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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Asterisk
hardware from several vendors have time slot interchange and conferencing
bridge capability, however I haven't seen the functions implemented on a
per-call basis. A time slot interchange exchanges TDM slots to connect one
channel to another, while the conference bridge uses hardware <span
class=SpellE>codecs</span> and sums the audio channels together.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>I
too, have wondered if Asterisk has the facilities to bring in a channel to
monitor call progress, DTMF, etc. and control an external piece of hardware
that makes the actual connection. If someone had 24 analog extensions from a
cannel bank, and a quad or dual T1 card, the hardware is fully capable of
connecting one analog line to the other through the switch on the T1 card;
however, I have never seen any code in <span class=SpellE>Zaptel</span> or
Asterisk to facilitate this.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'><font
size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Courier New"'>A further extension of this concept would be the
trombone connection, where zap channels would be created for the sole purpose
of using the hardware switch instead of Asterisk. This appears to be the
purpose of the TC400, but I haven't seen the software mechanism for doing this
yet.</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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