[INOC-DBA] Non-Cisco SIP to PSTN (ISDN30) gateways !?

[Bill Woodcock]

    > I was wondering if PCH are using Cisco's Call Manager to provide
    > the inoc-dba service or alternate Open Source based system. I was
    > also wondering if anyone out there had tried to build a Call
    > Manager type solution using purely Open Source software ?

Yes, that's exactlly what we're doing.

Cisco's Call Manager is a legacy application which only supports Skinny, a
proprietary legacy protocol which Cisco got when they acquired Selsius,
many years ago.  So it's inappropriate for any new deployments at this
point, as it doesn't have good scaling properties, and no interoperability
or compatibility with anything.

Up until a week ago, we were using CSPS, Cisco SIP Proxy Server, which is
Cisco's standards-based equivalent.  It is, however, commercial, and
although it had been relatively robust, it didn't give us access to as
much information as we would really have liked to have to build a
well-rounded service.

Thus when we had a problem with it a week ago, we switched to SER, which
is both standards-based and open source, and we've been very happy with
both the amount of information we've been able to get access to, as well
as with the support which SER's developers have given us.  More
information about SER is available from www.iptel.org.

As for phone devices, we're very happy with the Cisco 7960 and 7940
product.  We have a lot of different phones and other SIP devices in use
on the network, and the Cisco IP Phones have been very convenient and
reliable.

                                -Bill