[Asterisk-Users] setup questions- many users, little use

[Bill Lattner]

Hello All,

I’m on the technology committee for a fraternity at the University of Illinois.  
We’re looking into moving from our current “party line” (one line shared 
between every two rooms) system to a PBX with voicemail in an effort to lower 
our monthly phone bill and provide better communication services.  We’ve 
pretty much settled on Asterisk as we do not wish to rewire all of our pots lines 
and can’t justify $19,000 for Cisco Call Manager.  We do not have many 
incoming/outgoing calls because most people are using their cell phones, but 
we do have to provide local service for 41 rooms, plus common areas and 
possibly remote users.  

Right now our setup is looking as follows:
12 ch T1 with 60 or 80 DID’s (using Digium T100P)
P4 2.8/3 GHz Server (possibly a Dell 750, only running Asterisk)
41 Sipura ATA’s (SPA-1001)
3 Cisco 7960’s (in common areas, mostly to look good, but also to provide 
directory info)

Our usage/requirements are as follows:
Callers to main number will be greeted with IVR providing directory general 
announcements
Members assigned one of DID numbers which will follow them their entire time 
living in, calls to DID numbers go strait through
Voicemail for all users, as well as several general mailboxes
Call groups based on committees (philanthropy, exec, alumni relations, etc)
Call forwarding (only to internal extensions)
Overhead paging/intercom
Possible remote extensions for members living out of house (using 7960/40’s)
Management/configuration through our current portal system (web based, most 
likely we’ll write this from scratch as we have pretty specific uses)
Possible wake-up call scheduling
Possible configuration from database already storing member information
Future long distance service to Chicago area through collocation or similar

I would greatly appreciate any input as to specific configurations, things to 
watch out for and consider, and any other useful information.  Will our 
equipment selections work well with Asterisk?  Will there be any compatibility 
issues with the T100P and the T1 from SBC?  And what kind of reliability can we 
expect from this setup? Also if anyone has a setup similar to this please let me 
know how it worked out.  We will most likely publish a case study, specific 
configuration guide, and extensive documentation after we finish 
implementation, as other fraternities and sororities on campus have also 
expressed interest in our approach to IT management.  

Thanks in advance for any help,
Bill Lattner