[asterisk-biz] Asterisk Performance as a B2BUA

[Jim Dalton]

In 2007 we published the results of a performance test of Asterisk as a Back
to Back User Agent (B2BUA).  Based on the helpful feedback from the mailing
list we improved our test procedures and re-ran a new performance test case
of Asterisk configured as a B2BUA.

Our test platform hosting Asterisk was a $1000 Dell PowerEdge 840 with a
Quad Core Xeon X3220, 2x4M cache, 2.40 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB and 4 GB RAM.
Redhat V5 was the operating system.  The test was configured to simulate a
wholesale VoIP operation with three minute call durations and an average of
two call retries for every completed call.  This was an "out of the box"
Asterisk configuration with default settings and no optimizations.  

We found that Asterisk on the test server could handle approximately 1000
simultaneous calls with no codec transalation.  This works out to be about a
$1 per port investment for a B2BUA platform.

When calls were transcoded from G.711 to G.729, the call capacity fell to
320 simultaneous calls.  With the added cost of of the G.729 codec royalty
and the lower call capacity, the cost increases to approximately $13.50 per
port

You can download the test results and all the test plan details from:
http://www.transnexus.com/White%20Papers/Performance_Test_of_Asterisk_v1-4.h
tm

Jim Dalton
VoIP Routing, Accounting, Security
1.404.526.6053
www.TransNexus.com