Low Cost VoIP Architecture Using Open Source Software Component in Tertiary Institutions

Governments and their agencies are often challenged by high cost and flexible telephonic, Web based data services. Emerging technologies, such as those of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that allow convergent systems where voice and Web technologies can utilize the same network to provide both services, can be used to improve such services. This paper describe VoIP system for the enterprise network (e.g. company, university) that have been developed based on Asterisk which is a kind of open source software to implement IP-PBX system. Through the development and evaluation, we have confirmed that VoIP system based on Asterisk is very powerful as a whole and most PBX functions to be required for the enterprise network can be realized. Interesting findings include that the University of Kufa has a potential to implement the project. By connecting multiple Asterisk servers located in different sites based on IAX2, large scale enterprise network can be developed. Since the software recommended for installation is open source, the project could be used as a source of valuable information by students who specialize in real-time multi-media systems.