1.1 Introduction

1.2 AG Quad Board

1.3 Software Components

1.3.1 CT Access

1.3.2 OAM

AG Board Plug-In

1.3.3 Configuration Files

1.3.4 Runtime Software

1.3.5 Trunk Control Programs (TCPs)

1.4 DSP Resource Allocation

1.4.1 Call Control Resource Management

1.4.2 Configuring Call Control Resource Management

1.4.3 CT Access With Call Control Resource Management

1.5 Opening Services On AG Quad T Boards

1.1 Introduction

The AG Quad Installation and Developer's Manual explains how to configure and install an AG Quad board and how it interfaces with the telephone network and the telephony bus.

This manual is targeted to developers of telephony and voice applications who are using the AG Quad board with CT Access. This manual defines telephony terms where applicable, but assumes that readers are familiar with telephony concepts, switching, and the C programming language.

1.2 AG Quad Board

The AG Quad is part of the Alliance Generation (AG) family of telephony boards. The AG Quad board provides up to four T1 or E1 interfaces with up to 120 ports of call processing and up to 60 ports of programmable voice processing.

The AG Quad products include:

Board	Capabilities
AG Quad T	Four T1 trunk interfaces, voice and call processing.
AG Quad E 120 Ohm	Four 120 Ohm E1 trunk interfaces, voice and call processing.
AG Quad E 75 Ohm	Four 75 Ohm E1 trunk interfaces, voice and call processing.
AG Dual T	Two T1 trunk interfaces, voice and call processing.
AG Dual E 120 Ohm	Two 120 Ohm E1 trunk interfaces, voice and call processing.
AG Dual E 75 Ohm	Two 75 Ohm E1 trunk interfaces, voice and call processing.
Quad Connect T	Four T1 trunk interfaces.
Quad Connect E 120 Ohm	Four 120 Ohm E1 trunk interfaces.
Quad Connect E 75 Ohm	Four 75 Ohm E1 trunk interfaces

Refer to the NMS web site (www.nmss.com) for a list of available AG Quad board configurations, for a list of countries where NMS has obtained approval for the AG Quad board, and for product updates.

The main components of the AG Quad board are:

• DSP resources
  Each board (with the exception of the Quad Connect) has eight high-performance digital signal processors (DSPs) that provide resources for 120 ports of call processing and up to 60 ports of programmable voice processing. Each DSP supports one or more tasks. These tasks include voice recording and playback, DTMF detection and generation, and call progress analysis.

• PCI bus connectivity
  Each board is designed to reside in a single PCI bus slot.

• Trunk connectivity
  Each board contains T1 or E1 network interfaces for digital trunk connectivity.

• H.100 bus connectivity
  The AG Quad board provides full support of the H.100 bus specification. The H.100 bus allows boards to share data and signaling information with other boards on the H.100 bus and the MVIP bus. For example, you can connect two or more AG Quad boards for applications that perform trunk-to-trunk switching. You can add additional DSP resources, analog station interfaces, or loop start line interfaces using other AG boards. You can also use MVIP-compatible products from other manufacturers with the AG Quad board.

• Telephony bus switching
  Switching for the AG Quad board is implemented with the HMIC (H.100/MVIP Integrated Circuit). The HMIC is a single chip that offers full support for the H.100 bus within the MVIP architecture providing access to all 4096 slots on the H.100 bus. On the AG Quad board, switch connections are allowed for up to 1024 local timeslots and up to 128 full duplex connections to the H.100 bus.

Figure 1 shows the main components of the AG Quad board:

Figure 1. AG Quad Components

1.3 Software Components

AG Quad boards require the following software components:

• The CT Access development environment, which provides APIs for call control, system configuration, voice store and forward, and other functions.

• NMS OAM (Operations, Administration, and Maintenance) software, which performs operations on, administration of, and maintenance of telephony resources in a system. OAM manages a database of configuration information for each telephony resource, including AG boards.

• Configuration files, which describe how each board is set up and initialized. These files are used to initialize the OAM database for the boards.

• Runtime software, which controls the AG Quad board.

• One or more trunk control programs (TCPs). These programs allow your application to communicate with the telephone network using the signaling schemes (protocols) used on the trunk.

Figure 2 shows how these software components relate to one another. Each component is described in detail in the following sections.

Figure 2. Software Components

1.3.1 CT Access

CT Access is a complete software development environment for voice applications. It provides a standard set of functions grouped into logical services. Each service has a standard programming interface. For more information about standard and optional CT Access services, refer to the CT Access Developer's Reference Manual.

1.3.2 OAM

NMS OAM is an extension to CT Access which performs operations on, administration of, and maintenance of resources in a system. These resources include hardware components (including AG boards) and low-level board management software modules (such as the Hot Swap process).

Using NMS OAM, you can:

• Create, delete, and query the configuration of a component

• Start (boot), stop (shut down), and test a component

• Receive notifications from components

OAM maintains a database containing records of configuration information for each component. This information consists of parameters and values. Refer to Figure 3:

Figure 3. OAM Components

Each parameter and value is expressed as a keyword name/value pair (for example, AutoStart = NO). You can query the OAM database for keyword values for any component. Keywords and values can be added, modified, or deleted.

To use OAM or any related utility, ensure that ctdaemon is running. For more information about ctdaemon, refer to the CT Access Developer's Reference Manual. For more information about OAM and its utilities, refer to the OAM System User's Manual.

AG Board Plug-In

OAM uses the AG board plug-in software module to communicate with AG boards. The AG plug-in, agplugin.bpi, is included with the OAM software. It is installed in the nms\bin directory by default (/opt/nms/lib under Unix). The file must reside in this directory in order for OAM to load it when it starts up.

1.3.3 Configuration Files

When you set up your system, you create a record in the OAM database for each board that contains configuration information for the board. To do so, supply the information in the configuration file and run the oamsys utility. This utility creates the records and then directs the OAM service to start the boards, configured as specified.

Sample board keyword files are shipped with the software. Refer to Chapter 3 for more information about configuration files and oamsys.

1.3.4 Runtime Software

The runtime software consists of runfiles and DSP files. The runfile is the basic low-level software that an AG board requires to operate. DSP files enable the AG board's on-board digital signal processors to perform certain tasks, such as DTMF signaling, voice recording, and playback.

Several runfiles and DSP program files are installed with CT Access. Specify the files to use for your configuration in the board keyword file. When OAM boots a board, the runfiles and DSP files are transferred from the host into on-board memory.

For more information about board keyword files, refer to Chapter 3 of this manual. For more information about the DSP files shipped with CT Access, refer to the ADI Service Function Reference Manual.

1.3.5 Trunk Control Programs (TCPs)

AG Quad boards are compatible with a variety of signaling schemes called protocols. To program an AG Quad board for a specific protocol, a trunk control program (TCP) is loaded on the board. The TCP performs all of the signaling tasks to interface with the protocol used on the line.

Several different protocol standards are used throughout the world. These standards differ considerably from country to country. For these reasons, different TCPs are supplied with Natural Access for various protocols and country-specific variations.

You can load more than one TCP at a time for applications that support multiple protocols simultaneously. TCPs are specified in the configuration file and are downloaded to the board by oamcfg. TCPs run on the board, relieving the host computer from the task of processing the protocol directly. For more information about TCPs, refer to the AG CAS for Natural Call Control Developer's Manual.

1.4 DSP Resource Allocation

AG boards contain DSPs which provide resources for call control and voice processing. DSP resources are not dedicated to telephone lines; they are programmable via the DSP files which can be dynamically swapped in and out of the DSPs as needed.

The AG Quad board has 120 call control ports and DSP resources for up to 60 ports for simultaneous voice or call processing. The AG Quad board call control resource management feature allows DSP resources to be shared across all 120 ports. If a request is made for a function for which there are no available resources, an error is returned to the application.

The AG Dual T and AG Dual E boards have sufficient DSP resources for simultaneous call and voice processing on all 60 ports. For this reason, call control resource management is not applicable for the dual variants of the AG Quad board.

Applications requiring simultaneous call or voice processing on all ports of more than two T1 or E1 spans should use two AG Dual boards or one AG 4000 board instead of one AG Quad board.

1.4.1 Call Control Resource Management

In most CAS (Channel Associated Signaling) protocols, DSP resources are used for call setup. When a call is in the connected state or idle state, DSP resources are no longer needed for call control. The trunk control program (TCP) running on an AG Quad board requests DSP resources as needed, then releases the DSP resources when the call is connected.

When an application places an outbound call, the TCP requests a call control resource with a timeout. If the timer expires before a call control resource becomes available, a protocol error is reported to the application. If a call control resource becomes available before the timeout, the TCP performs the call setup and notifies the application when the call has reached the connected state.

For inbound calls, as soon as a seizure is detected, the TCP requests a call control resource with a timeout. If the timeout expires before a call control resource becomes available, the TCP rejects the inbound call and notifies the application of a protocol error. If a call control resource becomes available before the timeout, the TCP executes the inbound call setup protocol and notifies the application of an inbound call.

The AG Quad board monitors the out-of-band (A/B) signaling bits on all ports at all times for hangup or seizure events.

The number of call control resources which are required to accept all inbound calls or to place all of the outbound calls depends on the particular application. In many switching applications, only a small percentage of the ports will ever be in a call setup state at any given time. The longer the duration of the call, the fewer call control resources will be required. Therefore, there are different ways to configure call control resources.

Some CAS protocols require DSP resources for the entire duration of a call, including the call connected state. For example, a protocol that uses cleardown tone detection during the connected state to monitor for hangup requires DSP resources for the call duration. Typically, these protocols are used on analog telephone trunks. When such a protocol is used on a digital trunk, the call control resource management feature of the AG Quad cannot be used.

The call control resource management feature of the AG Quad board cannot be used with an application that uses a protocol which requires DSP resources for an entire call and uses digital telephone trunks. Use an AG Dual T1 or an AG Dual E1 for an application that needs DSP resources for the duration of a call and uses digital trunks. The AG Dual variants of the AG Quad board make DSP resources available for all ports simultaneously.

On an AG Quad board, if resource management is required, the TCP cannot start DSP functions that would otherwise be automatically available to the application once the call is connected.

These are the functions specified in the ADI parameter ncc.x.adi_start.calltctl.mediamask:

NCC_RESERVE_DTMF         0x0001 /* Reserve dtmf detection    */
NCC_RESERVE_SILENCE      0x0002 /* Reserve silence detector  */
NCC_RESERVE_CLEARDOWN    0x0004 /* Reserve clear-down det.   */
NCC_AUTO_DTMF            0x0008 /* Start DTMF detection      */
NCC_AUTO_ECHO            0x0010 /* Start echo canceller      */

For this reason, NCC call control must be implemented slightly differently:

• If nccStartProtocol is called with parameters containing ncc.x.adi_start.calltctl.mediamask != 0, the ADI service will return the NCCEVN_START_PROTOCOL_DONE event, with reason (value field) NCCERR_OUT_OF_RESOURCES.

• The application must call adiStartDTMFDetector to explicitly start the DTMF detector once the call has reached its connected state.

• On an AG Quad board with resource management, echo cancellation is not available (since the only way to have it On is to ask the TCP to start it using ncc.x.adi_start.calltctl.mediamask).

1.4.2 Configuring Call Control Resource Management

The DSP resources on the AG Quad board are divided into two pools. One pool of DSP resources is dedicated to call control. The second pool is used for all other functions, including voice processing and tone generation.

Figure 4. AG Quad DSP Resource Pools

Since the AG Quad only has DSP resources for up to 60 ports for simultaneous voice or call processing, the resources must be shared across all 120 call control ports. By configuring the number of resources in each pool, you can control the number of ports which are guaranteed to run call control even when performing extensive voice processing.

Allocating two pools of resources allows you to configure the AG Quad board for your specific application. The call control mode is configured in the configuration file with the CCMode keyword. To learn how to set this keyword, refer to Chapter 6.

1.4.3 CT Access With Call Control Resource Management

Call control resource management is enabled on the AG Quad board when the CCMode keyword is absent or is set to any value other than NONE. Call control resource management is not supported on the dual variant of the board (AG Dual T and AG Dual E).

The operation of the Trunk Control Programs (TCPs) differs for AG Quad applications because of the call control resource management.

When developing call control applications for the AG Quad board, note the following differences:

• Since media functions cannot be started during the connected phase of the call, the callctl.mediamask parameter must be set to zero. If the parameter value is nonzero, the NCCEVN_START_PROTOCOL_DONE event will be returned with the error NCCREASON_OUT_OF_RESOURCES.

• When the protocol enters the connected state, no DSP functions will be left running. If the application requires the use of a DSP function, the function must be started explicitly through an API call.
  For example, to use the DTMF detector in the connected state, the application must call adiStartDTMF.

  For more information about...	Refer to this manual...
  Call control	Natural Call Control Service Developer's Reference Manual
  Parameters	CT Access Developer's Reference Manual

1.5 Opening Services On AG Quad T Boards

When using the ADI service to open services for one of the four trunks on an AG Quad T board, specify one of the following timeslot ranges:

AG Quad T Trunk	Timeslot
0	0 - 23
1	24 - 47
2	48 - 71
3	72 - 95