[Asterisk-Users] Dialogic supported well?

[Scott Stingel]

Hi Steve-

>Actually, there isn't that much processing power on the 
>Dialogic boards. 

You're right, but they were not really intended for full duplex transcoding
as you mention.  I think the horsepower they had was plenty for typical IVR
apps however.   If memory serves, the D600 (2 E1's) has something like 12
processors, I think 8 are Motorola 56002 DSP's.  

I guess all I was trying to say is that transitioning from a dialogic-based
system to a Digium is not always necessarily smooth.  I was surprised to
find out that even simple IVR apps under asterisk started hicupping when
over about 60-80 channels were running - and all they were doing was
speaking short prompts and detecting DTMF's.  Admittedly these are busy
systems (lots and lots of new calls over short time periods), but I've built
Dialogic-based systems in the past for almost identical app's - and they
were able to handle 2 to 3 times this many channels on a much slower central
processor.

I do have a feeling that more attention directed toward making the digium
PRI drivers more robust would perhaps increase the potential load they could
handle.  Another programmer and I were poking around and it seemed that some
errors were not handled properly, specifically framer underrun errors.  This
is a condition that might pop up from time to time in even the most
carefully designed system.  (have discussed this possible problem with Mark)

Again, all of this intended as constructive commentary and hopefully helpful
to someone.


Best regards,

Scott M. Stingel 
Emerging Voice Technology Inc.
Palo Alto, California and London, England

Email:          scott "at  " evtmedia.com  
URL:            www.evtmedia.com