[asterisk-users] PRI Gateway - Worth it?

[Steve Totaro]

On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 6:25 AM, Shashi Dookhee <sdookhee at fortify.com>wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I was looking to build a SIP-to-PRI gateway using Asterisk (as in my other
> post), but there is also an alternative of using a Cisco router with
> something like an NM-HDV module with a T1 VIC module and DSP channel banks.
>
> The question is, would it be more reliable to offload all
> dahdi/zaptel/libpri type stuff to a dedicated gateway device (Asterisk or
> Cisco) and have the Asterisk PBX only process SIP/IAX?  What prompted all
> this was terrible call quality/dropped calls over our PRI (which currently
> has a Wildcard TE207P PCI card) and after two weeks of searching I think
> I've finally found the issue today (Serial ATA vs Auto mode in the BIOS,
> would you believe which leads us to believe that offloading duties would be
> very beneficial performance-wise!).
>
> I can think of the gateway allowing us to have multiple PBX's to serve our
> calls more easily, maybe making it easier to failover PRI's too, etc...
>  Although we do have an ADTRAN Atlas that allows us to split call volume by
> DIDs if we wanted to (right now we only have one Asterisk PBX, one
> electronic FAX server and a couple of standalone FXO devices - all sharing
> our PRI by the ADTRAN)...
>
> Any comments appreciated.
>
> Thanks!
>
> S.
>

I try to dedicate a box (sometimes HA heartbeat or just a decent server like
the HP DL360 with dual power supplies and RAID) to a certain task.

The litmus test is when that task is mission critical and can logically be
drawn out on a whiteboard.

PRI<->SIP is pretty intensive and obviously mission critical and at least to
me can sit on it's own little square on the whiteboard.

Budget wise, if possible, I would go with two HP DL360s with dual power
supplies, RAID and a Redfone device or at the least two Sangoma cards, one
for cold spare (unless Digium now has a lifetime warranty that I am unaware
of).

-- 
Thanks,
Steve Totaro
+18887771888 (Toll Free)
+12409381212 (Cell)
+12024369784 (Skype)
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