[Asterisk-Users] Polycom-Asterisk hints/presence

[BJ Weschke]

On 6/1/06, Damon Estep <damon at suburbanbroadband.net> wrote:
>
> > On 6/1/06, Damon Estep <damon at suburbanbroadband.net> wrote:
> > > Thanks Bob,
> > >
> > > We have also done some similar stuff to make it usable, the prospect
> > > that we might be able to achieve the same functionality and add to
> it as
> > > a bonus the ability to monitor the boss's extension state (idle, on
> the
> > > phone, away) with the same button was appealing, but a dead end it
> > > appears.
> > >
> > > Is there enough interest here to get together with other
> > > Polycom/asterisk users and pony up a bounty for shared line
> appearance?
> > >
> > > I think the Polycom implementation is based on some SIP rfc, so it
> is
> > > not just a Polycom feature.
> > >
> > > The functionality is going to be a must at some point, you have to
> be
> > > able to emulate what most of the midrange PBXs can do to propose
> > > replacing them with asterisk, and this particular feature issue has
> come
> > > up more than once in our line of business.
> > >
> > > Anyone have any ideas what kind of project this might be?
> > >
> >
> >  I would think the biggest issue with this at this point is because
> > Asterisk is not a SIP only platform, if one were to implement shared
> > line appearance, it would need to be designed in such a way that
> > channels other than SIP channels could participate in the "sharing" of
> > lines.
> >
> >  It has been talked about a great deal, and at some point, it will
> > probably be done, but just being compliant with the SIP supported
> > methods of shared line appearance is not all that has to be done in
> > order to get this feature in.
> >
> > --
> > Bird's The Word Technologies, Inc.
> > http://www.btwtech.com/
> > _______________________________________________
>
> I'll contend that I could be way off base, but I am not sure I agree,
> the SIP version of shared line appearance would be implemented in the
> sip channel, the IAX in the IAX channel, etc.
>
> I am not aware of any IAX devices that support shared line appearance,
> and since IAX is an asterisk protocol there would not be any until
> digium(asterisk) defines one.
>
> Are you suggesting that this be put on hold until every protocol that
> Asterisk supports has a standard for shared line appearance?
>
> Even if this is the case, the SIP version of the feature should still be
> rfc compliant, so it would stand to reason that the feature would be
> implemented in the sip channel.
>
> Jump in if it appears that I have no clue.


 You're right in that there is nothing in technology spec to support
the concept of shared line appearance, but I think what was more to my
point was that you could get access to a "shared line" from more
channels than just a SIP channel. I'd probably want the ability to
have two SIP channels and an IAX channel in a "shared line group", and
while SIP provides for structured communication to ask for a
grant/deny access to this resource, there isn't any reason the same
couldn't be done off the IAX channel via feaure mapped DTMF just as
you can "park" a call off of a Zap channel today even though the
underlying technology has no idea what the concept of Park really is.
The concept of channels in Asterisk are not technology specific, and
as a result, implementations of things like "shared lines" really
shouldn't be either.

-- 
Bird's The Word Technologies, Inc.
http://www.btwtech.com/