dean collins
2004-Oct-30 10:28 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Wireless phones connected to VOIP DECT basestation
As one of the people who introduced both DECT and CT3 into the Australian enterprise market I'll take a crack at answering this. If anyone thinks this information is worthwhile I'll add it to the Wiki. DECT is a cordless phone solution. It can be sold as a stand alone single handset - single base station residential solution however it's main use is in a multiple base station multiple handset corporate solution. It is an evolution of the original proprietary CT3 technology developed by Ericsson in 1993. It was released as an open standard in 1996 and although some technical changes were made to CT3 to become DECT it is more or less the same. It is a TDMA style transmission with between 8-12 time slots per base station (vendor dependant). Generally each base station is powered locally and cabled back to a central point in a star configuration. You can generally get between 200 to 400 meters from the handset to the base station, though with the use of external yagi antennas you can get good directional connectivity for up to 1000m. Dect allows seamless handover and roaming between base stations, and although not widely published there are mobility location servers that allow you to use the same handset at multiple locations. Eg. I could be an area supervisor using my handset at one Home Depot and I travel to the next Home Depot and the mobility server will recognize that you are; A- at the new location B- tell the pabx to divert all of your calls to the new site. Whilst originally sold as a stand alone adjunct box to a pabx (generally using an E1 connection between the pabx and the DECT adjunct box) it has over the past 6 years evolved to where most PABX (European anyway) can connect the base stations directly to a chassis card installed directly in the PABX backplane. In 1998 the G.A.P. (Generic Access Profile) standard was published that allowed most handsets to operate with most base stations however it is generally a subset of the full proprietary feature list. (also known by the vendors as Go Away Please). There were a number of dual mode gsm/dect handsets developed over the years (I myself used to use a dual mode CT3/GSM Ericsson handset in 96 and later occasionally a Dual mode GSM/Dect Nokia handset) however they were not widely available and had a number of issues, generally battery life because most of them generally ran two internal radios simultaneously. There was of course no roaming between the dect and gsm carrier networks. One of the reasons you may not be familiar with DECT is that it was mainly a European standard (also NEC had a solution called PHS that was only ever available in Japan). Motorola and Lucent (or the Avaya division today) had a competing less capable solution called CT2 (less features, less time slots per base, less density per given area and also less roaming between bases stations). CT2 was also trialed as a poor mans cellular in Canada, 2 state based USA trials, and Hong Kong. Basically it allowed one way calling (eg handset to base only) so you could make outgoing calls but not receive calls. The Hong Kong solution was probably the most successful of these of these and interestingly they also had a built in pager for receiving text messages. There are no public access CT2 solutions currently operating. There are a number of interesting parallels to draw between the CT2 and DECT rollouts and the current Wifi Voip handsets........and let me tell you if you think there is nothing to learn from history then well you must know it all. Will WIFI Voip handsets replace desk based cabled handsets? Do end users really need combined VOIP/GSM handsets? Will carriers ever introduce mobility between enterprise VOIP and GSM? Where can enterprises benefit from a mobile solution? How can a carrier benefit from the changing technology to offer higher value add solutions in the enterprise market. Will voip wifi offer the ability for a small and nimble voip carrier to compete against the mobile gsm carriers. Which manufacturers are leading development and how do I find them. These and many other points are available to be learned by anyone who wants to talk to me about them. I'm now based in NY and can be reached via this email address. Cheers, Dean -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Michael Graves Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2004 11:25 AM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Wireless phones connected to VOIP DECT basestation On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 09:37:00 +0200 (CEST), Remco Barende wrote:>Hi list! > >I found an interesting wireless phone product. Tiptel will be selling a>base station for DECT phones that is VOIP capable. The base stationcomes>in two models, one with the SCCP the other with H.323 protocol support. > >The interesting bit is that the base station is VOIP connected but youcan>use standard (cheap) DECT phones to connect to it. > >I found it on www.tiptel.nl (the websites in other countries do not >mention this model) and the model is called tiptel DECT-Z 600 IPsysteem> >Yu can find it on www.tiptel.nl -> producten -> DECT Draadloze >telefoonsystemen -> tiptel DECT-Z 600 IP systeem >http://www.tiptel.nl/fr_top.asp?lang_id=1&mid=901&pid=901 > >Unfortunately the product page is in Dutch only. > >I wonder if Tiptel make this themselves or whether they bough an OEM >product from a manufacturer. When googling I could not find a similar >product though and there aren't nay mentioned under Wireless VOIP inthe>wiki either. > >Are there other similar base stations?Please forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is DECT? I don't see the term referenced anywhere in North America. Michael -- Michael Graves mgraves@pixelpower.com Sr. Product Specialist www.pixelpower.com Pixel Power Inc. mgraves@mstvp.com o713-861-4005 o800-905-6412 c713-201-1262 !michael.tag _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
dean collins
2004-Oct-30 12:59 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Wireless phones connected to VOIP DECT basestation
No those cards are used to connect wirelessly to a base station. Basically like an 802.11x card connects to a base station. What Remco means is that he wants someone to release software that would sit on your pc. All a PCI card to connect to base stations and perform those functions. Remco, look into the Kirk h323 solution, this does what you need. Cheers, Dean -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Thomas Gallaway Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2004 3:51 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Wireless phones connected to VOIP DECT basestation steve@daviesfam.org wrote:>On Sat, 30 Oct 2004, Remco Barende wrote: > > > >>Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephones. The system is more or lesssimilar>>to GSM (the mobile phone) that all the speech is transmitteddigitally.>>Also you can have (similar to GSM) unnoticeable switching from onebase>>station to another. Most wireless phones in Europe are DECT nowadays, >>unless you're looking for really cheap ones. >> >> > >In short DECT is a kick-ass cordless phone system. Up to 8 phones, >intercom calls between them etc etc etc. > >Wish someone would offer a PCI board with base-station firmware anddocs>so I could do chan_dect.so > >There are PCI DECT Boards but I don't know if they will do base-station stuff. *http://tinyurl.com/3hnq5 Maybe somebody else has more insight into this if those PCI and PCMCIA Dect boards can be turned into base-stations. -- Thomas * _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users