[Asterisk-Users] Port density: DS3 cards?

[Eric Wieling]

I believe there are boxes that will take a DS-3 from the Telco and spit 
out T-1's to your telecom equipment.  Not sure what they are called.

John Todd wrote:

> 
> Obviously, there are no DS3 TDM cards that are currently compatible with 
> Zap channels.  (or are there?)
> 
> Does anyone know of an inexpensive DS3 card that could perhaps be used 
> with Asterisk if one were to try to port the Zap drivers to such a 
> card?  PCI, of course, would be the bus of choice.
> 
> I think there are quite a few discouraging comments to be made on that 
> question.  Firstly, most companies that produce telecom hardware have 
> silly overhead, and thus the price of their cards is astronomical.  
> Secondly, most companies that produce telecom hardware are of the 
> opinion that transcoding (compression) should be done via DSP's, which 
> inflates the cost of the card significantly.  Thirdly, most telecom 
> hardware vendors would not consider allowing their drivers into the 
> public domain if such development were to happen. I've talked to some 
> parties (you know who you are) who have expressed some interest in 
> building this type of interface, but a situation where I can actually 
> put my hands on equipment is far better than speculative interest by 
> those who have not even decided to go forward with design, no matter how 
> interesting the end product sounds on the whiteboard.
> 
> However, regardless of all these negatives, I'm interested in any 
> vendors anyone can offer as a starting point.
> 
> Please, don't pester me with comments like "Why do you need 28 PRI's?" 
> or "You'll never use that much capacity."  Assume that I actually DO 
> have that volume of traffic, and assume there are several dozen other 
> people on this list (lurkers and active people) who have the same 
> requirements, and assume there are hundreds more people out there who 
> have the requirement but haven't considered Asterisk because DS3 isn't 
> an option.
> 
> JT
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