[asterisk-biz] Large System

[alex at pilosoft.com]

On Wed, 29 Mar 2006, Michael Welter wrote:

> Does anyone know of an Asterisk system with 1000 SIP phones?  I'm being
> asked to propose an alternative to Cisco/Avaya/Nortel pricing, but I've
> never contemplated a system this large.
> 
> Should I consider a SER front end (to register the phones and for
> inter-company calling) with an Asterisk back end (to provide the PSTN
> interface)?  Or would an Asterisk system handle 1000 phones?  Ignoring
> conference bridges, how should the system be sized?
> 
> Until now, I've ignored the Linux clustering discussions on the list.  
> Should I consider a monolithic server or a distributed system with each
> server having ~250 phones and a PSTN interface?
> 
> The real scary part of this project is the necessity to upgrade the
> wiring (both Cat3 and Cat5) in a very old (lath and plaster) building.  
> I've observed two-prong (no ground) electrical plugs, so I'm thinking a
> PoE phone with PC jack at each work location.  Or maybe a NetJack at
> each location.
That's not a big system. Out of 1000 phones, it is likely that only 50-100 
will be active (i.e. number of concurrent calls). Asterisk can register 
1000 phones without a big problem.

-alex