When is SBC required

[CFortner]

Hi,

I am new to setting up a voip system and have deployed a 3cx license onto an amazon lightsail account and was able to configure my VOIP phone to connect to it. Do I still need to setup an SBC?

 

[Saqqara]

1. I would say when you have more than remote 3 phones (stun) at the same location - configuring the phones the 3cx supported way becomes harder to manage

3cx supported stun setup
1. Different sip, block of rtp ports for each phone.
2, fixed ip address for each phone
3, port forwarding of the correct ports to the correct phone

As you can see the more phones, you have to do extra work.

Installling sbc does not require the above, phones become pnp - supported phones appear in the management console and you assign the phones to the extension

2. If the firewall does not work with setting up the phones, sbc server overcomes the firewall limitations as you just need to allow tcp/udp port 5090 out along with the https port. No port forwarding is required

3. Using 3cx hosted system , as stun setup for phones is not supported

More info on sbc here https://www.3cx.com/docs/3cx-tunnel-session-border-controller/

 

[cobaltit]

Technically the SBC is never required, only recommended. We deploy a SBC anytime there is more than one phone, and sometimes even when using a single remote phone when it absolutely must work all the time. It also provides a landing point for remote access that you wouldn't typically have in those remote location scenarios.

 

[CFortner]

Thank you both for the information, that is very helpful!

If we plan to have multiple phones in two separate locations, would you recommend having an SBC at each location?

 

[leejor]

If you are not prepared to configure the sets for STUN, then , yes, one at each location.

 

[Saqqara]

As above, just get yourself PI4 4mb or 8mb to run sbc https://www.3cx.com/docs/installing-pbx-raspberry-pi/

 

[_DJ_]

Technically the SBC is never required, only recommended.

Except for hotdesking, which always requires a SBC

 

[cobaltit]

As above, just get yourself PI4 4mb or 8mb to run sbc https://www.3cx.com/docs/installing-pbx-raspberry-pi/

Pi 4 support is still in beta, although I expect that to change soon. That being said we have been using a Pi4 for almost a month (internally) with no issue although are not using it for customers yet. We still have a VM and a Pi 3 as backup in case there are issues.

 

[cobaltit]

Except for hotdesking, which always requires a SBC

Good catch. I had forgotten about that.

 

[Jases Brown]

Pi 4 support is still in beta, although I expect that to change soon. That being said we have been using a Pi4 for almost a month (internally) with no issue although are not using it for customers yet. We still have a VM and a Pi 3 as backup in case there are issues.

I just asked support about this this morning. PI 4 is now supported.
https://www.3cx.com/docs/installing-pbx-raspberry-pi/