[Asterisk-Users] New VoIP deployment.

[Harry McGregor]

Hi,

We are looking at deploying Asterisk for about 60 phones.  Since we are
in a public building, and are a mixed university and federal unit, we
must have our phones up near 100% of the time.  Currently we have ~60
POTs lines.  I am working on moving us to DIDs with a single PRI feeding
us.  The reason this came up, is that we are planning on growing to over
150 users within the next 2-3 years.

My idea is to have a well planned/tested Asterisk server, with a spare
on hand (identical, including the digium quad T1 card).

We are looking at HP 2650-PWR switches (one of each floor, each with ~30
VoIP phones).  For UPS power we are looking at an APC 2200XL-NET with a
large extra battery (the big APC one), for each switch, and one set for
the server.  Our data switch infrastructure would also be on the
2200XL-NET, but we are using HP 2848 Gigabit switches, and the power
draw is much less than the 2650-PWR.

Two areas that I am running into trouble with is either some FXS/VoIP
gateways or a channel bank, for 9 analog devices (6 on the first floor,
3 on the third floor), 7 of which are fax machines.  We can probably put
a channel bank in on the third floor, and run the analog devices on both
floors).

Phones.  We are looking at either a mix of the Uniden 200 and the Zip
4x4, or all Zip, or all Uniden.  I have looked at others but the Snom
205 is not much cheaper than the Zip 4x4.  We need 802.3af PoE support. 
Multi "line" would also be quite useful.

Does anyone know if the problem of not hearing dialed digits during a
call still exist with the Uniden.  I can probably get enough budget to
do all Zip 4x4 phones, but I want to know real world experiences with
the two, before I push it one way or the other.

Before we make a full decision, I am going to bring one of each in
house.  Any other suggestions or recommendations would be handy.  Both
myself, and our systems programmer (him more than me) have worked with
Asterisk before, but not for such a deployment.


			Harry


-- 
Harry McGregor, Computing Manager
Tucson Center Support Group - U.S. Geological Survey
University of Arizona - Environment and Natural Resource Building
520-670-5574 (office) - hmcgregor at espri.arizona.edu
520-661-7875 (Cell) - hmcgregor at usgs.gov

The opinions/statements expressed herein are my own and should
not be taken as a position, opinion, or endorsement of the
University of Arizona or the U.S. Geological Survey.