asterisk users - Aug 2007 - Sort of OT: PBX vs CO

As I am working my way to understand Asterisk, I have a couple of 
questions that hopefully someone will answer.

I know there are differences between a PBX switch and a CO switch. 
Can Asterisk completely replace and act as a CO switch?  Are there any 
telecoms out there using Asterisk as a CO switch?  If so, how well 
does it work? If not, why not?

Todd Adamson wrote:
> As I am working my way to understand Asterisk, I have a couple of 
> questions that hopefully someone will answer.
>
> I know there are differences between a PBX switch and a CO switch. 
> Can Asterisk completely replace and act as a CO switch?  Are there any 
> telecoms out there using Asterisk as a CO switch?  If so, how well 
> does it work? If not, why not?
>
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Many ITSP's use Asterisk as a CO switch, in fact, I do. It works rather 
well as long as its distributed and you carefully plan.

Anthony

On Fri, Aug 10, 2007 at 09:42:39AM -0500, Todd Adamson
wrote:
> I know there are differences between a PBX switch and a CO switch. 
Yeah, kinda.

Some colleges use AT&T 5ESS-2000s as PBXen.
> Can Asterisk completely replace and act as a CO switch?  Are there any 
> telecoms out there using Asterisk as a CO switch?  If so, how well 
> does it work? If not, why not?
The major issue you'd have in trying to build a CO (class 5) switch out
of Asterisk -- ok, one of a dozen major issues :-) -- would be that you
need to speak SS7 to The Network... which means, quite apart from the
fact that you need Asterisk to know how to speak SS7, which I don't
know if it does or not, that you need something with an SS7 interface
system that's certified by the carriers.

The Local Switching System Generic Requirements -- the implementation
standards document that tells you what you need to do to build a Class
5 switch -- is available from Bellcore.

Well, Telcordia now, I guess.

It's something like 14 volumes, over 10,000 pages, and well up into 4
digits in price, last time I looked.

http://telecom-info.telcordia.com/site-cgi/ido/docs.cgi?ID=203579079D000052&KEYWORDS=lssgr&TITLE=&DOCUMENT=&DATE=&CLASS=&COUNT=1000

Since it's apparently now an enterprise license only item, that may be
"up into 5 digits in price".

Let's just say: "I wouldn't".

Cheers,
-- jra
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