Fonolo is compatible with all major call center platform vendors and can connect to your call center through a hybrid SIP connection that includes placing virtual appliances within your network or your AWS environment.

This guide outlines steps for setting up a virtual appliance to act as a connection between your phone system and the Fonolo Cloud. To provide the information needed to set up the Fonolo deployment, fill out the Virtual Appliance Setup Form:

In-Queue Offer Message

The Fonolo call-back starts with an offer message played to the caller while they are on hold. Each queue that you will be offering call-backs must have:

• An offer message that offers the caller a call-back.
• DTMF breakout logic that transfers the call to a Fonolo SIP extension.

The initial offer message be added to your existing messaging, using any appropriate logic or wording. Optionally, we are happy to make suggestions on frequency and threshold for activating the offer.

SIP Extension Programming

To connect to Fonolo using a SIP connection, you must configure one SIP extension per queue that will be offering call-backs. For example, if you want to offer call-backs on three queues, you must provide three unique SIP extensions.

You must provide:

• A Queue Name that appears for each queue in the Call-Back Portal.
• A Queue SIP Extension that lets Fonolo call directly into the queue and bypass the IVR.

We will provide a parallel Fonolo SIP extension for each of your Queue SIP extensions.

Virtual Appliance Specifications

To run the Fonolo virtual appliances properly, the following resources are required:

• Two virtual environments running the latest version of 64 bit (x86_64) AlmaLinux OS 9.x (minimal install)
• 10 GB of disk storage
• 8 GB of memory
• At least 2 dedicated CPU cores (4 is preferable)

Network Configurations

You must provide Fonolo with the following network configuration settings for the virtual appliances:

• The interface configuration: Active/Backup or LACP
• The IP address/subnet for each network interface
• The gateway IP address
• One unique, externally routable IP address per appliance
• The private (and if NAT, public) IP address of the phone system

If your environment has NAT set up, 1-to-1 NAT is required. Port-based NAT will not work.

If the appliances are behind a NAT gateway:

• You must provide both the public IP address (for remote connections) and the private IP address information to configure on the network interfaces.
• NAT timeout rules must be adjusted to make sure that connections aren’t dropped. The SIPS connections between the Fonolo Cloud and the appliances often have long periods of time with no data being transferred. We recommend a 4- to 6-hour timeout rule.

Added:

Call Routing Configuration

The appliances must be added to your phone system (as appropriate, depending on your system) using the addressing provided above.

Fonolo also requires two route patterns in your dial plan be configured:

• One routing pattern that matches the inbound extension, so that Fonolo can connect to the queue directly.
• One routing pattern to place outbound calls to callers. For example, Fonolo can add a 9 to the call number to route to your carrier trunk. By default, Fonolo adds a 1 as a telephone prefix, formatting outbound numbers with 11 digits.

Firewall Configurations

The appliances must be able to communicate with your phone system, the Fonolo Cloud, and with each other. For Fonolo to connect with the appliances, external firewall rules must be applied to permit the required inbound and outbound traffic.

• Fonolo IP Block 64.190.42.128/25 must be permitted for both inbound and outbound traffic in the firewalls in front of the appliances.
• The ports TCP/5061 (SIPS), TCP/22 (SSH), TCP443 (HTTPS), UDP/123 (NTP) and TCP&UDP/53 (DNS) must be permitted (inbound and outbound) in the firewalls in front of the appliances.
• If there is an additional firewall between the appliances and your phone system, ports UDP/5060 (SIP) and UDP/10,000-20,000 (RTP traffic) must be opened.
• If your phone systems use a feature called Direct Media or Re-invite, the appliances will need to speak to other media devices, such as media gateways and agent handsets. These media device IPs must be permitted (inbound and outbound) within the firewall.
• The ports TCP/443 (HTTPS) and UDP/10,000-20,000 must be permitted between the appliances, for communication purposes and appliance pair redundancy purposes, respectively.

Media

Fonolo uses the following media settings for a SIP connection:

• g711u (μ-law), with a ptime of 20ms.
• RFC 2833 / RFC 4733 DTMF

Call-Back Portal Setup

The Call-Back Portal is used to manage Fonolo features and view call stats. To set up the Portal, some additional information on your company and phone system must be provided:

• The Hours of Operation for each of your phone queues that will offer call-backs.
• Any Advanced Scheduling for holidays and other times the call center will have reduced hours or be closed.
• The Caller ID and Phone Number that you want callers to see when they get a call-back.
• A list of users who need access to the Portal, as well as their role within it:

Permission	Stats Only User	Standard User	Account Manager
View graphs, call logs, and real-time stats	✓	✓	✓
Edit service settings	×	✓	✓
Set up new queues and profiles	×	✓	✓
Manage other users	×	×	✓

Optional Features and Procedures

While not required, there are other features and procedures that may complement your Fonolo deployment.

IPSec VPN

Fonolo supports connecting to companies via a direct site-to-site IPsec VPN. Please find more details below:

Fonolo supports connections using a direct site-to-site IPsec VPN. This provides an extra layer of security and can be configured for customers connecting to Fonolo using either the cloud-based SIP option, or through Fonolo appliances. To provide the information we need to set up an IPSec VPN for you, fill out the IPSec VPN Setup Form:

IPSec Configuration

Fonolo uses two Cisco Catalyst 8000 Series Edge nodes, in master-master mode for increased redundancy, using the endpoint IP addresses 64.190.42.1 (VPN1 – default primary) and 64.190.42.2.

Fonolo can support the following encryption and hashing algorithms:

• IKEv1

  Attribute	Setting
  Encryption	AES-256
  Hashing	SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512
  DH Groups	5, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 24
  PFS Groups	5, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 24

• IKEv2 (preferred)

  Attribute	Setting
  Encryption	AES-256
  Hashing	SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512
  DH Groups	14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 24
  PFS Groups	14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 24
  PRF	SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512

Fonolo’s default Phase 1/Phase 2 Lifetime configuration is set to 86400 seconds and 3600 seconds, respectively. This can be adjusted to meet your requirements.

Routing Configuration

For SIP Connect deployments, Fonolo uses 64.190.42.32/28 for the various SIP peers. For Appliance deployments, Fonolo uses 64.190.42.128/25 for the various cloud infrastructure required for the service.

Fonolo supports multiple different routing configurations for IPSec connectivity:

(Preferred) Route/Tunnel-Based VPN with VTIs and BGP Routing

• Fonolo assigns a /30 subnet per VTI for BGP peering in the link-local 169.254.64.0/18 range. The first usable IP is assigned to the customer side of the VTI, with the second usable IP assigned to the Fonolo side.
• Fonolo’s public ASN is 63350. Your ASN can be either public or private. If you prefer private, your ASN must be agreed upon with Fonolo before configuration.
• Fonolo supports either point-to-multipoint (single customer node) or multipoint-to-multipoint (multiple customer nodes) in this configuration.
• Fonolo controls route preference through advertisement of an increased BGP MED attribute.
• This configuration provides the best redundancy and failover time.

Route/Tunnel-Based VPN with VTIs and Static Routing

• Fonolo assigns a /30 subnet per VTI for static route source/destination in the link-local 169.254.64.0/18 range. The first usable IP is assigned to the customer side of the VTI, with the second usable IP assigned to the Fonolo side.
• Fonolo weights route traffic to prefer the VPN1 endpoint 64.190.42.1. You must align your configuration to prefer this endpoint to prevent asymmetric routing.

Policy-Based VPN

• Fonolo supports either point-to-multipoint (single customer node) or multipoint-to-multipoint configuration (multiple customer nodes) in this configuration.
• We strongly recommend that both VPN endpoints are configured in both scenarios for redundancy.
• Tunnel connectivity is established by customer-side traffic only, meaning that SIP OPTIONS must be configured for a SIP Connect deployment. Fonolo Appliance deployments send regular keepalive pings to the Fonolo infrastructure to maintain tunnel connectivity.

Custom Audio Prompts and Messaging

The Fonolo service uses audio prompts that we provide in English, French, and Spanish. All prompts—for the caller or agent—are customizable using your own voice talent, letting you keep a consistent voice and terminology as your callers transition to Fonolo.

This file contains a list of all Audio Prompts that need to be recorded and uploaded into the Call-Back Portal. English, French and Spanish Audio Prompts can be found on each page within the below file.

To use your own audio or voice talent, you must provide a voice file for each of the audio prompts listed in the spreadsheet that you want to use.