These guides describe the components necessary to build advanced IP Telephony networks and include facets covering the rules, procedures, hardware and software systems that work together and compose the system. This system design is comparable to what are commonly called "PBX" (Private Branch Exchange) or "VoIP PBX" systems. The same systems are often utilized by medium and large businesses, universities, and governmental entities, and are sold by major vendors such as Nortel, Siemens, Alcatel, and Cisco.

In the Libre/Free software realm, a lot of systems and vendors provide services for the small market (up to 200 phones), but none address the unique challenges of large-scale system deployment. Though some organizations have built large-scale networks for internal use, none of these in-house initiatives have provided their designs to outside entities or customers. Meanwhile, the price for a single proprietary system typically ranges from roughly a hundred thousand dollars to millions of dollars. A large piece of the recurring costs in these systems is the software maintenance and licensing fees.

By "scalable" we mean that the design can be used to build systems that will be able to support hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of endpoints (most often these would be phones). By "highly-available" we mean that the design and procedures, if implemented properly, will be able to deliver minimal downtime or disruption to the end-users.

CarrierClass.net will not directly be involved with deploying these systems, focusing instead on providing the framework that allows them to be built. This design documentation may take the form of a book. Actually building, deploying and supporting these systems will be the role of partnering organizations.

Most of the design work will focus on the configuration of different software components to create an interoperable and highly reliable service package. A major benchmark for this project is the delivery of an integrated software package that allows a system administrator to configure (from a single management station) all the devices and software components involved in the system. The software package will include communication servers (typically running an open source operating system such as Linux, and software such as SER, Asterisk, and SQL database), IP Phones (telephones that use a data network instead of the regular telephone network), and what are called Media Gateways (which allow the interconnection of a data network with the regular telephone network).

For example, the protocols necessary to create and run a network that will effectively support voice-over-IP and the procedures used to maintain that system in a way that creates minimal disruption. Most of these "best practices" will include guidelines such as change control procedures. These rules help the people designing the system, and the people maintaining the system to achieve a high level of service. These rules could be presented in the form of a book, although they will also be available in the form of consulting services and training.