Real Time Communication (RTC) is a huge sector, in perennial growth. It spans from VoIP to FAXes, from VideoConferencing to CallCenters, from PBXes to WebRTC, using many interworking technologies to connect the past with the future, legacy applications to new users and markets, creating and developing new ways for saving time and money, fostering collaboration, and enjoying leisure.
FreeSWITCH covers it all; it is the most reliable, scalable, and flexible open source foundation, and is used to build services and products worldwide.
This book adopts a professional approach and attitude, making available a wealth of cumulated actual industry experience in each aspect of FreeSWITCH implementation.
Written for professionals, each chapter contains the knowledge needed to frame and understand its domain, and a thorough explanation of FreeSWITCH wheels and knobs, best practices, and real-world solutions.
Chapter 1, Typical Voice Uses for FreeSWITCH, gives an overview and analyzes each sector where FreeSWITCH is in production.
Chapter 2, Deploying FreeSWITCH, shows best practices in FreeSWITCH installation and management.
Chapter 3, ITSP and Voice Codecs Optimization, suggests what to look for when choosing an Internet Telephony Service Provider, and how to get the best from DIDs, terminations, T38, and voice traffic.
Chapter 4, VoIP Security, exposes specific measures and tools used to keep FreeSWITCH protected from unwanted attention and hostile behavior.
Chapter 5, Audio File and Streaming Formats, Music on Hold, Recording Calls, covers all that is related to audio manipulation with FreeSWITCH, from prompts optimization to call center barge in, from playing live streams to HD codecs.
Chapter 6, PSTN and TDM, happens to be the first published, thorough explanation of all possible interactions between FreeSWITCH and Sangoma, Digium, and other compatible hardware for interfacing traditional and legacy telephony networks.
Chapter 7, WebRTC and Mod_Verto, provides a detailed overview of what WebRTC is and what techniques it entails, and then follows the development of a complete FreeSWITCH implementation.
Chapter 8, Audio and Video Conferencing, delves into the intricacies of setting and managing FreeSWITCH multiuser conferences both via SIP and WebRTC, with chatting, screen sharing, moderation, and advanced techniques for videocomposing the screen.
Chapter 9, Faxing and T38, explores all facsimile transmission aspects, and how to reliably fax via VoIP, send office documents, and integrate with mail.
Chapter 10, Advanced IVR with Lua, proves that it is not your average code snippet or more of the same example. Starting from the thoroughly described script techniques, it will be possible to build your industry-grade applications.
Chapter 11, Write Your FreeSWITCH Module in C, describes exactly what is needed to add or modify FreeSWITCH functionalities at the most fundamental level: interfacing your custom hardware, or your legacy OSS, or whatever.
Chapter 12, Tracing and Debugging VoIP, shows the art of SIP packet tracing, using the latest open source tools.
Chapter 13, Homer, Monitoring and Troubleshooting Your Communication Platform, walks through the operation of the most advanced VoIP/WebRTC monitoring and data warehousing solution: Homer. Once implemented, your support staff will reach Nirvana!
For implementing the same solutions described in this book, you will need a (virtual) machine with Debian 8 (Jessie) 64 bit, and some Linux admin and networking knowledge.
This book is for skilled professionals who want to jump right into the depths of FreeSWITCH, such as system administrators, programmers, and telephony technicians who want to augment their ability to create real-world VoIP and WebRTC products and services.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Several built-in modules exist to assist in this, such as mod_lcr and mod_nibblebill, but the real beauty of FreeSWITCH's handling of calls in a wholesale scenario is due to four core building blocks."
A block of code is set as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?> <!DOCTYPE scenario SYSTEM "sipp.dtd"> <scenario name="FreeSWITCH: call extension 1001"> <!-- we send the intial INVITE --> <send retrans="500" start_rtd="mer"> <![CDATA[
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<!DOCTYPE scenario SYSTEM "sipp.dtd">
<scenario name="FreeSWITCH: call extension 1001">
<!-- we send the intial INVITE -->
<send retrans="500" start_rtd="mer">
<![CDATA[New terms and important words are shown in bold.
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