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Introduction to Asterisk: Configuring Phone Service with Mark Turner

Learn about Asterisk's purpose and organization, configure phone service, glossary of terms, including trunk, station, SIP, dialplan, codecs. Understand VoIP types, SIP providers, choosing a provider, supported hardware, pricing. Explore Asterisk software, supported phones, APIs, dialplan setup, voicemail, practical examples, and resources.

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Introduction to Asterisk: Configuring Phone Service with Mark Turner

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  1. Introduction to Asterisk Mark Turner Siteseers Inc. www.siteseers.com 12 June 2004

  2. Goals • To become familiar with Asterisk's purpose and organization • To step through configuring phone service using Asterisk

  3. Glossary • trunk - a phone line from the Central Office • station - an internal phone • FXO - "Foreign eXchange Office." phone interface to public telephone network (PSTN) • FXS - "Foreign eXchange Station." internal phone interface. "Drives a phone." • SIP - Session Initialization Protocol • IAX - Inter - Asterisk eXchange

  4. Glossary • dialplan - tells a phone system what to do with dialed digits • softphone - a phone implemented in software (i.e., Xten's X-Lite) • hardphone - a SIP-capable telephone (such as the Cisco 7940) • terminal adapter - a device which converts a standard phone into a SIP phone • context - a way of partitioning phone calls. Can be used for security and/or organizational purposes • codec - COder/DECoder. Compresses or expands binary data

  5. Glossary • PSTN - Public Switched Telephone Network - the traditional way of getting dialtone • POTS - Plain Old Telephone System • Phone Switch - a computer which connects calls (the "operator"). Asterisk can be one. • Rate Center - a geographic location used to determine distance-related tolls (quaint?)

  6. Glossary • TDM - Time Division Multiplexing. A way of compressing many calls onto one circuit (T1) • ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network ("It Still Doesn't Work."). A 2 channel TDM digital line once marketed as the next generation phone service. Achieved blazing speeds of 128Kbps! • PBX - "Private Branch eXchange." A computer which connects calls (see "switch.") Asterisk is a PBX.

  7. Codecs • G.729 - high-quality, low footprint codec. $10 Asterisk implementation. ~8k bps • G.711 - uncompressed channel. Uses ~64k bps • GSM - GSM compression. Decent quality, lower footprint ~13.2k bps • G.723.1 - proprietary. Unsupported in Asterisk other than passthrough. ~6k bps • G.726 – variable bandwidth. Not widely used? • ILBC – open source codec. 15.2k bps

  8. A Telephony Primer • Simple technology • Over 100 years old • Smarts in the switch

  9. New Twists • Multiplexing • Fiber/Digital (goodbye microwave & satellite) • VoIP

  10. Types of VoIP • H.323 – Original. High overhead. Complex. Bloatware? • MGCP – Media Gateway Control Protocol. SIP competitor meant to supercede H.323. • SIP – Session Initialization Protocol. HTTP for the phone. Extensible. NAT-unfriendly. • IAX – Inter-Asterisk eXchange – Asterisk's own. Even lower overhead than SIP. NAT-friendly.

  11. SIP Providers • Free (no PSTN access): Free World Dialup (FWD), Skype, MSN Messenger • Commercial: Time-Warner, Packet8, VoicePulse, Vonage, FeatureTel, IConnectHere • Many, many others.

  12. How To Choose A Provider • Quality (You Get What You Pay For) • Your calling patterns • Supported Rate Centers • Support for your hardware • Price

  13. What Is Asterisk? • Software Phone switch (PBX) • Mark Spencer/Digium • Zaptel hardware

  14. Supported Phones • Most any SIP phone (Cisco 79xx) • Most any SIP ATA (Packet8's DTA-310, Sipura SPA-2000) • Softphones (X-Lite, LIPZ4, Kphone, Windows Messenger)

  15. Asterisk APIs • Channel API • Codec API • File Format API • Application API

  16. File layout • /etc/asterisk • /var/lib/asterisk • /var/log/asterisk • Binaries in /usr/bin & /usr/sbin

  17. Asterisk Dialplan • extensions.conf • format • contexts

  18. Asterisk voicemail • voicemail.conf • file formats • email feature

  19. Practical Examples • voicemail.conf • file formats • email feature

  20. Resources • irc.freenode.net #asterisk • www.asterisk.org • www.digium.com • www.voip-info.org • www.pulver.com/fwd • www.voxilla.org • connect.voicepulse.com • Asterisk's Mailing List

  21. Question and Answer

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