AskMe Ai SIP Trunk Setup

Created by Gustavo DeMelo, Modified on Wed, 6 Nov, 2024 at 6:13 PM by Gustavo DeMelo

Purpose

To provide instructions on how to integrate PSAP/ECC phone systems with the AskMe Ai cloud service using a SIP trunk.

In the context of this document, a phone system is usually a PBX and/or contact center system where agents login to receive non-emergency calls.

Target Audience

Phone system administrators who are responsible for integrating their system with the AskMe Ai solution.

Background

AskMe Ai is a cloud-based SaaS solution that allows PSAP/ECCs to provide automated call handling for non-emergency calls with a Natural Language Understanding (NLU) voice bot. Callers interact with the bot using a natural language conversational style. The bot can answer commonly asked questions, send information on demand text messages, and transfer calls to other destinations.

The solution requires you to forward new incoming calls to the AskMe Ai voice connectors/SBCs using a SIP trunk connection. This allows the AskMe Ai voice bots to play a welcome greeting to callers and to interact with them.

Solution Overview

The solution uses the following call flow:

Note that it is possible (and likely) that you may also have an SBC (session border controller) between the PSTN carrier and your phone system. You can also, optionally, have an SBC between the phone system and the AskMe Ai system.

End user calls your information/support phone number.
PSTN carrier sends the call to your phone system.
The phone system forwards the new call to the AskMe Ai solution via a SIP trunk.
Call is answered by a voice bot, which answers questions and provides call handling.
If the caller asks to be transferred somewhere, AskMe Ai will send a SIP invite back to your phone system with the destination phone number.

Note 1: The destination phone number can be anything configured in the AskMe Ai management portal; it could be an E.164 number, or a 4-digit extension.

Note 2: After a call is transferred, AskMe Ai will remain in the call flow the call ends.

SIP Trunk Configuration Instructions

This section provides general configuration instructions and requirements that are not vendor specific. If you need additional assistance with setting up the trunk, please contact our support team.

Confirm that you have received the information for the SIP trunk connection (SIP hostname, username, password, etc.) You should have received this information after completing the new customer registration process.
Add a new SIP trunk that points to the AskMe Ai voice connector hostname.
Enable outbound only authentication (inbound authentication is not supported at this time). The username (an E.164 number) and the password can be found in the welcome email.
Enable SIP TLS encryption only if you selected this option during the registration/provisioning process.
If you enabled encryption, download the AWS certificates from the following link: https://s3.amazonaws.com/voice-connector-certs/combined-ca-bundle.pem
If you enabled encryption, install the certificate on your phone system.
Add a new route that points incoming calls to the new SIP trunk.
Ensure that calls sent to the SIP trunk use an E.164 number for both the destination number as well as the caller ID. If any of these two fields don’t use an E.164 number, the call will fail.
Make a test call. If the connection works, you should be greeted by the bot. Ask a question such as “what time do you close?”, or “what is your address?”.

As previously stated, please contact us if you have any questions or need additional assistance.

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