[asterisk-users] USA BRI -- any hope at all?

[Wilton Helm]

>It's not a matter of what I think. It's a matter of what you actually have :-)

>> The third group are based on the Winbond W6692 chip.  I think the 
>> chip was released about 10 years ago.  

>Which is what you have.


I've known that for several months, but I believe it is considered an HFC chip.  I keep responding to posts here periodically in the hope that it will connect me with someone who can help me arrive at a solution.  There definitely appears to be a need (albeit of limited quantity) for a) a working US BRI solution and possibly b) a W6692 driver.

>IIRC (from personal correspondence with you) you have managed to get
>layer 1 working with some ISDN driver (hisax = isdn4linux? mISDN?)

Linux installs a driver (hisax, I believe) for the card.  Whether that constitutes "working", I don't know.  I don't know what to configure or how to test at that level.  F9 includes mISDN but I haven't figured enough of it out yet to know whether it can see the card.  Key elements like config files and readme files aren't where the mISDN web page says they should be, so I don't have enough information to readily proceed.

(Although if anybody wants to write a Zaptel/DAHDI driver for it, I'd
welcome it)

So would I.  It isn't beyond the realm of possibility for me to write it, but it would take a very large amount of hand holding.  I'm quite proficient in C.  I understand the basic ideas involved in ISDN and have a working ISDN circuit, however I have very limited user knowledge of Asterisk and no past experience at the driver level or channel level and limited experience with linux.

Probably my biggest weakness is that I don't have a clear picture of the levels involved--possibly because they may be historically fuzzy.  If I understand correctly a DAHDI driver would cover layer 1 as well as higher layers up to what asterisk needs in a monolithic fashion.  OTOH, other approaches, such as CAPI may split this up.  I'm not familiar enough with what pieces cover what roles in the various possible scenarios.

There are two problems that need to be solved:
    1) Pieces in place to cover each layer that needs to be covered.
    2) Making sure those pieces can work with US NT1 protocol.
I am guessing that both have been solved by someone at some point, although probably not in the same file.  I am also guessing that some modifications to existing code could accomplish this without writing a lot of code from scratch.  I'm just not familiar enough with the options and available pieces to know where to look.

Wilton
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