The KHOMP SIP Gateway for AMD and Call Progress Detection

VICIdial finished its KHOMP integration in 2020, and it gives outbound teams a dedicated engine for answering machine detection (AMD (answering machine detection)) and call progress detection (CPD (call progress detection)). KHOMP is a proprietary SIP gateway device with its own detection engine, so the heavy lifting happens off the dialer instead of inside Asterisk. If the built-in AMD is missing too many machines or too many humans, this is one of the third-party options worth a look.

What KHOMP actually does

The KHOMP gateway sits between your dialer and the call, classifies what answered, and feeds that result back into VICIdial. Because it runs as a separate SIP gateway, it can do more detailed call progress work than Asterisk alone, similar in spirit to other proprietary CPD (call progress detection) engines. That means cleaner separation of humans, machines, and other outcomes, which in turn cleans up your Disposition data and keeps more genuine live answers (Live answer) flowing to agents.

You point a campaign at it with the AMD Type setting on the campaign detail screen. AMD Type defaults to the built-in AMD application; you only change it when a supported third-party engine like KHOMP is installed and your system administrator has confirmed the correct routing extension. Get that detail wrong and calls route nowhere useful.

How a call flows through KHOMP

sequenceDiagram
  participant C as Carrier
  participant V as VICIdial Dialer
  participant K as KHOMP Gateway
  participant A as Agent
  C->>V: Call answered
  V->>K: Send call for analysis
  K->>K: Classify human or machine
  K-->>V: Return result
  V->>A: Route human to agent
  V->>V: Divert machine to message

The gateway returns a result, and VICIdial acts on it. Humans go to an Agent; detected machines can be hung up or sent to the campaign's Answering Machine Message, depending on how you set AMD send to Action and the CPD AMD Action.

What setup requires

Two things have to happen. First, you contact KHOMP to acquire the SIP gateway solution itself. Second, your system administrator makes changes on each dialer in your VICIdial system so they can connect to the gateway. This is not a one-checkbox change; every dialer in the cluster needs to know how to reach KHOMP, and the campaign needs the matching settings. Because the work spans the whole cluster, plan the rollout for a quiet window rather than mid-shift, and confirm one dialer end to end before you push the change everywhere.

• Acquire the KHOMP SIP gateway hardware and licensing from KHOMP.
• Configure each dialer to connect to the gateway.
• Set AMD Type on the campaign to the KHOMP routing extension your admin confirms.
• Tune per-campaign behavior in the KHOMP Settings container.

KHOMP vs the built-in AMD

The Asterisk AMD application is free and runs on every VICIdial install, but it adds processing time to every call and needs careful tuning against your leads and lines. A dedicated gateway like KHOMP shifts that work onto purpose-built hardware and aims for more accurate classification. The catch is real cost and real setup: you are buying and connecting hardware, not flipping a switch. For most small campaigns the built-in AMD, or even a tighter dial timeout, is plenty. KHOMP earns its keep on high-volume outbound where a percent or two of detection accuracy moves real money, and where you also want cleaner call progress data than Asterisk produces on its own. For the trade-offs and how Asterisk AMD compares, see what VICIdial AMD is and the broader AMD and CPD complete guide. Once it is running, watch the KHOMP Quick Stats Report to confirm the gateway is keeping up, and use the Dialer KHOMP Admin Tool to code each result into the right VICIdial status before you trust the numbers.

If you would rather not manage gateways and dialer-side connections yourself, our managed hosting handles the wiring and tuning for you. See VICIfast pricing to find a plan that fits your call volume.