IVM survey with several concurrent voip calls

math

A big greeting for this amazing survey solution.

I'am building a survey for students with IVM for two days now.

Everything works fine with one call at a time: OGM work great and caller entries are recorded with the "add entry to special log" tab.

My first question : How to make everything works so well with several calls at the same time? I would like to organize survey sessions in schools with smartphone launched on several PC's.

For the moment, when I try to call my SIP number from two different lines at the same time, the two calls are visible in the black IVM debbuging window but only one call can launch the survey. The other concurrent call keeps ringing with no connection at all...

Another question. Will the "special log" solution still function with several log entries recording in the same log file at the same time ?

If not , wich solution could work great and could be not too tricky to set ?

Very thanks for your help.

Configuration :

- 1 sip with gateway (can be reached via public or internet calls) (freephonie.net)

- windows xp pro

math

math wrote:

A big greeting for this amazing survey solution.

I'am building a survey for students with IVM for two days now.

Everything works fine with one call at a time: OGM work great and caller entries are recorded with the "add entry to special log" tab.

My first question : How to make everything works so well with several calls at the same time? I would like to organize survey sessions in schools with smartphone launched on several PC's.

For the moment, when I try to call my SIP number from two different lines at the same time, the two calls are visible in the black IVM debbuging window but only one call can launch the survey. The other concurrent call keeps ringing with no connection at all...

Another question. Will the "special log" solution still function with several log entries recording in the same log file at the same time ?

If not , wich solution could work great and could be not too tricky to set ?

Very thanks for your help.

Configuration :

- 1 sip with gateway (can be reached via public or internet calls) (freephonie.net)

- windows xp pro

Can't anyone give me a lead to solve these 2 problems ?

for the problem n°1, I have the idea that AXON may be a part of the solution but I don't know how..

for the problem n°2, maybe is the ODBC connection plugin to a web SQL database a solution, but I don't know neither...

Thank you for any help.

pythonpoole

Sorry Math, I could have sworn I wrote a reply to you already. I guess I forgot to actually click 'Add Reply' which often happens when I go to research/double check something and forget to come back to the post.

The first thing to check is if your VoIP provider supports multiple concurrent calls. Most of strict limitations, some don't provide support at all, others provide full support.

You can try to prove/disprove this being the problem by phoning directly into IVM from Axon without using freephonie/your voip service. If it works, freephonie is limiting your concurrent calls, if not it appears to be IVM or Axon (however Axon is not supposed to limit simultaneous calls to my knowledge)

If according to the service you should be able to have multiple concurrent calls, it could be that IVM is limiting the number of concurrent calls it is able to answer. Please check the line properties to see how many many 'simultaneous calls' are being permitted at a time.

Although unlikely, perhaps it's possible IVM has some other limitation that prevents it from answering new calls as a safety feature in case the processor becomes overworked or the memory becomes full. In such a case, what are the specs of the computer running IVM/Axon?

Also make sure that you have enough bandwidth available to handle a second phone call. If you're using G.711 or the default setting that could be using up to 80kbps and I think that's x2 for both ways, where as a low-bandwidth codec like GSM only requires a small (about) 15kbps.

Second question:

The special log feature is great and should work for what you're asking. It appends new data to the end of the log file. When I use the feature, I prefer to make it an HTML browser so it's easy to open up and view in a web browser. The basic idea is to log it in a format like this

filename: myfile.html

log string: %date% | %name% | %ansquest1% | %ansquest2% <br>

By the way be careful when you set call variables to make sure they aren't global. That would be fine for a 1 call system, but for simultaneous calls it would then start mixing the answers between callers.

math

pythonpoole wrote:

Sorry Math, I could have sworn I wrote a reply to you already. I guess I forgot to actually click 'Add Reply' which often happens when I go to research/double check something and forget to come back to the post.

The first thing to check is if your VoIP provider supports multiple concurrent calls. Most of strict limitations, some don't provide support at all, others provide full support.

You can try to prove/disprove this being the problem by phoning directly into IVM from Axon without using freephonie/your voip service. If it works, freephonie is limiting your concurrent calls, if not it appears to be IVM or Axon (however Axon is not supposed to limit simultaneous calls to my knowledge)

If according to the service you should be able to have multiple concurrent calls, it could be that IVM is limiting the number of concurrent calls it is able to answer. Please check the line properties to see how many many 'simultaneous calls' are being permitted at a time.

Although unlikely, perhaps it's possible IVM has some other limitation that prevents it from answering new calls as a safety feature in case the processor becomes overworked or the memory becomes full. In such a case, what are the specs of the computer running IVM/Axon?

Also make sure that you have enough bandwidth available to handle a second phone call. If you're using G.711 or the default setting that could be using up to 80kbps and I think that's x2 for both ways, where as a low-bandwidth codec like GSM only requires a small (about) 15kbps.

--

Second question:

The special log feature is great and should work for what you're asking. It appends new data to the end of the log file. When I use the feature, I prefer to make it an HTML browser so it's easy to open up and view in a web browser. The basic idea is to log it in a format like this

filename: myfile.html

log string: %date% | %name% | %ansquest1% | %ansquest2% <br>

By the way be careful when you set call variables to make sure they aren't global. That would be fine for a 1 call system, but for simultaneous calls it would then start mixing the answers between callers.

Thanks for your reply. I 'm now aware of the CPU and ram limitations. Thanks for the point n°2.

Two questions :

1) How exactly may I phone directly into IVM from Axon without using freephonie/my voip service. And How to make a"test" at least with two concurent calls from Axon.

2) If this test shows that my SIP provider doesn't support "simultaneous calls", are they any other third party soft solutions and/or other "compatible" sip services to do this : make IVM able to answer concurrent calls from SIP services ?

The idea is to use IVR as a vocal survey tools with SIP software on PC's for non readers in social institutions. The collection of the data in these institutions will imply several concurrent calls in a single collection session.

The great thing will be to make IVR able to answser concurrent calls from different networks like Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger or Google talk regarding the different PC's set up in theses social institutions. Maybe this is a dream... maybe not...

Thanks for any lead you may suggest.

pythonpoole

To test through Axon, create a least two new extensions through the Axon web interface. Then use softphones (such as Express Talk) to register with those extensions on Axon. Next, ensure that your dialplan is configured to allow calls to internal extensions. Then use your 2 or more softphones to phone the IVM extension at the same time. If it works on both softphones, it appears your SIP provider is limiting the number of concurrent channels (this is common practice for most providers, although usually providers offer support for 2 channels so you can have call waiting/a second line appearance).

math

pythonpoole wrote:

To test through Axon, create a least two new extensions through the Axon web interface. Then use softphones (such as Express Talk) to register with those extensions on Axon. Next, ensure that your dialplan is configured to allow calls to internal extensions. Then use your 2 or more softphones to phone the IVM extension at the same time. If it works on both softphones, it appears your SIP provider is limiting the number of concurrent channels (this is common practice for most providers, although usually providers offer support for 2 channels so you can have call waiting/a second line appearance).

Hi,

Very thanks for your help.

I will try this as soon as possible in order to test concurrent calls thru Axon.

Sooner in the afternoon, on my local PC I have sucessfully tested two concurrent calls on two different sip account with the hability of X-LITE to call two lines at the same time. With no messed up between the two conccurent calls with recordings in the special log file !

But... I have to deal with a more priority problem now :

If I actually can succesfully test the IVM OGM's thru my sip gateaway account "freephonie" (external public call--> personal provider sip account), X-LITE calls from another distant computer works weirdly (921017 FWD # distant computer----->921034 FWD # local cumputer) : everything is working except the hability to hear the OGM's for the distant computer caller...

Call seems to be [answered], the log has sucessfully "sensed" the caller pressed keys [4,7,8,8,6,3], OGM have been "played" [question0, question1]... But all this without any sound at all (except on the distant computer, the X-LITE waiting ringing before the call was "answered") ...

Any Idea???

Here are the 2 logs content :

////2008-08-30 Call Log.txt////

22:05:18 FWD ROSE 921017 [Answered]

22:06:00 FWD 921017 [Answered]

22:06:23 FWD ROSE 921017 [Answered]

22:07:30 FWD ROSE 921017 [Answered]

///2008-08-30 IVM Answering Attendant Log.txt///

22:07:26 Incoming SIP call

22:07:28 Ringing on Line 921034 detected. Waiting until ring number 3.

22:07:30 FWD ROSE 921017 [Answered]

22:07:30 Answering call...

22:07:30 Answered line [27 "FWD ROSE"] call number [42] cid [921017] did[921034] drn[0 (0ms)]

22:07:30 Play file: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\NCH Swift Sound\IVM\OGMs\Question 0.wav

22:07:42 Command - Go

22:07:42 Open OGM: MENU questions

22:07:42 Play file: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\NCH Swift Sound\IVM\OGMs\MENU questions.wav

22:07:49 Caller pressed key [5]

22:07:49 Variable rec0 = 5

22:07:49 Command - Go

22:07:49 Open OGM: VERIF question 0

22:07:49 Play file: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\NCH Swift Sound\IVM\OGMs\VERIF question 0.wav

22:07:49 followed by read number: rec0

22:07:50 Caller pressed key [4]

22:07:51 Caller pressed key [7]

22:07:51 Caller pressed key [8]

22:07:52 Caller pressed key [8]

22:07:52 Caller pressed key [6]

22:07:52 Caller pressed key [3]

22:07:54 Command - Go

22:07:54 Open OGM: CONFIRM question 0

22:07:54 Play file: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\NCH Swift Sound\IVM\OGMs\CONFIRM question 0.wav

22:08:10 Call has disconnected

22:08:10 Call disconnected

Thanks for your help.