SBC advantages over VPN?

[abacusadmin]

Hi

We are running 3CX v14 server on one site and have 1 remote extension that connects to it across a VPN. Ping times are around 50ms. Works fine apart from occasional audio drop-outs in one direction but that may be due to me needing to continue fine-tuning the QoS again.

My question is does SBC offer any audio benefits over what I have currently setup? I know that it simplifies networking somewhat by only using port 5090 but other than that does it help much if you only have 1 or 2 remote phones?

Thanks

 

[Sopock]

Mixed results?

https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/3cx-and-sip-proxy-dd-wrt.45477/#post-183852

 

[leejor]

VPN for security reasons, but, could cause latency depending on the type and equipment used (encryption/decryption). Use of the SBC would help reduce bandwidth, as extension to extension calls would not have to go to the PBX and back. The more extensions at one remote location, the more risks of one-way audio and port issues, if not using an SBC. For a single extension the SBC would be over-kill.

 

[eagle2]

Depends how easy is to set a VPN and to configure a remote phone over VPN. From security point of view VPN should be more secured and also QoS could be applied. SBC could be easier for setup and could eliminate one-direction-audio and similar issues, if VPN not configured properly. Also you don't need to configure remote location router.

In a commercial environment with professional class routers I would prefer a VPN (IPsec) connectivity or Layer-2 type of tunnel supported by some routers.

 

[livn46]

We have some individuals who work from home who have been having issues with the softphone due to unreliable or slow internet connectivity. We investigated doing a Raspberry Pi SBC setup for them, but concluded that it wouldn't really be the right solution. So we took the Raspberry Pi solution in a different direction, and now hacked together a Pi with an OpenVPN client that automatically makes a VPN connection to an OpenVPN server on our network. Now we can send out a regular deskphone (something some work-from-home employees have also asked for), tell them how to plug it in to the Pi, and it works just like a deskphone in the office. It's worked well for the three people we've sent them to so far.

 

[leejor]

We have some individuals who work from home who have been having issues with the softphone due to unreliable or slow internet

If the speed/reliability of the internet connection, at the remote location, is causing issues, then the SBC or VPN won't fix that (other than the SBC permitting extension to extension calls to not route through the PBX). Short of changing ISP's, you can only do so much, perhaps using a lower bit-rate CODEC would help for the "slow" part.

 

[abacusadmin]

Thanks everyone for their input. The VPN is not a problem as I have other offices with the same Untangle router using OpenVPN to bridge 3CX servers together so the OpenVPN encrypt/decrypt is unlikely to be the issue.

Looks like this is just a straight Internet QoS and/or latency issue.

 

[abacusadmin]

Now we can send out a regular deskphone (something some work-from-home employees have also asked for), tell them how to plug it in to the Pi, and it works just like a deskphone in the office. It's worked well for the three people we've sent them to so far.

If the RPI is an OpenVPN client then how is the desk phone also an OpenVPN client as the RPI only has one Ethernet port?