[asterisk-users] Asterisk with or without OpenSER

[John Todd]

On Nov 18, 2008, at 4:29 AM, Yehavi Bourvine wrote:

> Hello,
>
>   I am running a small installation of asterisk and looking for  
> future expansion of it to handle thousands of users. From what I  
> read I see that usually large installation place OpenSER (or similar  
> solution) in front of Asterisk in order to provide high call rate  
> because "OpenSER does only signalling while Asterisk does all". My  
> question is: If Asterisk also does only signalling (i.e. the voice  
> traffic goes directly between the phones and not via asterisk) is it  
> still that slow? I preffer to have one software package rather than  
> dealing with two.
>
>                               Thanks! __Yehavi:



Asterisk is capable of handling both thousands of users and large call  
volumes easily.  I have done both, without SER or other "front-end"  
software.  The specifics of your installation of course may push you  
towards other solutions that may involve a pure SIP proxy, but without  
more data I would suggest that Asterisk is usually sufficient with no  
more thought for design than other solutions would require.

I would suggest creating a test environment that mimics your expected  
higher load situations and testing for yourself, and believe little of  
what others claim, including myself.  Create an array of Asterisk  
machines that simulate user populations, and point them at your  
testing system.   This will allow you to determine, given your  
specific environment and requirements, if various solutions can be  
used successfully.  My bet is that you'll find that Asterisk as your  
single package will be sufficient.

Hints: Will SIP redirection work for you?  How about re-INVITEs?  Does  
Linux HA give any solutions?  L3 load sharing?

JT

---
John Todd
jtodd at digium.com        +1-256-428-6083
Asterisk Open Source Community Director