System information

Now that calls are hopping from PSTN to Internet to who-knows-what, some consid-
eration must be given to E.164.
ENUM
In response to this challenge, the IETF has sponsored the Electronic NUmber Mapping
(ENUM) working group, the purpose of which is to map E.164 numbers into the Do-
main Name System (DNS).
While the concept of ENUM is sound, it requires cooperation from the telecom industry
to achieve success. However, cooperation is not what the telecom industry is famous
for, and thus far ENUM has foundered.
e164.org
The folks at http://e164.org are trying to contribute to the success of ENUM. You can
log onto this site, register your phone number, and inform the system of alternative
methods of communicating with you. This means that someone who knows your phone
number can connect a VoIP call to you, as the http://e164.org DNS zone will provide
the IP addressing and protocol information needed to connect to your location.
As more and more people publish VoIP connectivity information, fewer and fewer calls
will be connected through the PSTN.
Challenges
As is true with any worthwhile thing, Asterisk will face challenges. Let’s take a glance
at what some of them may be.
Too much change, too few standards
These days, the Internet is changing so fast, and offers so much diverse content, that it
is impossible for even the most attentive geek to keep on top of it all. While this is as
it should be, it also means that an enormous amount of technology churn is an inevi-
table part of keeping any communications system current.
Toll fraud
As long as long-distance calls cost money, there will be criminals who will wish to steal.
Toll fraud is nothing new, but with many unsecured Asterisk systems now on the In-
ternet, the popularity of scripts to find these systems and compromise them has ex-
ploded. Administrators of Internet-connected telephone systems will need to carefully
design their security to ensure that any calls made from their systems are made only by
authorized users.
The Future of Asterisk | 591