[Ganjanese]

I have a question for the Forum members that's been bothering for me a while now.

Is Asterisk a software driven PBX or a softswitch? I've been researching this for a while now, I've read through the Users Guide on the Digium site, however; I seem to find more references to the former.

However, on this website for instance, VoicePulse (pardon the spelling if it's wrong) has also stated they have are using Asterisk as a softswitch. What gives here?

I'm interested in learning more about Asterisk, perhaps going as far as deploying it in a similiar fashion as VoiceP.

Anyone got comments?

Thanks

Asterisk is far from being a softswitch, it is a software based PBX.

It does have some of the features of a softswitch from a functional point-of-view however it lacks the backend to be scalable, certainly not enterprise.

Asterisk is a very cool toy, and is proabably good for running an individual company, or even a multiple site business.

For a small provider, say an ISP, Asterisk might be good for providing service to their customer base. It will not however scale to hundreds of thousands of users, and probably would not hold up to certification as a back-office solution when this space becomes regulated.

Jeffery Williams
President
Broadvox Direct

Originally Posted by Ganjanese

I have a question for the Forum members that's been bothering for me a while now.

Is Asterisk a software driven PBX or a softswitch? I've been researching this for a while now, I've read through the Users Guide on the Digium site, however; I seem to find more references to the former.

However, on this website for instance, VoicePulse (pardon the spelling if it's wrong) has also stated they have are using Asterisk as a softswitch. What gives here?

I'm interested in learning more about Asterisk, perhaps going as far as deploying it in a similiar fashion as VoiceP.

Anyone got comments?

Thanks

Originally Posted by Ganjanese

Is Asterisk a software driven PBX or a softswitch?

The correct answer appears to be both! At the official Asterisk website (www.asterickpbx.com) in answer to the question What is Asterisk? we find the following: Asterisk is a complete PBX in software. and later in the same section: Asterisk provides a central switching core, . . . allowing it to tie together a diverse mixture of telephony systems into a single switching network. All this is done in software by Asterisk running under the Linux kernal. So how you define Asterisk is really based on your particular vantage point.

Originally Posted by jwilliams

Asterisk is a very cool toy

I personally believe its more than just a "cool toy", but I agree that it is certainly not industrial strength. However, some fairly impressive office PBX's have been established utilizing the Asterisk software "core".

[objective]

Originally Posted by jwilliams

Asterisk is far from being a softswitch, it is a software based PBX.

It does have some of the features of a softswitch from a functional point-of-view however it lacks the backend to be scalable, certainly not enterprise.

Asterisk is a very cool toy, and is proabably good for running an individual company, or even a multiple site business.

For a small provider, say an ISP, Asterisk might be good for providing service to their customer base. It will not however scale to hundreds of thousands of users, and probably would not hold up to certification as a back-office solution when this space becomes regulated.

Jeffery Williams
President
Broadvox Direct

Hmm, I remember similar comments about this useless toy called Linux. Whatever happened to Linux? That Linus was a fool for thinking a bunch of hackers could create an "enterprise" operating system.

[dorian]

heh, I was about to make ObLinuxComment, but it looks like objective's covered that already.

my thought is that certainly * is limited in terms of vertical scalability, but should scale fairly well horizontally. there are typical systems out there with hundreds and even (I believe) thousands of users, i.e. well below the level where you'd need an actual softswitch. enterprise level? no. toy? again, no.

as I recall, telcos do not like to provide things like SS7 -- they really want to have trustworthy customers and certified hardware/software for something like that, that's how potentially dangerous it is.

get ibm interested in *, then you'll start to see some cool enterprise solutions being shipped...

Ouch!.. can never be certified?
Doubt That!

The trick to * hitting mainstream is to get the developers working as a team, right now the * camp (From what I see in the lists) is in 2 parts...

There are those who don't understand how to set one up...

And those who flame them for asking questions...

I do have a production * box running serving 13 sales reps across the US, works GREAT!

TOOK ME 2 MONTHS TO GET THE ABILITY TO DIAL IN AND OUT!, One hell of a learning curve. (BTW I am a MCSE and a CISSP)

* will be big if someone snaps it up, then dies the open source side of it =(

It would start flying if someone would just help the "n00bies"

[packetvoice]

Originally Posted by Ganjanese

However, on this website for instance, VoicePulse (pardon the spelling if it's wrong) has also stated they have are using Asterisk as a softswitch. What gives here?


Thanks

I would still like to know the answer to one of the original question asked by Ganjanese: Does VoicePulse use Asterisk? If not for their primary broadband service but for their OpenAccess and Connect! service.

Also wondering if Broadvox Direct (a post in this thread by Jeffery Williams, President, Broadvox Direct ) uses Asterisk?

[packetvoice]

Originally Posted by ZoboFlobby

TOOK ME 2 MONTHS TO GET THE ABILITY TO DIAL IN AND OUT!, One hell of a learning curve. (BTW I am a MCSE and a CISSP)

I have just installed * on an old machine. It seems to run fine. I have got extensions working ( using some sample configs) I have VoicePulse OpenAccess account (as well as FWD and IAXTEL). How do I set up VoicePulse as my incoming and outgoing line and then start using auto attendant and ACD features. Hopefully I can avoid 2 months of learning curve. Rightnow I am banging my head agianst the wall trying to figure this out!

Any sample configs for VoicePulse or FWD or IAXTel?

Thanks

[objective]

Originally Posted by packetvoice

How do I set up VoicePulse as my incoming and outgoing line and then start using auto attendant and ACD features.

You may be able to get someone on IRC (irc.freenode.net, #asterisk) to give you an answer. Although, please come back and post what you find out. It may take some time for the users in the channel to get around to answering you, but they will sooner or later.