Every year, all the graduating students will have their design project. We, the BS Comp. E V are divided into 8 groups and 4 members in each. Every groups must have their proposals and we proposed this IP PBX.

IP PBX stands for Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange. It is a business telephone system designed to deliver voice over a data network and interoperate with the normal Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) gateways can be combined with traditional PBX functionality enabling businesses to use their managed intranet to help reduce long distance expenses, enjoy the benefits of a single network for voice and data and advanced CTI features or be used on a pure IP system which in most cases give greater cost savings, greater mobility, and increased redundancy.

An IP-PBX can exist as a hardware object, or virtually, as a software system. Because a major part of IPBX functionality is provided in software, it is relatively inexpensive and easy to add additional functionality, such as conferencing, XML-RPC control of live calls, Interactive voice response (IVR), TTS/ASR (text to speech/automatic speech recognition), Public switched telephone network (PSTN) interconnection ability supporting both analogue and digital circuits, Voice over IP protocols including SIP, Inter-Asterisk eXchange, H.323, Jabber, GoogleTalk and others.

We are using AsteriskNow as our SIP server. AsteriskNOW is an open source Software Appliance; a customized Linux distribution that includes Asterisk (the leading open source telephony engine and tool kit), the AsteriskGUI™, and all other software needed for an Asterisk system. AsteriskNOW is easy to install, and offers flexibility, functionality and features not available in advanced, high-cost proprietary business systems.

The following are some of the various features of IP PBX:

- Unlimited Extensions
- Unlimited Auto Attendants
- Unlimited Voicemail Boxes
- Remote Phones
- Caller ID Customization
- Extension Call Recording
- VoIP Ready
- Call Pickup
- Dial by Name Directory
- Conference Rooms
- Outbound Dial Map
- Analog and Digital T1 Ready
- Auto call forwarding

…and many more.

Now, we are finalizing our project for the preparation of our exhibit this coming February 18, 2009 and and for the project defense this coming first week of March 2009.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_PBX

Tags: Asterisk, AsteriskNOW, GoogleTalk, H.323, Inter-Asterisk eXchange, IP PBX, Jabber, project design, PSTN, SIP, VoIP

*What is Asterisk:
Asterisk is the world’s leading open source telephony engine and tool kit. Offering flexibility unheard of in the world of proprietary communications, Asterisk empowers developers and integrators to create advanced communication solutions…for free.

Asterisk as a switch(PBX) – Asterisk® is released as open source under the GNU General Public License (GPL), and it is available for download free of charge. Asterisk® is the most popular open source software available, with the Asterisk Community being the top influencer in VoIP.

Asterisk can be configured as the core of an IP or hybrid PBX, switching calls, managing routes, enabling features, and connecting callers with the outside world over IP, analog (POTS), and digital (T1/E1) connections.

Asterisk runs on a wide variety of operating systems including Linux, Mac OS X, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and Sun Solaris and provides all of the features you would expect from a PBX including many advanced features that are often associated with high end (and high cost) proprietary PBXs. Asterisk’s architecture is designed for maximum flexibility and supports Voice over IP in many protocols, and can interoperate with almost all standards-based telephony equipment using relatively inexpensive hardware.

Asterisk as a gateway – It can also be built out as the heart of a media gateway, bridging the legacy PSTN to the expanding world of IP telephony. Asterisk’s modular architecture allows it to convert between a wide range of communications protocols and media codecs.

Asterisk as a feature/media server – Need an IVR? Asterisk’s got you covered. How about a conference bridge? Yep. It’s in there. What about an automated attendant? Asterisk does that too. How about a replacement for your aging legacy voicemail system? Can do. Unified messaging? No problem. Need a telephony interface for your web site? Ok.

And more…

*Supported platforms:

Asterisk® is primarily developed on GNU/Linux for x/86 and runs on GNU/Linux for PPC along with OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X. Other platforms and standards-based UNIX-like operating systems should be reasonably easy to port for anyone with the time and requisite skill to do so.

*Supported protocols:

Asterisk® supports a wide range of protocols for the handling and transmission of voice over traditional telephony interfaces including H.323, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), and Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP).

Using the Inter-Asterisk eXchange (IAX™) Voice over IP protocol Asterisk® merges voice and data traffic seamlessly across disparate networks. The use of Packet Voice allows Asterisk® to send data such as URL information and images in-line with voice traffic, allowing advanced integration of information.

Asterisk® provides a central switching core, with four APIs for modular loading of telephony applications, hardware interfaces, file format handling, and codecs. It allows for transparent switching between all supported interfaces, allowing it to tie together a diverse mixture of telephony systems into a single switching network.

source: http://www.asterisk.org

Tags: Asterisk, gateway, GNU/Linux, IAX, Mac OS X, media server, MGCP, OpenBSD, PBX, protocols, SCCP, SIP, VoIP