Which open-source PBX is best for your business?"
Businesses pondering the deployment of an open-source IP PBX face two fundamental choices: Digium Inc.'s Asterisk and all its varieties and Pingtel Corp.'s SIPxchange ECS (Enterprise Communications System). Both technologies have the same basic goal: to serve as a software-based PBX solution that works well and can scale efficiently and cost-effectively, from small to large installations.
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But which offering is best for your business? That depends on several factors, including your company's internal technical expertise and communications goals. To help you determine which IP PBX path you should take, here is a quick rundown of key attributes of both Asterisk and SIPxchange ECS.
Structure
Asterisk: The technology's goal is to serve as an IP PBX based on protocol internetworking standards, such as H.323, PSTN (public switched telephone network), Skinny, MGCP (Media Gateway Control Protocol), IAX (Inter-Asterisk eXchange) and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), enabling it to interconnect with a variety of different systems. (For more information on VoIP standards, see VoIP-News's IP PBX FAQ.) While Asterisk converts all major signaling protocols, it is not a SIP proxy server that provides global routing of SIP sessions.
SIPxchange ECS: The technology's core infrastructure is rooted in SIP IETF's (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard for multimedia conferencing over IP. No media streams pass through the SIPxchange server. Instead, streams are passed directly between endpoints with just call-control messages relayed to the server. This approach places reduced workload requirements on the IP PBX system, giving the SIPxchange server an architectural advantage.
Features
Asterisk: Asterisk offers both classic PBX features and advanced features. The IP PBX interoperates with traditional standards-based telephony systems and VoIP systems. Asterisk offers numerous sophisticated features that are usually associated with large, high-end (and high-cost) proprietary PBXes, such as roaming extensions, on-hold and on-transfer music, and dial by name.
SIPxchange ECS: SIPxchange ECS has a feature set that closely parallels that of Asterisk — including the sophisticated, high-level features — proving that basing a system completely around standard SIP can be used to create a feature-rich IP PBX.
Voice Quality
Asterisk: Voice quality is hampered in Asterisk by its traditional PBX structure. Bandwidth is wasted using lines to feed voice and signaling data into the IP PBX. This makes the system vulnerable to voice jitter and delay.
SIPxchange ECS: Unlike Asterisk, SIPxchange ECS doesn't route media through the server. Instead, peer-to-peer media routing is used to provide enhanced voice quality with reduced delay and jitter.
Administration
Asterisk: Easy administration is not an Asterisk hallmark; the primary administration tool is a Linux command-line interface. System configuration is handled via an assortment of text-based configuration files. However, third-party configuration tools, such as AMP (Asterisk Management Portal), are available.
SIPxchange ECS: The SIPxchange ECS administrative Web interface allows for fast and easy system setup and management. New users can be provisioned and configured separately or as a group. Since SIPxchange ECS is entirely SIP-based, adding gateways and other SIP devices is as easy as adding a user to the system.
Support
Asterisk: Digium's technology is supported by an extensive selection of online documentation and troubleshooting guides, as well as a user community that offers discussion forums, mailing lists and real-time chats. There are also a variety of third-party businesses that specialize in Asterisk design, deployment and maintenance services. In addition, Digium provides a variety of fee-based on-site and remote planning, installation and maintenance services. You can also read VoIP-News's Getting Started With Asterisk guide for a crash course.
SIPxchange ECS: Pingtel supports customers with active subscriptions via a deeply provisioned online support portal. The company also offers a Jump Start program that provides prepurchased hours of phone and/or email-based assistance on either an initial installation or on a major upgrade, expansion or restructuring of a SIPxchange ECS deployment. Additionally, Pingtel customers can purchases several supplemental support packages to bolster the support included with their subscription. Customers who do not have an active subscription and need support can obtain help from Pingtel on an hourly fee basis.
If you don't feel like fiddling with software, think about purchasing a fully-configured IP PBX from a company like Aptela Inc., Speakeasy Inc. or Vocalocity, among others. Each of these vendors offers a standard PC platform with an operating system and PBX software pre-installed.
For more information, as well as a comparison of the aforementioned and other vendors, check out The Definitive VoIP-News Guide to Premise PBX.
Related Articles:
What’s So Great About Asterisk?
VoIP-News's Asterisk Resource Center
Microsoft’s PBX Strategy
IP PBX Essentials
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