We assemble a DECT puzzle based on Spectralink equipment

Brand History KIRK

In March 2007, the well-known company Polycom, which is famous worldwide for its IP phones, as well as solutions for tele and video conferencing, decided to expand its model range towards wireless IP telephony systems.

Polycom acquired SpectraLink, a corporation that produced wireless telephone equipment based on Wi-Fi and DECT standards, for $ 220 million. At that time, KIRK Telecom was already in the group.

Today, Polycom, or rather, its KIRK division is the world leader in the manufacture of DECT systems.
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Of course, not only KIRK is engaged in DECT and VoIP, companies such as Pansonic (see Panasonic KX-TGP500 DECT phone ) and Siemens also work in this direction, but KIRK differs from them all in the level of its equipment.

KIRK range of systems

KIRK manufactures equipment for both small and large companies, the KIRK product line is divided into two parts:

• Wi-Fi equipment, or rather Wi-Fi IP phones
• DECT systems and handsets covered in this review.

Depending on the number of users and the required coverage, KIRK (Spectralink) offers different models of equipment, we will start with small systems and finish with large ones.

KIRK 300

The KIRK 300 system will give us the opportunity to connect up to 12 subscribers and provide 4 simultaneous calls (4 channels).

This small base station will cover a room up to 50m in area and will provide coverage up to 300m in direct line of sight.

The purpose of this device is to convert our SIP call to DECT and transfer it to the final DECT subscriber. For this, up to 12 SIP users are added to the KIRK 300, and each is tied to its own DECT handset.

To increase the coverage of the DECT signal, KIRK (Spectralink) suggests using repeaters (I’ll tell you about them below).

KIRK 600v3

The KIRK 600v3 is the only DECT / GAP base station (BS) with support for SCCP and SIP protocols. The KIRK 600v3 system can be used both in SingleCell mode and in MultiCell. In SingleCell mode, the KIRK 600v3 supports 35 subscribers and 12 channels. In MultiCell mode, the KIRK 600v3 supports up to 1500 subscribers.

To enable the MultiCell mode, you need to purchase a separate key, which is installed in the KIRK 600v3 and makes it a master.

In MultiCell mode, the number of users can be increased to 1500, and the coverage will also increase accordingly as you add new base stations (BS). Most importantly, all BSs should see each other, their coverage areas should intersect, this is necessary for synchronization and handover.

Multicell

Singlecell

KIRK 6000

In the KIRK 6000 system, unlike the KIRK 300 and 600v3, the server that is responsible for SIP and the base station are two different devices. This allows you to build large and inexpensive DECT network.

Thus, the KIRK 6000 Controller performs the function of a SIP server and control over the BS.

The maximum number of users in the system is 4096, however, with the initial purchase of the controller, it includes a license supporting up to 30 users, and then with the help of additional licenses their number can be increased.

The controller is also limited by the number of channels in the SIP network, more precisely, it can process only 32 channels, but the number of channels can also be increased by purchasing the KIRK6000MR Media Resource Controller , which will expand the number of SIP channels by another 32. In total, up to 31 KIRK6000MR can be connected to the system.

Also in KIRK 6000, you can add support for g.729 and g.723 using a codec card, the board is purchased separately and installed in the system controller and in each media controller.

For the DECT network coverage, the KIRK (Spectralink) 6000 Base Stations are used, their maximum number in the system is 256, each BS supports up to 12 radio channels and extends the coverage by 30-50m.

All Base Stations must intersect with each other for synchronization and handover.

All parts of the system are connected to the local network and support POE, the controller and media controller can be separated from the DECT network itself, they are synchronized over the local network.

WRFP

KIRK WRFP repeaters allow you to increase the DECT coverage by about 50%.

The repeater is attached to a specific base station or to another repeater and increases its coverage.

It should be noted that the maximum number of repeaters that can be connected in a row is 3 pieces. This limitation is due to the fact that the repeaters support up to 4 DECT channels, and one of these channels is used to synchronize with the BS or with another repeater.

UPDATE: New model KIRK 400 released

PS If this introductory article about KIRK is to the liking of habourians, then the following will be a specific solution based on KIRK6000 and Asterisk.
PPS All KIRK available at http://kirk.su