[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk as a GW or PBX?

[James Sharp]

> Hi all,
>
> I've got myself all confused about the capabilities of *.  I somehow
> convinced myself (because I see a lot emails flying around about IP
> phones)
> that Asterisk works as a PBX and trunking gateway, but does not do voice
> coding (i.e. TDM in, VoIP out).  Does Asterisk work as a VoIP gateway that
> regular (non-IP, non-SIP) phones can connect to and establish voice
> connections to other non-IP or IP phones?

The simple answer.  Yes.

The complex answer. Asterisk can take calls in via TDM, VoIP (via SIP,
H.323, IAX/IAX2, and a few others still in experimental stage) and spit
them back out on whatever protocol you want.

Quite simply, if it needs to be done in telephony, Asterisk can probably
already do it.  If not, it can be made to do it.

> My understanding is that a network would be connected as so:
> PSTN phone <---> [a channel bank or something to put voice calls onto TDM]
> <----> Asterisk  <---> RTP stream
>
> Is this diagram feasible?  In this case, Asterisk would be acting as the
> VoIP gateway (as well as have PBX responsibilities).

Quite feasable and already in place by many asterisk users.