Asterisk Vo IP and it s role in

Asterisk & Vo. IP and it’s role in your enterprise

Asterisk? Open-source software released under the GPL Sponsored by Digium, the main hardware provider for POTS interface cards Digium named in the top 10 open source companies to watch by networkworld. com Ports for most *nix systems including Solaris Ports also available for OSX and Windows Open standards along with some proprietary protocol support (like Cisco’s Skinny and MGCP) Modular plugin type system

Protocols Supported SIP – Session Initiation Protocol H. 323 – Common in video conferencing Skinny – Cisco IP Phones default protocol MGCP – Media Gateway Control Protocol IAX - Inter-Asterisk Exchange Protocol Codecs Supported G. 711 – Best voice quality ~100 Kbps G. 729 – Good voice quality ~40 Kbps GSM – Acceptable voice quality ~10 Kbps G. 722, G. 723. 1, G. 726, i. LBC, Linear, LCP-10, Speex

PSTN Interface Support Analog n n n FXO FXS E&M (w/ or w/o Wink), Loop start, Ground start, Kewl start T 1 n n E&M (w/ or w/o Wink) Robbed bit ISDN (PRI & BRI) n n 4 ESS Lucent National Some international support

Biggest Features Unified Voicemail n n Voicemail to email (. wav files) Video Conferencing messages to email (. mpg/. avi files) Advanced Meetme conferencing - conference bridging n n n Web management interface Support for conference numbers and passwords Presenter and Presentee support (presenter can mute all participants, etc) Contact Center Queuing Interactive Voice Response Automated Attendant Video Conferencing (SIP and H. 323) Jabber / Google Talk integration Find me / Follow me Out of state DIDs (all Vo. IP systems) Call monitoring and recording

Normal PBX Features Name it, it’s there

Enterprise Features Unified dialplan across many servers n n n SQL Compliant databases (through ODBC) Native support for Mysql LDAP integration DNS SRV records n n Make calling each other easy (adam@bblisa. org) Scalability Load balancing Phone provisioning DUNDI – Distributed Universal Number Discovery Works with SIP proxys to accept large amounts of phone registrations AGI – Extend your system using C, C++, Perl, PHP, … Custom CDR – Used for calling card integration, billing, …

Asterisk Compatible Endpoints Cisco IP Phones (except IP 7920) Polycom IP Phones Snom IP Phones Avaya IP Phones Linksys IP Phones Many others Asterisk Compatible Gateways Cisco Vo. IP Gateways (anything MGCP, SIP, H. 323) Cisco Callmanager (through SIP and H. 323) Patton Smartnode

Asterisk PSTN Interfaces Digium n Analog (up to 24 channels on a single PCI card, FXO and FXS) with hardware echo cancellation n T 1 / PRI / BRI – 1 -4 on a single PCI card with hardware echo cancellation Sangoma n n n Better analog support, but uses more PCI slots (or spaces) T 1 / PRI / BRI – 1 -8 on a single PCI card with hardware echo cancellation Clear channel DS 3 Any SIP / H. 323 compliant endpoint n n Cisco x 8 xx series ISR routers …

Possible Asterisk Configurations Full PBX Add small remote sites onto traditional PBX Trunk Routing Gateway Toll Bypass Only Service Component

Full PBX

Traditional PBX with Remote Offices Use of Digium appliance Cisco x 8 xx routers

Trunk Routing Gateway Connect a traditional PBX to services like Sprint SIP Trunking

Toll Bypass Only Connect Traditional PBXs together over WAN Links

Service Component Meetme Conferencing Bridge Voicemail / Unified Messaging Add Softphones to non-Vo. IP PBX …

Drawbacks No PCI-Express Support (just came out for digital interfaces, still none for analog interfaces) Hardware sizing information hard to find Kernel updates break Digium drivers PCI Bus sharing can cause significant problems with voice quality NAT Traversal (common across any SIP system) Linux system Qo. S not very mature yet No Vo. IP security yet, although planned Not for *nix beginners

Support Certifications – d. CAP (Digium Certified Asterisk Professional) Voip-info. org (Vo. IP WIKI site) Commercial support (through Digium) Partners (certified or un-certified) Mailing Lists (very active) User Groups (although none in Boston) Astricon (Asterisk conference) Books

Where to start? www. asterisk. org (Asterisk main page) www. asterisknow. org (Asterisk and Cent. OS with full installer) www. voip-info. org (huge resource for Vo. IP related projects and configuration info) www. digium. com (hardware manufacturer and project sponsor) Trixbox (formerly Asterisk @ HOME) User Groups – Find one close or we can try to start one Books – O’Reilly, Asterisk for Dummies, Asterisk configuration guide, …