[Asterisk-biz] Multipoint VOIP Network

[Jean-Michel Hiver]

Anton Krall wrote:

>Guys.
>
>Maybe this is a very simple or "stupid" question but reading about some
>systems like vodtel's get me thinking.
>
>In a scenario where you have a HQ offide and some branch offices, most of
>the time you put an asterisk based server on the main office and on the
>satellite or branch offices, you put ATA's, IP phones, mediatrix gateways,
>etc. that all connect to the main Asterisk server thus giving you all the
>PBX functions, etc.
>
>But, is it possible to have the same scenario but without the Asterisk based
>server and just install gateways on each office? How can they communicate
>between them then? Products like Vodtel claim you can install gateways on
>each office (FXS gateways and sometimes also FXO ports) and exchange calls
>between them and every share the FXO lines, but, don't you need a central
>"brain" like Asterisk to have a dialplan and process the trunk and call
>exchange or know where all the gateways are?
>  
>
I think this is exactly the kind of stuff that 'dundi' is supposed to 
do. Basically, you create a P2P network, and to add a node, you sign a 
'peering agreement' with another node of the network.

 From then on, extensions (either e.164 or internal ones) can be added 
by each node.

However, for corporate type application, is it really worth the trouble? 
Seems to me that it would be simpler to maintain a central 
extensions.conf and have each asterisk gateway periodically 'rsync' 
against it and do a asterisk -rx 'restart when convenient' afterwards.

Cheers,
Jean-Michel.