A1610P AE1610P on DAHDI User Manual


          OpenVox Communication Co.Ltd


Contents 
General Safety Instructions 
Test Environments 
Chapter 1 Overview 
1.1 What is Asterisk 
1.2 What is A1610P/AE1610P 
Chapter 2 Hardware Setup 
2.1 Power supply 
2.2 Slot compatibility 
2.3 Timing cable 
2.4 FXO and FXS modules

2.5 Splitter
2.6 Hardware setup procedure 
Chapter 3 Software Installation and Configuration 
3.1 Download 
3.2 Installation 
3.3 Configuration

3.4 EC Module
Chapter 4 Reference 
Appendix A Specifications 
Appendix B PIN Assignments


General Safety Instructions

 
CAUTION

  1. The computers that have A1610P/AE1610P card installed must comply with the country's specific safety regulations.
  2. Only service personnel should go to install A1610P/AE1610P card.
  3. Before installing A1610P/AE1610P card, please unplug the power cord and remove the cover from your PC.
  4. For avoiding personal injuries and damages to your machine and A1610P/AE1610P card, make sure bracket of the card is secured to the PC's chassis ground by fastening the card with a screw. 
  5. Electrical Surges, ESD are very destructive to the equipment. To avoid it, make sure there is a low impedance discharge path from your computer to chassis ground.
  6. To reduce the risk of damage or injury, please follow all steps or procedures as instructed.


Test Environments

CentOS-5.6
Kernel version: 2.6.18-238.12.1.el5
DAHDI: dahdi-linux-complete-current
Asterisk: 1.8.0
Hardware: OpenVox A1610P/AE1610P 



Chapter 1 A(E)1610P Overview

1.1 What is Asterisk

The Definition of Asterisk is described as follows:
Asterisk is a complete PBX in software. It runs on Linux, BSD, Windows (emulated) and provides all of the features you would expect from a PBX and more. Asterisk does voice over IP in four protocols, and can interoperate with almost all standard-based telephony equipment using relatively cost-effective hardware. Asterisk provides Voicemail services with Directory, Call Conferencing, Interactive Voice Response, Call Queuing. It supports for three-way calling, caller ID services, ADSI, IAX, SIP, H323 (as both client and gateway), MGCP (call manager only) and SCCP/Skinny (voip-info.org).


                                                       Figure 1 Topology


1.2 What is A1610P/AE1610P

A1610P is a new generation analog card and AE1610P is an A1610P with Octasic® Hardware Echo Cancellation Module on board. A1610P/AE1610P is a new generation analog card with interchangeable quad-FXS and quad-FXO modules. It can eliminate the requirement for separate channel banks or access gateways.

Once the Octasic® DSP module EC2032 is added to the AE1610P, please make sure you are ready to say goodbye to the poor voice quality and echo echoecho in your phone system. No one will even get a chance to hear that anymore! The AE1610P with Octasic DSP module will support Telco-grade hardware echo cancellation on all channels, up to the card’s maximum configuration in 16 ports with no additional CPU load.

They works well with Asterisk®, Elastix®, FreeSWITCH, PBX in a Flash, trixbox®, Yate and IPPBX/IVR projects as well as other Open Source and proprietary PBX, Switch, IVR, and VoIP gateway applications.

Target applications

  • Channel Bank Replacement / Alternative
  • Small Office Home Office (SOHO) applications
  • Small and Medium Business (SMB) applications
  • Gateway Termination to analog telephones/lines


Sample application

When you need 8 PSTN lines and 8 extension sets, for example, two FXO-400 modules and two FXS-400 modules should be installed. PSTN lines correspond to FXO modules which are red while extension lines correspond to FXS modules which are green.


                                    Figure 2 Sample application

 

Key benefits

  • Takes full advantage of Octasichardware echo cancellation module to deliver the superior voice quality on both FXO and FXS interfaces in all 16 ports
  • Adjustable interrupt routing design
  • Interrupts frequency adjustment
  • Up to 16simultaneous PSTN calls (per PCIslot)
  • Compatible with all commercially available motherboards
  • 3-Month “No Question Asked” return policy
  • Lifetime warranty
  • RoHS compliant
  • Certificates: CE, FCC, A-Tick
  • trixboxTM    officially certified
  • Elastix®officially certified


Features

  • Caller ID and Call Waiting Caller ID
  • ADSI Telephones
  • Loopstart Signaling Support




Chapter 2 A(E)1610P Hardware Setup

There are some points that should be paid attention to when setting up A1610P/AE1610P.

2.1 Power supply

The board should be powered no matter what modules are installed, please connect the power source with A1610P/AE1610P board by a 4-pin power source connector.

2.2 Slot compatibility

A1610P/AE1610P is compatible with any kind of standard PCI-E ×1, ×2, ×4, ×8, ×16 slot while PCI slot is not fit for it; you should confirm your slot type and insert A1610P/AE1610P into any type of PCI-E slot as previously described. 

                                               Figure 3 PCI-E and PCI slots

2.3 Timing cable

If you have just one card in the system, all channels on that card have already run under the same clock source, so timing cable is unnecessary. But if there are more than one card, using timing cable has some advantages. Before using the clock line, each card works on its own clock, therefore precision of the clock is limited; each card will send /receive voice data at different speeds. In voice usage, this small issue can be omitted, but in data communication such as Fax/Modem, it will cause big problem. Data loss will cause communication broken or fax broken. Timing cable will force all cards to work at the same clock source, send data at the same speed, as a result no data will lost. 
If you found J914 (input) and J915 (output) interfaces on the card, it means the card supports clock line, for the details, please refer to HERE.

2.4 FXO and FXS modules 

FXO (Foreign eXchange Office) is the office end of the line, and FXS (Foreign eXchange Station) is the station end, there is so much difference between them, they can be identified by color, the former ones are red and the latter ones are green. FXO modules use FXS signaling while FXS modules use FXO signaling. A FXO module corresponds to four FXO interfaces which receive power (battery) and ring signals, and a FXS module corresponds to four FXS ports which provides power (battery) and generates ring signals.

2.5 Splitter 

A RJ45 interface of A1610P/AE1610P is divided into four RJ11 ports by a specific splitter as the picture of Appendix B stated. So you should prepare for some splitters when install A1610P/AE1610P.

2.6 Hardware setup procedure



                                           Figure 4 Hardware setup


 Caution: During the above processes, an ESD wrist strap is needed. Once power is on, you must not attempt to install or take down the board. Do not forget to connect PSTN lines into analog phones directly to make sure the lines are available before inserting the PSTN lines into FXO ports. After hard ware setup, it is time to install software. 




Chapter 3 A(E)1610P Software Installation and Configuration

A1610P/AE1610P supports DAHDI software driver on Linux. To make full use of A1610P/AE1610P, you should download, compile, install and configure DAHDI and Asterisk.

3.1 Download 

DAHDI software packages are available on openvox official website or Digium. Some patches should be added while the driver source is from Digium, therefore, it is recommended that downloading the DAHDI driver package from openvox official website. 
Gain DAHDI source package from openvox:
http://downloads.openvox.cn/pub/drivers/dahdi-linux-complete/openvox_dahdi-linux-complete-current.tar.gz
Get Asterisk software package from Digium official website: 
http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/releases/asterisk-1.8.0.tar.gz 
Execute the following commands under the directory of /usr/src/ in general, the former two below are used for downloading these two packages and the later two are for unzipping them. 
#_wget_http://downloads.openvox.cn/pub/drivers/dahdi-linux-complete/openvox_dahdi-linux-complete-current.tar.gz
#_wget_http://downloads.asterisk.org/pub/telephony/asterisk/releases/asterisk-1.8.0.tar.gz
#_tar_-xvzf_openvox_dahdi-linux-complete-current.tar.gz

#tar –xvzf asterisk-1.8.0.tar.gz


3.2 Installation

1. Hardware detection

#lspci –vvvv

Check the outcome and confirm your system has recognized A1610P/AE1610P. If it has been recognized, "communication controller" will be displayed in the output information like that: 

                                                     Figure 5 Hardware detection

If A1610P/AE1610P is not recognized by the system, you have to power off and take out the card, then try to insert it into other PCI-E slot.

2. Software installation
Some dependencies are crucial. If any of them is absent, the software installation process would not go through successfully. Let's run "yum install XX" (XX stands for the dependency's name) to check the availability of dependencies.

#yum install bison

#yum install bison-devel

#yum install ncurses

#yum install ncurses-devel

#yum install zlib

#yum install zlib-devel

#yum install openssl

#yum install openssl-devel

#yum install gnutls-devel

#yum install gcc

#yum install gcc-c++

#yum install libxml2

#yum install libxml2-devel

Notice: If there is no kernel-devel source in the system, users should run the following command to install the kernel-devel to peer current kernel:

#yum install kernel-devel-`uname –r`

While if there is no matched kernel-devel found, you should download matched RPM package to install it, or execute the following command to update to the latest and stable kernel version:

#yum install kernel kernel-devel

After installed, please reboot your machine to apply the new kernel and install the dependencies. If the dependency has been installed, system indicates that nothing to do which means you could go to next one directly. Otherwise, the system will keep on installing it.

 

After install the dependencies, please change to the directory dahdi-linux-complete-XX (XX represents DAHDI version), then perform the following commands one by one to install DAHDI.

#cd /usr/src/dahdi-linux-complete-XX

#make

#make install

#make config 
Caution: If there is something wrong after "make", please refer to HERE. In the url link, the moderator introduces you a method how to patch. After patching, save your changes and exit. Then run "make" again, if successfully, you are going to install Asterisk.

#cd asterisk-1.8.0

#./configure

#make

#make install

#make samples

Notice: " make samples" will install the standard sample configuration file in the directory /etc/asterisk. As a freshman, you should perform make samples, that is to say, it is unnecessary to perform make samples every time. Because once performed, it will cover the old sample configuration files you have installed.

 

3.3 Configuration

1.Driver loading
After compiling and installing DAHDI and Asterisk, please load the driver by running:

#modprobe dahdi

#modprobe opvxa24xx opermode=CHINA

#dahdi_genconf

Notice:After running "modprobe dahdi" or "modprobe opvxa24xx opermode=CHINA", there is not any indication information displayed if loaded normally and successfully. opvxa24xx is the driver module name of A1610P/AE1610P. "opermode" applies to FXO port and is invalid for FXS port, and you are allowed to take place of "CHINA" to other mode name which is available in the file: 
../dahdi-linux-XX/linux/drivers/dahdi/fxo_modules.h

If there is any error, please trace the cause. Until all errors are clear up, you could execute "dahdi_genconf" again, and then go to the next step. By running "dahdi_genconf", it will generate /etc/dahdi/system.conf and etc/asterisk/dahdi-channels.conf automatically. Checking whether the generated files information agrees with your hardware setup, if not, you should modify to your specific requirements. Do not forget to confirm dahdi-channels.conf is included in chan_dahdi.conf, if not, run command: 
# echo "#include dahdi-channels.conf" >> /etc/asterisk/chan_dahdi.conf

FXO ports use FXS signaling, while FXS ports adopt FXO signaling. A part of system.conf which is one of the basic channel configuration files is displayed. 

                         Figure 6 A part of system.conf


2. Country mode modification
In order to match your country pattern, you need to change parameters loadzone and defaultzone to your country. For example, your system is in CHINA, you would like them change to: 
loadzone = cn
defaultzone = cn

Notice: Some zonedata is available in the file ".. /dahdi-XX/tools/zonedata.c", you can refer to it to match your country mode. Meanwhile, you also need to modify another parameter which is in file /etc/asterisk/indications.conf.
country=cn

A part of file /etc/asterisk/dahdi-channels.conf is showed as below. (Modification, if it is not agree with the hardware setup)

                                   Figure 7 A part of dahdi-channels.conf


After modifying the country mode, please execute the following command:

#dahdi_cfg –vvvvvv

The command is used for reading and loading parameters in the configuration file system.conf and writing to the hardware. A part of outputs are showed in the following figure.

                                                          Figure 8 Channel map


3. Asterisk  initiation

#asterisk –vvvvvvvgc

If Asterisk is already activate, run "asterisk –r" instead. In the CLI, please run the following command: 
localhost*CLI> dahdi show channels

                                     Figure 9 channels show

If DAHDI channels are found, it means they have been loaded into Asterisk. You are going to edit dialplan by your requirements.

 

4. Dialplan edit
Users must make sure that the context "from-pstn" and "from-internal" are in extensions.conf, here a simple example is given:

#vim /etc/asterisk/extensions.conf

                  Figure 10 dialplan show


Notice: You should write the destination number instead of the outgoing_number in the above dial plan. The dial plan achieves that when an extension telephone dials 200, Asterisk will transfer through channel 7 to the destination. While a call comes from PSTN line, Asterisk answers firstly, and then gets through to the extension set which connects to channel 1. 
After saving your dialplan, please run "asterisk –r", then execute "reload" in the CLI. Next you are able to make calls.

Additional function
Users should run command "cat /proc/interrupts" to check A1610P/AE1610P has independent interrupt. If A1610P/AE1610P shares interrupt with other devices, it may cause some problems even cannot work normally. While A1610P/AE1610P allows users to modify interrupt pin during firmware upgrade for avoiding interrupt conflict.

 

3.4 EC Module

You can run the command "dmesg | grep VPM" to see if you have EC Module.

[root@localhost ~]# dmesg | grep VPM
OpenVox VPM: echo cancellation supports 32 channels
OpenVox VPM: echo cancellation for 32 channels
OpenVox VPM: hardware DTMF disabled.
OpenVox VPM: Present and operational servicing 1 span(s)

To enable the EC Module, you need to follow the steps below:

step 1: set the echocanceller=hwec like below.

#vim /etc/dahdi/system.conf

# Span 1: OPVXA24XX/24 "OpenVox A1610 Board 25" (MASTER) 
fxoks=1
echocanceller=hwec,1
fxoks=2
echocanceller=hwec,2
fxoks=3
echocanceller=hwec,3
fxoks=4
echocanceller=hwec,4
fxsks=5
echocanceller=hwec,5
fxsks=6
echocanceller=hwec,6
fxsks=7
echocanceller=hwec,7
fxsks=8
echocanceller=hwec,8

# Global data

loadzone = cn
defaultzone = cn

step 2: Edit the file /etc/asterisk/chan_dahdi.conf and set echocancel=yes.

step 3: run the command "dahdi_cfg -vvv".

when there is active calls, run the command "lsdahdi", you will see the EC module has been used.

[root@localhost ~]# lsdahdi 
### Span 1: OPVXA24XX/24 "OpenVox A1610 Board 25" (MASTER) 
1 FXS FXOKS (In use) (EC: HWEC - INACTIVE) 
2 FXS FXOKS (In use) (EC: HWEC - INACTIVE) 
3 FXS FXOKS (In use) (EC: HWEC - INACTIVE) 
4 FXS FXOKS (In use) (EC: HWEC - INACTIVE) 
5 FXO FXSKS (In use) (EC: HWEC - ACTIVE)   
6 FXO FXSKS (In use) (EC: HWEC - INACTIVE) RED
7 FXO FXSKS (In use) (EC: HWEC - INACTIVE) RED
8 FXO FXSKS (In use) (EC: HWEC - INACTIVE) RED

"EC: HWEC" means the EC module has been in use. And the "ACTIVE" means there is active calls on port 5. 



Chapter 4 A(E)1610P Reference

www.openvox.cn
www.digium.com
www.asterisk.org
www.voip-info.org
www.asteriskguru.com 
Tips
Any questions during installation please consult in our forum or look up for answers from the following websites:
Forum
wiki 

Appendix A Specifications

• Weight and size
Weight: 133g (A1610P)(4.69oz)  10g (ECmodule)(0.35oz)

Size: 219×106.7×18mm3

• Interfaces
PCI-E Bus: Be compatible with standard PCI 2.2 or above with both 3.3 V and 5 V slot
Power Supply Connector: 12V 4-pin connector 
RJ45 connector

• Environment
Temperature: 0 ~ 50°C (Operation)  -40 ~ 125°C (Storage)

Humidity: 10 ~ 90% NON-CONDENSING

• Power consumption
Power consuming:  8.21W Minimum, 88.24W Maximum

• Hardware and software requirements
RAM 128 + MB
Linux kernel 2.4.X or 2.6.X
CPU 800+ MHZ 


Appendix B PIN Assignments

There are up to 4 FXS-400/FXO-400 modules on every A1610P/AE1610P, a module corresponds to a RJ45 port which A1610P/AE1610P takes 2 of 8 pins for a pair connector to your 4-pin or 6-pin telephone line, so each RJ45 socket is divided into 4 telephone lines by a splitter. Either 4-pin or 6-pin RJ11 port is compatible with the splitter, let’s illustrate pin assignments of RJ11and RJ45 port by the following tables and figure.

                          4-pin RJ11 port

4-pin RJ11 port

PIN

Description

1

Not used

 

2

Tip

 

3

Ring

 

4

Not used

                          6-pin RJ11 port

6-pin RJ11 port

PIN

Description

1

Not used

 

2

Not used

 

3

Tip

 

4

Ring

 

5

Not used

 

6

Not used

 

RJ45 interface

Splitter