[Asterisk-Dev] best approach for a new isdn driver mainly for asterisk.. ?!

[Steven Critchfield]

On Thu, 2003-04-24 at 05:27, Andrea Venturi wrote:
> Steven Critchfield ha scritto:
> > Quick question, Have you had good experience with USB devices under
> > linux that push fair amounts of data? I ask this since I haven't. This
> > list also shows that the USB stuff Mark has already been working with
> > seems to be finicky about which chipset is under it. I suggest you
> > double think the use of USB as a server level technology.
> > 
> > Don't take what I said before as a dismissal of your ideas, just a worry
> > that you would end up with a lot of time invested in a product that may
> > not be very stable due to parts outside of your project.
> > 
> > I do like the idea of seeing if the current ISDN adapters could be made
> > to be more of a raw device and then link the libpri functions in a
> > modified form for BRI to those devices. At that point a zap like
> > interface to ISDN hardware should be easy. Who kows, maybe we could get
> > to the point of supporting ISDN handsets which should be better than
> > ADSI. 
> > 
> 
> i have been waiting an answer from mark who, for sure, knows which way 
> could be more feasible and smart, but i believe he's a little upset WRT 
> all the potential "damage" if digium lose the HW revenue stream.
> 
> so i'd like to firmly state that:
> 
> - the price/performance ratio of the digium E1 cards is "unbeatable"!
> - digium support is top level
> - we already bought an E400P and an E100P and we are really amazed of 
> the quality (did you know of the easter eggs under the chips on the board!?)
> - we plan to buy more from them if we have to scale our main "pop" for 
> IVR services
> 
> but we need to:
> 
> - deploy lighter IVR POPs with less channels than an E1 because we want 
> leverage telco "cheaper" toll rates if we match the inbound prefix of 
> our calling customers (in italy there's really a big fragmentation of 
> telco zones and rates)
> - stick with ISDN BRI because we don't trust POTS as a reliable telco 
> link and it's too poor WRT features
> - stick with USB ports because we would like to deploy diskless asterisk 
> (based on a flavour of the epia via mainboard without PCI slots ) and 
> USB is the only "theoric" choice for isochronous channel to ISDN (but it 
> seems quite a dream or a nightmare)
> 
> so if digium would sell USB isdn adapters supported by *, we would be 
> really glad to buy from them (not that large figures, anyway), otherwise 
> we need to look for different choices (and share the results with the 
> community..)

With respect to your epia motherboard, they do make boards with a single
PCI slot. I know mark had a pci riser that turned the PCI card sideways,
and I'm sure they exist elsewhere. Of course the question really comes
down to then, what case are you putting it in? 

Also, remember you need stability here. I would not trust that level
board for long term stability.  This quote would worry me for a must
work system, "The VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard is the ideal platform for
an almost unlimited variety of Extreme Value PC..." Usually machines in
this catagory are more to blame than windows for stability problems.
Don't skimp on quality especially if it will carry customer calls. None
of this is saying use only Digium hardware, but you do need to step up
just a hair on the quility chain than the epia board and USB ISDN.
-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>