Wifi SIP Phones

I bought a Plantronics Voyager Legend to also use with a 2130 my wife is also complaining about the range. Gonna have to spend up for the $200 units with a wired base she uses at the office.

My 2 cents worth of thoughts:

  1. For user equipment that doesn’t need mobility, any IP desktop phone with an RJ-45 wi fi dongle (~14$-17$) or a small range extender Edimax EW-7438RPn with an Ethernet port , can make it wireless and stationary WI FI works quite well.

  2. The problem of WI FI mobility issues, lies mostly not on the end user equipment but first of all on the WI FI network. WI FI networks, unlike cellular ones, or DECT ones, are not built for roaming, certainly not for real time roaming between access points. There are however several “MESH” WI FI technologies that try to cope with that issue. So I suggest to look for the proper technology (If you have the budget) before considering any end user solution. If the network is properly built than any smartphone/tablet with WI FI will do.

I use my Android phone with CSipSimple and it works great, when I need it. I have friends that use Bria on their iOS devices and have heard no complaints. Zoiper also looks promising, but I haven’t tested it.

However, I urge you to reconsider your decision NOT to use DECT. Wifi is not going to be as reliable as DECT or hardwired networks. With Wifi, you’re going to have sound quality issues at some point as other devices compete for the same bandwidth.

There are DECT handsets that will support multiple bases, and you should have 100% reliability. My favorite solution is a multiple handset DECT Panasonic analog system from Costco (about $90) combined with the Obi 200 ATA. It covers my whole 3000 sq. foot house and about 5 houses down from a single base station. DECT is 1900Mhz which is a fairly quiet band, so you won’t see a lot of interference. Also DECT uses FHSS which also reduces interference and increases security.

Overall, for voice, DECT is a way better option for wireless than RTP over Wifi.

Wifi has zero issues with roaming. Handoffs occur in less than 10ms. I do it all the time while talking on Android phones running SIP clients with standard APs. It works great as long as both APs have the same SSID.

The problem with Wifi is not roaming, it’s congestion.

I don’t think the evidence supports your statement that wifi has no problems with roaming. A quick google turns up myriad issues, both general and specific to particular devices. Different chip manufacturers and device designers implement things different ways. One of the principal problems is that (by design) most wifi devices will hang on to the signal it’s got, long after it can “see” a better signal from another AP. As the signal gets weaker you get problems if you’re on a call. Also, if you’re using UDP for SIP, lost packets can cause the device to go “unreachable” at the PBX, even if, a moment later, the radio jumps to a stronger signal. Switching SIP to TCP helps - “qualify” can then be turned off: you lose monitoring but, so long as your wifi network is up to scratch, TCP can be relied upon.

I’ve recently discovered another trick with Android handsets. Certain Nexus models had a real problem with roaming, so clever people came up with solutions. There’s an app called “WiFi Roaming Fix” which “cures” the issue for Nexus but is also handy if your particular handset is “lazy” on roaming. Furthermore, Google has (eventually) acknowledged the issue and you’ll find a setting in “Developer Options” called “Allow WiFi Roaming Scans” (a quick google will show you how to enable Developer Options). This does more or less the same as the above-mentioned app (but probably using less resources). The app does have the advantage of a real-time display, showing you which AP you’re connected to - handy for investigating issues.

I should also mention that Ubiquiti’s Unifi AP’s have two tricks up their sleeves. One is Zero Handoff - a proprietary implementation of Single Channel Architecture. It’s good for smaller installations but doesn’t scale well to large sites. The other trick is a “Minimum RSSI” setting for each AP - this can force a client to jump to another radio when the signal strength from itself drops below the configured level. Useful, but needs careful tuning. A number of other manufacturers offer similar trickery but I’ve not seen any consumer AP’s with such facilities. Mind you, the Unifi heads are fantastically cheap: I’ve installed nine to cover our business premises for about the price of a single Cisco “enterprise” AP.

As to DECT, I see two particular issues in relation to business installations. Firstly, it’s not desirable to have to deploy and maintain an entirely separate network for DECT repeaters. Secondly, Unified Communications calls for a single device to meet all the data, voice and video needs of users on the move within your premises. DECT is the very antithesis of that.

Blind/Attended transfers?

Grandstream Wave is undoubtedly the best app for blind/attended transfers (big clear buttons: one marked “Blind”, the other marked “Attended”) - if only they’d sort out the contacts/history feature (and the iOS version on iPad), I’d have stuck with it. CSIPSimple can do it but it’s a bit gritty and not intuitive. Bria does it just fine - it’s easy after you’ve read their help page just once :wink:

Hi Jes111

Sounds good, let me know how the Sony’s perform. Most android handsets simply don’t roam well.

The spectralink is a good handset if you have a lot of cash to throw around. The WF360 is starting to get a lot of traction here. Clients are saying the roaming is not better or worse than spectralink so for the price they are jumping for it over the pivot.