Sip

The HSYCO SIP I/O Server allows HSYCO to control standard VoIP client software (also called soft-phones), in order to integrate telephony features in HSYCO applications.

Using the SIP I/O Server, you will be able to use the audio capabilities of the HSYCO Server to implement a speakerphone with all calling features being controlled by HSYCO itself. This “phone” mode is particularly useful when HSYCO is running on a touch screen equipped with a microphone and speaker, and a kiosk mode Web browser, to create customized door-entry control panels with audio/video capabilities.

The SIP I/O Server also works as a basic IVR (interactive voice response) system, allowing HSYCO to interact with users via the standard telephony system through the use of voice and DTMF tones input on the phone’s keypad.

VoIP Applications

The SIP I/O Server currently works with the Linphone Voice Over IP software phone, on Linux systems only. Linphone must be installed and properly configured on the Linux system that runs the HSYCO Server.

The current version of the SIP I/O Server has been tested with Linphone 3.5.2.

Linphone is a free software that you can use and distribute, currently licensed under the GNU GPL v2 license. You should verify with the Linphone owner that your intended use of this software is compliant with the license, or obtain a proprietary license of the software. Check www.linphone.org for additional information.

Linphone Installation

From the Linux command-line shell, install the software with the command:

sudo apt-get install linphone

After the installation, run Linphone for the hsyco user, and configure the audio devices and levels. This configuration will be used when Linphone is run as a daemon process and called by HSYCO.

The hsycolinphone script file must be unzipped, copied in the /usr/local/bin/ folder and set as executable.

Finally, if you are using the the PulseAudio system, ensure that the user that will run Linphone is added to the pulse-access group, while if you are using the ALSA audio system, the user that will run Linphone should be added to the audio group instead.

HSYCO Configuration

The VoIP client can be configured to work as a stand-alone client, or registered to a VoIP PBX system.

You can define only one HSYCO SIP I/O Server in System Settings.

Add a SIP I/O Server in the I/O Servers section of the Settings and set its parameters:

Communication

Stand-alone Client Configuration

Leave all the communication parameters blank.

Registered Client Configuration

• IP Address: host name or IP address of the VoIP PBX system
• IP Port: TCP/IP port to use, leave blank to use default port 5060
• User: username for the PBX account you are using
• Password: password for the PBX account you are using.

High Availability

• Shutdown when inactive: defaults to true.

Options

ID	Default	Values	Description
user	hsyco	username	the operating system’s user name that will be used to run the Linphone application, either locally or on a remote server
host		remote host name or address	the hostname or IP address of the remote server where Linphone is installed
password		password	this option is required when host is defined. It is the password for the remote user
mode	phone	phone	phone mode
		ivr	ivr mode

Remote System Configuration

When Linphone is run on a remote system, HSYCO will use the SSH protocol to execute the remote call. The remote system should be configured to accept the SSH connection from the HSYCO server using the username and password defined in the I/O Server’s options.

If you also need to control the display backlight or execute generic operating system’s commands, the remote user name defined with the user option in the SIP I/O Server configuration must be allowed to execute “sudo” commands without asking for a password.

For example, if the user is hsyco, you could add the line:

hsyco   ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

at the end of the /etc/sudoers file (Use the visudo command to edit the /etc/sudoers file).

Datapoints

ID	Value	R/W	Description
connection	online	R	connection established
	offline	R	HSYCO can’t connect to the VoIP client application
registration	0	R	the SIP client is not registered (note that this event is not guaranteed to reflect unregistration conditions caused by the SIP server)
	1	R	the SIP client is registered to a SIP server
mode	phone	R	the I/O Server is in phone mode
	ivr	R	the I/O Server is in IVR mode
call	<SIP URI string>	R	a call is being established or is in progress with the remote party identified by the value of this data-point
		W	start a call to a remote party
	answer	W	answer an incoming call
	hangup	W	hangup a call
	<empty string>	R	no call is currently being established or in progress
call.refused	<SIP URI string>	R	an incoming call is refused because another call is already in progress
status	ring	R	receiving an incoming call, not yet answered
	dial	R	dialing a call, not yet answered
	active	R	incoming or outbound call in progress
	hangup	R	no call is currently in progress
transfer	<SIP URI string>	W	blind transfer an active or incoming call to a remote party
mute	0	R	un-mute command sent successfully
		W	un-mute the microphone
	1	R	mute command sent successfully
		W	mute the microphone (note that when a call is terminated, the mute status is reset)
autoanswer	0	R	autoanswer is disabled
		W	disable autoanswer mode
	1	R	autoanswer is enabled
		W	enable autoanswer mode
volume	off	R	volume off command sent successfully
		W	turn off the speaker
	1 - 20	R	volume command sent successfully
		W	set the speaker volume
dtmf	0 - 9 # *	R	DTMF tone received
		W	send DTMF tones (you can send one or more tones with the same command)
generic	<string>	W	send a generic command to the Linphone application
play.file	<filename>	W	only in IVR mode, play back a file to an active call. The file pathname must be relative to HSYCO’s root directory
play.voice.<voice>	<text>	W	only in IVR mode, use the TTS engine to play back a text message, using the voice set with <voice>
backlit	0	R	backlight off command sent successfully
		W	turn off the display’s backlight
	1	R	backlight on command sent successfully
		W	turn on the display’s backlight
exec	<command>	W	execute a generic operating system’s command

The SIP protocol uses a standard URI format to identify the calling and called parties, like:

sip:user@host

where user is the username and host is the remote host name or IP address.

The SIP I/O Server will automatically remove or imply the “sip:” prefix from data-point values. @host will also be removed or implied if host is an exact match of the I/O Server IP parameter.

When an incoming call is ringing or an outbound call is being dialed, the SIP I/O Server also generates a PBX event and calls the PBXCallEvent() Java callback method. When the phone is ringing the event will be:

PBX <remote URI> = <local URI>

and the Java callback:

PBXCallEvent(“<ID>”, “<remote URI>”, “<local URI>”)

When an outbound call is established, the event will be:

PBX <local URI>  = <remote URI>

and the Java callback:

PBXCallEvent(“<ID>”, “<local URI>”, “<remote URI>”)

 Note that, if the SIP I/O Server is configured as a stand-alone client, the <local URI> is replaced with the I/O Server’s ID.

Release Notes

3.5.1

• improved compatibility with latest versions of linphone

3.3.0

• improved performance of the SSH connection to remote servers
• support of password-based authentication

3.2.1

• text-to-speech performance improvements

3.2.0

• initial release