What we can do with Asterisk IP PBX on Amazon’s AWS EC2 Cloud
It seems like the popular term these days is “Cloud Computing”. Cloud computing? What is that? Apparently, it means different things to different companies. Some companies call a SasS or Software as a Service a cloud, some web hosting companies call a Virtual Servers a cloud.
In my opinion, a cloud service allows dynamic allocation of resources, reliable, available where ever you want and provide redundancy. So I guess the above examples could meet at least one criteria.
In that case, lot of VoIP Providers provide Cloud services also. Their bandwidth or channels can be dynamically allocated, you can turn up new lines fairly quickly, and as long as you have internet connection, you can access your calls using a softphone such as X-Lite. This is all good and convenient, but how are the latency and the connection?
When I found out that Amazon has created a datacenter in Oregon for their AWS (Amazon Web Service), I was intrigued since that is my neck of the woods. With their servers in Oregon, the latency will be negligible for my clients in Metro Portland area. hmmm… I just had to create an instance on AWS for my Asterisk in the cloud!
I signed up for Amazon’s free cloud server and a Static IP address and went to work. I have to admit that I googled to find a lot of information on AWS. Most of it was a outdated when it came to Asterisk reference. I noticed a lot of information about having a special Linux kernel that had 1000Hz timing and the kernel that comes with linux distributions in AWS was not ideal for VoIP since it runs at 100Hz. The information was quite outdated but it mentioned two AKI (kernel versions) that has 1000Hz timing. Those two AKIs are: aki-9800e5f1 for the 64bit, and aki-9b00e5f2 for 32 bit OS. However, when I start a instance, I cannot find these AKIs to use.
Upon further digging, it seems like the latest kernel is already optimized with 1000Hz timing. To be safe, I have started an instance of Amazon 64 bit Linux AMI with the updated kernel and install Asterisk and is up and running on it.
The only thing I could not do is to install DAHDI drivers which is used for IAX communication and MeetMe Conference rooms. While I don’t use IAX, I always enable MeetMe conferencing for my clients. This will be problematic if I cannot get this figured out soon.
Well the good news is that I got Asterisk working both inbound and outbound. I have not enabled the Video features on it yet but I plan to do that sometime this week. A good candidate is the Grandstream GXV3140 combined paired with Grandstream GXV3175. Whether the video support works well or not, I will be posting the results soon.
If you are interested in getting step by step installation procedures for Asterisk on the AWS cloud, go to my facebook and let me know. Express Interconnect’s facebook is located at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Express-Interconnect/296843263705660
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About Express Interconnect: We are a Portland, Oregon based Small Business VoIP Phone Consultant specializing in implementing quality VoIP PBX system based on Asterisk IP PBX. We can be reached at 503-820-3513 or via email at: support@ExpressInterconnect.com and can help with any questions you might have.
Due to Demand, we have finally branched out into Hosted VoIP Phone Service for Small Businesses. Our Hosted VoIP Service provides full Asterisk IP PBX functionality in a simple Plug and Play system.
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