[asterisk-dev] Alternative Clock Source

[Michael Cargile]

On Thu, 2007-06-07 at 09:05 -0300, Paulo Garcia wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm currently study the alternatives I can use to implement an
> alternative clock source for Asterisk. After some research I found two
> options some developers are doing. 
> 
> The first solution is described on Digium's bug tracker
> (http://bugs.digium.com/view.php?id=8896). The idea is to use a
> patched ztdummy with a new module. This module will register itself to
> ztdummy and it will implement the interrupt handler. Since ztdummy is
> already registered to zaptel, my clock will be used. This solution is
> being used with mISDN driver.
> 
> The second solution is to make a ztdummy "clone" with my code
> controling the clock.... The idea is very similar to the first one but
> the ztdummy-clone will register itself directly to zaptel. I'll need
> to patch zaptel's Makefile to compile my "clone" and so on….Ztxen uses
> this solution (XEN virtualization).
> 
> Both options are very similar and they need to keep zaptel device
> driver running to do it.
> 
> I'd like to know if there are another alternative which doesn't need
> zaptel.
> 
> Any information will be useful!

Being the person who did the initial work on ztxen I can give you info
on why we choose the second approach. The big thing with ztxen is that
we want to pass the timing in from the host system into the virtual
machine so that if the host system has a stable zaptel timer it uses
that instead of the kernel interrupt (XEN virtual machines have no RTC).
Also we want to actually be able to pass from the host machine any
zaptel channels through ztxen to the virtual machines. We will be
implementing this in the not to distant future. Right now ztxen is
nothing more than ztdummy without the RTC stuff. 

If the only thing we were doing was providing timing and no channels to
the virtual machine we probably would have just created a module for
ztdummy like in the first solution. So my personal opinion is that if
you are just getting a timing source augment ztdummy to use it. If you
are going to be providing channels create your own module. 

Personally I think it would be really neat to make ztdummy take some
options on load that would allow you to choose which timer it should
use. The three I can think of off the top of my head are the RTC, the
kernel interrupt, and the USB subsystem. 

Well that's my 2 cents.

Michael Cargile
Explido Software USA Inc.
www.explido.us