G.729 for Asterisk

Xorcom Publishes Codec Performance Tables and G.729 Implementation Instructions

December 30, 2008 - Teradyon, Israel - Xorcom, a privately-held manufacturer of business telephony hardware solutions based on Asterisk® open-source software, today published implementation instructions to allow customers to utilize the popular G.729 voice codec on the full Xorcom line of Asterisk-based IP-PBX appliances. In addition, the company has published performance tables for a variety of popular codecs as measured on each of the Xorcom sytems: XR3000 for enterprise installations, XR2000 for SME/SMB, and XR1000 for Small Office/Home Office (SOHO).

G.729 is one of the most popular voice compression protocols used in IP telephony. This is due to the fact that G.729 reduces the bandwidth usage for a standard telephone call from 80 kilobits per second (kbps) to 24 kpbs, with minimal voice quality degradation (the given bandwidth values are calculated for 20 ms payload packets with IP, UDP and RTP headers). While in the past the G.729 algorithm ran on dedicated Digital Signal Processors (DSP), today's processors can easily run the G.729 algorithm effectively while addressing other tasks as well.

The implementation instructions and performance tables can be found on the Xorcom Web site, at the following URL: http://www.xorcom.com/application-notes/g729.html

The document also provides information about obtaining the G.729 codec, licensing restrictions, and methods for calculating the number of required G.729 channels based on the planned usage of the PBX system.