[Asterisk-Users] Fair comparison

[Steve Underwood]

Kim C. Callis wrote:

>I was trying to do a little searching to see if there has even been a
>comparison between Asterisk and VOCAL or any of the other OSS packages?
>"Practical Voice Over IP using VOCAL" published by O'Reilly and
>Associates, attempts to make a strong case about how scalable VOCAL. Of
>course, considering that the book is written by the makers of VOCAL, it
>tends to have a one sided slant.
>
>Maybe we should try to put together an unbiased comparison (read that as
>pro/con). I was talking at a meeting about Asterisk, and someone
>attempted to start flaming Asterisk, and swearing by VOCAL, while
>another was babbling about the wonders of Bayonne. The only thing that
>was successful in that meeting about VOIP solutions was tabling that
>discussion until a future (as in way, way in the future) date.
>
Bayonne solves a different problem. Asterisk is switching with a little 
IVR. Bayonne is IVR with a little switching. Building a complex IVR with 
Asterisk wouldn't be much fun. Unless Bayonne has changed a lot 
recently, it make a weak switching platform, but a pretty good IVR one.

I know less about Vocal, as it is a less friendly platform to get get 
started with. So far I haven't been very inclined to climb the learning 
curve and get started with it. However, if I am not mistaken, it is a 
pure VoIP platform. I haven't seen anything that provides direct 
interworking with the PSTN (unless you call a 5300 a PSTN interface for 
Vocal :-) )

Regards,
Steve


Regards,
Steve