PagingServer 15.8.56

SIP-based Announcement / PA / Paging / Public Address Server system

PagingServer
============

**WARNING: project is in early stages of development and not suitable for
any kind of general usage yet**

SIP-based Announcement / PA / Paging / Public Address Server system.

Main component of this project is a script to run PJSUA_ SIP client connected to
a JACK_ sound server routing audio to whatever sound cards and speaker sets.

It picks up calls, plays klaxon on speakers, followed by the announcement made
in that call. Music plays in-between announcements.

Script controls PJSUA and JACK to make them work to that effect.


.. contents::
:backlinks: none



Usage
-----

After installation (see below), the script should be configured, providing it
with at least the SIP account data for the general usage.

Configuration file (`ini format`_) locations:

* paging.conf
* /etc/paging.conf
* callpipe.conf
* /etc/callpipe.conf
* Paths specified on the command line.

All files will be looked up and parsed in that order, values in next ones
overriding corresponding ones in the previous and defaults.

See output of ``paging --help`` for info on how to specify additional
configuration, more up-to-date list of default paths, as well as general
information for all the other options available.

Provided `paging.example.conf`_ file has all the available
configuration options and their descriptions.

To see default configuration options, use ``paging --dump-conf-defaults``, and
run ``paging --dump-conf ...`` to see the actual options being picked-up and
used at any time.

There are two general (supported) ways to start and run the script:

* In the foreground (non-forking).
* As a systemd service.

Both are described in more detail below.


Start/run in the foreground
```````````````````````````

Aka simple non-forking start.

Just run the thing as::

paging

Can be used directly from terminal, or with any init system or daemon manager,
including systemd, upstart, openrc, runit, daemontools, debian's
"start-stop-daemon", simple bash scripts, etc.

For systemd in particular, see the "Running as a systemd service" section below.

Running from terminal to understand what's going on, these options might be also
useful::

paging --debug
paging --debug --pjsua-log-level 10
paging --dump-conf

See also "Installation" and "Audio configuration" sections below.


Running as a systemd service
````````````````````````````

TODO





Installation
------------

This is a regular package for Python 2.7 (not 3.X), but with some extra
run-time requirements (see below), which can't be installed from PyPI.

Package itself can be installed at any time using pip_, e.g. via ``pip install
PagingServer`` (this will try to install stuff to /usr!!!).

Unless you know python packaging though, please look at `pip2014.com`_, `python
packaging tutorial`_ or documentation below for more detailed step-by-step
instructions for both python package and other requirements.


Requirements
````````````

* `Python 2.7`_ (NOT 3.X).

* PJSUA_ (PJSIP User Agent) and its python bindings.

Can be packaged as "pjsip", "pjsua" or "pjproject" in linux distros.

Python bindings (from the same tarball) can also be packaged separately as
"python-pjproject" or something like that.

If either of those isn't available, be sure to build and install pjsua AND its
python bindings manually from the same sources, and NOT e.g. install pjsua
from package and then build bindings separately.

* JACK_ - both JACK1 (C) and JACK2 (C++) forks should work.

Only tested with JACK1 fork, but as both have same ABI and only interacted
with via libjack, there should be no difference wrt which one is actually
running.

* `JACK-Client python module`_

* (optional) ffmpeg_ binary - if audio samples are not wav files (will be
converted on every startup, if needed).

* (optional) `python-systemd`_ - only if ``--systemd`` option is used (e.g. with
shipped .service file).

Developed and shipped separately from main systemd package since v223
(2015-07-29), likely comes installed with systemd prior to that.

Would probably make sense to install that module from OS package, which should
be available if systemd is used there as init by default.

* (optional) `raven python module`_ - for reporting any errors via sentry.


Step-by-step installation process
`````````````````````````````````

It's recommended to follow these in roughly same order, as next ones might rely
on stuff installed in the previous ones.

Each step can be skipped entirely if "Verify or check" commands for it work,
when packages in question were installed through some other means.
But be sure to run at least those commands to spot any potential issues.

Line prefixed by "%" are meant to be executed in the terminal.


* Install generic build tools and python dev packages.

Debian / Ubuntu::

% apt-get install python python-pip python-virtualenv

Arch Linux::

% pacman -S python2 python2-pip python2-virtualenv

Verify or check if already installed::

% pip --version
pip 1.5.6 from /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (python 2.7)

% virtualenv --version
1.11.6

Note that on some systems, "pip" for python-2.7 might be installed as "pip2"
or "pip-2.7", same might apply to "virtualenv", substitute these as necessary.


* Build/install PJSIP project and its python bindings.

If PJSIP (can also be called: pj, pjsip, pjproject, pjsua) packaged for your
distro (e.g. `pjproject packages for Debian Sid`_, or in AUR on Arch), it
might be easier to install these and avoid building them from scratch
entirely.

See also all the great PJSIP build/installation instructions:

http://trac.pjsip.org/repos/wiki/Getting-Started
http://trac.pjsip.org/repos/wiki/Getting-Started/Download-Source
http://trac.pjsip.org/repos/wiki/Getting-Started/Build-Preparation
http://trac.pjsip.org/repos/wiki/Getting-Started/Autoconf

Below in this step is just a shorter version of these.

Some operations below, such as obvious package manager invocations, and where
otherwise noted, should be run as "root", or can be prefixed with "sudo", if
necessary.

Install build-tools:

* Debian: ``apt-get install build-essential python-dev``
* Arch: ``pacman -S base-devel``

On source-based distros like Gentoo, gcc, headers and such are always come
pre-installed, so neither "build tools" nor "dev"-type extra packages are
necessary.

Verify or check if already installed::

% cc --version
cc (Debian 4.9.2-10) 4.9.2

% make --version
GNU Make 4.0

Get the latest release of PJSIP code from http://www.pjsip.org/download.htm
with one of these::

% wget http://www.pjsip.org/release/2.4.5/pjproject-2.4.5.tar.bz2 && tar xf pjproject-2.4.5.tar.bz2
### or
% curl http://www.pjsip.org/release/2.4.5/pjproject-2.4.5.tar.bz2 | tar xj
### or (NOT RECOMMENDED, can be too buggy)
% svn export http://svn.pjsip.org/repos/pjproject/trunk pjproject

% cd pjproject*

Build the code::

% ./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-shared --disable-v4l2 --disable-video
% make dep
% make

Install pjsip/pjsua libs (should be done root or via sudo):

* On Debian/Ubuntu (or similar distros)::

% apt-get install checkinstall
% sed -i 's/^\(\s\+\)cp -af /\1cp -r /' Makefile
% checkinstall -y

...
**********************************************************************
Done. The new package has been installed and saved to
/root/pjproject-2.4.5/pjproject_2.4.5-1_amd64.deb
You can remove it from your system anytime using: dpkg -r pjproject
**********************************************************************

% dpkg -s pjproject

...
Status: install ok installed
...

This will create (via "checkinstall" tool) and cleanly install .deb package
to the system, making it easy to remove/update it later.

If "checkinstall" isn't your cup of tea, more generic way below should work
as well.

* On any random linux/unix distro::

% make install

Easy, but there's almost always a better way, that makes packaging system
aware of (and hence capable of managing) the installed files.

Install python pjsua bindings (should be done root or via sudo):

* On Debian/Ubuntu (or similar distros)::

% pushd pjsip-apps/src/python
% checkinstall -y --pkgname=python-pjsua python2 setup.py install
% popd

Same as above, using "checkinstall" is highly recommended on these distros.

* On any generic linux (or similar system)::

% pushd pjsip-apps/src/python
% python2 setup.py install
% popd

``... install --user`` can be used to install package for current user only,
or whole step can be performed with virtualenv active to install it there.

Note that pjsua bindings are just a regular python package, and hence subject
to any general python package installation/management guidelines,
e.g. aforementioned `python packaging tutorial`_.

Verify or check if pjsip/pjproject/pjsua are all installed and can be used
from python::

% python2 -c 'import pjsua; lib = pjsua.Lib(); lib.init(); lib.destroy()'

04:43:41.097 os_core_unix.c !pjlib 2.4.5 for POSIX initialized
04:43:41.097 sip_endpoint.c .Creating endpoint instance...
04:43:41.097 pjlib .select() I/O Queue created (0x230f630)
04:43:41.097 sip_endpoint.c .Module "mod-msg-print" registered
04:43:41.097 sip_transport. .Transport manager created.
04:43:41.098 pjsua_core.c .PJSUA state changed: NULL --> CREATED

Last command should not give anything like "ImportError" or segmentation
faults, and should exit cleanly with output similar to one presented above.


* Install JACK sound server.

JACK is very mature and widely-used project, hence is packaged for all major
linux distros, hence it's better to install it using distro's package manager.

There are two different forks of JACK, both are in use and maintained -
JACK1 (C) and JACK2 (C++).

It is recommended to install JACK1 (or simply "jack", not e.g. "jack2")
package, as this script is tested to work with that fork, but "jack2" should
likely work just as well.

* Debian/Ubuntu::

apt-get install --no-install-recommends jackd1

Note ``--no-install-recommends`` flag, which should prevent Debian from
installing "recommended" GUI packages and X11 server for these.
None of them are needed or helpful, hence that option here.

"Realtime process priority" option (which apt-get might ask) is irrelevant.

* Arch Linux: ``pacman -S jack``

* Other distros: build it (JACK1) from http://jackaudio.org/downloads/

Verify or check if already installed::

% jackd --version
jackd version 0.124.1 tmpdir /dev/shm protocol 25

Here versions 0.X (such as in example above) will indicate that JACK1 is
installed and versions 1.X for JACK2.


* Prepare environment for PagingServer, install it and its python dependency
modules.

It'd be unwise to run this app as a "root" user, so special uid should be
created for it (from a root user), along with home directory, where all app
files will reside::

% useradd -d /srv/paging paging
% mkdir -p -m700 ~paging
% chown -R paging: ~paging

"User=paging" is also used in systemd unit (installed and explained below),
so if other user name will be used here, it should be changed there as well.

Same goes for directory used here.

Then, for all the next commands in this step, shell should be switched to the
created user, which can be done by running "su" with root privileges::

% su - paging

% id
uid=1001(paging) gid=1001(paging) groups=1001(paging)

This should likely also change the shell prompt, and "id" command should give
non-root uid/gid (as shown above).

**IMPORTANT:** do NOT skip any errors from command above for the next steps.

Create python virtualenv for installing the app there::

% virtualenv --clear --system-site-packages --python=python2.7 PagingServer
% exec bash
% cd PagingServer
% . bin/activate

% python2 -c 'import sys; print sys.path[1]'
/srv/paging/PagingServer/lib/python2.7

Last command can be used to verify that ``sys.path[1]`` indeed points to a
subdir in ~paging, and not something in /usr, which means that virtualenv was
correctly activated for this shell session.

Install the app and all its python module dependencies::

% pip install PagingServer








PJSUA




apt-get update

apt-get install build-essential python python-dev python-pip python-virtualenv



https://packages.debian.org/source/jessie/pjproject






Audio configuration
```````````````````

Overview of the software stack related to audio flow:

* PJSUA picks-up the calls, decoding audio streams from SIP connections.

* PJSUA outputs call audio to via PortAudio_.

* PortAudio can use multiple backends on linux systems, including:

* ALSA libs (and straight down to linux kernel)
* OSS (/dev/dsp*, only supported through emulation layer in modern kernels)
* JACK sound server
* PulseAudio sound server
(with a `somewhat unstable patch`_, see `comment on #3`_ for details)

In this particular implementation, JACK backend is used, as it is necessary to
later multiplex PJSUA output to multiple destinations and mix-in sounds from
other sources there.

So PortAudio sends sound stream to JACK.

* JACK serves as a "hub", receiving streams from music players (mpd instances),
klaxon sounds, calls picked-up by PJSUA.

JACK mixes these streams together, muting and connecting/disconnecting some as
necessary, controlled by the server script ("paging").

End result is N stream(s) corresponding to (N) configured hardware output(s).

* JACK outputs resulting sound stream(s) through ALSA libs (and linux from
there) to the sound hardware.


Hence audio configuration can be roughly divided into these sections (at the moment):


* Sound output settings for PJSUA.

Related configuration options:

* pjsua-device
* pjsua-conf-port

As PortAudio (used by pjsua) can use one (and only one) of multiple backends
at a time, and each of these backend can have multiple "ports" in turn,
``pjsua-device`` should be configured to use JACK backend "device".

To see all devices that PJSUA and PortAudio detects, run::

% paging --dump-pjsua-devices

Detected sound devices:
[0] HDA ATI SB: ID 440 Analog (hw:0,0)
[1] HDA ATI SB: ID 440 Digital (hw:0,3)
[2] HDA ATI HDMI: 0 (hw:1,3)
[3] sysdefault
[4] front
[5] surround21
[6] surround40
...
[13] dmix
[14] default
[15] system
[16] PulseAudio JACK Source

(output is truncated, as it also includes misc info for each of these
devices/ports that PortAudio/PJSUA provides)

This should print a potentially-long list of "playback devices" (PJSUA
terminology) that can be used for output there, as shown above.

JACK default output (as created by e.g. ``-d dummy`` option to jackd) in the
example list above is called "system" - same as in JACK, and should be matched
by default.

If any other JACK-input/PortAudio-output should be used, it can be specified
either as numeric id (number in square brackets on the left) or regexp (python
style) to match against name in the list.

To avoid having any confusing non-JACK ports there, PortAudio can be compiled
with only JACK as a backend.

``pjsua-conf-port`` option can be used to match one of the "conference ports"
from ``paging --dump-pjsua-conf-ports`` command output in the same fashion, if
there will ever be more than one (due to more complex pjsua configuration, for
example), otherwise it'll work fine with empty default.


* JACK daemon startup and control client connection configuration.

Related configuration options:

* jack-autostart
* jack-server-name
* jack-client-name

All of these are common JACK client settings, described in jackd(1),
jackstart(1) manpages, libjack or `jack-client module documentation`_.

With exception for self-explanatory ``jack-autostart`` (enabled by default),
these options should be irrelevant, unless this script is used with multiple
JACK instances or clients.


* Configuration for any non-call inputs (music, klaxons, etc) for JACK.

Related configuration options:

* klaxon
* jack-music-client-name
* jack-music-links

"klaxon" can be a path to any file that has sound in it (that ffmpeg would
understand), and will be played before each announcement call on all
"jack-output-ports" (see below), and before that call gets answered.

"jack-music-client-name" should be a regexp to match outputs of music clients,
that should play stuff in-between announcements, and "jack-music-links" allows
to control which set(s) of speakers they'll be connected to.

For example, if mpd.conf has something like this::

audio_output {
type "jack"
name "jack"
client_name "mpd.paging:test"
}

Then configuration like this (these are actually defaults)::

jack-music-client-name = ^mpd\.paging:(.*)$
jack-music-links = left---left right---right

Will connect output from that player to all speakers matched by
"jack-output-ports" (all available to JACK by default).

Script can be run with ``--dump-jack-ports`` option to show all JACK ports
that are currently available - all connected players, speakers, cards and such.

See more detailed description of these options and how they're interpreted in
`paging.example.conf`_.


* List of hardware outputs (ALSA PCMs) to use as JACK final outputs/sinks.

Related configuration options:

* jack-output-ports

Same as with PJSUA outputs/ports above, ``jack-output-ports`` can be
enumerated via ``paging --dump-jack-ports`` command, and filtered by direct id
or name regexp, if necessary.

Default is to route PJSUA call to all outputs available in JACK.


All settings mentioned here are located in the ``[audio]`` section of the
configuration file.

See `paging.example.conf`_ for more detailed descriptons.



Misc tips and tricks
--------------------

Collection of various things related to this project.


Pre-convert klaxon sound(s) to wav from any format
``````````````````````````````````````````````````

Can be done via ffmpeg_ with::

ffmpeg -y -v 0 -i sample.mp3 -f wav sample.wav

Where it doesn't actually matter which format source "sample.mp3" is in - can be
mp3, ogg, aac, mpc, mp4 or whatever else ffmpeg supports.

Might help to avoid startup delays to conversion of these on each run.

If pjsua will be complaining about sample-rate difference between wav file and
output, ``-ar 44100`` option can be used (after ``-f wav``) to have any sampling
rate for the output file.


Running JACK on a system where PulseAudio is the main sound server
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

First of all, jackd has to be started manually there, and strictly before
pulseaudio server.

Then, /etc/pulse/default.pa should have something like this at the end
(after default sink init!)::

load-module module-jack-source source_name=jack_in
load-module module-loopback source=jack_in

That will create an output from JACK to PulseAudio and from there to whatever
actually makes sound on the particular system, provided that the loopback stream
and source in question are not muted and have some non-zero volume set in pulse.

"module-jack-source" has options for picking which jackd to connect to, if isn't
not "default", "module-loopback" after it creates a stream from that jack source
to a default sink (which is probably an ALSA sink).

On the JACK side, "PulseAudio JACK Source" port (sink) gets created, and
anything connected there will make its way to pulseaudio.



Old README.md
-------------

To be spliced here later::

## Installation
These instructions are for Debian-based Linux distributions. They should point you in the right direction to set this up on other distributions - just don't expect them to work verbatim.
### Install the Dependencies
```
sudo apt-get install build-essential python2.7-dev python-pip libasound2-dev nano subversion git
sudo pip install raven
```
### Download PJSIP
```
svn co http://svn.pjsip.org/repos/pjproject/trunk pjsip
```
### Compile PJSIP
```
cd pjsip
export CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -fPIC" && ./configure && make dep && make
```
### Install PJSUA
```
cd pjsip-apps/src/python
sudo python ./setup.py install
cd
```
### Get our Git repo
```
git clone https://github.com/AccelerateNetworks/PagingServer
cd PagingServer
```
### Put the files in the right places
```
sudo cp paging.py /opt/bin/paging.py
sudo cp paging.example.conf /etc/paging.conf
sudo cp paging.service /etc/systemd/system/paging.service
```
### Enable systemd service
```
systemctl enable paging.service
```
### Add your SIP account
```
sudo nano /etc/paging.conf
```
Change the top 3 values to your SIP server, username (usually ext. number) and password. Get rid of the PA section from [PA] down unless you want a .wav to be played prior to each call.

To configure the PA section set the path to the .wav file you want played in `file =` and set how many seconds it should play in `filetime =`.

## Running the Paging Server
Run either of the commands below:
```
Run in bash/terminal:
/usr/bin/python /opt/bin/paging.py
```
or
```
Start as systemd service:
sudo cp paging.service /etc/systemd/system
sudo systemctl start paging
```

## Benchmarking

We've tested this script with thousands of calls, it is fairly reliable and light on resources. Total CPU use on a Pentium 4 @ 2.8ghz hovered around 0.5% with 4MB ram usage. identical figures were observed on a Celeron D @ 2.53Ghz, you could probably get away with whatever your operating system requires to run in terms of hardware.

To benchmark, you'll need to set up callram.py.

### Setting up callram.py
This setup assumes you have PJSUA installed, if not, go back to Installation earlier in this readme and install it.

### Put the files in the right places
```
sudo cp callram.py /opt/bin/callram.py
sudo cp callram.example.conf /etc/callram.conf
```
### Add your SIP account
```
sudo nano /etc/callram.conf
```
Change the top 3 values to your SIP server, username (usually ext. number) and password.

Then fill in both SIP URI: fields (uri= and to=) with the SIP URI of the client you'd like to test. SIP URIs are usually formatted as `sip:<extension#>@<exampledomain.com>` in most cases. The Domain may sometimes be an IPv4 or IPv6 address depending on your setup.


## Running the Paging Server
Run either of the commands below:
```
Run in bash/terminal:
/usr/bin/python /opt/bin/callram.py
```


.. _PJSUA: http://www.pjsip.org/
.. _JACK: http://jackaudio.org/
.. _ini format: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INI_file
.. _paging.example.conf: paging.example.conf
.. _PortAudio: http://www.portaudio.com/
.. _somewhat-unstable patch: https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:illuusio:portaudio/portaudio
.. _comment on #3: https://github.com/AccelerateNetworks/PagingServer/issues/3#issuecomment-128797116
.. _jack-client module documentation: https://jackclient-python.readthedocs.org/#jack.Client
.. _ffmpeg: http://ffmpeg.org/

.. _pip: http://pip-installer.org/
.. _pip2014.com: http://pip2014.com/
.. _python packaging tutorial: https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/installing.html

.. _Python 2.7: http://python.org/
.. _JACK-Client python module: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/JACK-Client/
.. _raven python module: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/raven/5.5.0
.. _python-systemd: https://github.com/systemd/python-systemd

.. _pjproject packages for debian sid: https://packages.debian.org/source/sid/pjproject