[Asterisk-Dev] 3rd party call control / CSTA , JTAPI orTAPIinterfaces

[Schaefer, Mark]

I'm not whining.  I'm saying that from the perspective of a telecommunications company, it is a MAJOR weakness of a "switch vendor" to not have a call control API.

>From a business perspective I can tell you this.  Switches are considered a commodity.  We can buy Avaya, we can buy Nortel, we can buy Cisco.  They all have call control API's and they all interface with Genesys, which we use as our call routing software.  There would be some major problems to fix to put Asterisk in a production environment - since our switch vendors sign up for liability if their products fail.  They also sign up for SLA's that I don't think Asterisk/Digium could meet.  (For example, when's the last time you added a T1 card to an Asterisk box while it was servicing your production call volume?)

My personal recommmendation on a call control API is this: make a low-level C interface - the whole Asterisk system is built on C.  If someone wants to build TAPI, JTAPI, or whatever on top if it, that should be an additional interface layer.  Having a telnet-level interface to the switch is too cumbersome for programmers who want to move calls around.

Also, the call control could be an application.  You could divide the switch into two pieces, one set of route points gets sent through based on the switch rules in existance (like a direct number to a desk phone).  Other calls would get dumped on an application that would notify a routing server and then wait to be routed.



-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-dev-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-dev-bounces at lists.digium.com]On Behalf Of
alex at pilosoft.com
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 9:04 AM
To: Asterisk Developers Mailing List
Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Dev] 3rd party call control / CSTA , JTAPI
orTAPIinterfaces


On Mon, 20 Dec 2004, Schaefer, Mark wrote:

> This is a pretty big weakness of Asterisk to be dealt with so
> flippantly.  I wouldn't necessarily define the Manager API as an API.  
> It's more of a UI.  We have a number of projects within OnStar that
> require 3rd party call control, and having to custom-build an
> application for Asterisk that raises the overhead associated with
> switching is definitely not the way to go.
You are a 'real company'. You have 'real money'. And yet you are whining
on-list about free software? Go put up a bounty for a better call control
API - preferably with the explanation what exactly is missing from Manager
API.

> If Asterisk gains any momentum, you may find a company like Genesys Labs
> developing adapters for it, but I doubt that will happen soon because,
> again, Asterisk has no real standard API for call control.
If asterisk gains any momentum, we may find companies like Genesys Labs
going out of business.

'Standard' is in the eye of the beholder.

-alex

_______________________________________________
Asterisk-Dev mailing list
Asterisk-Dev at lists.digium.com
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-dev
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-dev