Singlewire Software Integration with Wildix

Introduction

The Wildix and Singlewire InformaCast integration allows organizations to leverage Wildix’s VoIP and Unified Communications capabilities alongside InformaCast’s notification solutions. The integration is achieved through a secure SIP trunk using TLS/SRTP for encrypted communication. The Wildix InformaCast integration enhances enterprise communication by combining secure VoIP capabilities with mass notification features. By leveraging TLS-encrypted SIP trunks, multicast paging, and emergency alerting, organizations can deploy a scalable and secure communication platform for both routine and critical messaging needs. 

Use cases

• Emergency notifications: Send critical alerts (e.g., fire alarms, lockdown warnings) from InformaCast to Wildix phones and other connected devices using multicast paging (provided an InformaCast server is deployed on site)
• Trigger notifications: Trigger any InformaCast notifications from Wildix phones 

Requirements

• WMS latest version 
• An active InformaCast Fusion subscription with Singlewire Software
• A Fusion server (virtual or hardware appliance) registered to your InformaCast Fusion provider
• Multicast support on local network

Wildix PBX Setup

Step 1. Create a SIP trunk

• Go to WMS -> Trunks menu and click +Add option:

• Fill up the following fields:
  • Title: user defined, informacast in this case
  • Trunk name: user defined, informacast in this case
  • Auth Login: user defined, informacast in this case (this user name will be used by InformaCast to connect to this trunk/ PBX)
  • Address or Host Name = dynamic (it means InformaCast server will register against Wildix server to create the SIP trunk)
  • Password: user defined password (this password can be anything and will be used by InformaCast server  to connect to this trunk/ PBX)
  • Also, make sure Enable registration option is disabled (InformaCast server will register against Wildix, not the other way around)
• Click Save. A configured trunk should look like this:
  

Step 2. Obtain Certificate

Since a SIP trunk is required for the integration, it is recommended to enable encryption to ensure secure communication. While encryption is optional, both InformaCast and Wildix servers support it. This section outlines the steps needed to configure secure communications.

• Access Wildix server terminal and execute the following command as root: 

  cat /etc/kamailio/ssl/cert.crt  > /mnt/wildixcert.pem

  
  

• Then create a diagnostics hub report (see Diagnostics Hub: Features & Utilities) and download it, inside the report you will find a file called wildixcert.pem:

• wildixcert.pem is the certificate you need in the following section. Once you have the certificate, execute the following command on the terminal (to ensure more reports created do not include the certificate): 

  rm /mnt/backups/wildixcert.pem 

InformaCast Server Setup

The following settings are to be performed on InformaCast web interface, all settings are to be performed under Admin -> SIP section:

Step 1. Upload certificate

• Go to Admin -> SIP- > SIP Certificates section and click Upload option
• Navigate to the certificate obtained in the previous step. Once the certificate is uploaded, besides Singlewire server default certificate, you should see a certificate with your Wildix server name:

Step 2. Ensure secure communications

• Go to Admin -> SIP -> Call Security section and make sure the following options are enabled and save:
  • Secure Signaling Required
  • Secure RTP Allowed

Step 3. Create SIP Account

• Go to Admin -> SIP -> Accounts section and click Create Account

• Assign a name to your account (WildixTrunk will be used in this example) and select Other option under telephony provider, another form will appear
• Fill up the fields as following:
  • Enable Registration: make sure this field is enabled
  • User: Auth Login value set in Create a SIP trunk step (informacast in this example)
  • Host: your Wildix domain name (in the form of NAME.wildixin.com)
  • Transport Protocol: TLS
  • Outbound Proxy Server(s): your Wildix domain name (in the form of NAME.wildixin.com)
  • Use DNS SRV: disable this option
  • Use Realm Authentication: disable this option
  • Authorization ID: Auth Login value set in Create a SIP trunk step (informacast in this example)
  • Password: Password value set in Create a SIP trunk step

Once the previous settings are in place, you are ready to set up some Notifications from InformaCast to Wildix phones (see Delivering audio notifications to Wildix phones from InformaCast ) and to trigger some notifications from Wildix to InformaCast (see Triggering InformaCast notifications from Wildix).

Delivering audio notifications to Wildix phones from InformaCast 

One of the easiest ways to deliver an audio message to a big number of Wildix phones is using multicast paging, provided there is InformaCast server appliance on site, doing multicast paging is really easy.

By default, Wildix provisions its phones to use 239.1.1.10 address for multicast paging, and ports from 10000 and up. Considering that and the fact that InformaCast can perform multicast paging on site, the following setting need to be performed.

Wildix Paging Groups

• Go to WMS -> Dialplan-> Paging Groups and click +Add option
• On the form, assign a name to the paging group and add all the users (phones) that need to be paged in this group and click Save:

• Once all the needed paging groups are created, make sure to sync all of the phones that need to be synced: go to WMS -> Devices -> select the devices and click Configure/ Sync device
• Keep in mind that paging groups are created using different ports on the address 239.1.1.10, starting from port 10000. The first paging group created in WMS uses port 10000, the second group uses port 10001, and so on:

• Considering the previous picture, phones in the "Building_1" group will subscribe to 239.1.1.10:10000 (first port available), while phones in the "Main_Building" group will subscribe to 239.1.1.10:10004. The key point to remember is that the assigned port corresponds to the ID value minus one (because ports start in 10000, not it 10001), which will be relevant in the next section.

InformaCast

3 things need to be configured on InformaCast in order to deliver audio notifications to phones using multicast paging:

1. Multicast streams: InformaCast server on site needs to be set up to use the right IP address (always 239.1.1.10) and port (depending on WMS groups order, starting from 10000)
2. Device groups: devices or entities that will be used to deliver notifications, in our case multicast paging is a device that will be added
3. Message template: InformaCast Message Template is a pre-configured message format used to quickly send alerts and notifications. It helps standardize messages by defining preset text, audio, recipients, and delivery methods (e.g., phone calls, SMS, emails, or paging)

In the following section configuration steps are described.

Multicast Streams

• In InformaCast, go to Admin -> Multicast Streams

• Click Create Multicast Stream option and fill up as following:

• • What type of multicast stream would you like to create?: select Generic
  • Name: assign a name for the group, for the sake of simplicity regarding mapping and for this example, Main_Building is used (so the same phones added on WMS side are to be paged from this group in InformaCast)
  • Address: always 239.1.1.10
  • Port: port to be used to page, this is the port that Wildix sets their phones to subscribe to based on Wildix paging groups, this is the port that needs to be mapped, considering the next picture. Phones on group Building_1 (ID 1) will subscribe to 239.1.1.10:10000, while phones on Main_Building (ID 5) will subscribe to 239.1.1.10:10004, the key piece to map Wildix paging groups on InformaCast Multicast Streams is the ID number minus one

• A Multicast Stream to be used in InformaCast for “Main_Building” group on Wildix side (ID 5) would look like this:
  

Device Group

Multicast Streams are a path/ interface/ way to deliver messages (paging a specific address and port for instance). In order to use the interface (paging) in InformaCast, a Device Group needs to be created. In this example only a Multicast Stream will be used, but any other InformaCast device (InformaCast Desktop Notifiers for instance) can be added to the Device Group.

• Go to Recipients- > Device Groups option in InformaCast

• Click Create Device Group, the following form appears, fill up as follows:
  
  • Name: name for the Device Group, “Main Building” in this case, to denote all devices on the Main Building will be grouped here
  • Individual Devices -> Devices to Include: Select the desired Multicast stream, (Main_Building in our example, but any other InformaCast device can be added)

Message Template

So far, a Multicast Stream is configured in InformaCast to be able to page the right IP and port, also  a “Device Group” that includes the Multicast Stream to deliver notifications. The last piece missing is a Message Template that defines the message to be delivered and uses our Device Group.

• Go to Notifications -> Message Templates and click +Create Message Template, fill up as follows:
  • Name: name for your message template, in this case “closed weather - Main Building” because the intent is to deliver a closed weather notification to all devices possible in the main building
  • Subject: main subject for the notification, this subject is played at first during paging
  • Body: message to be paged on the phones “Please be aware that a severe weather alert has been issued. Our main building will remain closed for the rest of the day” in our case
  • Which types of content would you like to include in your message template?: select audio (and any other mean available in your InformaCast installation)
  • Audio: Select Text to Speech and configure desired parameters
  • Recipients: Enable Device Groups and select the Multicast Stream previously configured (Main Building in our example)

Testing the notification

Once there is a Message Template available in InformaCast, all you need to do is:

• Go to the list of Message Templates (Notifications -> Message Templates), locate your template (Main_Building) and click Send Notification option:
  
  

• The Message Template configurations will appear, click Send button at the bottom. You should hear a paging on all the phones that belong to the “Main_Building” page group in WMS. In InformaCast you should see something like the following:

Triggering InformaCast notifications from Wildix

InformaCast integration allows you not only to deliver audio messages to Wildix phones, but also to trigger any InformaCat Message template, which means any InformaCast resource can be triggered from Wildix phones.

In order to trigger notifications from Wildix side, the following things are required:

• Dial pattern in Wildix: number or pattern in Wildix Dialplan to allow phones to dial a number to trigger a notification on InformaCast
• Dialing configuration in InformaCast: number that will be dialed by Wildix side, InformaCast needs to be set up with the same numbers

In the following section a description of the configurations needed is provided.

Dial Pattern in wildix

Since there is already a SIP trunk available between Wildix and InformaCast (see Setup), you only need to use it to trigger notifications on Informacast.

• Go to WMS -> Dialplan and create the following entry in the Dialplan assigned to phones that will be able to trigger notifications:
  
  • 9999: number that phones will dial to trigger a notification on InformaCast
  • Dial the trunk: select the SIP trunk between Wildix and InformaCast
  • Number: called number, 9999 will be dialed on the trunk

Dialing Configuration in InformaCast

• In InformaCast, go to Notifications -> DialCast -> Dialing Configurations and click +Create Dialing Configuration
• Select Send Notification in the following menu and click Continue 

• Fill up as follows:
  • Name: name for your dialing Configuration, “Notification From Wildix phone” in this case
  • Dialing Pattern: number that is dialed by Wildix to trigger the notification, 9999 in our case
  • Associated On-premises Servers: select the correct InformaCast server on site
  • Notifications Settings: enable “Use Message Template” and select Main_Building, so our Main Building message will be triggered
  • Recipients -> Device Groups Override: select the device group containing the Multicast Stream (the notification will be delivered via multicast paging)
• Click Save

Once there is a Dial patter in Wildix to allow phones to dial 9999 in this case, and there is also a Dialing configuration in InformaCast to trigger a notification when 9999 is dialed, all you have to do is call 9999 from a Wildix phone, you should hear the paging on all corresponding Wildix phones. But remember, the paging is being performed by InformaCast server on site.

Advanced configuration

One of the advantages of InformaCast integration using a trunk is the fact that any number of numbers can be dialed using such trunk, which in turn allows InformaCast to implement advanced dialing configurations using dial patterns, please see Regular Expressions and Dialing Configurations on InformaCast platform.