Unlisted SIP trunk provider

[4x4jackson]

I have a customer currently working on a Nortel MICS key system utilizing a PRI from a local provider (Atlantic Broadband). The customer wants me to get information together for them on updating their system, but they are only 1 year into a 3 year contract with Atlantic Broadband. ABB is currently providing their dial tone over a SIP trunk and then using an SBC device to break it out as a PRI interface. I talked to their engineers today and they only provide premise based dial tone, meaning I cannot host a 3CX system in the cloud and must install it onsite. The local 3CX system would connect to their SIP trunk through ABB's own onsite SBC. They are willing to set one up for me for testing purposes which would end up being an IP based registration setup. I have always used preferred and supported SIP providers listed on the 3CX website, but would be unable to do that for this install until their current contract expires. Has anyone been involved in a setup like this? I would need to give ABB a static IP from the customers LAN so they could assign it to their SBC. They said they would also need the static IP of the 3CX PBX itself. I would then use the static IP we gave them for their SBC in the 3CX generic SIP trunk setup to try and get them registered to each other. Using a 3CX listed SIP provider is not an option at this point, but I would like to keep them as a customer and move them to the 3CX solution if it's possible and would look at converting them to another SIP provider when their contract expires.

 

[YiannisH_3CX]

Hi @4x4jackson

Many supported providers use onsite SBCs to provide a trunk to customers. The configuration is not unusual and should work just fine. And since they will assigned an IP address from the customers LAN that means that a second NIC will not be necessary.
You will need to do some testing of course to check that everything is working correctly and that the correct settings are used. ABBs engineers should have some documentation on how things need to be set up. We also have an online test plan to help you with testing. https://www.3cx.com/docs/sip-trunk-test-plan/

 

[4x4jackson]

Great, thanks for the information @YiannisH_3CX

 

[mrmmd]

We use Cox Communications and had PRI and switched to SIP for the remainder of our contract. They also installed an SBC to deliver our SIP to our 3cx. Just like you explained, give them an available static IP for the SBC and install 3cx on your network with static IP.
Then in your SIP setup you'll enter the static IP of the SBC that you'll connect to. Then in the 'Authentication' section enter the credentials provided by your provider. Go to the DID's tab and enter any DID's you'll have. I've attached a screenshot from my setup with sensitive parts covered up.

 

[cobaltit]

If you are really concerned you can just use a Patton Gateway to be in a 'supported' configuration. The benefit of this route is you can cutover/back between systems just by moving that PRI cable.

 

[4x4jackson]

We use Cox Communications and had PRI and switched to SIP for the remainder of our contract. They also installed an SBC to deliver our SIP to our 3cx. Just like you explained, give them an available static IP for the SBC and install 3cx on your network with static IP.
Then in your SIP setup you'll enter the static IP of the SBC that you'll connect to. Then in the 'Authentication' section enter the credentials provided by your provider. Go to the DID's tab and enter any DID's you'll have. I've attached a screenshot from my setup with sensitive parts covered up.

This sounds identical to what we are looking to do. Thanks for the info. The cable company just installed their SBC onsite. I'll be heading over to test things out as soon as I finish another install I'm working on. Thanks for the info!

 

[4x4jackson]

If you are really concerned you can just use a Patton Gateway to be in a 'supported' configuration. The benefit of this route is you can cutover/back between systems just by moving that PRI cable.

That would be a great solution if I had access to a Patton Gateway for my testing. They're a little pricey to keep one bouncing around on my van shelves