Howto:How to implement large PBXs

innovaphone PBX installations scale from very few users (such as with an IP202) to several thousand users. Here is how to design and configure innovaphone devices to support many users.

Applies To

This information applies to

• All innovaphone V5 PBX platforms

build 05-5842 and later.

More Information

Technical issues to be considered

There are a few issues to be considered when configuring a large PBX:

• CPU power

The platform must be able to cope with all processing requirements to serve the user base. The basic requirement is to support the number of calls created. The ability of a given platform can be measured as its “business hour call attempts” capability, a figure which essentially indicates the number of calls per hour the platform can handle.

Naturally, not only calls take CPU cycles. Major scenarios to consider here include user registration, replication and SOAP/CTI applications (such as TAPI)

• Main Memory

The platform must feature enough main memory to serve the user and call scenarios. Rough “memory/feature” figures will be given.

• Flash Memory

There must be enough persistent memory to store the system configuration. Although the amount of memory used largely depends on the details of the configuration, a rule-of-thumb can be given for the “memory/user” ratio.

• Configuration

The configuration must be appropriate to the intended usage scenario. Guidelines are given for various scenarios.

• Number of channels

Naturally, the number of gateway channels (e.g. to the ISDN or to the DECT network) must be appropriate. The number is a function of the so-called “erlang” value. This issue will not be discussed here.

The information presented in this article is based on practical verification by means of a sample configuration. The setup is made up of 6000 user entries, 10 location entries, 500 speed dial entries and a number of other entries such as trunks etc.

The configuration is attached for your reference.

The standard Testsetup User

The standard Testsetup User (Details)

All measurements given in the remainder of this article apply to the IP800. Since the IP800 both in terms of processor architecture and processing power is comparable to the IP3000, the results apply to the IP3000 too.

Recommended number of users supported

The following table include figures for the maximum number of “registrations” supported by the various innovaphone PBX platforms. These figures are intended as a rough estimate “rule of thumb” guideline.

Platform

Maximum number of registrations as per datasheet
Recommended maximum number of registrations
Recommended maximum number of defined objects
Physical maximum number of defined objects
Default limit for number of defined objects

IP3000 / IP3000 DD

1000
1000
2500
2500
2000

IP800

200
1000
6500
8000
2000

IP400

200
100
100
350
350

IP202

20
100
100
350
350

IP21

k.A.
100
100
350
350