[Asterisk-biz] hey, i am posting my questions again, something happend to my original email

[alex at pilosoft.com]

On Sun, 21 Aug 2005, CSB wrote:

> Guys, I have some architectural/general questions. I am a data guy,
> coming from backbone, and dial ISP engineering to this so take it easy
> on me please.
> 
> 1) Can we use one Asterisk server to serve multiple groups of users with
> their own extensions but each group could not call other groups? Only
> SIP phone dial extension plan. If someone tries to bring business
> solutions, do we need to deploy individual Asterisk boxes per business
> dial plan?
Yes. Each user has a context. Contexts are very separate from each other.

> 2) Is AMP good enough to configure extensions.conf, do we need to know
> ins and outs of this file to deploy Asterisks.
Yes, you need to know extensions.conf and a *whole lot of other things*. 
It is not plug and play by any means.

> 3) Can we use one Asterisk server to serve calling card business and
> business phone systems business with SIP phone dial extensions?
Yes, but you probably shouldn't, as those things may have different CPU 
and network requirements, not to mention single points of failure. If you 
can't afford another server, you have entirely different problem.

> 4) What are the main components of calling card business? So far I know
> that Asterisk and some calling card software needed. I assume, a gateway
> in addition to this. But what are the components, like Radius server, or
> any other call manager, etc, ?
That all depends, and there are many different ways to do it. There are 
prepackaged asterisk calling solutions like astcc.

> 5) I assume for calling card business there couple different ways to go
> and build it. I assume, someone could deploy Asterisk, and calling card
> software on it, and buy IP trunks to others who could supply all the
> rest with added costs. Now, if someone wants to build all from scratch
> and do his own gateways, do his own termination point agreements, how
> easy to do this. Is it easy to find termination points and collect/pay
> cdr based agreement fees?
Yes, lots of people doing termination. No, they all request prepay, so you 
won't have to worry about CDR and agreements ;)

> 6) How does session border controller concept fit with Asterisk concept?
Asterisk is *somewhat* similar to SBC. SBC is usually a B2BUA, and so is 
asterisk.

> 7) How does softswitch concept fit with Asterisk concept?
See this for a comment:
http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-biz/2005-January/002192.html
> 
> 8) Can asterisk control gateways, and could became SS7 SSP point with
> point codes, etc?
No, asterisk is *not* an MGC. By design, it must be in media path. Yes, 
there are people working on SS7 implementations for asterisk, so it might 
become a SSP (but not STP).

> 9) DID issue? How does DID fit in a SIP call? Could anyone give me a
> quick call flow. Let’s say 3 people from outside US calls in US numbers.  
> Do we need to own those DIDs, how does this DID work?
Read SIP RFC. In short, it is similar to HTTP - "INVITE phonenumber" in 
header.

> 10) How useful Astricon 2005 at Anaheim could be in October? If I go and
> take all the tutorials, do I become smart enough to deploy, business
> solutions and carrier solutions?
Haha.

> 11) Is there any documentation talk about this type of concepts? I
> checked wiki, and some other manuals but they all about details.