[asterisk-dev] Zaptel prerequisite for meetme conference calls

[Nicholas Campion]

I've spent a couple weeks getting to know the meetme asterisk module and I
have a few questions about the zaptel drivers role.  I have been working on
a Linux environment (Ubuntu 6.10) up to this point and have managed to get
the zaptel drivers compiled and installed, asterisk compiled and installed
and conference calling working using ztdummy.  I'm looking at deploying
asterisk on some proprietary hardware with a proprietary operating system
where zaptel hardware is non-existent and kernel modules are not an option.
We have asterisk working on this hardware already, but one of the key
requirements is conference calling.

Being that I'm not a C program by any stretch of the imagination, I'm coming
to you guys with some questions.  I have been using ztdummy, but since this
hardware/software platform will not support ztdummy, I need to understand
its role in meetme.

First off, I can see that the device "/dev/zap/pseudo" is being used.  I'm
under the assumption that that is the ztdummy device.  This happens in
app_meetme.c around line 1209.  The non-blocking write flag is set and ioctl
is used to set buffering information and put the file in linear mode.
Around line 1574, it looks like we are writ ting to the /dev/zap/pseudo fd.
My question here is two fold.  Does all the voice data for the conference
travel through the /dev/zap/psuedo device?  What does this device/driver do?


I found a message from June of 2005 (
http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-dev/2005-June/013249.html) that
describes replacing zaptel with POSIX timers.  Since my platform doesn't
support the hardware or the ztdummy kernel module, I'm beginning to think
POSIX timers might be our only options.  The Zaptel drivers and ztdummy are
described as "Asterisk timers."  Do they do more than provide timing?  I
gather they must given that meetme is writing data to the driver.

So, I believe my options are these:

1) Modify meetme to use some other timing mechanism besides zaptel/ztdummy.

2) Modify ztdummy so it doesn't have to be a kernel module.

If anyone has any input on either of these options or any of my questions,
help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Nick
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-dev/attachments/20070115/3b485499/attachment.htm