Quickstart

This document details the steps needed to get your x164 switch started.

Preface

The x164 softswitch is based on yate. The softswitch can be installed on the servers of the x164 customer or is hosted by x164 in the datacenter.

We recommend to install the softswitch as a OpenVZ virtual machine. OpenVZ offers near-bare-metal performance. The advantage of virtualization are: Easy backups, easy migration to different hardware in case of failures or hardware upgrades. x164 provides a OpenVZ template for download which is a ready-configured softswitch.

Softswitch installation

Setup Linux Host for OpenVZ

Use of Debian Squeeze is recommended for its stability, but you can use other Linux distributions as you wish. You can look for the proper option for your machine here. Installation guides are also available for the different supported architectures here.

This website offers a screenshot based tutorial that explains how to make a bare-bones installation without a graphical desktop environment. We suggest to create a separate partition /vz to store the virtual machines, as for example in the following scheme.

Disk partitioning

The recommended partition scheme is the following:

Partition	Size	File system	Comments
/boot	500 MB	ext2
swap	~	swap	Size should be the same as RAM
/	20 GB	ext4
/vz	remaining disk space	ext4	OpenVZ virtual machines will be installed in this partition

It is encouraged that you follow the order shown in the table when partitioning.

Updating and upgrading

After completing the installation you should run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

This ensures you have the latest version of the installed packages.

Remote SSH access

If you want to work on your server remotely from a remote client, it is recommended to use a Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. Install a SSH server:

apt-get install openssh-server

Now you can open the terminal on your workstation and type the following to log in the host machine:

ssh root@[ipAdress]

It will ask you for the hostname's password. From now on you can continue working from your workstation remotely.

Midnight Commander

We recommend using a visual file manager like Midnight Commander (mc) to make working with the command line easier. To install it in your server enter this command:

apt-get install mc
mc

You can find more information about mc in [1]

Webmin installation

It is recommended that you use Webmin to easily configure your softswitch. Run the following command to avoid dependency issues

apt-get install perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl apt-show-versions python

Then you can download Webmin

wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin_1.590_all.deb

and install it

dpkg --install webmin_1.590_all.deb

OpenVZ Installation

Installation for Debian systems is detailed in this tutorial. You can also refer to the OpenVZ installation guide for Debian and other operating systems.

Softswitch template installation

To download the softswitch template just run the following command:

wget http://www.x164.com/index.php/download-and-install

and create the softswitch container.

vzctl create [CTID] --ostemplate nameOfTemplate 

Once you have created a new [CTID].conf file will appear at /etc/vz/conf. There you can set the VM's IP, gateway and hostname as it fits your network, among other parameters. This is an example of what the .conf file should look like:

Then you can start your softswitch container:

vzctl start [CTID]

Here you can find some of the basic operations needed to work with your container.

Web Configuration of the x164 Service

Setup softswitch to connect with x164

The softswitch needs to connect to the x164 database to retrieve routing information and to the x164 radius server to send call details records. We will initiate fake calls from a softphone to test whether everything works correctly.

Editing register.conf file

Go into the /usr/local/etc/yate folder of your virtual machine and open the register.conf file. In this file the string 'hyTnw94^^f' must be substituted by your own secret key for MySQL procedures in yate.

To find your key, log into https://access.x164.com. Go to the Rating tab and select Gateways in the Action area.

Setup Firewall on Softswitch

The firewall can be setup comfortably with Webmin:

https://softswitchIP:10000

In the Networking/Linux Firewall subsection, Default Action should be set to Drop. Then a new rule must by added by clicking Add Rule. This new rule must be defined like this

where 11.22.33.55 is the IP of your workstation. The firewall must be opened for all IPs from which you receive VoIP traffic. Now the Linux Firewall menu should look like this:

Press the Apply button to activate the rules.

Verify yate functionality

You need to verify that yate is working. Go to the terminal and log into the softswitch through port 29. Using a port which is not the standard ssh port 22 reduces the chance that some weak password is hacked.

ssh root@[softswitchIP]:29

Then see what is happening in the port that will receive the fake call. The softswitch listens on udp port 5061 and not the standard port 5060 to avoid attacks.

usr/local/etc/yate ngrep port 5061

Now you can make a call from a softphone like Zoiper and verify if yate is working.

When you dial you will see in the terminal that communication has been established between the softswitch and the workstation IPs, confirming that yate is functioning.

Connection to Radius server

Login into https://access.x164.com and click search in the CDRs tab. The test calls your did should be shown, confirming that the softswitch is connected to the x164 radius server.

Adding subscribers to the database

We are going to create a caller subscriber and a subscriber for one of our phone lines and make a call from one to another.

To see your customers table go to the Rating tab and select Customers in the Action field. Here you can find information about the fields in this table

Adding a dynamic IP customer

The following fields must be set, test rest can stay empty.

Dynamic_ip	1 (flag for dynamic IP use)
Subscriber	user@domain.com (subscriber name)
Password	verysecret (user password)
Profile	Profile name. Links the customer to a profile in the Profiles table.
Subscriber_out	In case subscriber also provides outgoing routes put outgoing subscriber name here to avoid looping calls, otherwise leave blank.
Blocked	block the subscriber when value set to 1
Pre_location	Parameters added before the called number, i.e. the protocol used. An example would be sip/sip:. Note you should write this in lowercase.
Post_location	(automatically updated IP address after SIP client registers to softswitch)
Formats	ulaw (optional codec formats separated by comma, g729, ulaw, ...)

Linking customer to a profile

Select Profiles in the Action area and add a new profile. To link a customer to a profile the field Profile must be the same in the two tables. To make the subscriber a caller you must enter IN in the Carrier field. Here you can find more information.

Linking rates to profiles

Go to Rates in the Action area and insert a new rate. The fields are explained Here.

Registering with the new customer account

Create an account for the new customer with your softphone:

Creating a DID subscriber

Add a new DID customer

Go to the Rating tab and select the Customers table. Add a new customer with a new profile as in the following image:

Link DID client to a DID profile

In the Profile table, add a new one specifying DIDRANGE as the carrier.

Create a rate for the profile

Go to the Rates table and add a new entry for the profile you just have created. Note the price should be in any case lesser than the one for the caller, otherwise the system will not respond because there wouldn't be a profit. For more information about each particular field, check the documentation

Add a DID client

In the DIDclients table add the line you want to test:

Make a first call

Make sure both your softphone and your line are registered in Yate. Now you can call your line from the softphone.