beroNet Blog

What's new in beroNet Firmware 3.0

Written by Jean-Eudes Ambroise | Aug 7, 2015 10:47:56 AM

After months of development, the beroNet firmware 3.0 is now available. With the new firmware comes a number of new features such as T1 compatibility, representing beroNet's first step into the North and South American markets, and SIP to SIP functionality, enabling beroNet to offer VoIP gateways with SBC and SBA features.

Here is an overview of the new features brought by beroNet Firmware 3.0:

1) Cleaner web-interface

One of the most noticeable changes we made in the new firmware is the appearance of our web interface. We dropped the red beroNet style and created a new design unifying the templates of our website, Cloud and VoIP gateway interface. This new design also solves numerous questions regarding the "missing red border of the Webgui": http://wiki.beronet.com/index.php/FAQ#The_Webgui_has_no_red_Border_at_the_right_site.2C_is_that_a_bug_.3F

I hope you will enjoy as much as we do.

2) Dialplan:

A few changes have been made in the dialplan for convenience and technical reasons:

  • Mass Functions

It is now possible to activate, deactivate or delete multiple rules at once by selecting more than one rule via the selection boxes on the left column.

  • SIP to SIP Rules

You can now connect two SIP peers with each other. This feature is only limited by the number of licenses you purchase, the number of SIP to SIP channels one gateway is able to support and your imagination. Here is an overview of our licensing model:

License beroNet hardware necessary for codecs transcoding Price (€)
 2 channels  BF400box / Small Business Line 0
4 channels  BF400box / Small Business Line 90
8 channels BF400box / Small Business Line 170
16 channels BF1600box 300
32 channels BF1600box 450
64 channels BF6400box 600
  • Match-Type:
    It is now possible to choose how a dialplan rule will be matched depending on the "match type" of a SIP peer. It can be matched by 6 different  fields: IP address, From user, To user, Detault SIP account, Any or Manual address. Two of them are new: "To User" and "Default SIP account".
SIP:
  • Transport Protocol per SIP Peer
    The transport protocol can now be chosen per SIP peer. UDP, TCP and TLS are the available protocols.
  •  NAT-Options (incl. STUN)
    The NAT options can be configured in each SIP peer individually. Three options are available as shown here below:
  •  ENUM - Option available
    The ENUM option is available on beroNet VoIP gateways upon request. If you are interested in this feature, please contact sales@beronet.com
  • CLEARMODE - Codec (RFC4040)
    The clearmode codec is now available in the additionnal configuration option of each SIP pear. The clearmore codec enables VoIP integrators to keep to advantages of ISDN on SIP connections. The codec keeps all the information sent by the ISDN connection and translates them in SIP.

ISDN:

The biggest improvement brought by the firmware 3.0 specific to ISDN is the compatibility with PRI T1 and R2, mostly use in North and South America. Partner who purchase the T1 compatible modules will have the possibility to choose if they want to use either E1 or T1.

beroNet VoIP gateways are therefore now compatible with the following ISDN lines:
    •  T1 PRI which is the digital T1, which can be compared to the E1 used in Europe

 

    • T1 CAS (Channel Associated Signalling) which is a bundle of 24 analog lines and each one of them has its own signaling. It used to be the standard system in the US but it has been less and less used. We still found it necessary to have a compatible hardware for it, just in case.
  • E1 MFC/R2 which  is a standard often used in South America. Technology wise, it resembles the T1 CAS of the US.
FXS:
  • MWI: beroNet VoIP gateways now support MWI (Message Waiting Indication). This technology is used on traditional systems, mostly analog telephones. It illuminates an LED on the end point to notify a telephone user of waiting voicemail messages. It now also works when the message is delivered via SIP thru a beroNet VoIP gateway.
  • HOLD, Retrieve, Transfer
    The beroNet VoIP gateways can now support call transfers from analog end-points. By using the  "R" key (also known as Flash-hook), calls can be transferred from one analog end-point to the other.

Hardware:

beroNet users now have the possibility to permanently activate the Layer 1 of their BRI ports in TE mode. We made this change because in PMP (point to multi-point) protocol the state of our ISDN ports always looked offline,  as the provider automatically turns the Layer 1 of the BRI port off. It disturbed most of our new users and naturally led to a lot of support requests. We now can activate this option in order to have the green light appear in the state view which looks, I believe, nicer.
Network Settings:
  • Second - DNS:
    A secondary DNS server can now be configured as a back-up of the primary one:
  • Advanced ACLs:
    The ACL can now be detailed in a very precise way in order to improve the securtiy of beroNet VoIP gateways. The interface offers default rules and the possibility to add new ones:

Provisioning / Zerotouch:

The provisioning of beroNet gateways has been greatly modified. As the DHCP is now activated per default on beroNet VoIP gateways, the provisionning via DHCP is a great new feature offered by this new firmware. It enables beroNet technology partners to integrate our devices even more with their own solutions.The gateway can now receive its provisioning URL per DHCP, so that a complete zerotouch experience can be achieved.

Furthermore, the "Zeroconf Support" has also been added enabling Linux and Apple users to detect and access their beroNet VoIP gateways via the "Bonjour" protocol. For this to function, the following option needs to be activated:

 

Apps:

beroNet firmware 3.x brings Apps, enabling beroNet partners to enhance their VoIP gateways with brand new features. The beroNet application market is available under the "Apps+" tab and partners can download and add new features to their existing VoIP gateways. For example the SBA, Survival Branch Appliance, enables partners using hosted pbx solutions to offer higher security to their clients. The SIP end points can be registered on the gateway as a second identity and stay connected to the outside when a problem occurs between the hosted pbx and the firm.

FW Update:

We have also changed the way updates are done on our VoIP gateways. A reboot in "update-mode" is now necessary.

Once the VoIP gateway has rebooted, we can see different fimware and FPGA versions available to download. This allows us to offer the latest firmware updates to our partners without searching for them on our website.
Another way to update the firmware would be to download it from a WEB server by adding the URL in the bar and then click "download". Of course, the former way of updating our firmware is still available.
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