System information

Chapter 14, Device States
Introduces the concept of device states and how they can be used as presence
indicators.
Chapter 15, The Automated Attendant
Covers how to build a menuing system using the Asterisk dialplan.
Chapter 16, Relational Database Integration
Discusses various ways that Asterisk can be integrated with a database.
Chapter 17, Interactive Voice Response
Goes over how Asterisk can be used to build applications that act on input provided
by a caller.
Chapter 18, External Services
Provides instructions on how to connect to external services including LDAP, cal-
endars, IMAP for voicemail, XMPP, Skype, and text-to-speech.
Chapter 19, Fax
Discusses the various options for integrating sending and receiving faxes with an
Asterisk system.
Chapter 20, Asterisk Manager Interface (AMI)
Introduces a network API for monitoring and controlling an Asterisk system.
Chapter 21, Asterisk Gateway Interface (AGI)
Introduces the Asterisk API that allows call control to be implemented in any pro-
gramming language.
Chapter 22, Clustering
Discusses a number of approaches for clustering multiple Asterisk servers together
once the demands of a deployment exceed the capabilities of a single server.
Chapter 23, Distributed Universal Number Discovery (DUNDi)
Covers a peer-to-peer protocol native to Asterisk that can be used for call routing.
Chapter 24, System Monitoring and Logging
Introduces some of the interfaces available for logging and monitoring an Asterisk
system.
Chapter 25, Web Interfaces
A survey of some of the web interfaces that complement an Asterisk installation.
Chapter 26, Security
Discusses some common security issues that Asterisk administrators should be
aware of.
Chapter 27, Asterisk: A Future for Telephony
In conclusion, we discuss some of the things we expect to see from open source
telephony in the near future.
Appendix A, Understanding Telephony
Explores the technologies in use in traditional telecom networks. This used to be
a chapter in old versions of this book. Although not directly relevant to Asterisk
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