[Asterisk-bsd] OT: Data DS1/Channelized DS3 terms for FreeBSD.

[John Todd]

At 6:07 PM -0600 on 4/26/05, Forrest W. Christian wrote:
>I realize that this is slightly off-topic, but I'm not sure where to
>ask... And since it does have some overlap with voip...
>
>I'm looking for an option to terminate a fair number of T1 channels into a
>freebsd box.  These for HDLC (or PPP) encapsulated data.  In short, we're
>buying a T1 PtP loop from us to the customer and using it for voice and
>data.
>
>I really would like to avoid having a large pile of boxes just terminating
>T1's.   Everything I'm finding does a maximum of about 4T1's per U, or is
>really expensive.
>
>I would *love* to find a multiport T1 card for FreeBSD which does data
>well and that we can put multiple ones in the same chassis.  The other,
>probably preferred, option would be a Channelized DS3 card for FreeBSD
>which we can then either just take a DS3 from the ILEC or put a 1U DS3 mux
>in.
>
>Does such a beast exist?  What options are available for multiport T1
>cards or Channelized (to the T1 level) DS3 cards which work with FreeBSD?
>
>I'm aware of the Digium 4 port cards, but I understand they may have data
>issues, plus I'm not sure about putting more than one in a box ... It
>sounds like this isn't a possibility.
>
>It sounds like the sangoma 4 port card works well for data but I'm not
>sure about FreeBSD suport.
>
>Can anyone shed any more light on this?
>
>-forrest

Hooo boy, this concept has been worked over twice in the last year 
and a half, with no real progress or consensus.

There is at least one company that can do this from a hardware 
perspective (http://www.sbei.net), but my take on things is that any 
person/company willing to fund the integration into Asterisk is not 
interested in making such code available back to the community.  In 
any case, there are few people who need a DS3's worth of TDM, so it's 
a very narrow niche.

Follow these threads to find out who's interested in this discussion:

http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/2003-December/029309.html

and then about a year later:

http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-dev/2004-November/007390.html

JT