Bill Andersen wrote:> I am thinking about a change to our company's phone "layout"
and would like
> to get comments from people who have done something similar.
>
> Currently, we have 3 locations - each with their own Asterisk PBX. The
> corporate office has a PRI. Each remote location has a SIP provider for
> 5 channels of SIP going to their own PBX. Interoffice calls use the PSTN.
> Most inbound calls come to the headquarters via a toll free number.
>
> We are adding another remote office and are planning a MPLS network to
> connect all locations for DATA. As we really want a
"centralized"
> switchboard
> anyway, I thought with QoS and an MPLS, I could eliminate the remote PBXs
> (and not have to buy another for the new locations) by simply using the
MPLS
> to
> tie everything together. See below.
>
> /--------------------\
> | CORP HEADQUARTERS |----> PRI (23 Channels, 100 DIDs)
> | Asterisk PBX |
> | 30 Polycom 501s |
> \--------------------/
> |
> | < 3Mbps MPLS (2 T1s)
> |
> /--------------------\
> | MPLS "Cloud" |
> \--------------------/
> | | |
> | | \---SIP over MPLS 1.5Mbps T1---Branch Office 1 (5
Polycom
> 501s)
> | |
> | \-----------SIP over MPLS 1.5Mbps T1---Branch Office 2 (5
Polycom
> 501s)
> |
> \-------------------SIP over MPLS 1.5Mpbs T1---Branch Office 3 (3
Polycom
> 501s)
>
>
> Question 1: I've never had an MPLS network with QoS. Will the call
quality
> "Really" be as good as AT&T assures me it will be
with QoS?
> Assuming
> we never have more than 5 calls going over the MPS from a
> branch?
>
> Question 2: MPLS are pretty reliable, but last mile connections can be cut,
> hardware
> can fail at AT&T or whatever. Is this putting too many
eggs in
> one
> basket? If I lose the headquarters T1s (MPLS or PRI), everyone
> is
> down. Would "You" do it this way?
>
> Question 3: (OT) For those who have used an MPLS. How much better
> throughput for
> DATA (NOT VoIP) should I see compared to using the Internet?
> I'm mostly
> just curious here and realize it is hard to compare, but when I
> do any
> type of file transfer between office right now, I use FTP over
> the Internet
> and both ends have a T1. Assuming an MPLS on each end, what is
> your
> experience when comparing average "throughput"
compared to an
> Internet
> transfer. Just a guess of what you've seen. (i.e. Yes,
you'll
> see
> a big difference, maybe a little better or couldn't really
see
> that
> big of a difference)
>
> Thanks for your input.
>
> Bill
>
>
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One of the techs I know built such a setup for a company in australia -
it actually became one of the original Asterisk case studies.
She had about 200 phones over 70 sites (with between 2 and 5 phones per
site) - all over an MPLS network.
Her only comments - get decent phones (she used polycoms), use g729.
PaulH