[asterisk-biz] PRI confusion

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Sat, Nov 24, 2007 at 12:41:28AM -0500, emist wrote:
> I was hoping someone could clarify this for me since i've been trying to
> find out for a while now to no avail. Im thinking of deploying a call
> routing service through asterisk. Basically I want people to be able to
> call a number through the PSTN and then call whatever extension to be
> routed through a voip termination provider.
> 
> Im guessing using a PRI is the best way to do this. However, im confused
> as to how it all works. Say a PRI has 23 usable channels, does that mean
> that I will be able to route 23 calls at the same time or does it mean
> that I would have to split 11 channels for incoming voice traffic(from
> PSTN) and 11 channels for outgoing voip traffic?

I don't know the service *quite* well enough to be sure that it will do
everything you want, but you might want to investigate whether your
(proposed) PRI provider supports TBCT: Two B-Channel Transfer, and
exactly how they implement it.

As long as you're ok releasing the calls when you decide where they're
supposed to go, it might solve your problem, and then you'll only need
enough channels for the number of calls simultaneously being set up,
not the number of ongoing conversations.

Or something.  :-)

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                   Baylink                      jra at baylink.com
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