[Asterisk-biz] Multipoint VOIP Network

[Anton Krall]

Guys.

Maybe this is a very simple or "stupid" question but reading about some
systems like vodtel's get me thinking.

In a scenario where you have a HQ offide and some branch offices, most of
the time you put an asterisk based server on the main office and on the
satellite or branch offices, you put ATA's, IP phones, mediatrix gateways,
etc. that all connect to the main Asterisk server thus giving you all the
PBX functions, etc.

But, is it possible to have the same scenario but without the Asterisk based
server and just install gateways on each office? How can they communicate
between them then? Products like Vodtel claim you can install gateways on
each office (FXS gateways and sometimes also FXO ports) and exchange calls
between them and every share the FXO lines, but, don't you need a central
"brain" like Asterisk to have a dialplan and process the trunk and call
exchange or know where all the gateways are?

Maybe this is a silly question but I have always used Asterisk based
scenarios.

Hope you can share a light on this matter..

AK