[Serusers] asterisk server

[John Todd]

I would agree with the comments below, with the exception that 
Asterisk is certainly no longer a "one-man show".  While there is 
still one person that gates the code into the CVS tree, there are 
several dozen active participants in the project from a "writing 
code" perspective.  The Asterisk bug/feature tracker system is 
practically bursting with new data, patches, and applications every 
day.

Asterisk is not a "reference" platform, that is certain. 
Documentation is thin, in-line comments are thinner, and the (very, 
very active) user community is the primary resource for learning the 
system.

That being said, I use Asterisk for many tasks and have been thrilled 
with it's versatility.  Asterisk is a chameleon.  It has many 
different features with surprising depth, and an Asterisk server can 
turn itself into a system that looks like a very expensive 
"appliance".  As noted, it has a very nice IVR system.  It has a 
reasonably decent voicemail system.  It has support for extremely 
inexpensive PRI interface boards, making a super-cheap media gateway. 
It can do translation between codecs, between protocols, between 
NAT/non-NAT networks, and between physical interfaces.  Any one of 
these functions can be reproduced by a box costing ten times as 
much... but why not use Open Source?  Asterisk can do all of them. 
If you have a small environment, then Asterisk may be all you need 
since it does pretty much everything well at the bottom end of the 
scale for size.

If you have an "enterprise" (more than several hundred users) then 
SER is a better SIP server, and is better at "routing" calls from 
place to place.   Asterisk has a role in this type of deployment, as 
perhaps an application server or media gateway, but with the 
advancement of some of the add-ons to SER, perhaps this is becoming 
more a matter of taste than of administrative sensibility.  SER will 
route calls more efficiently and at a higher speed, but if you don't 
have those requirements, I'd suggest you set up an Asterisk server 
and see if that meets your needs.

At some point in the near future (1 year?) the comparison between 
Asterisk and SER will be similar to the arguments I hear about "What 
is the 'better' game, checkers or chess?"  (before you answer that so 
quickly, do some research on the question and you'll see the answer 
is not as obvious as it sounds.)

JT


At 3:53 PM +0200 on 3/27/04, F.S.Salloum wrote:
>Dear Eugene,
>
>I have used both and currently i'm doing some stress tests in both of them,
>I think the best solution is to combine them, SER is excellent for 
>the SIP stuff, can work as a SIP proxy and whatevere else you want 
>with the modules which supports (sms gw etc) Asterisk in the other 
>hand works fine as a SIP to ISDN/CAPI Gateway and an IVR system 
>(better and faster compared with the sems+ser solution until version 
>0.8.12).
>
>Regarding the underlying code SER is a reference for any programmer 
>out there, it is very good written and includes some excellent 
>methods for faster execution. Asterisk as far i know is almost a one 
>man show and the code it is not so nice written (for sip you can 
>check the code channels/chan_sip.c and you will understand what i 
>mean) so it is more difficult to add some staff there  for the near 
>future compared with SER which can be maintained more easily.
>
>Sotiris
>
>
>Eugene Babchin wrote:
>
>>Is anybody here experienced with Asterisk server and what is you 
>>experience? What pluses and minuses for SIP from IPTEL and from 
>>Asterisk?
>>Thanks,
>>Eugene.