsets and base units. 

Some dect solutions can be had for as little as $100 including the base
unit and 1 handset.  

If you are looking for more robust wireless solutions, elcotel makes a
cpci rackable dect base system which allows multiple base stations for
better roaming.  And the roaming would be more akin to a mobile phone
handoff than wifi - so its faster, easier and generally better.  People
have connected these elcotel switches to asterisk via the misdn
interface.  With this switch I have seen 2000 people on one system, 15
or so base stations covering quite a large geography.  

It does however require more infrastructure than what is generally
required for wifi, but then wifi is half duplex and dect isnt, dect has
better handoffs than wifi which handoffs are more of a add on later
rather than a designed feature.



> > I've also tried contacting various vendors such as Polycom, and it
> > seems that a lot of them require separate gateway boxes -- the
> > handsets aren't speaking SIP directly, or require some other server to
> > make it work.  That strikes me as overkill.
> > 

and it may be overkill, but it depends on the features you get, if its a
good base and allows multiple handsets (each individually addressable so
you can make only the ones ring you want, each is a separate channel,
etc) then depending on what you need this may be a better option.  

If however you want a simple all in one solution that is just a wifi sip
enabled phone, you are probably going to get many of the problems that
you have mentioned before.  The same is true for the lower end dect
systems as well.


-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
Belfast +44 28 9099 6461        US +1 516 687 5200
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