[asterisk-users] Big practical systems

[David Backeberg]

On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 1:29 PM, Cary Fitch <caryf at usawide.net> wrote:
> But can anyone contribute some practical knowledge of systems that take in
> channel bank T1s or DS3s from "far away", and process the calls?

Yes. Adtran makes excellent gear. The MX 2800 is good for breaking a
channelized DS3 into PRIs.

> Not to start the discussion, but "Is there a board that will take a DS3 (672
> channels) and a system that will handle the calls, or is that a silly
> question?"

If by board, you mean PCI board for shoving in something with an intel
cpu, not that I've ever heard. Digium sells 4x port PRI boards, and
some competitor sells an 8x port PRI board, but I've never tried any
boards not made by Digium.

The only thing silly is the idea of trusting that many calls to PC hardware.

> Is there an IP box that would take the DS3 and then a system that would
> handle the calls?

Yes, embedded hardware from a vendor you've heard of will do that.
Cisco makes a 3845 which can terminate about 20 PRIs in one appliance.

> My guess would be yes because the actual call load would
> be far lower than 672 calls.  Maybe 100-150 or so simultaneous.

Well, then it's not really a DS3. If it can't do the whole thing
without melting down, it shouldn't advertise itself as DS3. The Adtran
gear works rock solid when pushed to the limit.

If you're just talking 150 calls, you could do that with two 4x port
cards in a single PC. I thought you were talking a lot bigger.

> Each line/call would have to have absolute caller ID.  In other words, PSTN
> call handling.

Ummm, there's no such thing as absolute caller ID. You wanna try that
question again? callerID is not legally binding, is not used by
billing, anybody can spoof it.

The closest you can get is to have a LEC provide ANI. You don't need
PRI to get that. You can get that via a quality voip provider, or
yourself using your own termination gear to convert into voip.