sheepsticked/asterisk-dongle-quectel repository overview

⁠asterisk-dongle-quectel

Asterisk 20 with the chan_dongle⁠ (mainly Huawei 3G sticks) and chan_quectel⁠ (Quectel, SimCom) channel drivers, so USB cellular modems carry calls, SMS and USSD over a SIM. For amd64 and arm64.

This is the Asterisk image of Aster⁠, a web-managed GSM gateway, without the rest of Aster. You write the Asterisk configuration yourself.

⁠Run

# Copy the image's starter files (both drivers, no modems, a SIP transport, an empty dialplan) into ./asterisk:
# tar packs /etc/asterisk inside a throwaway container, the second tar unpacks it here.
mkdir asterisk
docker run --rm --entrypoint tar sheepsticked/asterisk-dongle-quectel -cC /etc/asterisk . | tar -xC asterisk
# Run Asterisk with that folder as its configuration (a mounted folder hides the image's own files).
docker run -d --name asterisk --network host --privileged -v /dev:/dev \
  -v "$PWD/asterisk:/etc/asterisk" -v asterisk-state:/var/lib/asterisk sheepsticked/asterisk-dongle-quectel

Then add a section per modem to dongle.conf or quectel.conf (for example [gsm1] with imei = <its IMEI>), SIP endpoints to pjsip.conf and a dialplan to extensions.conf. Calls and SMS from a modem arrive in the default context. The console: docker exec -it asterisk asterisk -r.

⁠What is inside

• Asterisk 20 with PJSIP, the basic dialplan apps, English and Russian sounds and music on hold. Only the modules in menuselect.opts⁠ are built: no voicemail, queues, AGI or ARI.
• Both drivers at pinned commits with patches⁠: a crash fix in Quectel port discovery, audio for two Quectel USB-sound-card calls at once, recovery from a sound card that does not start, Quectel SMS delivery reports, and a slow AT command no longer restarts the modem. New settings radio, qrxgain and smsreport; AMI actions DongleAtCommand and QuectelAtCommand.
• The exact versions are image labels: docker image inspect -f '{{json .Config.Labels}}' sheepsticked/asterisk-dongle-quectel.

⁠Notes

• Both drivers run in one process: keep a separate smsdb per driver, as the starter files do.
• Privileged with /dev, so a modem can be unplugged and come back; host networking for SIP and RTP.
• Keep ModemManager off the modems (the ID_MM_* lines of 90-aster.rules⁠). A Quectel's USB sound card needs options snd_usb_audio lowlatency=0 on the host, and on a Raspberry Pi 3 or older the kernel option dwc_otg.fiq_fsm_mask=0x3 (why⁠).

⁠Tags

latest, and <Asterisk version>-<commit> to pin one build.

⁠Licence

GPL-2.0, like Asterisk and both drivers. Source: docker/asterisk⁠.