sipX - The SIP PBX for Linux

Original Website: http://www.sipfoundry.org

sipX is distributed under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

See also sipX on freshmeat.net

Development of sipX started in 1999 and was first introduced as a commercial product by Pingtel Corp. In early 2004 Pingtel adopted an open-source business model, became a founding member of SIPfoundry and made available the entire commercial code base as an open source project under the name of sipX. Since then an active community has formed around sipX with Pingtel doing all its development efforts as part of the open source sipX project.

sipX follows a release model similar to the Linux kernel development. Even release numbers are stable versions intended for production use; odd release numbers are development branches.

• The current stable release of sipX is 3.6.0, sipX Download
• Version 3.8 is in RC2 and due around the end of July
• Current development branch of sipX is 3.9.0, sipX Development

The sipX Architecture page gives a more detailed description of system components, their respective functionality, and overall system architecture.

sipX has a clear roadmap with exciting new features being developed.

sipX Roadmap


Out of the box application examples include:

• A fully featured Enterprise PBX solution serving a company up to about 500 seats running on a single dual CPU Linux server
• A remote worker solution connecting home and mobile workers to the corporate PBX using laptop based softphones or other SIP phones
• An Enterprise toll by-pass call router enabling a company to interconnect branch offices with headquarter using VoIP technology
• A home/SOHO PBX offering all the features you ever wanted in your home

Ease of use is one of the key attributes of the sipX soluton. The sipX server is configured using a Web based GUI interface. Every user of sipX automatically receives his/her own Web GUI portal for system administration, voice mail retrieval, configuration of personal preferences and call routing options.

Example Screenshots: sipX_screenshots


Installation of sipX requires the Apache web server, JBoss, as well as the Postgres database. Installation is fully automated using the binary distribution of sipX available here. All the required dependencies are included and system configuration is done automatically. Detailed installation instructions are available from the SIPfoundry web site. A detailed system administration guide is available for free from the Pingtel web site (requires user registration).


sipX runs on standard Linux and it should be possible to compile sipX from source for any of the many Linux distributions.

Installation How To for Different Platforms

• Fedora Core 3,4,5: sipX is installed and configured fully automatically using the FC binary available.

• Gentoo Linux: An ebuild is available for sipX from here. Using this ebuild fully automatically builds all the dependencies of sipX on Gentoo Linux. sipX is either checked out directly from the SIPfoundry subversion repository (development main) or built from a stable tarball. It is therefore very easy to create a complete build environment for sipX using the most recent development codebase for sipX (currently 2.9).

• Debian Sarge:

• openSolaris

• Suse

• Ubuntu / Kubuntu Dapper Drake

• CentOS

• VMWare image available w/sipXpbx 3.0.1 and CentOS

sipX does not require any additional hardware to be installed in a standard Linux server. In the context of its distributed architecture and compliance with the SIP standard, sipX is interoperable with a large set of external phones and media gateways. Interoperability has been tested but not limited to the following products:

SIP Media Gateways

• Mediatrix 1204, 1400, 1500, 1600, 2400, 2500, 2600, 1102, 1104, 1124
• Vegastream Vega10, Vega20, Vega25, Vega50, Vega100, Vega400
• Cisco 2600, 3600, 5400
• AudioCodes
• Patton Electronics SmartNode (auto provisioning planned for sipX version 4.0)
• Most other standards SIP gateways also supported

SIP Phones

• PolycomSoundPoint IP30x, IP50x, IP60x, SoundStation IP4000 (auto provisioning support)
• Snom 190, 200, 220 (auto provisioning support enhanced in 3.6, IETF Music on Hold supported!)
• Grandstream GXP-2000 & Budgetone (auto provisioning support)
• Hitachi Wifi 3000 & 5000 (auto provisioning support now available as of ver 3.6)
• Pingtel xpressa hard and softphone
• Xten softphone
• Aastra phones (auto provisioning planned for sipX version 4.0)
• Cisco IP Phones (requires SIP SW load)
• Most other SIP phones are supported but not directly managed through sipX

• Installation Manual
• Users Manual
• sipX Wiki - The Ultimate Resource for everything sipX
• Administration Manual (requires user registration)
• TMC Labs Test Report
• CT Labs Test Report
• Miercom Test Report

The SIPfoundry and sipX community includes many of the key members of the IETF active in the ongoing SIP standardisation effort. We welcome any suggestions, bug reports, and code contributions. The best way for you to get a sense of project activity is to join our mailing lists:

• Announce List: This list is for important announcements regarding SIPfoundry projects
• sipX Users: This list is for users of the sipX solution
• sipX Developers: This list is for sipX developers and everyone interested in what's going on on the development front
• sipX Commit: This list provides commit notifications for new code checked into the subversion repository

The sipX architecture is modular and consists of three main building blocks:

• sipX Communications Server
• sipX Media Server
• sipX Configuration Server

While sipX packages these components to function as a SIP PBX, each server can also be used standalone.

• SIPfoundry Web site
• sipX Support Forum
• Pingtel Corp.
• Open Source PBX Battle January 24, 2005
• SIPfoundry unveils open SIP PBX platform January 17, 2005
• SIPfoundry advances SIP deployment January 10, 2005
• See also sipX on freshmeat.net