PIKA Fax Adds Faxing to Asterisk

February 26, 2008
PIKA TechnologiesI've written about some of the challenges of faxing on the Asterisk platform. Faxing has always been one of Asterisk's weaknesses, though it is getting better. Well today, PIKA Technologies announced support for fax applications built on the open-source platform Asterisk. According to PIKA, "PIKA Fax software is now extended to Asterisk, allowing developers on the platform to easily build reliable fax capabilities into their applications."

One of the main problems with faxing on Asterisk is the timing sync of the fax cards which must be in sync between the PRI/T1 voice card and the fax card. Usually you are taking the timing from the telco on the PRI/T1 card and then in order for faxing to work you have to re-send that timing signal out to the fax card. Unfortunately, the timing coming out of the T1/PRI card is not synched to the fax card. The timing is generated by the internal clock on the card itself. Thus, the timing sync signal is not making it from the PRI/T1 card to the fax hardware. One solution to keep the timing in sync is to connect a timing cable between them and share the clock.

PIKA states, "Until now, faxes could be sent and received in Asterisk-based applications only by using Span DSP, a software fax plug-in. Unlike Span DSP, PIKA Fax works independently from zaptel. Its driver works at the kernel level, providing control of real-time applications. PIKA Fax will work with any vendor’s board that supports Asterisk and has been tested specifically with Digium, Sangoma and PIKA hardware."

If this software-based fax solution is as good as it sounds then perhaps reliable faxing on Asterisk will become a reality. I should point out that Sangoma also claims a reliable faxing solution for Asterisk that doesn't require special software. I am curious how PIKA solves the timing issues using just software and not tied to a synchronized clock. I'll have to investigate further.

In the meantime, the full release is after the jump.
PIKA Technologies Inc., a developer of media-processing hardware and software, today announced that it has expanded its product range to support fax applications built on the open-source platform Asterisk. PIKA Fax software is now extended to Asterisk, allowing developers on the platform to easily build reliable fax capabilities into their applications.

“PIKA continues to develop voice and fax solutions that meet the needs of the modern application developer,” said Terry Atwood, vice president of sales, marketing and customer care at PIKA. “All our products for developers using the Asterisk open-source development platform have been a great success, and the addition of fax support is the logical evolution of that product suite.”

Until now, faxes could be sent and received in Asterisk-based applications only by using Span DSP, a software fax plug-in. Unlike Span DSP, PIKA Fax works independently from zaptel. Its driver works at the kernel level, providing control of real-time applications. PIKA Fax will work with any vendor’s board that supports Asterisk and has been tested specifically with Digium, Sangoma and PIKA hardware.

PIKA Fax is easy to install, requiring a single install command compared to Span DSP’s three packages. With Span DSP, there are additional components that must be in synch with Asterisk, and must be downloaded separately, in order for it to work. The PIKA Fax installation is a one-package installation and includes everything that the application requires in order to run.

Like all PIKA offerings, PIKA Fax is fully supported by PIKA and its customer support team. PIKA Fax was developed, tested and trialed by PIKA. It has been demonstrated to be reliable and the technology behind it is already proven in the marketplace as it uses the same software that large fax-server providers have been using for years. In addition, compatibility with broad varieties of fax machines further demonstrates the reliability and flexibility of PIKA Fax.

The benefits increase if users couple PIKA Fax software along with PIKA boards. Developers doing so can achieve up to four times the density of competing boards because the real-time applications and processing occur at the kernel level, eliminating potential roadblocks in Asterisk.

PIKA’s low-density analog FXO board comes with four free fax ports enabled. This board does the fax processing on the board itself, lowering costs by reducing the need for a higher speed CPU on the PC. Other PIKA boards including high-density analog FXO and FXS and Digital T1/E1 come with 25% of the ports fax-enabled for free. Additional ports can be enabled with simple license upgrades that can be ordered online and remotely installed, eliminating costly site visits to upgrade ports.

Because of its low cost, high density, easy installation and full customer support from PIKA, PIKA Fax is an ideal solution for small businesses. Its robustness makes it a good option for high-volume fax applications in fax-server environments, and its flexibility easily enables applications for unified messaging, sending fax to email as a .tiff attachment.

For more information on PIKA Fax and to try a PIKA fax port for free visit www.pikatechnologies.com/fax


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Comments to PIKA Fax Adds Faxing to Asterisk


  1. Steve :
    February 27, 2008 11:25 PM

    This article is quite misleading. spandsp has no ties whatsoever to zaptel. Also, the ease of installation comparison in the articles compares a source code install of spandsp with a packaged install of the pika software. For many people these days the complexity of installing spandsp is a single command, something like "yum install " (or whatever package management software applies to their platform). From my understanding of what Pika are providing, it is likely to have similar strengths and weaknesses to spandsp in real world usage.


  1. Greg MacLellan :
    March 2, 2008 2:35 PM

    I've played with the faxing a little bit. Basically, they have fax support built into the DSP chip on their cards (there is no separate "fax card" as the blog post seems to imply). The kernel driver is basically the equivalent of zaptel (but for their line of cards), and they have their own RxFax() application that just tells the DSP to start receiving a fax.

    This is vastly superior to SpanDSP, as the actual fax communications is done purely in hardware (just like a real 56k PCI Fax/modem - remember those?), all the software does is save the TIFF image to a file.


  1. Steve Underwood :
    March 5, 2008 1:28 AM

    Hi Greg,

    What you described is not what this article is about. This is a new host software offering from Pika, offering much higher capacity than their original small scale offering running on their analogue cards.

    In what way is software running on a telephony card vastly superior to similar software running on the host CPU?


  1. Terry Atwood :
    April 9, 2008 1:01 PM

    Actually, PIKA has only one fax offering for Asterisk. And it IS what Tom was talking about in his blog.

    If our low density 4 port analog card is installed in the system, then our software fax modem runs on the DSP on that card. If our higher density analog or digital T1/E1 card is installed in the system, then the modem runs on the host computer since these cards do not have DSPs.

    In our labs and at initial customer sites, we have tested PIKA fax in Asterisk along side SpanDSP. In every situation, the results are better (higher % of completed faxes) with PIKA Fax, no matter whether PIKA, Sangoma or Digium hardware is used.

    One of the reasons for this certainly has to do with the clocking that Tom mentions in his blog. . Pika fax is relying on the reliable clock provided by the Pika HSP driver. PIKA's fax application uses system tic to synchronize the clock inside of Pika land when there is no hardware. There are slip detection/correction mechanisms implemented inside of the PIKA driver which are helpful in reducing the negative effects of the slips over media processing applications like fax. Pika's fax implementation has ECM mode support, which helps to improve the reliability of fax transactions. We also have some proprietary implementations in our channel driver and FAX software that increases tolerance to slips.

    When we talk about the ease of installation, Steve is correct. It is the difference between installing a single coordinated package with PIKA opposed to coordinating the proper versions of three SpanDSP packages (send /Tx, receive/Rx, Span DSP) with the installed version of Asterisk.

    Another key differentiator that is useful to many Asterisk developers is that we offer free support to them while they are getting the app up and running. This support comes from our team of 8 Customer Care individuals who are available at all times to assist. We have also included a comprehensive set of fax diagnostics that we use to assist in the trouble-shooting process.


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