AskoziaPBX
Encyclopedia
AskoziaPBX is an Open Source
telephone system (or "PBX") firmware
originally created in 2007 by Michael Iedema.
It is a fork of the m0n0wall
project and uses the Asterisk
private branch exchange (PBX) software to realize all telephony functions.
AskoziaPBX is released under a restricted BSD license.
It permits all forms of Open Source modification and distribution but requires licensing if AskoziaPBX is to be sold on commercial products.
Originally based on FreeBSD
, AskoziaPBX was modified to run on Linux
creating a new Linux distribution for this purpose.
Running on Linux it has also been expanded to run on Blackfin
and PowerPC
CPU architectures in addition to the original x86
.
Germany in January 2007.
The project focus was to demonstrate the feasibility of building an embedded
telephone system firmware upon Open Source software while providing a consumer usability
experience.
After six months of private development, the firmware was released to the public on the 1 June 2007.
During the next 14 months after the initial release, 24 public beta versions were released.
At the end of this cycle, version 1.0 was published in September 2008.
Minor fixes and language updates continued on the 1.0 branch until 1.0.3 was released in May 2009.
At this point, work had already begun on what was to become the 2.0 branch of the firmware, the current development series.
It allows the configuration and interconnection of Analog, ISDN
and VoIP telephones and of provider lines. Telephone system features such as voicemail
, conference rooms, call parking
, call transfer
s, fax-to-e-mail
and text-to-speech
are supported.
Additional functionality can be implemented with custom applications.
The firmware stores its entire configuration in a single XML
file.
This simplifies backing up and restoring installations.
It takes care to only write to its internal storage when absolutely necessary.
This is done to preserve write cycles on flash media
, a typical installation media for embedded devices.
AskoziaPBX can run on systems with as little as 200 MHz and 64MB of RAM.
It runs on x86, Blackfin and PowerPC CPU architectures.
The configuration interface, voice prompts and notification messages have all been translated into many languages.
German, Italian, Spanish, French and Dutch are the most complete with less complete translations including Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Danish and Swedish.
AskoziaPBX is in use in over 175 countries.
This process was contracted by Auerswald, a German telecommunications hardware manufacturer and was done for several reasons: Asterisk was, at the time, only officially supported on Linux.
Also, FreeBSD does not support the Blackfin CPU architecture, the architecture used in Auerswald's target platform.
Another Open Source project was forked and incorporated into the project to accomplish the difficult task of compiling, patching and assembling firmware images across multiple CPU architectures and target platforms.
The T2 SDE project was stripped down to only include the software packages used in AskoziaPBX and then merged into the project as the new official build system.
In July 2009 an alpha level release running on Linux was published.
This was further stabilized into a beta release in February 2010.
The final production ready firmware was released as version 2.0 in May 2010.
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
telephone system (or "PBX") firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
originally created in 2007 by Michael Iedema.
It is a fork of the m0n0wall
M0n0wall
m0n0wall is an embedded firewall distribution of FreeBSD, one of the BSD operating system descendants. It provides a small image which can be put on Compact Flash cards as well as on CDROMs and hard disks. It runs on a number of embedded platforms and generic PCs...
project and uses the Asterisk
Asterisk (PBX)
Asterisk is a software implementation of a telephone private branch exchange ; it was created in 1999 by Mark Spencer of Digium. Like any PBX, it allows attached telephones to make calls to one another, and to connect to other telephone services including the public switched telephone network and...
private branch exchange (PBX) software to realize all telephony functions.
AskoziaPBX is released under a restricted BSD license.
It permits all forms of Open Source modification and distribution but requires licensing if AskoziaPBX is to be sold on commercial products.
Originally based on FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
, AskoziaPBX was modified to run on Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
creating a new Linux distribution for this purpose.
Running on Linux it has also been expanded to run on Blackfin
Blackfin
The Blackfin is a family of 16- or 32-bit microprocessors developed, manufactured and marketed by Analog Devices. The family is characterized by their built-in, fixed-point digital signal processor functionality supplied by 16-bit Multiply–accumulates , accompanied on-chip by a small and...
and PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
CPU architectures in addition to the original x86
IA-32
IA-32 , also known as x86-32, i386 or x86, is the CISC instruction-set architecture of Intel's most commercially successful microprocessors, and was first implemented in the Intel 80386 as a 32-bit extension of x86 architecture...
.
History
AskoziaPBX was started as a proof-of-concept project at the Ostfalia - School of Applied Sciences in WolfenbüttelWolfenbüttel
Wolfenbüttel is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, located on the Oker river about 13 kilometres south of Brunswick. It is the seat of the District of Wolfenbüttel and of the bishop of the Protestant Lutheran State Church of Brunswick...
Germany in January 2007.
The project focus was to demonstrate the feasibility of building an embedded
Embedded system
An embedded system is a computer system designed for specific control functions within a larger system. often with real-time computing constraints. It is embedded as part of a complete device often including hardware and mechanical parts. By contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal...
telephone system firmware upon Open Source software while providing a consumer usability
Usability
Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with. A usability study may be conducted as a primary job function by a usability analyst or as a secondary job...
experience.
After six months of private development, the firmware was released to the public on the 1 June 2007.
During the next 14 months after the initial release, 24 public beta versions were released.
At the end of this cycle, version 1.0 was published in September 2008.
Minor fixes and language updates continued on the 1.0 branch until 1.0.3 was released in May 2009.
At this point, work had already begun on what was to become the 2.0 branch of the firmware, the current development series.
Major Features
AskoziaPBX is configured via a web-based configuration interface.It allows the configuration and interconnection of Analog, ISDN
Integrated Services Digital Network
Integrated Services Digital Network is a set of communications standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the traditional circuits of the public switched telephone network...
and VoIP telephones and of provider lines. Telephone system features such as voicemail
Voicemail
Voicemail is a computer based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to individuals, organizations, products and services, using an ordinary telephone...
, conference rooms, call parking
Call parking
Call park is a feature of some telephone systems that allows a person to put a call on hold at one telephone set and continue the conversation from any other telephone set....
, call transfer
Call transfer
A call transfer is a telecommunications mechanism that enables a user to relocate an existing call to another phone or attendant console by using the transfer button and dialing the required location. The transferred call is either announced or unannounced....
s, fax-to-e-mail
Internet fax
Internet fax uses the Internet to receive and send faxes.Internet faxing, "e-Fax" or "online faxing" is a general term which refers to sending a document facsimile using the Internet, rather than using only phone networks with a fax machine.Depending on the specific method/implementation ,...
and text-to-speech
Speech synthesis
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware...
are supported.
Additional functionality can be implemented with custom applications.
The firmware stores its entire configuration in a single XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
file.
This simplifies backing up and restoring installations.
It takes care to only write to its internal storage when absolutely necessary.
This is done to preserve write cycles on flash media
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
, a typical installation media for embedded devices.
AskoziaPBX can run on systems with as little as 200 MHz and 64MB of RAM.
It runs on x86, Blackfin and PowerPC CPU architectures.
Internationalization
Created in Germany and initially only available in the English language, the firmware and project have now been internationalized.The configuration interface, voice prompts and notification messages have all been translated into many languages.
German, Italian, Spanish, French and Dutch are the most complete with less complete translations including Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Danish and Swedish.
AskoziaPBX is in use in over 175 countries.
Moving from FreeBSD to Linux
From late 2008 until mid 2009 the firmware was changed to use Linux as its operating system, replacing FreeBSD.This process was contracted by Auerswald, a German telecommunications hardware manufacturer and was done for several reasons: Asterisk was, at the time, only officially supported on Linux.
Also, FreeBSD does not support the Blackfin CPU architecture, the architecture used in Auerswald's target platform.
Another Open Source project was forked and incorporated into the project to accomplish the difficult task of compiling, patching and assembling firmware images across multiple CPU architectures and target platforms.
The T2 SDE project was stripped down to only include the software packages used in AskoziaPBX and then merged into the project as the new official build system.
In July 2009 an alpha level release running on Linux was published.
This was further stabilized into a beta release in February 2010.
The final production ready firmware was released as version 2.0 in May 2010.