Capacity of Asterisk Conference: max users per conference, max conference per server?

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votes

I am currently evaluating the Asterisk Conference feature: in an enterprise environment, simple internal VoIP set up with SIP phones, outside users can join to conference from PSTN/GSM etc. I know there are a couple of options, such as Meetme, Conference, Konference and ConfBridge.

Before delving into each option and try it out, I would like to know where can I find the capacity of these different conference options? - How many users can join one conference at the same time? - How many concurrent conference can run at the same time on a server?

I know this will also be determined by the CPU processor and the available bandwidth. But just assume we have enough CPU power and bandwidth, is there some max limitation enforced by the server code?

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asteriskconference

2 Answers

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I'm not aware of any hard limit on the number of conference participants. As you said, the capacity will be determined by the hardware of your server and your inbound call capacity (either in bandwidth or ISDN channels).

Assuming a modern server with reasonable specs, you should be good for several hundred potential participants without breaking a sweat, provided that your processor is not tied up doing echo cancellation in software or transcoding.

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votes

You can set maximum number of participants in a conference bridge. Limitation will probably depend on bandwidth. I did come across on another site, while looking for something else, where the MeetMe Limit is set to 128. I am not 100% how accurate, but it does shed some light on the subject.

For sure, you can set your own maximum user access on a conference bridge. Within your extensions.conf file:

[fancybridge]
type=bridge
max_members=20    
mixing_interval=10
internal_sample_rate=auto
record_conference=yes

Reference: https://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+cmd+ConfBridge+10 https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/10878981/meetme-limits

Side Note: It may be wise to set max members to a bridge for security reasons. Just a thought!