asterisk users - Apr 2012 - Advice on Asterisk Conference

We're looking into using Asterisk to do our conferencing.  Currently we do
all our conferencing using Cisco, we have a router with PVDM modules so we can
offload the hardware resources.

I'm looking for some best practices on how to set it up.

1.  DO I need a separate server for the conference server?
2.  Do I need to offload the actual conference to a router with PVDM modules.
3.  Does anyone have experience with transitioning from Cisco conferencing to
Asterisk?
4.  How many participants can participate in a conference?  

Thanks,

Mitch

1. No, asterisk can act as pbx and as conference server

2. No, just bought a powerful server

3. Not me, sorry

4. You are limited only by the CPU of your server
Il giorno 20/apr/2012 19:21, "Mitchell Johnson" <mitch.johnson7 at
gmail.com>
ha scritto:
> We're looking into using Asterisk to do our conferencing.  Currently we
do
> all our conferencing using Cisco, we have a router with PVDM modules so we
> can offload the hardware resources.
>
> I'm looking for some best practices on how to set it up.
>
> 1.  DO I need a separate server for the conference server?
> 2.  Do I need to offload the actual conference to a router with PVDM
> modules.
> 3.  Does anyone have experience with transitioning from Cisco conferencing
> to Asterisk?
> 4.  How many participants can participate in a conference?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mitch
> --
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Be  aware that there are several different conferencing solutions for asterisk.

I've used app_meetme in asterisk 1.8 (the LTS release) pretty happily. It is
reasonably full featured and
well supported. It has 2 drawbacks : 1) it needs a kernel module (Dahdi) to do
the mixing and
timing 2) it only does narrowband codecs 

If you like living nearer to the edge, there is app_confbridge in asterisk 1.10
(aka 10) which
removes those 2 issues, but is new and so lacks some of the support (e.g. web
modules etc)

In terms of numbers, I've always found that user management issues kick in
before the software/hardware limitations. Your milage may vary.

T.
 

On 20 Apr 2012, at 18:20, Mitchell Johnson wrote:
> We're looking into using Asterisk to do our conferencing.  Currently we
do all our conferencing using Cisco, we have a router with PVDM modules so we
can offload the hardware resources.
> 
> I'm looking for some best practices on how to set it up.
> 
> 1.  DO I need a separate server for the conference server?
> 2.  Do I need to offload the actual conference to a router with PVDM
modules.
> 3.  Does anyone have experience with transitioning from Cisco conferencing
to Asterisk?
> 4.  How many participants can participate in a conference?  
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Mitch
> --
> _____________________________________________________________________
> -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
> New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs:
>               http://www.asterisk.org/hello
> 
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

Hi Mitch,

Firstly, I am not a conferencing guru; I just hope this helps.
> I'm looking for some best practices on how to set it up.
> 
> 1.  DO I need a separate server for the conference server?
This depends on a few factors:
(a) You won't be able to run MySQL alongside Asterisk with conferencing
and get good results. If you plan to use a single Asterisk server to do
conferencing and other voice functions (for example voicemail) then I
wouldn't expect any major issues. It depends on the usage of each voice
function of the system.

(b) How many conference participants will you have and will they all be
bi-directional audio or will it be more oriented towards having a single
person addressing multiple channels which are only listening?

(c) Are you planning on connecting SIP endpoints directly to Asterisk
and perhaps passing some of the callers through other trunks (SIP or ISDN)?
> 2.  Do I need to offload the actual conference to a router with PVDM
modules.
Got no idea, sorry. Haven't worked with Cisco voice equipment personally.
> 3.  Does anyone have experience with transitioning from Cisco conferencing
to Asterisk?
A couple of my clients have wanted integration with other systems
(Nortel / Avaya) and you will be best using the cheapest option of ISDN
cross-over cabling (if you already have spare T1/E1 ports) or SIP
trunks. The Cisco (or Asterisk server) can be programmed in such a way
that the conference participants (or voicemail users etc) don't know
which system they are interacting with.
> 4.  How many participants can participate in a conference?  
Depending on 1b and your processor specification, you can host quite
large conferences with only "marked users" speaking and many end
points
listening. You would likely have to get a testing budget and figure it
out for your own system if no one else can provide you more detailed
information.

I hope this helps.

Kind Regards
Stuart