> >I guess I just assumed that that the connection to asterisk would have > >to be IP since it is absolutely impossible to connect ~208 T1s directly > >to a single asterisk server. You would have to use an external media > >gateway. I am not aware of any 200x T1 or 8x T3 cards for asterisk :) > > > Not necessarily.
Yes! > > Granted that you will not be able to have have that many T1's on one > system but if the load is spread across multiple "Asterisk Media > converters" you should be able to do anything and scale your system much > better. > > Lets consider for example the following scenario: > > ------------------ ------------------ > | * Media | | * Media | > | server | | server | > | 2x TE406P | | 2x TE406P | > ------------------ ------------------ > | | > ------------------- > | Main * | > | server | > | | > ------------------- > | | > ------------------ ------------------ > | * Media | | * Media | > | server | | server | > | 2x TE406P | | 2x TE406P | > ------------------ ------------------ > The main sever is still connected via IP, correct? Does not matter if you use * for media gateways or an APX8000 - the only trunking options to get to the main box are IP based. > > This will let you serve 192 channels per media server. > Media servers will only need to convert PRI<->IP so a cheap DIY Dual > Core Xeon MP with 4MB cache would be more then enough to > process/compress 196 channels in/out of 2 TE406P's. Also media servers > do not need much RAM, hard drives and can run from flash cards. > My preference would be convert all the traffic coming out of media > servers to G.729 and IAX2 trunk it to main server. IAX2 trunking will > save you MANY interrupts and will improve your bandwidth utilisation > between Media and Main servers. > > With this setup you can run Media and Main servers on private gigabit > network which would be more then enough to handle IAX2 trunked G.729 > traffic from media servers. Network redundancy can easily be achieved > between Media and Main servers by adding NIC's to each and using many > known techniques (bonding, routing, VRRP, etc, etc). > > The Main Asterisk server can be setup with load balancing/failover. > Media servers will need to be aware of this. > > The good thing in the setup like this is that its easy to scale up when > needed, you're not exposed of loosing all of your T1's if one of media > servers fail, you can easily add more T1's in your setup. > > The Main server would need a quad gigabit card (intel is a good choice) > and since it would not be hampered by Zaptel traffic and it would not > need to do any transcoding (except for odd voicemail usage, that could > be send to another server) you could use 2xDual Core Xeons. A separate > dual port (for redundancy) gigabit card would be used to serve SIP > clients. > > We're working with one of the ISP's on testing and perhaps implementing > this setup for them. > > This setup is considerably cheaper then $1M proposed Cisco setup and can > be made as reliable as Cisco solution is. > Please don't get me wrong, if I'd have $1M-$5M to spare would go for > Cisco. > But most of us don't have that much money and if we would, we would > never be reading any messages on asterisk-users. > > Asterisk can be made as reliable and scales as good if not better then > any Cisco solution and the fraction of the cost. > > Now imagine all of this with the new DS3000P in media servers! > > All hail Asterisk! :) > _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
