This chapter:
An Alliance Generation AG-T1 board interfaces one T1 carrier of 24 channels with a PC. An AG-E1 board interfaces one E1 carrier of 30 channels with a PC. You can use these boards as the basis for powerful applications which place and receive calls and perform voice processing functions.
Figure 1: AG-T1 Board
Figure 2: AG-E1 Board (75 ohm version shown)
In addition to the trunk interface, each board includes six high-performance digital signal processors (DSPs). Additional DSPs can be added with daughterboards (see below). Each DSP supports one or more tasks for each of several telephone connections. For example:
By default, DSP management is transparent to the application developer. The AG driver software and runfile allocate appropriate processing resources as needed.
Each board is designed to reside in a single 16-bit ISA bus slot, for communication with the PC. Included with each board are one or more cables to connect the board to the telephone network, or to connect the board's transmit channels to its receive channels for loopback testing.
The AG-T1 is designed for a standard DSX-1 interface (see Chapter 5). The AG-E1 comes in two versions, for 75-ohm or 120-ohm CEPT E1 trunk interface configurations.
The AG-T1 and AG-E1 can connect to other boards via the MVIP bus. The MVIP bus is a high-speed, time-division multiplexed digital telephony "highway" between AG boards, which allows the boards to share digital voice, data, and signaling information via a 40-conductor ribbon cable strung between them. For example, you can connect two or more AG-T1 or AG-E1 boards for applications that perform trunk-to-trunk switching. You can add additional DSP resources, or analog station interfaces, or loop start line interfaces using other AG boards or board sets. You can also use MVIP-compatible products from other manufacturers with the AG-T1 or AG-E1 board.
Optionally, for additional DSP power, you can order an AG-T1 or AG-E1 with a Diva I, an AG-RT, or an AG-RT/2 daughterboard attached. With a daughterboard, your AG board can support processing-intensive tasks such as speech recognition or speech synthesis. To learn more about these boards, contact NMS.
NMS produces the following AG-T1 and AG-E1 boards:
Note: The v2 variants have 100 MHz DSPs, and do not support:
The v2 variants require AG Access 1.3 and above, or CT Access 1.1 and above.
To build an AG application based on AG-T1s or AG-E1s, you will need the following software components:
To perform MVIP switching under AG Access, you will also need NMS switching control software: SwitchPath and/or the SW Utility. This software is not needed with CT Access, since CT Access includes a Switching service. To learn more about the Switching service, see section 1.3.3.)
Natural Media extensions are also available from NMS to support various telephony tasks: NaturalFax, NaturalRecognition, NaturalText. For more information, contact NMS.
AG-T1 and AG-E1 boards are compatible with a variety of signaling schemes (called protocols). To program an AG-T1 or AG-E1 for a specific protocol, a trunk control program (TCP) is loaded on the board. The TCP performs all of the signaling tasks (sequences) to interface a CT Access or AG Access application with the protocol used on the trunk.
Several different protocol standards are in use throughout the world. These "standards" tend to differ considerably from country to country. For these reasons, different TCPs are supplied by NMS for various protocols and country-specific variations. Some TCPs come with CT Access and AG Access software; others are supplied as separate software packages. To learn how to install protocol software and interface it with an CT Access or AG Access application, see the Developer's Reference Manual that comes with the software.
More than one TCP can be loaded at a time, for applications that must support multiple protocols and variations simultaneously. The TCPs to use are specified in the AG configuration file. They are downloaded to the board by the agmon board configuration and monitoring utility. TCPs run on the board, relieving your host computer from the task of processing the protocol directly.
Your application controls the TCP using function calls from the Natural MicroSystems CT Access or AG Access application programming interfaces (APIs) for AG board control. These products communicate with all TCPs in the same way, making applications protocol-independent.
AG Access provides an MVIP enhanced compliant switching driver. To control switching in AG Access applications, you can use the NMS SwitchPath library of switching functions (sold separately), or the SW Utility. For details, see section 1.3.3.
For general information about installing and using CT Access or AG Access, see your CT Access or AG Access documentation. For information about building an AG-T1 or AG-E1 application using either of these APIs, see the appropriate Developer's Reference Manual describing your protocol software.
CT Access includes a service which controls switching on MVIP-compliant devices. You can use this service to make or break connections, send patterns, sample data, etc. This service supports both MVIP-95 and MVIP-90 standards. (For details, see your CT Access documentation.)
CT Access includes a standalone utility called swish, which you can use to control switching. It can operate interactively, allowing you to enter commands one by one on its command line. Alternatively, it can operate in batch mode, reading commands from a script. Batch mode operation makes swish quite useful for system initialization. To learn more about swish, see the CT Access Switching Service Developer's Reference Manual.
If you are using AG Access, you will need additional software to configure and control MVIP switching. You can use the SwitchPath C function library to do this programmatically, or the SW Utility to do this manually or with scripts.
To order SwitchPath, contact NMS. For more information on SwitchPath, refer to the SwitchPath Technical Reference Manual.
The SW Utility is included with SwitchPath, and also with the driver software for NMS switching products. For more information on this utility, refer to the SW Utility User's Manual.
When you set up your system, you specify configuration information for all boards in the system in an AG configuration file. In this file, you specify whether a board performs MVIP switching , which board is the MVIP clock master, what software modules to transfer to the board's memory on startup (including which TCPs to load), and so on. Chapter 3 describes how to create an AG configuration file for your setup.
To configure your boards based on the information in the AG configuration file, run the agmon utility. agmon transfers to each board all software modules specified in the file, and performs any other configuration activities needed. It then monitors the boards for errors and other events.
Whenever you make a change to your AG configuration file, you must launch agmon again to make your changes effective.
The runfile is the basic low-level software which an AG board requires to operate. When agmon runs, the runfile is transferred from the host into on-board memory, and the board boots.
Several runfiles are installed with your CT Access or AG Access software. You specify the file to use in the AG configuration file. (To learn how to do this, see Chapter 3.)
The following table summarizes the steps to take to install the hardware and software components in the computer, and to verify that the installation is operational.
|
Step |
Description |
For details, see ... |
|
1 |
Make sure the board's I/O address space does not conflict with that of any other device in the system. Change the I/O address if necessary. |
Section 2.3 of this manual. |
|
2 |
Insert the board into one of your computer's ISA slots. |
Section 2.6.1 of this manual. |
|
3 |
Connect the MVIP bus connector, if necessary. |
Section 2.6.1 of this manual. |
|
4 |
The AG Access Installation Manual or CT Access Installation Manual. | |
|
5 |
Install any country-specific protocol software you require that did not come with CT Access or AG Access. |
The Developer's Reference Manual that came with your protocol software. |
|
6 |
Read the readme file that came with the software. |
The Developer's Reference Manual that came with your protocol software. |
|
7 |
Create an AG configuration file describing your setup so agmon will configure your board properly when it runs. |
Chapter 3 of this manual, the AG Runtime Configuration and Developer's Manual, and the Developer's Reference Manual that came with your protocol software. |
|
8 |
Run agmon to make your configuration specifications effective. |
The AG Access Installation Manual or CT Access Installation Manual. |
|
9 |
Verify that your installation is operational. |
Chapter 4 of this manual. |
|
10 |
If application development is complete, connect the board to the E1 or T1 network. |
Section 2.8 of this manual. |
|
11 |
Run your application. |
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