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External codec services

Starting with IBM Voice Gateway Version 1.0.3, users can deploy external microservices to support more audio codecs for calls handled by IBM Voice Gateway. These microservices expose a websocket interface that can be used to establish a connection with IBM Voice Gateway for audio encoding and decoding purposes. The list of currently supported external codec services includes:

G.729 Codec Service: Adds support for the G.729 Annex A/B codec to IBM Voice Gateway.

Adding G.729 codec support to an existing IBM Voice Gateway deployment

For an on-premise installation, you can deploy the G.729 Codec Service as part of your IBM Voice Gateway environment on Docker. The G.729 Codec Service is packaged as a separate Docker image that you configure and deploy along with the core SIP Orchestrator and Media Relay images.

Before you begin

+ Familiarize yourself with Voice Gateway deployment options and deploy a basic environment as described in [Getting started with Voice Gateway](https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/voice-gateway?topic=gateway-getting-started)

Deploying on Docker Engine

For complete setup information for getting started with Docker deployments, see Deploying Voice Gateway on Docker

In an existing docker-compose.yml file, add a new docker container service section for the g729.codec.service section:

services:
  sip.orchestrator:
    ...
  media.relay:
    ...
  g729.codec.service:
    image: icr.io/voice-gateway/codec-g729:latest

In the same file, under the Media Relay configuration, define the EXTERNAL_AUDIO_TRANSFORMS environment variable. As its value specify a websocket URI that points to the G.729 Codec service. This variable specifies which codec services the Media Relay should use for audio encoding and decoding.
```
# docker-compose.yml
services:
  media.relay:
   ...
    environment:
      - SDP_ADDRESS=${EXTERNAL_IP}
      ...
      - EXTERNAL_AUDIO_TRANSFORMS=ws://g729.codec.service:9001
```
Start the containers by running the following command:
```
docker-compose up
```
Test with a SIP phone that supports the G.729 codec. When you configure the SIP client, keep the following considerations in mind:
- If you run the SIP client on the same machine as Voice Gateway, be sure to configure the SIP client to use a port other than 5060 (e.g. 5062) to avoid port conflicts.
- Configure the SIP client to listen on an IP address that Voice Gateway can route to. For example, your SIP client might be configured by default to listen on a loopback address, and you'll need to change this setting.
- Disable IPv6 in the SIP client.
To test Voice Gateway, call the following SIP URI from your SIP phone:
```
sip:watson@<IP address of Voice Gateway>:5060
```

Deploying on Kubernetes

For complete setup information for getting started with Kubernetes deployments, see Deploying Voice Gateway to a Kubernetes cluster.

In an existing deploy.yml file, add a new container section for the vgw-codec-g729-service section:

# deploy.yaml
kind: Deployment
containers:
  - name: vgw-media-relay
    image: icr.io/voice-gateway/media-relay:latest
  ...
  - name: vgw-codec-g729-service
    image: icr.io/voice-gateway/codec-g729:latest
  ...

In the same file, under the Media Relay configuration, define the EXTERNAL_AUDIO_TRANSFORMS environment variable. As its value specify a websocket URI that points to the G.729 Codec service. This variable specifies which codec services the Media Relay should use for audio encoding and decoding.

# deploy.yaml
kind: Deployment
containers:
   - name: vgw-media-relay
       image: icr.io/voice-gateway/media-relay:latest
       ports:
       - containerPort: 8080
         hostPort: 8080
         protocol: TCP
       lifecycle:
         preStop:
           exec:
             command:
             - "/opt/quiesce.sh"
       env:
       - name: SDP_ADDRESS
       ...
       - name: EXTERNAL_AUDIO_TRANSFORMS
         value: 'ws://localhost:9001'

Deploy your Kubernetes cluster by specifying your deployment configuration file on the kubectl create command.
```
 kubectl create -f deploy.yaml
```

Verify that your cluster is running with the kubectl get pods command.

The command displays the status of all pods in your cluster.

>kubectl get pods
NAME                   READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
vgw-4151379926-7xbz5   2/2       Running   0          6s

Test with a SIP phone that supports the G.729 codec. When you configure the SIP client, keep the following considerations in mind:
- If you run the SIP client on the same machine as Voice Gateway, be sure to configure the SIP client to use a port other than 5060 (e.g. 5062) to avoid port conflicts.
- Configure the SIP client to listen on an IP address that Voice Gateway can route to. For example, your SIP client might be configured by default to listen on a loopback address, and you'll need to change this setting.
- Disable IPv6 in the SIP client.
To test Voice Gateway, call the following SIP URI from your SIP phone:
```
sip:watson@<IP address of Voice Gateway>:5060
```