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

[Tzafrir Cohen]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 09:49:41AM -0800, Michael Higgins wrote:

> What I did find left me with the impression that USA 'BRI', uh, '2B1Q' 
> protocol(?) is not supported by *any* hardware vendor, at all, period, 
> nor is it tested and proved in the software... stack(?), in one 
> related branch or another on the OS side.

To the best of my understanding, latest Asterisk should support it
through chan_dahdi . No need for extra bristuff or whatever. But this
needs some testing.

> 
> A couple of direct inquiries to card vendors have dead-ended with a 
> flat "no", or requests for development funds(!) -- apparently there 
> is code for one card, one vendor, that runs against 'bristuff', or 
> did at one time, but wasn't maintained through several Asterisk 
> releases (if the code was even released to the community... IDK).

Actually from the little I can tell, BRI there behaves very much like
PRI. No extra ptmp complications as in the rest of the world.

And then you have to recall that chan_dahdi's libpri was developed by
US people originally, and hence actually supports the crazy mess of ISDN
signalling there ;-)

It seems, though you may need to do some custom wiring.

> 
> Is this common, that someone codes to their chip on their card and 
> sells it to one or two consumers, then lets it drop and never gives 
> the code up for continued development? (It seems contrary to GNU/Linux licensing conventions, but, again, I'm not paid as a software developer. I just think they might have sold more cards with a less proprietary approach.)
> 
> Anyway, can I, with confidence, state (to the $employer) that Asterisk 
> on linux via USA 'BRI' digital lines simply isn't possible? (In that, 
> obviously, I can't pay for development nor do beta testing, each with 
> vague hope that it might work okay someday...)


A cheap HFC-S -based BRI card (the type supported by virtually all 
candidate ISDN/BRI channels for Asterisk. Except chan_capi, I guess)
shouldn't cost you much (naturally I personally would prefer you used
our hardware, but then again, you may have other considerations)
I figure that 20$-30$ or so.

I have no idea about other setup costs (getting a line, etc.).

-- 
               Tzafrir Cohen
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