Asterisk History

Mark Spencer, the creator of Asterisk, has created numerous popular open-source tools including GAIM, the open-source AOL Instant Messaging client that is arguably the most popular IM client for Linux, l2tpd, the L2TP tunneling protocol daemon, and the Cheops Network User Interface, a network service manager. In 1999, Mark had a problem though. He wanted to buy a PBX for his company so they could have voice mail, call other offices without paying for the telephone call, and do all the other things one expects from a PBX system. However, upon researching his options, he realized all the commercial systems cost an arm and a leg.Undaunted, he did what every good hacker would: he set to writing a PBX suitable to his needs.

On December 5, 1999, Asterisk 0.1.0 was released. As the versions progressed,more and more features were added by developers, gathering a following of users,conventions, and everything short of groupies along the way. Asterisk’s first major milestone was reached on September 23, 2004, when Mark Spencer released Asterisk 1.0 at the first Astricon, the official Asterisk user and developer’s conference. Asterisk 1.0 was the first stable, open-source,VoIP-capable PBX on the market. Boasting an
impressive set of features at the time, it included a complete voice conferencing system, voice mail, an impressive ability to interface into analog equipment, and the ability to talk to three different VoIP protocols reliably.

Development didn’t stop there though. Asterisk continued to grow. On November 17, 2005, Asterisk 1.2 was released, which addressed over 3000 code revisions, included major improvements to the core, more VoIP protocols, and better scalability. Also, this release introduced Digium’s DUNDi (Distributed Universal Number Discovery) protocol, a peer-to-peer number discovery system designed to simplify interconnecting Asterisk servers across, and in between, enterprises.

The latest release of Asterisk, Asterisk 1.4, was released December 27, 2006.This release featured major changes in the configuration process, optimized applications, simplified the global configuration, and updated the Call Detail Records for billing purposes. Also new in this version was better hardware support, an improved ability to interface with legacy equipment, and better interfacing with Cisco’s SCCP VoIP protocol. Also, as with any software project, this update addressed the bugs and issues found since the 1.2 release.

Asterisk Today

Today, Asterisk is one of the most popular software-based VoIP PBXes running on multiple operating systems. Asterisk handles most common PBX features and incorporates a lot more to boot. It works with numerous VoIP protocols and supports many pieces of hardware that interface with the telephone network. Asterisk is currently at the forefront of the much talked-about “VoIP revolution” due to its low cost, open-source nature, and its vast capabilities. The company Mark Spencer wrote his PBX for is now known as Digium, which has become the driving force behind Asterisk development. Digium sells hardware for interfacing computers into analog telephone lines and Primary Rate Interface (PRI) lines. Digium also offers Asterisk Business Edition, an Enterprise-ready version of Asterisk, which includes commercial text-to-speech and speech recognition product capabilities, and has gone through stress testing, simulating hundreds of thousands of simultaneous phone calls. Finally, Digium offers consulting for Asterisk installations and maintenance, and trains people for its Digium Certified Asterisk Professional certification.