Multi Location Setup

[Kanwar]

Hello Folks

We are running 3cx Pro edition (V15.5) successfully for more than year now on a single location. Due to recent growth we need to setup more than one location in same geographic area and also few thousand miles away.

Our first 3 locations will be only 3-5 Kms apart and 4th location might be offshore. Please advise what would be the best strategy/option to setup 3cx.

Here is the breakdown of extensions:
Location one (Main) 20 Extensions.(Good 300Mbps internet, working on getting a fiber)
Location # Two- 5 extensions (good 150 Mbps internet)
Location three- 5 Extensions (30 Mbps internet)

Location four (offshore) will have 10 extensions. (10-20 Mbps internet connection.)

I'll connect these sites via VPN

Your help will be highly appreciated.

Regards

 

[eddv123]

Below are you locations, followed by my recommendation(s) as to what I think would be the best solution.

Location one (Main) 20 Extensions.(Good 300Mbps internet, working on getting a fiber)

Possibly could get away with this with a Raspberry Pi SBC (20 extensions max) so you are hitting the limit, you could maybe go for the SBC on Linux or Windows for connecting these extensions. If there is an IPSec VPN tunnel to this site also, this could be used.

Location # Two- 5 extensions (good 150 Mbps internet)

Raspberry Pi SBC again would be fine, I am not a big advocate of using remote STUN setup for more than a single extension on a remote site, however if configured correctly on the network level you may be able to get away with using this method.

Again If there is an IPSec VPN tunnel to this site also, this could be used.

Location three- 5 Extensions (30 Mbps internet)

Same as above.

Location four (offshore) will have 10 extensions. (10-20 Mbps internet connection.)

Raspberry Pi SBC, or VPN.

If any of the above does not make sense these guides will assist with the finer details:
https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/configuring-ip-phones/#h.ul2fzupi6t22/
https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/configuring-ip-phones/
https://www.3cx.com/blog/docs/network-configurations-supported-3cx-phone-system/

NOTE: MPLS/VPLS connections can also be utilized like VPN's, if any of these are used then using DHCP option 66 for provisioning would be preferable.

https://www.3cx.com/sip-phones/dhcp-option-66/

 

[cobaltit]

Best is subjective so without a LOT more details. You don't mention whether the current system is on premise or hosted, dial tone, usage (standard office or call center), etc. You've been running 3CX for over a year so you should have a good idea as to what it can/can't do. Deciding on whether to do something like keep everything on one system or to have multiple systems and bridge them is an administrative and business decision. Off the cuff I'd say you are probably best with putting the geographically close locations together and then having a separate system for the offshore.

GOOD internet is also subjective. You only give one measure of speed and since you say you are workng on getting fiber at one location presumably you are talking about an asymmetric connection (likely cable). If that's the case then you would size it by the upload as that would be the bottleneck (if any). That being said VoIP is more about the quality of the connection and not the size so any of those connections should be fine.

You probably want to pay a partner to help you with the design/implementation.

 

[Kanwar]

@cobaltit What is the best way to connect?

 

[cobaltit]

@Kanwar

Sent you a PM with some contact information.

 

[AGidi]

We do mostly multi locations . SBCs Take care of your codecs and QoS when tight on bandwidth. VPN can work too.