The telecommunications industry spans over 100 years, and Asterisk integrates most—if not all—of the major technologies that it has made use of over the last century. Asterisk is an open-source communications toolkit. It is free and supported by a vast community of developers. To make the most out of Asterisk, you need not be a professional in all areas, but understanding the differences between the various codecs and protocols will give you a greater appreciation and understanding of the system as a whole. Asterisk-based solutions function across 170+ countries ranging to over one million communication systems.
What Are Asterisk Development Solutions?
Asterisk development solutions allow it to function as a standalone PBX or gateway between older Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) PBXs and the IP networks.Asterisk is a great opportunity for thousands of developers, resellers, system integrators, ITSPs, contact centers and small to large companies. You will have the freedom to deliver your own solutions.
Today Asterisk solutions has become the engine that powers IP PBX Solutions, VoIP gateways, conference servers and is leveraged by call centers, carriers, and government organizations across the globe. It is also used by the fortune 1000 list of companies.
Asterisk is not only a PBX, it is a sophisticated phone system. With Asterisk you can build PBXs, Voicemail servers, ITSP providers, Contact Centers and Application Servers. The Asterisk system shines with its own light. Its a free, powerful system whose benefits will be adapted to the communication needs of your company.
Features Of Asterisk Solutions
Custom asterisk solutions development can be set up for multipurpose, multifunctional communication systems. It supports conferencing and CRM integrations, along with several other features.
➡ ADSI On-Screen Menu Systems
➡ Call Transfer
➡ Conference Bridging
➡ Automated Attendant
➡ Database Integration
➡ Call Routing (DID & ANI)
➡ Call Waiting
➡ Streaming Hold Music
➡ Text-to-Speech
➡ Transcoding
➡ Voicemail
➡ Call Monitoring
➡ Call Recording
➡ Caller ID
Applications OF Asterisk Development
Some of the widely used and most popular applications of Asterisk Solutions are:
- Business Phone System / IP PBX
- VoIP Gateway
- Voicemail Server
- Call Center
- Conference Bridge
- IVR Server
The Need for VoIP Protocols
The basic premise of VoIP development is the packetization of audio streams for transport over Internet Protocol-based networks. The challenges to accomplishing this relate to the manner in which humans communicate. Not only must the signal arrive in essentially the same form that it was transmitted in, but it needs to do so in less than 150 milliseconds. If packets are lost or delayed, there will be degradation to the quality of the communications experience, meaning that two people will have difficulty in carrying on a conversation.
The transport protocols that collectively are called “the Internet” were not originally designed with real-time streaming of media in mind. Endpoints were expected to resolve missing packets by waiting longer for them to arrive, requesting retransmission, or, in some cases, considering the information to be gone for good and simply carrying on without it. In a typical voice conversation, these mechanisms will not serve. Our conversations do not adapt well to the loss of letters or words, nor to any appreciable delay between transmittal and receipt.
The traditional PSTN was designed specifically for the purpose of voice transmission, and it is perfectly suited to the task from a technical standpoint. From a flexibility standpoint, however, its flaws are obvious to even people with a very limited understanding of the technology. VoIP holds the promise of incorporating voice communications into all of the other protocols we carry on our networks, but due to the special demands of a voice conversation, special skills are needed to design, build, and maintain these networks.
The problem with packet-based voice transmission stems from the fact that the way in which we speak is totally incompatible with the way in which IP transports data. Speaking and listening consist of the relaying of a stream of audio, whereas the Internet protocols are designed to chop everything up, encapsulate the bits of information into thousands of packages, and then deliver each package in whatever way possible to the far end.
How to use Asterisk for your telephony system
If you want to use Asterisk for your telephone system, you will have to do one of two things: either have your technical team install, configure, and develop your Asterisk implementation from scratch, or purchase a ready-made Asterisk-based IP PBX appliance. These options for customized dialer softwares are further described below.
(1) Develop from scratch
If you have a technical team that has deep technical knowledge of both Linux systems and the inner workings of VoIP protocols and operation, then this option may be more beneficial to you in the long run. This involves the following tasks:
➡ Procure a Linux-based server running one of the supported operating systems, such as OpenBSD, FreeBSD, or Solaris, to name a few.
➡ Purchase any specialized hardware for that server, such as FXS/FXO or ISDN PRI cards, if you are connected to a traditional telephony network.
➡ Download, install, and configure the Asterisk software along with any supplementary components necessary for your system to function as desired.
➡ Interconnect the Asterisk system with any additional components (voice gateways, databases, other telephony systems, remote or local endpoints, etc.)
Because Asterisk is open source software (more about that in a bit), it has a very large and active online community that, among other things, develops companion software and components that work with it to enhance its features and operation. One example is the open source graphical user interface (GUI) called FreePBX. This can be installed along with Asterisk and allows users to manage an Asterisk VoIP server through an easy-to-use web-based GUI. This is just one of the many additional features that must be installed to customize and complete an in-house build.
(2) Use Asterisk-based products
The other option is to purchase an Asterisk-based IP PBX appliance. These are commercially available all-in-one systems, developed and tested by their respective vendors. They are specially designed servers with the Asterisk core component preinstalled and preconfigured, and have additional hardware and software components as options.
Asterisk Development Services By KingAsterisk Technology
Asterisk Custom Development
We offer a one-stop end-to-end communication solution to build robust unified communication solutions using attributes of Asterisk.
AGI Development
Our robust and agile first-party call controls can handle a wide range of content formats using artificial general intelligence development services.
Asterisk Dialplan Programming
With an essential dialplan script developed by experts, we have experience taking control of calls and their routing methods algorithmically.
Asterisk Support & Maintenance
The technical aspects of your Asterisk platform will be handled by our Asterisk experts. We support businesses in keeping Asterisk-based platforms and solutions up to date and stable.
Conclusion
The Asterisk call control software is a robust, mature, and stable alternative to proprietary traditional and IP PBX systems. However, it should never be “downloaded and installed” onto a telephony network unless the appropriate precautions as far as system support, troubleshooting, and interoperability with other systems have been sufficiently dealt with. We specialize in AGI scripting, Asterisk IVR, and Asterisk development.
Our team at KingAsterisk Technology, helps businesses develop cost-effective, turnkey Asterisk solutions that add value to their business. Our specialized Asterisk services assist businesses to provide a superior user experience by pioneering VoIP development technology. In either case, Asterisk is a nimble and versatile system that is here to stay, and is expected to continue to develop in the years to come. For further inquiries, connect with our team. We are ready to help you 24/7.
