New features

Beside of compatibility with Asterisk 1.8 multiple new features are includded in the chan_capi:
+ "capi exec" cli command allows to execute any of ssupported "coimmands". This allows
for example control of media processing by conference operator.
+ "capi show resources" cli command allows to view media processing resources in use
+ Distributions of calls only to interfaces (E.1/T.1/S0/POTS/SS7) which are in active
state and are able to process the calls
+ "capi show ifcstate" cli command allows to control state of interfaces in use
+ AMI events for interface state
+ MeetMe compatible AMI interface (events, commands) for chan_capi conferencing
(capicommand(chat))

Asterisk 1.8 chan_capi support

Newest available relase of chan capi (svn co svn://svn.chan-capi.org/chan-capi/trunk chan-capi-trunk) supports Asterisk 1.8.

Diva PCIe Hot Plug test

Yes, it works. All Diva PCIe hardware ssupports PCIe Hot Plug inclusive surprise removal.

All you need is to load appropriate PCIe Hot Plug module (pciehp).

In case hot plug is not working please try to use pciehp_force=1 pciehp module parameter.

More about test, used mainboard will follow.

Diva 8PRI 4LANE PCIe 8 x E.1/T.1 1 x 450MHz MIPST RISC 24 x 600MHz DSP 20WT

For unlimited voice, fax and modem, 20WT only

Large Asterisk PBX test using Diva and 480 switched channels

The purpose of the test was to check usability of Asterisk with Diva hardware as solution for big enterprise switching systems (240 an more channels).

Following hardware used:

2 x Diva 8PRI PCIe in the system under test (16 x E.1 resulting in 480 channels)

2 x Diva 4PRI PCI and 2 x Diva 4PRI PCIe in the call generator

The system under test was used as PBX for switching calls between interfaces (between boards):

E.1[1...8] -> E.1[9...16]. Using "group" chan_capi syntax. This eliminates the need to check for free channel if switching the call, chan_capi provides management of channels within a group.

Two tests was used to check the quality of provided solution:

• Long term load on all 480 channels with control of PESQ (voice quality)
• High call frequency test on all 480 channels. Variable call length between 100 mSec and 2 Sec

Used Diva release: 9.02 (includes chan_capi)

Used Asterisk version: 1.6.1, 1.6.2, 1.4.29

OS: 64 Bit Debian lenny

Test results:

• In the first test all Asterisk versions exposed same behavior. The switching done by cross board (direct board to board access) BUS master DMA of Diva hardware does not depends on the host CPU and on the Asterisk version. This is why no quality changes, compared to original signal was detected (with and without echo cancellation).
• In the second test 1.6.X and 1.4.X versions of Asterisk exposed different behavior: while 1.4.29 was absolutely stable and no problem was detected 1.6.X crashed after several minutes of tests if used for more then 120 channels

Conclusion:

Using Diva 8PRI PCIe, Diva for Linux, chan_capi and Asterisk 1.4.29 this is possible to satisfy all needs of big enterprise marked using even one mid range server: the voice streaming is handled by Diva hardware in the independent from host CPU fashion, use of high density Diva hardware allows to provide 480 channels using only 2 x 4LANE PCIe slots.

Interesting aspect is the power consumption too. Every Diva 8PRI board uses approximately 20 W of power (20W for 240 channels). Combined with use of mid range CPU (1.2 ... 1.8 GHz) and use of power reduction technologies (ondemand power governer using SpeedStep, ...)

this provides significant reduction of power consumption.

Dialogic(R) Diva(R) System Release 9.0LIN Service Update 2

Dialogic(R) Diva(R) System Release 9.0LIN Service Update 2 is available.

Includes newest version of chan_capi.

http://www.dialogic.com/download/p/linux/source.9.02/109-34/download.htm

Major changes:

Add Diva 8-PRI PCIe FS Board and Diva 4-PRI PCIe FS Board

Add software echo cancellation for Diva PRI CTI and Diva BRI CTI hardware

The new Diva 8-PRI and 4-PRI boards are PCIe x4 boards, every with 24 BF533 DSP (each with 32 MByte SDRAM memory), R7000 RISC MIPS CPU wich 128 MByte of DDR memory. This provides x3 and x6 DSP for every E.1/T.1 trunk respektively.

Software echo cancellation (Line Echo Cancellation, LEC) is provided for Diva CTI hardware (Diva PRI CTI, Diva BRI CTI and Diva BRI 2FX) which are not populated with DSP and missing this funktionality. Software echo cancellation available only if Board is assigned (by Diva configuration) for use with chan_capi.

Asterisk WEB Configuration GUI

An example of Asterisk WEB based GUI is at http://demo.world-communication.de/sipconf.cgi

Looks like allows to create one hosted PBX, SIP/ISDN/PSTN gateway and/or SIP/ISDN/PSTN PBX with view mouse clicks. At same time provides the possibility for changing of several extended configuration settings of Asterisk to adapt the PBX to environment and to resolve compatibility problems.

The Asterisk WEB GUI is built at top of Diva WEB server which is distributed under GPL license and provides a possibility to create own customer specific extensions for configuration of customer own system.

This tool creates extensions.conf and other configuration files and uses sip.conf as storage of all necessary information.

And the most noce, the generated extensions.conf uses chan_capi and supposes the use of Diva hardware.