Presence(BLF & Visual Park/Release)

Overview

SARK UCS/MVP supports BLF on any phone which supprts it under Asterisk. The following phones: Snom(all BLF variants), Polycom (all BLF variants) Aastra (all BLF variants) and Grandstream GXP variants; all support BLF. Visual Park and Release is only supported on Asterisk Rel 1.4 or higher.

BLF - Asterisk 1.2

In order to set BLF up in SARK UCS/MVP under Asterisk 1.2 the user must add the following parameters to the sip.conf text area in the IP devices panel of the server manager for the relevant phone type:

subscribecontext=extensions
insecure=very

BLF - Asterisk 1.4

The BLF mechanism changed in Asterik 1.4 and you must add these additional parameters to sip.conf...

In the general section (in Headers->sip.conf)

limitonpeers=yes
notifyringing=yes
notifybusy=yes
notifyhold=yes

In the friend section for each phone

call-limit=99
subscribecontext=extensions
insecure=very

N.B. the number doesn't have to be 99; any large number will do.

Phone Setup

SARK UCS/MVP automatically sets up asterisk to support BLF. However, the user is required to configure the phone for BLF. There are 2 ways to configure your phones for BLF: automatically using provisioning and manually.

Snom 320/360/370 Setup

Automatic Configuration

In server manager go to the Extensions panel and edit the extension you want to provision BLF for. In the provisioning text area add the following for each extension that requires a lamp:

fkey{lampnum}$: dest

< 

sip:{extension}@{server_ip};user=phone

 >

where:-

• {lampnum} is the lamp number
• {extension} is the extension
• {server_ip} is the server ip address

e.g. fkey0$: dest

< 

sip:5000@192.168.1.108;user=phone

 >

Manual Configuration

1. Logon to the phone using a browser or SARK UCS/MVP 's Dynamic Proxy facility.
2. Go to the 'Function Keys' panel in setup.
3. Set the function key to 'Destination' in the popup menu, and enter the extension you want to monitor in the 'Number:' text box. You should repeat this for each extension you want to monitor.
4. Save the settings and the extensions will change to a full SIP URI
e.g.

< 

sip:5000@192.168.1.108;user=phone

 >

5. Go to the 'Advanced' panel in setup and reboot the phone.

Aastra 5Xi, 480i, 9133i Setup

Automatic Configuration

In the above example, the code in the right-hand box is setting the keys on an Aastra expansion keypad, other options are topsoftkeyn, softkeyn and progkeyn, depending upon the Aastra Model number and the actual key you wish to nominate. See the Aastra administrators guide for a full discussion of key nomination.

Manual Configuration

1. Logon to the phone using a browser or SARK UCS/MVP 's Dynamic Proxy facility.
2. Go to the 'Softkeys and XML' panel, or to the 'Expansion Module' panel if you are programming and expansion keypad.
3. Set the Key Type:' to 'BLF', and enter the extension you want to monitor in the 'Label' and 'Value' text boxes.
4. Save the settings.

Grandstream GXP 2000

1. Logon to the phone using a browser or SARK UCS/MVP 's Dynamic Proxy facility.
2. Go to the 'Basic Settings' panel.
3. Set the 'Multi Purpose Keys'. Set the 'Key Mode:' to 'Asterisk BLF', and enter the extension you want to monitor in the 'Name:' and 'UserID:' text boxes.
4. Update the settings and reboot the phone.

Visual Park & Release - Asterisk 1.4 ONLY!

You must first have set BLF up for 1.4 as discussed above.

You will need good quality multi-button phones for this. We mostly use Snom 320/360/370 or Aastra 53i/55i units for this kind of setup. Snoms are best because none of the buttons are hidden. You will need one free "PARK" button on your phone(s) and one or more "parking lot" buttons. In practice, for a small office we normally set the phones up with two parking lot buttons. Firt of all make sure you have set the same number of parks in features as you have parking lot buttons. You do this in headers->features.conf

For our example we are going to use just two parking lots. Now, in the phone button set-up, set your park button to Extension *5 and set your two parking lot buttons to monitor extensions 101 and 102 respectively (BLF in the Snoms). That's it, you're done. Answer a call, press XFER followed by the park button and hang-up. The first free parking lot lamp will illuminate on all phones monitoring the parks!. Now anyone can pick up the parked call by lifting the handset and pressing the illuminated parking lot button. Just like an old key system!

WARNING - SNOM users.

It is best to turn call-waiting off on Snom units, particularly if you have a ring-group in operation which rings all phones (very common in small offices). If you don't turn it off then you can get some unexpected/unwanted results with visual parking (or any kind of Asterisk call parking). Snoms will do automatic bridging which isn't always what you want. Let's say you've just taken a call and you are about to park it... Just as your finger drops toward the park key, another call arrives and begins to ring all phones. Your phone won't ring, but the next available line button will begin to flash. You hit the park button and... your call disappears! No parking lamp comes on. Where did the call go? Well, you just connected it to the new incoming call. So now you have two of your callers happily, or perhaps not so happily, chatting to one another and no way of retrieving either call. This won't happen if you turn off call-waiting or if your operators are savvy enough to wait to park a call if there is another incoming. Snom have said something about fixing this in a near release but they don't release code that often so it may be a little while.