asterisk users - Dec 2007 - Performance Issues Degradation After 6 Calls

I am using Asterisk and A2billing Calling Card Platform and after the 6th
call the quality starts to degrade. The way it set up is the user calls into
the system then dial out so I have 12 channels being used up but 6 active
calls. Here are my specs Asterisk SVN-branch-1.4-r79142 on a i686 running
Linux Fedora 6, Pentium 4 Hyper-Threading, 64 bit, 1GB of RAM, 80 GB Sata
Drive, bandwidth 4 Mbps (1300GB/Throughput) burstable to 100Mbps.

I am planning on upgrading to Intel Core 2 Duo with a clock speed of
1.8GHZand 2GB Ram. Does anyone have similar situation or advice?
Thanks.
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On 12/27/07, broadband Voice <broadbandvoice at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> I am using Asterisk and A2billing Calling Card Platform and after the 6th
> call the quality starts to degrade. The way it set up is the user calls
into
> the system then dial out so I have 12 channels being used up but 6 active
> calls. Here are my specs Asterisk SVN-branch-1.4-r79142 on a i686 running
> Linux Fedora 6, Pentium 4 Hyper-Threading, 64 bit, 1GB of RAM, 80 GB Sata
> Drive, bandwidth 4 Mbps (1300GB/Throughput) burstable to 100Mbps.
>
> I am planning on upgrading to Intel Core 2 Duo with a clock speed of
> 1.8GHZ and 2GB Ram. Does anyone have similar situation or advice? Thanks.
>
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broadband Voice wrote:
>
>
> On 12/27/07, *broadband Voice* <broadbandvoice at gmail.com 
> <mailto:broadbandvoice at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     I am using Asterisk and A2billing Calling Card Platform and after
>     the 6th call the quality starts to degrade. The way it set up is
>     the user calls into the system then dial out so I have 12 channels
>     being used up but 6 active calls. Here are my specs Asterisk
>     SVN-branch-1.4-r79142 on a i686 running Linux Fedora 6, Pentium 4
>     Hyper-Threading, 64 bit, 1GB of RAM, 80 GB Sata Drive, bandwidth 4
>     Mbps (1300GB/Throughput) burstable to 100Mbps.
>      
>     I am planning on upgrading to Intel Core 2 Duo with a clock speed
>     of 1.8GHZ and 2GB Ram. Does anyone have similar situation or
>     advice? Thanks.
>
>
Your system should be able to handle that volume easily.

What are you using for PSTN connectivity? 

I have heard of people having issues with Hyperthreading.  That could be 
a problem, although I have never had any issues myself. 

What does top look like? 

When I had a similar issue (voice quality while running monitor on over 
seventy calls) I found a small Linux CLI app, I cannot remember the name 
of it but it would give IO stats (I think it may be named IOStat or 
something similar) and I could see right where the bottleneck was 
(obviously disc IO but I was able to see exactly where the breaking 
point was).  That may help identify something.

Thanks,
Steve Totaro

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007, broadband Voice wrote:
> I am using Asterisk and A2billing Calling Card Platform and after the 6th
> call the quality starts to degrade. The way it set up is the user calls
into
> the system then dial out so I have 12 channels being used up but 6 active
> calls. Here are my specs Asterisk SVN-branch-1.4-r79142 on a i686 running
> Linux Fedora 6, Pentium 4 Hyper-Threading, 64 bit, 1GB of RAM, 80 GB Sata
> Drive, bandwidth 4 Mbps (1300GB/Throughput) burstable to 100Mbps.
>
> I am planning on upgrading to Intel Core 2 Duo with a clock speed of
> 1.8GHZand 2GB Ram. Does anyone have similar situation or advice?
> Thanks.
You don't say how people are calling in+out. If it's via the Internet, 
then that's where I'd start to look first. If it's via BRI/PRI
interface
then I'd look at interrupt issues. I'd suggest that the hardware is more
than capable if it's set up correctly.

But since you mention bandwidth, I'll assume the calls are coming in via 
that interface - each call will use 80Kb/sec each way (g711). So 5 calls 
(to make the math easier) is 10 channels of 80Kb/sec each way - so it's 
only 800Kb/sec each way. Well under your 4Mb limit.

However, at 50 packets per second per call (each way), it's 500 packets 
per second each way - 1000 pps in total... Can your router sustain more 
than that? Can your ISP deliver more than that? That's where I'd start
to
look if it's not local hardware issues...

Good luck!

Gordon