[asterisk-dev] A plan for span

[Oron Peled]

Referring to the original post that started all this:
  http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-dev/2008-July/033805.html

On Tuesday, 8 בJuly 2008, Steven S. Critchfield wrote:
> I guess to go further with what Kevin recently posted. What if in
> the /etc/zaptel.conf file you made identification section that
> would allow you a way to identify a card. When it is seen in the
> machine, it could then look up configuration information.
> In this configuration data, you can label the spans. Kevin could
> label them with Circuit IDs if he likes and the storage was big enough.

Yes, that's the main idea. Quoting:
  " The names should be assigned by low-level drivers...
     - One possibility is to read it from some property stored on
        the card itself (like a MAC address on a NIC).
        E.g:
           F00-1234-fee1-dead-5678
     - Another option is to use the fully qualified PCI address:
           bridge->bus->slot->function
       as a unique identifier. E.g: PCI-bridge1-slot4-func2  "

> Then from asterisk we could dial(Super_Dahdi/span-ATT-3/5551212), or
> Dial(Super_Dahdi/span-Billing-channelbank/4).

Again, from the same mail:
  "3. Changes to chan_dahdi:

   * We need to decide on some unused separator character that
     would separate span name from relative channel number
     in modernized dialplans (let's assume ':')
     Example:
         Zap/main_office:5 "

OK, it might have been clearer if I spelled it out:
         Dial(Zap/main_office:5)

BTW: my original idea several months ago was to use '/' like
     you suggest (that would directly map to the path
     /dev/dahdi/<span-name>/<channum>.
     However, Tzafrir later reminded me that may be ambiguous with
     the '/' that separate the number we dial into :-(


Cheers,

-- 
Oron Peled                             Voice/Fax: +972-4-8228492
oron at actcom.co.il                  http://www.actcom.co.il/~oron
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