The Benefits of the 3CX SBC. Why Debian Support?

[nb]

Last week we released an update for the 3CX SBC which includes support for Debian as well as Windows and Raspberry Pi. But why should a company choose to use the 3CX SBC and why is Debian support a big deal? Let me elaborate... The SBC is used to interconnect a remote office to your main HQ. When using the 3CX SBC, one of the main benefits is the f...

Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[DSXVOICE]

SBCs simplify the environment for remote phones. A small business with a few phones and no BLF's on the phones will be happy with the smallest SBC possible. But once you add a few BLF's on the phones, the signalling traffic increases almost exponentially. Nobody has done enough science to be able to identify the exact limits, but once you get above 10 phones with BLFs a PI begins to get risky - above 20 phones and the odds are high things will begin to not work well. Again, its the BLFs that put the load on the SBC.

The ARM CPU on the PI is about 10x slower than the bargain versions of Intel processors - at some point it just can't keep up with the traffic caused by having to keep all the BLFs up to date. So, sometimes its better to potentially overcompensate and put a beefier SBC in place. The difference is probably $100 depending on how you shop.

Its become easier to make this choice because the debian and pi environments are identical configuration-wise. You'll be able to develop a standard environment and it will apply across both.

 

[MRM]

Great article, thanks Nicky

 

[Adam Turner]

Great article, thanks Nicky

 

[10m]

Hi Guys.

Need some help. I would like to know if you recommend an SBC for a remote office with 40 - 60 extensions and what hardware I would need to run the Windows or Debian SBC.

I was thinking we should have a separate PBX for the remote location and bridge them together, but we could save some with one license running on a central PBX with remote offices connecting through an SBC.

What would you advise.

Thanks

 

[DSXVOICE]

You're correct, I think. An Intel NUC with SSD will work perfectly for that site. If you want to be super safe, you can buy 2X, provision one, clone it and leave the other one dark as a manual activated standby.

 

[DSXVOICE]

You can do a VPN instead. In controlled cases VPN's work well. There are some good reasons to use an SBC

• When there is a connectivity issue, the SBC rebuilds in nanoseconds, VPN's tend to take minutes,
• If you have redundant connections, you need redundant VPNs
• SBC consolidates BLF signalling and intra-site extension calls - reducing traffic from site to PBX

On the down-side, the SBC's require careful engineering to make sure they are reliable. They need a UPS and protected installation. All in all, it's not worth having a bar-fight over. Either way will work satisfactorily. If a VPN is a more comfortable solution, its probably the better choice.

 

[10m]

Thanks for your comments guys. But what I would really want to know is if an SBC can handle up tp 60 extensions with or without BLF.

 

[N_G]

On v15 and providing correctly sized hardware (not raspberry PI) - yes.