[Freeswitch-users] What country should my server be in?

[Patrick Lists]

On 11/08/2010 06:39 AM, Miles Keaton wrote:
> I'm living in Singapore, and want to set up a FreeSWITCH server for my
> new small business.
>
> We'll use SIP softphone software to make/receive calls worldwide.
> Some of my agents (people working the phones) will be around the world
> in Canada and UK.  One will be making all calls from Canada to the US.
>
> So... should this FreeSWITCH server be in Singapore?
>
> How much does server location matter for call quality?  (Voice quality
> + least amount of delay between two callers.)

Iirc the one-way delay should be no more than 150ms. Read ITU 
Recommendation G.114 if you want the details. Obviously minimal jitter 
and packetloss helps too. If both call legs are SIP then you would get 
something like this:

agent <-- SIP --> FreeSWITCH server <-- SIP --> Telco <--> customer
    \___________________ 150ms ____________________/


Basically, less delay is better. So for agents in the US/Canada calling 
customers in the US/Canada it makes sense to put your server in a 
US/Canadian colo with a good hosting company that has fast, reliable 
connections to tier1 backbone providers. The same applies to agents in 
Singapore calling customers in the region.

People on the freeswitch-biz list (or the asterisk-biz list) can 
recommend good (voip) hosting companies.

> If call quality really matters would I be better off setting up one
> server in Singapore for local Singapore agents, and another server in
> the US for all the US outgoing-and-incoming calls?

Yes that makes sense. From a redundancy point of view that makes sense 
too. If one of the servers goes down, given the right config, the other 
server can take over. Sound quality might not be the best but at least 
you can still receive/make phone calls.

> Sorry for the dumb questions.  Just trying to make a plan before we
> begin. Thanks for any help!

The only dumb questions are questions not asked :)

> P.S.  I'll be looking to hire a consultant to help with this setup, so
> if you do that, feel free to also contact me directly:
> mileskeaton at gmail.com

Try emailing consulting at freeswitch.org or join the #freeswitch irc 
channel on irc.freenode.net and talk to the core developers (anthm, bkw 
or mikej).

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Patrick