[Asterisk-Dev] The Zaptel init scripts must die!

[Steven Critchfield]

Not knowing where to place this comment in this thread, I have just
attached it to the root.

Is there a compelling need for Zaptel to stay backwards compatible? Also
is there a compelling reason for each channel to be individually
openable? Some of the changes I am thinking of would break current
config apps, and that is of some concern. Not to mention the flag day
type of change we would be looking at.

I'm going to ramble a few thoughts out that may not be fully formed, but
maybe it will spark a bit if creativity in someone else to finish the
thought with some polish.

Where I am going with this is that it might not be necessary for us to
deal with channels by number. Wouldn't it be nice to tag a set of
channels with a useful name, and from then on out you use that name in
reference to that set of channels. 

For T1/E1/PRI, you would probably name each span with something that
referenced the end point, or split it for what ever tech you have
attached to the channels. 

I could see the config file being similar to the dhcp config file when
setting up static addresses. All channels are relative to the device
being configured. A sample is listed below. 

One of my reasons for thinking this way is that eventually we may see
asterisk run on hardware with hotswap capabilities and chassis designs
such that adding or replacing devices might be done more frequent than
asterisk restarts. If we could push the name of the channel instead of a
number, we could possibly make the number of config changes needed to be
made after hardware change minimal.

If asterisk only needed to open the zaptel driver up and pass messages
with it instead of each individual channel, we might get away from
asterisk needing to have intimate knowledge of how the underneath is
wired up. For instance with the below config example, if I wanted to
dial Zap/Steven, zapatel could say the line is unavailable, and the
underlying cause could be no device. Once the device was made available,
and asterisk attempted the dial again, then we could complete with
success. If I changed where my phone was plugged in, I could limit the
change to the lower zaptel config file and nothing else. 

I'll stop here and let those of you with more and deeper knowledge think
and debate on this.

device wct1xxp {
	slot PCI:00:08.0
	# later options
	# hardware-id TBD

	# connected to old Zhone box
	span Zhone {
		span 1
		timing 1
		lbo 0
		framing esf
		coding b8zs
	}
	name FXO {
		channels 1-8
		signalling fxsks
	}
	name PJO {
		channels 9
		signalling fxoks
	}
	name Steven {
		channels 10
		signalling fxoks
	}
	name John {
		channels 11
		signalling fxoks
	}
	name unused {
		channels 12-24
		signalling fxoks
	}
}
device tor2 {
	slot PCI:01:00.0
	# later options
	# hardware-id TBD

	# connected to TelCove
	span TelcovePRI {
		span 1
		timing 1
		lbo 0
		framing esf
		coding b8zs
		dchan 24
	}
	span analogT1 {
		span 2
		timing 0
		lbo 0
		framing esf
		coding b8zs
	{
	name Telcove {
		channels 1-23
		signalling bchan
	}
	name Adit {
		channels 25-48
		signalling fxogs
	}
}
	
-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>