asterisk users - Jul 2003 - Network design question

Hello!

My business is a wireless ISP.  I would like to offer voice to several 
business customers.  I have a * server, but still need some hardware cards 
for it.
I would like to provide individualized billing to these customers for their 
usage.  Most of these customers have Nortel PBX's.   Could I use a Cisco 
ATA  or a similar manufacturer to provide 1-2 line service?  I would like 
to get this set up correctly the first time.  What would you suggest or has 
someone already done this that could explain better?

Thanks,

Bill

Couple of things that come to mind.

What's the latency or your point to point wireless connections.
What type of voice interface do the PBX's have(analog, digital)?
If you plan on using a ATA like device and the Nortel phonesets are digital
you probably will run into echo problems.
What do you need the voice cards in the Asterisks for?  Interconnection to
the PSTN, to your switch?

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Asterisk" <asterisk@airrun.net>
To: <asterisk-users@lists.digium.com>
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2003 1:33 PM
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Network design question

>
> Hello!
>
> My business is a wireless ISP.  I would like to offer voice to several
> business customers.  I have a * server, but still need some hardware cards
> for it.
> I would like to provide individualized billing to these customers for
their
> usage.  Most of these customers have Nortel PBX's.   Could I use a
Cisco
> ATA  or a similar manufacturer to provide 1-2 line service?  I would like
> to get this set up correctly the first time.  What would you suggest or
has
> someone already done this that could explain better?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bill
>
> _______________________________________________
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>

On Mon, 2003-07-07 at 12:33, Asterisk wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> My business is a wireless ISP.  I would like to offer voice to several 
> business customers.  I have a * server, but still need some hardware cards 
> for it.
> I would like to provide individualized billing to these customers for their
> usage.  Most of these customers have Nortel PBX's.   Could I use a
Cisco
> ATA  or a similar manufacturer to provide 1-2 line service?  I would like 
> to get this set up correctly the first time.  What would you suggest or has
> someone already done this that could explain better?
Since an ata can only do compression on one phone line at a time,
consider it to be nothing more than a single line device if bandwidth is
of concern. Also notice the various problems with SIP that crop up from
time to time. It is actually more useful to use IAX and a small PC with
TDM cards than an ATA.

As for the billing, you can track individual users of IAX in the CDR and
can easily use it this way for your billing. 
-- 
Steven Critchfield  <critch@basesys.com>

>Hello!
>
>My business is a wireless ISP.  I would like to offer voice to 
>several business customers.  I have a * server, but still need some 
>hardware cards for it.
>I would like to provide individualized billing to these customers 
>for their usage.  Most of these customers have Nortel PBX's.   Could 
>I use a Cisco ATA  or a similar manufacturer to provide 1-2 line 
>service?  I would like to get this set up correctly the first time. 
>What would you suggest or has someone already done this that could 
>explain better?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Bill
The ATA-186 works well, and it's price point is hard to beat.  I have 
several clients who use them with no difficulties.  If you have them 
behind NAT, however, they get a little fussy and you need to have 
them auto-reboot every once in a while.

JT