AG hardware initialization

A very important point to using the features in ActiveAG is to understand that they rely on firmware running on your AG hardware. How this firmware is loaded and started will determine whether your program will be able to use certain ActiveAG features successfully. This topic presents an overview of the firmware components and their relationship with ActiveAG features.

AG cards are initialized by the AGMON program that comes with CT Access. AGMON loads firmware to your AG cards as directed by the contents of the system’s AG.CFG file. AG.CFG is basically an INI file used to direct the NMS AGMON program in loading and booting the AG hardware.

There are two different types of firmware that are downloaded to your hardware when the board is initialized: TCP files and DSP files. Both of these are controlled by statements that appear in your system’s AG.CFG file.

TCP files:

Trunk control protocol (TCP) files control how the AG hardware expects to interract with the telephone circuit to perform call control functions.

TCP = nocc.tcp # "no trunk control" protocol

TCP = lps0.tcp # loop start protocol

TCP = did0.tcp # DID (incoming wink start) protocol

TCP = wnk0.tcp # Two-way wink start protocol

TCP = ogt0.tcp # Outgoing wink start protocol

The TCP file(s) that are loaded should correspond to the protocol your program expects to use on the lines connected to the AG hardware. The “protocol” argument your program supplies to the ActiveAG OpenLine method must match at least on of the TCP files that were loaded to your AG hardware.

DSP files:

These files directly control what the DSP’s on your AG hardware will be capable of:

DspFile = tone.dsp # Beep, tone generation, dial

DspFile = callp.dsp # Call Progress detection

DspFile = signal.dsp # Out-of-band channel associated signalling

DspFile = dtmf.dsp # DTMF, cleardown and silence/energy detectors

DspFile = voice.dsp # NMS ADPCM play and record

DspFile = adsir.dsp # Caller ID and ADSI receive

DspFile = mf.dsp # MF detection

DspFile = rvoice.dsp # Unformatted PCM play and record

DspFile = okiply.dsp # OKI ADPCM play

DspFile = okirec.dsp # OKI ADPCM record

DspFile = wavply.dsp # WAVE play

DspFile = wavrec.dsp # WAVE record

DspFile = g726p.dsp # G726 play

DspFile = g726r.dsp # G726 record

For example, if your application needs to play WAV files, you must make sure that AG.CFG loads the WAVPLY.DSP file. Similarly, if it needs to record WAV files, AG.CFG must load WAVREC.DSP. If one or both of these is not loaded, then the PlayVoice and RecordVoice methods in ActiveAG will fail when the VoiceFormat property is set to AagConWAVE16Voice or AagConWAVE8Voice.

It isn’t necessary to load all the available DSP files, as shown above. You should load only the files that your program expects to use on the AG hardware. To prevent a DSP file from being loaded, simply type a “#” character at the start of that line in the AG.CFG file.

Note that if any of the first five DSP files in this list are missing, many features in ActiveAG will not work. This will be due to a lack of capability by the AG hardware, not a software failure – although it will appear to be a software failure.