Dual WAN with BSNL FTTH and VoIP

[networkwhisperer]

So I was hoping someone here could help or provide advice on something I'm looking to do:
I recently got BSNL FTTH as a back up broadband connection. It came bundled with a new BSNL number, delivered over VoIP.

I have an Asus ac87u set up to do dual WAN with failover between my primary broadband provider and BSNL FTTH as secondary. The primary connection comes in as PPPoE on an incoming ethernet cable, and goes directly into the ac87u's WAN port. The secondary (BSNL FTTH) is an incoming optical cable, terminated by a BSNL provided Optilink ONT cum router. The Optilink router plugs into the ASUS ac87u on one of the ASUS' LAN ports. I use 192.168.2.XXX as the subnet for all my devices; the ASUS is the gateway for this. I've put the Optilink on 192.168.1.XXX and it serves as the gateway for the secondary connection.

There is VoIP set up in the Optilink and an RJ-11 jacked cable that come out of the Optilink and into a POTS instrument for calls on the number that came with the FTTH.
From what I can make out, the Optilink VoIP end point is given a static IP on a 10.XXX.YYY.ZZZ private network, with the SIP server it's supposed to talk to also on the same 10.XXX.YYY.ZZZ private network

All of this works right now; I can make and received calls on the new number and the broadband fails over to the secondary when the primary fails.

What I'd like to do:
1. I'd like to avoid the additional hop (ASUS --> Optilink --> Internet) for the failover case, and get rid of the 192.168.1.XXX subnet entirely.
I'm assuming this would involve putting the Optilink into bridge mode and having the ASUS do the PPPoE etc.

2. I'd like to be able to use the VoIP number with VoIP apps on smartphones or IP phones on the 192.168.2.XXX subnet, and do the fancy things that SIP/VoIP allows.
In particular receive incoming calls on the VoIP number on any chosen device, and call out from any device etc.

So on to the questions:

0. It is possible to do both (1)and (2) together, correct? (Obviously I'm assuming it is)
1. A route between 192.168.2.XXX and 10.XXX.YYY.ZZZ will need to be added, correct? Is this all that's needed for a VoIP client on 192.168.2.XXX to reach the BSNL SIP server and make/receive calls ? (Assuming route is necessary but not sufficient...)
2. Will I need to run my own SIP server or something? (Does/can the Optilink act as a SIP Server or proxy by the way? I can see a Dialplan as an advanced configurable option in the Optilink's configuration interface)

What's primarily causing confusion for me right now is how to set up for the effectively two outgoing networks for the BSNL (the internet one and the VoIP one) in bridge mode, while not messing up the dual WAN etc...

Any tips/advice/pointers appreciated !

 

[Dark_Nate]

Can somebody in this forum tell me why people want to use BSNL's VoIP? Which has no encryption whatsoever and is open to surveillance?

 

[networkwhisperer]

I can't definitively say, as I was fiddling with a bunch of stuff and perhaps not to systematically keeping track of the changes. Initially it was getting the ONT bridge mode to work. After that, with the ONT bridged for voice and plugged into a designated port on the router (I'm using the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter ER-X in lieu of the Asus, as the ASUS has only dual-WANing support and I now need to do load balancing/failover across three connections as there's more work from home because of coronavirus and greater need for an always up connection) something was off in the routing. I had to add a static route for the SIP server. Even so, the router was trying to send packets directed to the SIP server out through one of the internet WANs. It turned out that although there was a static route for the SIP server added, the voice interface was included in the load balancing group for the three WANs. I had to drop it from the load balancer, and move up the route to come before the load balancer rules for the WANs.

Anyways, it took a while but it seems to be working now to take the next step...

 

[networkwhisperer]

Can somebody in this forum tell me why people want to use BSNL's VoIP? Which has no encryption whatsoever and is open to surveillance?

Because it's there?

And while we're on surveillance: EXCLUSIVE: Documents Show Modi Govt Building 360 Degree Database To Track Every Indian

We're all screwed anyways...

 

[Dark_Nate]

Because it's there?

And while we're on surveillance: EXCLUSIVE: Documents Show Modi Govt Building 360 Degree Database To Track Every Indian

We're all screwed anyways...

As long as ISPs allow transparent bridge mode, we're never screwed completely. There's so much you can do to protect to yourself without affecting much of the performance if bridge mode is available.

 

[Realme]

Well I don't know if somebody screw me in a dark chamber with $5 wrench..these are political problems and should be solved by political means only, technical solutions are nothing but a hack

Raise Awareness ;- The only solution, no matter how much it falls on deaf ears I cry I cry

 

[Dark_Nate]

Well I don't know if somebody screw me in a dark chamber with $5 wrench..these are political problems and should be solved by political means only, technical solutions are nothing but a hack

Raise Awareness ;- The only solution, no matter how much it falls on deaf ears I cry I cry

Dude, this is not Switzerland, a country with one of the best data protection and privacy laws.

This is India, Tech and Politics go hand-in-hand. If you don't like that, try to convince Modi to change his agenda via Twitter or something.

 

[SG_curiosity]

Can somebody in this forum tell me why people want to use BSNL's VoIP? Which has no encryption whatsoever and is open to surveillance?

Isn't millions of Indians uses bsnl DSL landline? What kind of voice encryption are they getting?

 

[Realme]

@Dark_nate:I just try to do what a small person like me can do, educate the older generation on tech stuff and raise awareness, your petitions will fall on deaf ears of higher ups if you don't get lower-ups to shake the ground beneath them .

 

[Dark_Nate]

Isn't millions of Indians uses bsnl DSL landline? What kind of voice encryption are they getting?

There's no VoIP on BSNL DSL from BSNL, it's DSL. We were all talking strictly about VoIP on FTTH aka Triple Play systems.

Edit: For that matter, I haven't seen any landline phone calls in a decade. Even villagers use mobile phones.

 

[Dark_Nate]

@Dark_nate:I just try to do what a small person like me can do, educate the older generation on tech stuff and raise awareness, your petitions will fall on deaf ears of higher ups if you don't get lower-ups to shake the ground beneath them .

Good luck with that. We have 1 billion idiots.