Phone types

New phone types (brands) can be created by creating a new phone type definition. This phone type defines the behavior of the Admin Portal when adding a phone, and defines sample configuration files and configuration templates to apply to this configuration file.

The sample file provides the layout of the phone configuration file but does not have values specific to each phone. Values such as the telephone number to apply are populated with a default value.

The configuration template allows access to any parameter in the sample file, and can be used to set the correct value for each phone, such as setting the telephone number. VOSS ships with sample files and configuration for the SNOM D120 and D717 phones. This provides full configuration for these phones so that a new “out of the box” phone can be connected to the network and reach an operational state with no user intervention.

Adding a new phone type requires firstly creating a sample file. Many SNOM phones allow the export of the configuration which has been previously created through the phone web interface. This file can be used as the sample file, although values should be changed to make the file anonymous prior to uploading as a sample file. Once loaded, a configuration template can be created or cloned from the existing templates. This will allow modification of any value in the sample file, setting a value suitable for each phone. Using this technique, new phones types may be evaluated and added to VOSS without the need for software updates or patches.

Note

Phone type definitions control provisioning behavior and configuration templates, but the availability of specific device features (such as Mobile and Remote Access (MRA)) is determined by the underlying device model data imported from Cisco Unified CM (CUCM). During CUCM import, VOSS creates device model entries (for example, device/cucm/PhoneType) that define the capabilities of each phone model.

In some cases, particularly for newly introduced or not yet fully supported phone models, CUCM may not expose all available capabilities. This can result in certain configuration options not being available in the Admin Portal. Where such gaps are identified, VOSS may apply internal adjustments to ensure that supported device capabilities are correctly exposed.