(Page 1 of 1 in this chapter)

Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 About AG Boards
1.2 AG Runtime Files
1.3 Configuring an AG Board
1.3.1 Configuring the Board Number
1.3.2 Interrupts
1.3.3 Telephony Bus Configuration
1.3.4 Configuring AG Board Functionality

1.1 About AG Boards

The Alliance Generation (AG) family of telephony boards provide a range of scalable hardware products which provide:

All AG boards are controlled by a common board driver and configured by a single configuration file and utility program.

The following AG boards are available:
AG Board

 Bus

 Line Interfaces

 DSP Resources

AG-8

 ISA

 8 analog interfaces

 8 ports

AG-T1

ISA

 1 T1 trunk (24 channels)

 24 ports

AG-E1

ISA

 1 E1 trunk (30 channels)

 30 ports

AG Quad T

PCI

 4 T1 trunks (96 channels)

 60 ports

AG Quad E

PCI

 4 E1 trunks (120 channels)

 60 ports

AG Dual T

PCI

 2 T1 trunks (48 channels)

 60 ports

AG Dual E

PCI

 2 E1 trunks (60 channels)

 60 ports

Quad Connect T

PCI

 4 T1 trunks (96 channels)

 none

Quad Connect E

PCI

 4 E1 trunks (120 channels)

 none

AG-8 DSP

ISA

 none

 8 ports

AG-24

ISA

 none

 24 ports

AG-30

ISA

 none

 30 ports

AG-48

ISA

 none

 48 ports

AG-60

ISA

 none

 60 ports

CompactPCI AG Quad T

 PCI

 4 T1 trunks (96 channels)

 60 ports

CompactPCI AG Quad E

PCI

 4 E1 trunks (120 channels)

 60 ports

AG 2000 and AG 4000 boards feature high performance digital signal processors (DSPs) and a new DSP architecture. These boards are software compatible with CT Access applications developed on first generation AG boards:
Board

 Bus

 Description

 DSP Resources

AG 2000/100-8L

PCI

 8 analog interfaces

 8 ports

AG 2000/200-8L

PCI

 8 analog interfaces

 8 ports

AG 2000/400-8L

PCI

 8 analog interfaces

 8 ports

AG 4000/1600-4T

PCI

 4 T1 trunks

Up to 120 ports

AG 4000/1600-4E

PCI

 4 E1 trunks

Up to 120 ports

AG 4000/3200-4T

PCI

 4 T1 trunks

Up to 120 ports

AG 4000/3200-4E

PCI

 4 E1 trunks

Up to 120 ports

AG 4000/4000-4T

PCI

 4 T1 trunks

Up to 120 ports

AG 4000/4000-4E

PCI

 4 E1 trunks

Up to 120 ports

There are multiple configurations for AG 2000 and AG 4000 boards (i.e., AG 2000 and AG 4000 boards may be ordered with different numbers of DSPs). See the AG 2000 Installation and Developer's Manual and the AG 4000 Installation and Developer's Manual for a complete list of boards and processing capabilities.

Other NMS boards are available which provide additional network interfaces and functions. These boards have their own board drivers and initialization methods.
Board

 Bus

 Line Interfaces

 DSP Resources

 Features

AG Connect boards

ISA

 Up to 24 analog trunk or analog station interfaces

 none

 5 conferences, 16 seats

ATI/ASI boards

ISA

 Up to 24 analog trunk or analog station interfaces

 none

WTI-8

ISA

 8 international analog trunks

 none

 21 conferences, 56 seats

QX 2000 boards

ISA

 4 international analog trunks

 4 ports

AG Conference board

ISA

 none

 none

 42 conferences, 128 seats

MC1 board

ISA

 none

 none

 MC1 bus interface

For information on configuring and initializing these boards, see the installation and developer's manual for the specific board.

1.2 AG Runtime Files

The files that control AG boards are referred to as AG runtime files. The AG runtime files include:

The AG runtime files are installed as part of CT Access.

1.3 Configuring an AG Board

The AG configuration file specifies how the application addresses the board and how the board is configured. In the AG configuration file, you define the :

1.3.1 Configuring the Board Number

Each AG board in the system is identified by a board number. The board number is assigned in the AG configuration file. When developing applications using CT Access, you open the ADI service specifying the board number of a specific AG board.

For AG boards on the ISA bus, the board is assigned a number by specifying the board address in the AG configuration file. For example:

Board 0
  Address = 2C0
  # other board specific configurations
End Board
The board address is typically assigned by configuring the DIP switches or jumpers on the board. The installation and developer's manual that came with the AG board specifies valid board addresses and DIP switch settings.

For AG boards on the PCI bus, you do not configure the address or interrupt vector. Those are automatically configured by the PC. To identify an AG board on the PCI bus, you specify the PCI bus number and PCI slot number of the bus. For example:

Board 1
  PCIbus = 0
  PCIslot = 2
  # other board specific configurations
End Board
If you do not know the PCI bus and slot location of your PCI board, use the AG board locate utility. blocate displays a list of all AG boards on the PCI bus with their corresponding PCI bus and slot number and interrupt assignment.

Note: If you have more than one AG PCI board in your system, blocate lists all boards and their assignments. To determine the location of a specific board, use blocate to associate the PCI bus assignment to a physical board by flashing an LED on the corresponding board. See Appendix D for details on blocate. If you have installed the hot swap software, you can use the pciscan utility instead of blocate. For more information about pciscan, refer to the Hot Swap Developer's Manual.

The following table specifies the host PC bus, telephony bus connection, and switch for each AG board:
AG Board

 Host PC Interface

 Telephony Bus

 Switch

AG-8

 ISA bus

 MVIP-90

 FMIC

AG-T1

 ISA bus

 MVIP-90

 FMIC

AG-E1

 ISA bus

 MVIP-90

 FMIC

AG Quad T

 PCI bus

 H.100

 HMIC

AG Quad E

 PCI bus

 H.100

 HMIC

AG Dual T

 PCI bus

 H.100

 HMIC

AG Dual E

 PCI bus

 H.100

 HMIC

Quad Connect T

 PCI bus

 H.100

 HMIC

Quad Connect E

 PCI bus

 H.100

 HMIC

AG-8 DSP

 ISA bus

 MVIP-90

 FMIC

AG-24

 ISA bus

 MVIP-90

 none

AG-30

 ISA bus

 MVIP-90

 none

AG-48

 ISA bus

 MVIP-90

 none

AG-60

 ISA bus

 MVIP-90

 none

AG 2000

 PCI bus

 H.100

 HMIC

AG 4000

 PCI bus

 H.100

 HMIC

CompactPCI AG Quad T

 PCI bus

 H.110

 HMIC

CompactPCI AG Quad E

 PCI bus

 H.110

 HMIC

1.3.2 Interrupts

AG boards use an interrupt line (IRQ) in the host PC to request service from the AG driver to send events and record buffers up to the host PC, and to request new play buffers. AG boards have substantial memory capacity to store events and voice buffers, but still must be serviced regularly or they can lose events or "starve" for buffers to play or record voice.

In order to prevent event or data loss in heavily loaded systems, it is important to set the AG board IRQ level to a higher priority than other high-demand interrupt sources, such as disk controllers and NICs (Ethernet or Token Ring Network Interface Cards).

The priority order from highest to lowest on all "IBM compatible" computers is 0, 1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

AG Boards on the ISA Bus

All AG boards on the ISA bus share a single interrupt. There are no interrupt selection jumpers on AG boards. You specify the interrupt to use for the AG boards in the AG configuration file.

ISA AG boards can be set to 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 15, using the Interrupt keyword in the AG configuration file.

The sample AG configuration files shipped with CT Access set the interrupt to 7, because this works on most machines, but IRQ 7 is the lowest priority interrupt. In a heavily loaded system this could cause the AG boards to be starved for service. In these systems, one of the higher priority interrupts should be used.

AG Boards on the PCI Bus

In the system bios setup, you can allocate a group of interrupts (usually from 1 to 4 interrupts total) to the PCI bus. The system picks which interrupts are actually used by which cards.

The system may choose to share one interrupt across several AG boards, or it may choose to allocate a single interrupt per board. The system may even choose to share interrupts between NMS PCI boards and PCI boards from other vendors.

For heavily loaded systems, allocate the higher priority interrupt to PCI to insure the AG board will not be starved for service.

WARNING:

The system BIOS for every computer system that supports a combination of PCI slots and ISA slots provides some mechanism for assigning interrupts to either legacy ISA slots or to the PCI and plug-n-play ISA slots.

It is critical that all interrupts that are assigned to PCI slots are NOT used by any ISA cards.

Failure to abide by this restriction will cause an AG PCI board to malfunction. It is recommended that you make a complete list of all interrupts in use by ISA boards before configuring an AG PCI board.




agmon will fail to initialize an AG PCI board if a board on the ISA bus uses the interrupt assigned to the PCI board. The board locate utility, blocate, will correctly identify the PCI board, regardless of interrupt conflicts.






1.3.3	 Telephony Bus Configuration





AG boards that connect to the MVIP-90 bus are typically located in ISA bus slots in the host PC. The MVIP-90 bus has 16 data streams, each having 32 timeslots.



AG boards that connect to the H.100 bus are typically located on the PCI bus. The H.100 bus has 32 data streams, each having up to 128 timeslots.


Note:  CompactPCI AG boards connect to the H.110 bus with a default setting of 8 Mhz for all streams.

 


 AG Board Switching



Any AG board that contains a line interface and DSP resources can be configured as a standalone board or it can be connected to other boards via a telephony bus. Connectivity to the telephony bus is specified in the AG configuration file.



For AG boards that do not contain a switch (AG-24/30/48/60), DSP resources are nailed up (statically connected) to telephony bus streams by specifying the streams and timeslots in the AG configuration file.



For AG boards that contain a switch, all switch connections are configured using the CT Access Switching service unless the directive EnableMVIP=NO is present in the ag.cfg file. In this case agmon nails up each line interface channel to a corresponding DSP channel.



The switch model is a convention of naming streams and timeslots connected to a switch block. When making switch connections, applications address the switch block by using a switch model. There are two switch models used for MVIP switching: 




Boards on the MVIP-90 bus use either the MVIP-90 or MVIP-95 switch model. Boards on the H.100 bus and the H.110 bus use the MVIP-95 switch model.


 


 AG Board Numbering



AG board numbers are assigned by agmon, and do not indicate the board's physical location on the PC chassis. agmon sets board numbers based on the board's location in the ag.cfg file. Figure 2 shows an example of how board numbering is unaffected by board location. 



Figure 2.	 AG Board Numbering



 


 Configuring the Clock Master




In a telephony system, one board drives the bus and clock signals. The board that drives the bus clocks is called the bus clock master. All the timing signals are passed across the bus from the clock master. The clock master typically derives its clock from the telephone network (except for systems that only have analog telephone lines).



All other boards (clock slaves) reference their clocks from the bus. See Getting Started With MVIP Switching for more information on telephony bus clocking.



AG boards are configured as clock masters or clock slaves in the 
AG configuration file.



Some boards can act as the clock master, while others cannot. If MVIP bus is enabled, Board 0 must be the clock master. To determine the capabilities of AG boards, see the documentation that came with those boards. If there is a digital network interface board in your system, typically it is configured as the clock master. If the clock master is an AG board, it must be Board 0.


Note:  Board 0 should be a digital board (AG T1 or E1, AG Quad or Dual T1 or E1, AG 4000).


In a system with both H.100 boards and MVIP-90 boards, it is recommended that one of the H.100 boards be configured as the clock master.


Note:  In order to use the clock fallback features in an MC1 system, the MC1 board must be configured as the MVIP bus clock master. In an MC1 system, H.100 boards are configured as clock slaves to the MVIP-90 bus. In this configuration, some H.100 bus streams are configured in MVIP-90 compatibility mode (clocked at 2 MHz) and are limited to 32 timeslots.


Position the clock master board as close to the center of the bus cable as possible. All other boards should be distributed around the clock master.


 






1.3.4	 Configuring AG Board Functionality





Runtime files are downloaded to AG boards during board initialization. The runtime files are specified in the AG configuration file. 



There are several types of files downloaded to the board during initialization: files which are required for the board to run, and files which run desired functions on the DSP resources or the coprocessor. The boot loader file, DSP operating system file, and software run file are necessary for the board to operate correctly. These files can be specified in the AG configuration file. If they are not specified, agmon downloads default files to each AG board by default.



The following table shows types of files downloaded to boards during initialization: 





 File Type



 Keyword



 Description




 .bin



 DSP_OS



 DSP OS files




 .b54



 AG2DSP_Loader



 AG 2000 and AG 4000 DSP boot loader




 .c54



 AG2DSPIMAGE



 AG 2000 and AG 4000 DSP program files that run on C54 processors




 .cor



 Runfile



 Runtime software 




 .dsp



 DspFile



 AG board DSP programs




 .k54



 AG2DSP_OS



 AG 2000 and AG 4000 DSP operating system




 .leo



 RunModule



 Protocol configuration files used with ISDN and Fax protocols




 .m54



 AG2DSPFile



 AG 2000 and AG 4000 DSP programs




 .r54



 AG2DSP_Lib



 AG 2000 and AG 4000 DSP service library




 .rt1



 TaskProcessor



 AG-RT daughterboard DSP programs




 .rt2



 TaskProcessor



 AG-RT/2 daughterboard DSP programs




 .run



 RunFile



 Runtime software for board




 .tcp



 TCP



 Trunk Control Protocol
















Functions running on AG boards are specified with DSP files. The DSP files required for each AG board must be specified in the AG configuration file.



For most configurations, agmon default values correctly configure boards on the chassis. However, some configurations (such as Fusion and Fax configurations), require that the ag.cfg file explicitly designate what files to download to what DSPs. 



The ADI Service Function Reference Manual lists the DSP files required for each ADI service function. Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 of this manual describe DSP resources available for AG boards and the DSP requirements for ADI service functions.








 
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