I’m in the process of researching transitioning a mid-size business to voIP solution. I myself use Asterisk for our phone system, with three extensions over our cable connection, so I’m familier with Asterisk.
This is the setup I’m looking at, please let me know your thoughts:
7 x Polycom IP 501 phones
1 x Poweredge 1800:
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Intel® Xeon™ Processor at 2.8GHz/2MB Cache, 800MHz FSB
1GB DDR2 400MHz (2X512MB), Single Ranked DIMMs
80GB1 7.2K RPM SATA Hard Drive
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1.5mb dl & 1.5mb ul DSL connection dedicated to asterisk
6 x DID with Teliax
I guess I’m looking for assurance (or recomendations) that the above server and broadband connection can handel my extensions.
Thank you for your input.
Does anyone have any thoughts?
i think you are looking good as long as you ensure your voip traffic gets the qos needed. you may want to avoid the g711 codecs as you’ll be pushing the limit if you have all your extensions talking at once.
i don’t know how good the voip->pstn quality is in the states, but here in spain it’s pretty sketchy. i wouldn’t put an office on pure voip but use a combination of voip and traditional pstn. that way if you ever get complaints about voice quality people can revert to the analog lines to make calls.
Dell’s are known to have issues but only when you are using a card. If you are not you shouldnt be having any problems. I would say to set it up and bombard it with calls and see how well it works. From the specs that you posted it should not be a problem.
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback.
Maybe I misread the OP? I thought he said 6 DIDs? And 7 IP phones? A T1 can support 24 64kb channels, so how would this come close to maxing out his T1?
According to this (voip-info.org/wiki-Bandwidth+consumption) if 7 extensions are talking at once you’re looking at 1220.8 Kbps (duplex).
So you’re right, a T1 (1536 Kbps) will handle the load without much problem as long as the QoS is configured correctly on the internet router.
ah, i see. what you’re missing is that a T1 IS full-duplex. 1536kb/sec both ways. so your estimate was off by a factor of 2…
I’m looking at a similar solution with a Dell PE1850. Can you elaborate on the Dell issues?