VoiceTronix - OpenSwitch

Features and Benefits | Accessories | Typical Configurations | Product Specifications

The OpenSwitch cards have been discontinued (as of December 2007) and are not recommended for new telephony application designs or implementations!

Voicetronix recommends the OpenPCI series for any new telephony designs or implementations. The content below is for reference purposes only to existing users of the hardware. Limited support is available for registered customers.

Our OpenSwitch products are highly configurable Loop-Start and/or Station port PCI cards specifically designed for the development of PC-based PBX applications running on Linux.

These cards support OpenPBX, our very own open source web based PABX/PBX application developed using CT Server.

More importantly the OpenSwitch cards have a by-pass mechanism that allows one to connect the external PSTN lines to telephone handsets on station ports. This added redundancy is crucial in ensuring your PBX phone system remains operational in the unlikely situation where there is a PC or power failure.

Application developers can build sophisticated PC-PBX phone systems using an OpenSwitch card, a PC running Linux and analogue telephone handsets that directly connect to the OpenSwitch card using their development toolkit of choice.

To the OEM or application designer/developer it equates to lower product development time, quicker time to market and return on investment.

FEATURES

BENEFITS

Full length PCI (5V) form factor.	Offers the opportunity to scale to higher density PC-PBX solutions by simply installing multiple OpenSwitch cards within the PC chassis. Can be only installed now in a limited range of motherboards and chassis sizes.
Highly versatile port type configuration.	Each port is switchable between Loop-Start (FXO) and Station (FXS) mode through onboard jumper settings. The OpenSwitch12 card switches between FXO and FXS in banks of four ports and the OpenSwitch6 card in banks of two ports.
Inbuilt telephony power supply.	Provides the ring and DC power to the analogue telephone handsets that connect to the station ports. No need for external power supply modules that plague users of other PC-PBX interface cards.
In built failover mechanism provides redundancy.	Preserves basic phones functionality on power or PC/server failure.
Open Source Software Development Tools and OpenPBX application software.	Speeds up development, provides total design and maintenance control, all at zero cost! Our open source API supports both synchronous and asynchronous programming models. Build feature-rich PBX systems for a fraction of the price of comparable proprietary PBX solutions. Check out our freely available LGPL-licensed OpenPBX application software for more feature information!
Connects to standard anaglogue handsets.	No need for expensive proprietary handsets! No vendor lock-in.

The OpenSwitch12 card makes available three RJ45 sockets, each providing connection to four ports. Voicetronix provides optional Splitter Boxes to separate ports on each of the RJ45 sockets into four individual RJ11 sockets making it easier to connect to POTS lines, legacy PBX extensions or telephone handsets.

Small 4 by 8 feature rich PBX phone system supporting analogue handsets. Take a PC/server with an OpenSwitch12 card running Linux (ie. Telephony server). Set jumper settings on the card to provide 4 FXO and 8 FXS ports. Connect the card's FXS ports to the analogue handsets (and/or fax machine) and its FXO ports to the telco trunk lines (PSTN). Then install, configure and run our hardware driver & our OpenPBX software on the telepeony server. Note: Digital handsets usually found in legacy keyed telephone systems (KTS) cannot be connected to our hardware.