Reference:Gatekeeper License

From innovaphone wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Many customers find it difficult to decide if or if not a Gatekeeper License is required in a specific configuration.

Generally, the Gatekeeper License enables the boxes ability to accept SIP or H.323 registrations on the gateway level. This is done by enabling the Gatekeeper / Registrar option in the Mode dropdown in Administration/Gateway/GK.

Here is a list of common scenarios where this is used.

PBX trunking with no innovaphone PBX involved

When the boxes are used for trunking between legacy PBX systems, a network of 2 or more gateways is created. One of those will work as a gatekeeper and the remaining boxes will register with this gatekeeper. If there is no innovaphone PBX on either of the boxes, using the gatekeeper on the gateway level (and hence the Gatekeeper License) is recommended.

Registration of 3rd Party Devices with Interop Tweaks

In some cases, you need to register 3rd party devices /as H.323 or SIP client device) with the innovaphone PBX which behave strange. Within the gateway level, there are various interop tweaks available, which are not present in the PBX. If the device can be interfaced only by registering it with the PBX, you will need to use the gatekeeper on the gateway level and forward calls received from there to a proxy registration from the gateway level to the PBX. In this case, using the gatekeeper on the gateway level (and hence the Gatekeeper License) is recommended.

A typical example for this is a SIP-FXO device, which usually require a pause during dial-out.

Connecting 3rd Party Devices that do not support Registration

Some 3rd party devices do not have the ability to register using SIP or H.323. Instead, they send/receive direct calls by just specifying the IP address and without being registered (this is sometimes referred to as direct SIP). In this case, you will need to configure Gateway without Registration interface. However, there is no need for a Gatekeeper License.

Outgoing Trunk Rerouting

The PBX can handle multiple trunk lines (hunting groups) right away by registering each trunk interface separately to the PBXs trunk object. This also works fine for trunk interface on more than one gateway.

However, all those lines will be served in a uniform fashion using a round-robin strategy. Sometimes, there are back-up trunk interfaces which shall be used only if the principal interfaces are busy or unavailable. A working solution for this is to run a gatekeeper on one of the trunk gateways and have the other gateways register with this one. Then, an alternative route would be defined that sends outgoing calls to another gateway when all local interfaces are unavailable. To save on the Gatekeeper License, this scenario is sometimes configured without a gatekeeper with a Gateway without Registration model.

Both solutions are not recommended though. Instead, when all local interfaces are unavailable, the call should be routed back to the PBX, with appropriate prefixes so that it gets routed to the backup gateway interfaces.

NB: This limitation has been removed from version 9 (see Reference9:PBX/Objects/Trunk Line#Multiple_Gateway_Registrations).