[Asterisk-Users] MultiBRI in Australia - found one - maybe

[Craig Guy]

I have been involved with a BRI install using 3 x Draytek minivigor 128 BRI 
adapters and chan_mISDN.  The draytek units use the HFCS-USB chipset, are 
USB and take power from the USB interface.  Each adapter will support PTP, 
PTMP, TE and I think NT mode with a maximum of 8 adapters (16 channels) per 
server.  The TA's themselves cost $71 inc GST which is the most cost 
effective BRI / multi BRI solution I have found in Australia to date.

I have one in production for about a week, however chan_mISDN is still 
listed as experimental at this time.  Initially with FC4 and the default FC4 
kernel the server used to lock up solid about once every 24 hours.  It has 
been suggested to us that people using kernel 2.6.14 or higher do not 
experience these problems so we rebuilt the server with the new kernel and 
put it in yesterday.  We should find out in a couple of days if this has 
fixed the lockup problem.  If we can't resolve it we'll stick in a Cisco 
router to handle the BRI.

Anyhow, apart from the lockup problem, it does definitely work and if the 
lockup is in chan_mISDN then you could use chan_capi on top of mISDN with 
these adapters.  I have a server in production elsewhere using the Fritz! 
card with mISDN drivers and chan_capi for over a year.

So, if you have have the ability to do some testing then definitely have a 
play with these Draytek adapters.  I got mine from Netbro in NSW.  Note that 
it is only the currently available minivigors that have the HFCS-USB 
chipset, older ones on the secondhand market and eBay most likely use a 
Winbond chipset.

As for aesthetics, I was concerned that from the customers viewpoint it 
might look dodgy, as if we are using the equivalent of external modems to 
connect the PBX to the pstn, however the units are quite small and have a 
business feel to them.  They look sorta like an ADSL line splitter and 
cabled neatly look quite professional.

Craig

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Harper" <james.harper at bendigoit.com.au>
To: "Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion" 
<asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 6:03 PM
Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] MultiBRI in Australia - found one - maybe


> Best of luck :-D
> I would be interested in your progress on this.
>
> I am having very little problem in convincing ppl to upgrade their
> multiple
> BRI cricuits for a single pri.  The cost difference between a te110
(or a
> Sangoma A101) MORE than covers the difference from the customer stand
> point,
> especially once you are up to 3 ISDN-2 Interfaces.
>

A single port E1 is cheaper than any multi BRI adapter I've seen, and
based on Telstra pricing, 3.5 BRI services is about the point where the
PRI is the cheaper option in terms of monthly rental. Installation cost
is another matter but after a year or so it doesn't matter so much.

One use for the multi BRI card though, especially one that can do NT
mode, is that you can use it to trunk to a legacy BRI PBX, which is why
I'm still interested in finding one for use in Australia.

James

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