http://red-fone.com <http://red-fone.com/products-new/fonebridge/> might be a good place look and see if other ideas pop up. They have good products. I am not affiliated with them, just a happy user on a couple of deployments.
On Fri, Jun 14, 2013 at 11:43 AM, Nunya Biznatch <aster...@ihearbanjos.com>wrote: > Howdy All, > They say opinions are like belly buttons, everybody has one. (that's > the "clean" version of the saying). So I'm asking for yours. I hope you see > it as a fun exercise. > > I'm designing a phone system from the ground up. Will be about 1000-1300 > seats mixed 80/20 VoIP/Analog. 58-acre campus environment with 23 > buildings. Userbase is emergency services organization, 24/7/365 operation. > Down time is not an option, but "blips" are acceptable. Repair time is > immediate. We need failover for the failover essentially. However, money is > a major factor, so I have to do it all for nothing. So here's what I'm > thinking. Please throw in your 2 cents. > > Network will be separate for phones. Fiber infrastructure available > between buildings as well as copper. Internet access will be limited to a > single administrative console on a temporary basis, and then only when > remote 3rd party support is required. Access for 3rd party support will be > supervised through remote access tools such as VNC, GoToMeeting, etc... > etc... System will have zero access to local data network. This means all > ancillary support servers such as DHCP, DNS, NTP, FTP, etc...etc... will be > specific to the phone system. Yes, I know some responders at this time will > become fixated on me gaining this connectivity. It ain't gonna happen. It's > not an option. Period, end of story. These are the parameters I must work > within. Trying to "fix" that will be a non-starter. > > The phone system will upgrade an existing TDM-based system. Mitel SX2000 > with NuPoint Voicemail. This will not be a dump-trunk replacement. I expect > at least a one to two-year transition, meaning we will have time to find > problems, work bugs, and learn over time, with minimized impacts. It also > means we'll be supporting two systems for some time. > > PBX is 97% serving your basic phone on the desk. Nothing special. > Customers expect the usual list of features. There will be a goodly number > of hints required for BLF on maybe 150 phones. There is one office of about > 30 phones in a call-center environment that will need that service. They > would be considered low volume (but don't tell them that). > > My Skills... I am not a Linux kung fu master, but I have built and managed > my share of Linux servers on mutiple Linux flavors. I am a DCAA, having > been through formal training, and have been playing with Asterisk for > years, but always in fits and spurts and never in a live environment so I > am by no means a kung fu master there either. I have started dabbling with > virtualizations via XEN, but I am not comfortable enough with it to go live > this first round. I can see myself implementing it in about three years > once we're totally comfortable with what we have, so I can then have time > to get that skill sorted. I was a network engineer for the US no3. telecom > for a number of years, 10-years in comm-electronics in the military before > that. Telecom my entire career. I've got the kung-fu to handle the network > side of the house, and having administrated multiple PBXs for decade-plus, > I've got the concepts down. > > No plans to build databases for things like directories, etc... I'm not > greatly confident in those skills, and to date, haven't found anything that > really stands out that would make me require that. You may think otherwise, > so please chime in. I say that, but at the same time I recognize I may > require a GUI interface once fully deployed to allow lower-skilled people > to follow the motions to complete simple moves, adds, and changes. I'm > fighting the uphill battle that is the "GUI is new, CLI is old" mentality. > > System will use G.722 for VoIP Phones. > > So there's the groundwork. Here's the hardware plan. > > Plan is to build my own servers following industry standards (ATX) and > using industry standard equipment. Why? Spares? Whether redundant or not, I > will still have spares for the most common elements on the shelf so > equipment can be returned to service as quickly as possible. This will also > allow me to be comfortable with more "basic server" configurations and help > keep cost down. For example, Servers with single power supplies vs. dual. > Also, components will be standardized for all equipment to aid in supply > requirements. > > First the layout. > > 2-servers acting as gateways. Each handling 2 PRIs for outside trunks. > They'll also handle the analog ports. Failover will be in the form of > degraded trunk access if one should fail, but the second will be able to > support services in degraded fashion. > > 2-servers acting as VoIP PBX. A primary and a spare. Meaning one will be > capable of handling the load of the entire system, and the other will > pickup when the other dies, an active/passive cluster. Will also take care > of voicemail. Use of heartbeat, pacemaker, etc... etc... > > 2-servers for support services. DNS, DHCP, FTP, NTP, etc... > etc...Basically, everything the phones need to run plus system monitoring > via something like Nagios. > > 1-Desktop for administration of everything. Provided from corporate. Basic > Desktop. > > Looking at Intel Xeon E3-1230 ivy-bridge processors. 8GB DDR 1333 for > Gateways and 16GB for PBX and support servers. 1TB drives in RAID 10 via > LSI 3ware 9650 cards for PBX, 250GB for Gateways. Supermicro X9SCM-F mobo. > > OS of choice is Debian. Primarily because it appears to have the best > availability for non-Internet installations. > > > Now the Infrastructure > > > 2-network switches in the phone room. Each set of "primary" servers to > one, and "secondary" servers to the other, and each switch connected to the > other. Each switch will have a different path to the network. RTSP > implemented for dual path to the campus. Only one location on campus will > have or require dual paths to the network. > > Most buildings on campus have cat-3 for voice installed in the mid-90s. > Wired at the same time as the data network, I can generally conclude > they're the same length. It's terminated to 110-blocks on walls. Some > cabling is only 2-pair. I know I will find surprises. Essentially, I plan > to re-use this cable, knowing in some circumstances I will need to make > special patch cables. These connections will be forced to 10BaseT at the > switch. > > I require PoE to the wire closets, no power sourced at the desktop. I > require a minimum eight-hours emergency power which will be in the form of > UPS in most cases. Why so much backup? Well if you ask, we can start a new > discussion about NEBS compliance, E911 Federal, local, and state > requirements, etc... etc... > > So why not use existing data network? The current data network consists > primarily of 10+ year-old 100BaseT switches, no PoE. Barely any backup > power. I don't believe they're using QoS. The network office is a separate > department from the phone office. I question their skills, and above all, > network folks treat phones like computers, not like multi-million dollar > lawsuits when they don't work in an emergency. We could make another thread > out of this huh? To use existing data network would require hundreds of > thousands in Cisco 6500 and 4500 series switches. Network has already > stated they'd want phone on separate ports from computer, and I agree. (Yet > another thread). Thousands of computers across 23 buildings, and it must be > Cisco by corporate policy, where phone is a different animal that doesn't > have this limitation. You can see we're talking hundreds of thousands in > just switching gear. Then UPS requirements to support a big hog of a switch > vs a teeny 48-porter w/PoE, and you just cranked up one-time and long term > cost for that as well. Trying to replace the network to support the phones > is cost prohibitive and a non-starter. Maybe we can talk about it in 5 > years once they've replaced everything. > > I plan to purchase lower-cost Layer-2 smart switches from vendors such as > DLink, Xyxel, Dell, etc... Many players in the market for 48-port switches > with PoE and multiple SFP. > > I think that's probably enough... I apologize for the large email but I > couldn't think of a better way to get a qualified peer opinion without > laying out the facts. > > Thanks in advance for your review and consideration...!!! > > > > > -- > ______________________________**______________________________**_________ > -- 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<http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users> >
-- _____________________________________________________________________ -- 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