Asterisk is a very large application that does many things. It can be somewhat difficult to understand, especially if you are new to communications technologies. In the next few chapters we will do our best to explain what Asterisk is, what it is not, and how it came to be this way. This section doesn't cover the technology so much as the concept. If you're already familiar with the function of a telephony engine, feel free to jump ahead to the next section.
[Asterisk 是一个非常庞大的应用程序,可以做非常多的事.如果你是刚接触电话通信的新人要弄明白它稍稍有点困难.在下面的几个单节我们将尽可能的描述Asterisk是怎样的,包括如何做到的方法.这个部分甚至整个文档的内容都不包括技术.如果你已经非常熟悉电话应用程序,可以跳到下一个章节的开始部分]