[Asterisk-biz] Evaluating Asterisk for commercial purposes

[C. Maj]

On Tue, 8 Jun 2004, John Gerlich waxed:

> As a newbie to * there is a lot I do not yet understand. Before I jump 
> onboard I could use some help in evaluating whether * is the way to go 
> on applications I'm about to put together and spec. Here are a number of 
> questions that will help me in my evaluations. I hope this belongs in 
> this group.
> 
>  The first application is a outdial app. with the option of the called 
> party opting in to be transferred to a call center. I know all of the 
> restrictions in the U.S. about do not call lists but they do not apply 
> to this. The outcall will be placed VoIP with gateways taking it back to 
> the PSTN in various locations worldwide. Some of the gateways will be * 
> and some will be commercially available gateways probably running Cisco 
> boxes. My * questions are:

This sort of application is definitely workable with *.

>  1.                 What is the estimated simultaneous call capacity of 
> a single server placing calls and playing a message and allowing the 
> called party to request a call transfer either to a PSTN number or 
> another VoIP address?

In all fairness, the question is akin to asking "how many
hits can my web server take before it crashes?"  It really
depends on the hardware, codec translation, how important
uptime and redunancy are, etc.  Lots of factors.

For 100% VoIP with *, I don't think a top of the line P4
could handle more than 1,000 calls.  I bet it could handle
at least 100, but I haven't tried.

When you mix PSTN into the equation, there are several folks
who have luck with 2 TE410 cards.  I have not had that kind
of luck.  I would say stick with 1 card.  That gives you 92
T1 calls and 120 E1 calls.  Maximum per server.  But there's
lots of improvements being made to *, so maybe 2 cards will
work flawlessly for you.

> 2.                   Is it possible to transfer calls to as VXML server 
> and then retrieve the call when the VXML browser hangs up? Similar to a 
> recall type action.

I don't think anyone is working on this publicly.

> 3.                   What is the maximum number of conference 
> participants possible in a single conference? Would it be best to have a 
> separate * server for conferences. The conferences would be a mix of 
> listen only and listen / speak parties.

I would say yes to the separate server, and that the max
depends again on the hardware.

> 4.                   Is there a good pool of * developers that would 
> take on contract work to develop apps. using *?

Yes, plenty, check the wiki.

>  Any help in leading me down the right path is much appreciated.

Read the wiki and search the archives.

--Chris


-- 
Chris Maj, Rochester
cmaj_at_freedomcorpse_dot_com
Pronunciation Guide: Maj == May