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

[Patrick]

On Mon, 2003-04-28 at 23:57, Pauline Middelink wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Apr 2003 around 08:30:45 -0700, Steve Brown wrote:
> > This seems very reasonable. The call-level interface 
> > (linux.../Documentation/isdn/INTERFACE) to i4l looks pretty straight 
> > forward and would sure eliminate lots of moving parts.
> > 
> > Also, I'd think that an Asterisk system for a small business with 
> > existing isdn lines would have to support both bri lines and the 
> > currently-installed isdn phones. This would imply quite a few (probably 
> > more than 4) TE and NT ports.
> > 
> > Why not use a channel bank with bri card(s) and a Digium E1/T1 
> > interface? There is no hardware to design and build. The cards are 
> > configurable as either TE or NT. They are already certified for use in 
> > most countries. The layer 1 protocol is completely handled by the card 
> > so an i4l hardware driver interface to zaptel should be easy. And 
> > lastly, if you want to do this on a budget, used channel banks and bri 
> > cards are pretty cheap. I recently bought a Premisys cb and six 8 port 
> > bri-u cards on ebay and haven't yet spent $200.
> 
> Than you were lucky.
> a) most of the eBay items i looked at wont be shipped to Europe
>    (outside US).
> b) for a professional business we can't rely on cheap buys from
>    eBay, not if we want to stay in business ourselfs.
> c) good channel banks with bri capabilites are expensive, so
>    expensive that a few quad/oct BRI cards will win, esp. if
>    they are based on the single chip solutions of Cologne.
> 
>     Met vriendelijke groet,
>         Pauline Middelink

I concur with Pauline. Today I checked eBay in The Netherlands, Belgium,
UK, France, Germany and Italy and not a single channel bank on auction.
Getting second hand channel banks from the US is still expensive, risky
and thus not sustainable for a business.

Regards,
Patrick