Hosted 3CX Questions

[Chris Wheeler]

I have a client who is interested in a hosted 3CX environment.
They have about 200 phones at one of their office locations.
What size SBC would be recommended for an office this size? I am also looking at a site to site vpn option.
Also, they have a need to page all of the phones at once. From what I understand using multicast in this type of setup is not a supported 3CX configuration. What would be the recommended way to accomplish this?

 

[Evolute IT]

I have a client who is interested in a hosted 3CX environment.
They have about 200 phones at one of their office locations.
What size SBC would be recommended for an office this size? I am also looking at a site to site vpn option.
Also, they have a need to page all of the phones at once. From what I understand using multicast in this type of setup is not a supported 3CX configuration. What would be the recommended way to accomplish this?

You can using regular SIP paging through the SBC. For 200 phones, simply install multiple SBCs. Each SBC on Intel PCs can go up to 100 phones without issues. Over that, it hasn't been tested by 3CX. For Raspberry Pi, the limit is 50 per SBC.

 

[VoIPTools]

You will not be able to page 200 extensions using a standard paging group. It will take a long time to connect to that many phones. Multicast is the only option for paging 200 phones. But you raise a known issue.... how do we perform multicast paging when the phones are remote? A VPN would work and negate the requirement for the SBCs. I don't know whether 3CX will offer a VPN option (I suspect not).

 

[Chris Wheeler]

You will not be able to page 200 extensions using a standard paging group. It will take a long time to connect to that many phones. Multicast is the only option for paging 200 phones. But you raise a known issue.... how do we perform multicast paging when the phones are remote? A VPN would work and negate the requirement for the SBCs. I don't know whether 3CX will offer a VPN option (I suspect not).

Thank you. This would not be on their hosted option, but a self hosted setup, so I think VPN would be the best route.

 

[cobaltit]

https://www.3cx.com/docs/recommended-hardware-specifications-for-3cx/ covers your SBC question.

For the paging, I would talk to them to evaluate the 'need' to page all 200 phones at once. If they want a building wide notification a couple of SIP paging speakers would be a better route.

 

[Chris Wheeler]

https://www.3cx.com/docs/recommended-hardware-specifications-for-3cx/ covers your SBC question.

For the paging, I would talk to them to evaluate the 'need' to page all 200 phones at once. If they want a building wide notification a couple of SIP paging speakers would be a better route.

Cobaltit, thank you.
They want to go hosted (self hosted) but page to phones instead of speakers.
About 200 phones at the main location, but they did say they could break it up into specific smaller groups of phones to page. I thought a VPN would be a better option than multiple SBCs.
If setup with a VPN between the office and hosted site, could they page using the 3CX paging (not multicast) if keeping the groups under the 64 limit per group?
I am assuming, if possible, it would be better to keep the number a little bit under 64.
Also looking to do some intercoming, which I didnt think would be an issue in this type of setup.

 

[cobaltit]

You really want to go multicast. Besides performance issues SIP paging consumes a SC for each paging target.

 

[cobaltit]

Also I would recommend voting up this feature which would help you in this case:

https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/multicast-page-relay.64146/