path: root/README

Zapata Telephony Interface Driver
=================================
Asterisk Development Team <asteriskteam@digium.com>
$Revision$, $Date$

Zaptel is a short for ZAPata TELephony.

Supported Hardware
------------------
Digital Cards
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- wct4xxp:
  * Digium TE205P/TE207P/TE210P/TE212P: PCI dual-port T1/E1/J1
  * Digium TE405P/TE407P/TE410P/TE412P: PCI quad-port T1/E1/J1
  * Digium TE220: PCI-Express dual-port T1/E1/J1
  * Digium TE420: PCI-Express quad-port T1/E1/J1
- wcte12xp:
  * Digium TE120P: PCI single-port T1/E1/J1
  * Digium TE121: PCI-Express single-port T1/E1/J1
  * Digium TE122: PCI single-port T1/E1/J1
- wcte11xp:
  * Digium TE110P: PCI single-port T1/E1/J1
- wct1xxp: 
  * Digium T100P: PCI single-port T1
  * Digium E100P: PCI single-port E1
- tor2: Tormenta quad-span T1/E1 card from the Zapata Telephony project
- torisa: The old dual-span ISA T1 card from Zapata Telephony


Analog Cards
~~~~~~~~~~~~
- wctdm24xxp: 
  * Digium TDM2400P/AEX2400: up to 24 analog ports
  * Digium TDM800P/AEX800: up to 8 analog ports
  * Digium TDM410: up to 4 analog ports
- wctdm:
  * Digium TDM400P: up to 4 analog ports
- xpp: Xorcom Astribank: a USB connected unit of up to 32 ports
  (includeing the digital BRI and E1/T1 modules)
- wcfxo: X100P, similar and clones. A simple single-port FXO card
- wcusb: Digium S100U: A simple single-port USB FXS unit


Other Drivers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- pciradio: Zapata Telephony PCI Quad Radio Interface
- wctc4xxp: Digium hardware transcoder cards (also need zttranscode)
- ztd-eth: TDM over Ethernet (TDMoE) driver. Requires ztdynamic
- ztd-loc: Mirror a local span. Requires ztdynamic
- ztdummy: A dummy driver that only provides a zaptel timing source.


Build Requirements
------------------
You will need a matching kernel source tree and a working Linux build 
system. Some of the programs require some additional libraries.

The script install_prereq should help you install the
required packages. To see what it suggests, run:

  ./install_prereq test

You can either copy/paste that code to a terminal to run it, or just
run:

  ./install_prereq install


Kernel Source / "Headers"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Building zaptel requires a kernel build tree.
- This should basically be at least a partial kernel source tree and
  most importantly, the exact kernel .config file used for the build as
  well as several files generated at kernel build time.
- KERNEL_VERSION is the output of the command `uname -r`
- If you build your own kernel, you need to point to the exact kernel
  build tree. Luckily for you, this will typically be pointed by the
  symbolic link /lib/modules/KERNEL_VERSION/build which is the location
  zaptel checks by default.
- If you use a kernel from your distribution you will typically have a
  package with all the files required to build a kernel modules for your
  kernel image.
  * On Debian Etch and above and any Ubuntu this is
    +++ linux-headers-`uname -r` +++
  * On Fedora, RHEL and compatibles (e.g. CentOS) this is the
    kernel-devel package. Or if you run kernel-smp or kernel-xen, you
    need kernel-smp-devel or kernel-xen-devel, respectively.
  * On SUSE you seem to need the package kernel-source .
  * In some distributions (e.g.: in RHEL/CentOS, Fedora, Ubuntu) the 
    installation of the kernel-devel / kernel-headers package will 
    be of a version that is newer than the one you currently run. In 
    such a case you may need to upgrade the kernel package itself as 
    well and reboot.
- To point explicitly to a different build tree: set KSRC to the kernel 
  source tree and KVERS to the exact kernel version:

  make KVERS=2.6.18.Custom KSRC=/home/tzafrir/kernels/2.6.18


Kernel Configuration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you build a custom kernel, note the following configuration items:

- CONFIG_CRC_CCITT must be enabled ('y' or 'm'). On 2.6 kernels this can 
  be selected These can be selected from the "Library Routines" submenu 
  during kernel configuration via "make menuconfig".
- If you don't have any zaptel hardware, you need ztdummy.
  * ztdummy on i386/x86_64 with kernels >= 2.6.22 can (and should) use 
    high resolution times (CONFIG_HIGH_RES_TIMERS), and (if available, 
    the system HPET.
  * ztdummy on i386/x86_64 and later kernels (>= 2.6.15) can use the 
    system's RTC (Real Time Clock).
  * Alternatives to that for ztdummy are a UHCI USB controller (USB
    controllers made by Intel or VIA) or a kernel that has HZ=1000
    (default on kernels 2.6.0-2.6.12, optional on newer kernels. Not
    possible on 2.4).


A Build System
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
gcc and friends. Generally you will need to install the package gcc.
There may be cases where you will need a specific version of gcc to build
kernel modules.


Extra Libraries
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some libraries are needed for extra utilities that are provided with
Zaptel

- libusb is needed for building fpga_load, needed for firmware loading of
  the Xorcom Astribank.
- libnewt is needed to build the optional but useful utility zttool.


Distribution-Specific Instructions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
==== Debian 4.0 (Etch)
  apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential libnewt-dev libusb-dev

==== Debian 3.1 (Sarge)
  apt-get install kernel-headers-`uname -r` build-essential libnewt-dev libusb-dev

==== RHEL4 / CentOS 4
You need the following non-kernel-related packages:

  yum install gcc newt-devel libusb-devel

If the following command produces an error, you need to install
the kernel devel package:

  ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/.config

The right one depends on your kernel version. If the following command
produces output you have an SMP kernel:

  uname -r | grep smp

and thus need to run:

  yum install kernel-smp kernel-smp-devel

If that command produced no output, you have a non-SMP kernel:

  yum install kernel kernel-devel

At this point you should probably reboot to get the new kernel in effect.


Installation
------------
Note: If using `sudo` to build/install, you may need to add /sbin to your PATH.
----------------------------------
make
make install
# To install init scripts and config files:
#make config
----------------------------------


Build Tweaks
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Extra Modules
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
To build extra modules / modules directory not included in the Zaptel 
distribution, use the optional variables MODULES_EXTRA and
SUBDIRS_EXTRA:

  make MODULES_EXTRA="mod1 mod2"
  make MODULES_EXTRA="mod1 mod2" SUBDIRS_EXTRA="subdir1/ subdir1/"

Note that those names are not guaranteed to continue to work on newer
versions. Hopefully there will be no need for such extra configuration.

Partial Build/Install
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There are some make targets that are provided to build or install just
parts of Zaptel:

. Build targets:
  - make modules: build just the kernel modules.
  - make programs: Build just the Zaptel userspace programs. partial 
    targets of it:
    * make 'utilname': builds 'utilname' alone (e.g: `make ztdiag`)
    * make utils: Build libtonezone.
    * make libs: Build libtonezone.
. Install targets:
  - make install-modules: install just kernel modules.
  - make firmware: download and install firmwares for Digium cards
  - make install-programs: Userspace: Partial targets of it are:
    * make install-utils: install Zaptel userspace programs and
      and basic support files.
    * make install-libs: install libtonezone
    * make install-include: install zaptel.h
  - make config: should be run once to configure 

Building to a Subtree
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The following may be useful when testing the package or when preparing a
package for a binary distribution (such as an rpm package) installing
onto a subtree rather than on th real system. 

  make install DESTDIR=targetdir

This can be useful for any partial install target of the above (e.g:
install-modules or install-programs).

the targetdir must be an absolute path, at least if you install the
modules. To install to a relative path you can use something like:

  make install-modules DESTDIR=$PWD/target

The 'install' target might fail if run as a user to a DESTDIR when
attempting to generate device files. In that case, try:

  make install DESTDIR=$PWD/target DYNFS=


Configuration
-------------
zaptel.conf
~~~~~~~~~~~
The main method to configure Zaptel devices is using the utility
*ztcfg*. ztcfg reads data from the configuration file /etc/zaptel.conf ,
figures out what configuration to send to channels, and send it. 

A sample annotated zaptel.conf is included in this directory and
installed by default to /etc/zaptel.conf . Edit it to suit your
configuration. Alternatively use the script genzaptelconf to generate
one that should work with your system.


sysconfig/default
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The configuration file of the zaptel init.d script is either
/etc/default/zaptel (Debian systems) or /etc/sysconfig/zaptel (most
others). That file is used to override defaults that are set at the
beginning of the init.d script.

For instance, to define for the init.d script to load the modules wctdm
and xpp_usb (in that order) add the following line to that file:

  MODULES="wctdm xpp_usb"

Currently that file must set "TELEPHONY=yes" for the zaptel init.d to
work.

Module Parameters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The kernel modules can be configured through module parameters. Module
parameters can optionally be set at load time. They are normally set (if
needed) by a line in a file under /etc/modprobe.d/ or in the file
/etc/modprobe.conf (Or /etc/modules.conf in kernel 2.4).

Example line:

  options zaptel debug=1

The module parameters can normally be modified at runtime through sysfs:

  pungenday:~# cat /sys/module/zaptel/parameters/debug 
  0
  pungenday:~# echo 1 >/sys/module/zaptel/parameters/debug
  pungenday:~# cat /sys/module/zaptel/parameters/debug 
  1

Viewing and setting parameters that way is possible as of kernel 2.6 .
In kernels older than 2.6.10, the sysfs "files" for the parameters
reside directly under /sys/module/'module_name' .

Useful module parameters:

debug (most modules)::
  Sets debug mode / debug level. With most modules 'debug' can be either
  disabled (0, the default value) or enabled (any other value). 
  +
  +
  wctdm and wcte1xp print several extra debugging messages if the value
  of debug is more than 1.
  +
  +
  Some modules have "debugging flags" bits - the value of debug is a
  bitmask and several messages are printed if some bits are set:
  - ztdummy:
    * 1: DEBUG_GENERAL - general error messages.
    * 2: DEBUG_TICKS - Show that the module is alive :-)
  - wctdm24xxp:
    * 1: DEBUG_CARD
    * 2: DEBUG_ECHOCAN
  - wct4xxp:
    * 1: DEBUG_MAIN
    * 2: DEBUG_DTMF
    * 4: DEBUG_REGS
    * 8: DEBUG_TSI
    * 16: DEBUG_ECHOCAN
    * 32: DEBUG_RBS
    * 64: DEBUG_FRAMER
  - xpp: Previously (before 1.2.26 / 1.4.11) it was called "print_dbg". 
    See also README.Astribank:
    * 1: GENERAL - General debug comments.
    * 2: PCM - PCM-related messages. Tend to flood logs.
    * 4: LEDS - Anything related to the LEDs status control. The driver
      produces a lot of messages when the option is enabled.
    * 8: SYNC - Synchronization related messages.
    * 16: SIGNAL - Zaptel signalling related messages.
    * 32: PROC - Messages related to the procfs interface.
    * 64: REGS - Reading and writing to chip registers. Tends to flood
          logs.
    * 128: DEVICES - Device instantiation, destruction and such.
    * 256 - COMMANDS - Protocol commands. Tends to flood logs.

deftaps (zaptel)::
  The default size for the echo canceller. The number is in "taps", that
  is "samples", 1/8 ms. The default is 64 - for a tail size of 8 ms.
  +
  +
  Asterisk's chan_zap tends to pass its own value anyway, with a
  different default size. So normally setting this doesn't change
  anything.

To get a list of parameters supported by a module, use 

  modinfo module_name

Or, for a module you have just built:

  modinfo ./module_name.ko

For the xpp modules this will also include the description and default
value of the module. You can find a list of useful xpp module parameters
in README.Astribank .


Reference Configuration
-----------------------
include::zaptel.conf.asciidoc[]


Zaptel PERL modules
-------------------
The directory xpp/utils has, in addition to helper utilities for the
Xorcom Astribank, a collection of perl modules to provide information
related to Zaptel. The perl modules themselves are under xpp/utils/zconf .
In xpp/utils there are several utilities that use those modules:
- xpp-specific: zt_registration, xpp_sync, xpp_blink .
- General: lszaptel, zapconf, zaptel_hardware

On zaptel 1.2 they are not installed by default. To install them, run:

  make -C xpp/utils install

Those utilities require the perl modules to be installed, however they
will also look for them in the directory zconf, and thus can be run
directly from the zaptel source tree. For example:

  ./xpp/utils/zaptel_hardware

To get usage information on a program, you can also use perldoc
(sometimes provided in a package separate from perl itself). For
instance:

  perldoc ./xpp/utils/lszaptel

Some of them are specific for the Xorcom Astribank and described in its
docuemntation. the others are:

lszaptel:: 
  A somewhat glorified `cat /proc/zaptel/*`.
zapconf:: 
  An currently experimental and intended to eventually replace
  genzaptelconf by a more maintainable code.
zaptel_drivers::
  A two-liner script (not installed by default) that simply returns the
  modules that should be modprobed on this system.
zaptel_hardware:: 
  Uses the information from sysfs and its own knowledge to show
  what PCI/USB Zaptel hardware is connected and if it is currently used
  by a driver. Shows also some more information for Astrobanks from
  /proc/xpp .

Internals
---------
Zaptel Device Files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Userspace programs will usually interact with Zaptel through device
files under the /dev/zap directory (pedantically: characted device files 
with major number 196) . Those device files can be generated statically
or dynamically through the udev system.

* /dev/zap/ctl (196:0) - a general device file for various information and
  control operations on the zaptel channels.
* /dev/zap/NNN (196:NNN) - for NNN in the range 1-249. A device file for
  zaptel channel NNN. It can be used to read data from the channel
  and write data to the channel.
* /dev/zap/transcode (196:250) - Used to connect to a zaptel transcoding
  device.
* /dev/zap/timer (196:253) - Allows setting timers. Used anywhere?
* /dev/zap/channel (196:254) - Can be used to open an arbitrary zaptel
  channel. This is an alternative to /dev/zap/NNN that is not limited to
  249 channels.
* /dev/zap/pseudo (196:255) - A timing-only device. Every time you open
  it, a new Zaptel channel is created. That Zaptel channel is "pseudo" -
  Zaptel recieves no data in it, and only sends garbage data with the
  same timing as the Zaptel timing master device.


Zaptel Timing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A PBX system should generally have a single clock. If you are connected
to a telephony provider via a digital interface (e.g: E1, T1) you should
also typically use the provider's clock (as you get through the
interface). Hence one important job of Asterisk is to provide timing to
the PBX. 

Zaptel "ticks" once per millisecond (1000 times per second). On each
tick every active zaptel channel reads and 8 bytes of data. Asterisk
also uses this for timing, through a zaptel pseudo channel it opens.

However, not all PBX systems are connected to a telephony provider via
a T1 or similar connection. With an analog connection you are not synced
to the other party. And some systems don't have Zaptel hardware at all.
Even a digital card may be used for other uses or is simply not
connected to a provider. Zaptel cards are also capable of providing timing 
from a clock on card. Cheap x100P clone cards are sometimes used for
that pupose.

If all the above fail, you can use the module ztdummy to provide timing
alone without needing any zaptel hardware. It will work with most
systems and kernels.

You can check the zaptel timing source with zttest, which is a small 
utility that is included with zaptel. It runs in cycles. In each such
cycle it tries to read 8192 bytes, and sees how long it takes. If zaptel
is not loaded or you don't have the device files, it will fail
immedietly. If you lack a timing device it will hang forever in the
first cycle. Eitherwise it will just give you in each cycle the percent
of how close it was. Also try running it with the option -v for a
verbose output.

To check the clock source that is built into ztdummy, you can either
look at title of its span in /proc/zaptel file for a "source:" in the
description. Or even run:

  strings zaptel.ko | grep source:


Spans and Channels
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zaptel provides telephony *channels* to the userspace applications. 
Those channels are channels are incoreperated into logical units called
*spans*.

With digital telephony adapters (e.g: E1 or T1), a span normally 
represents a single port. With analog telephony a span typically
represents a PCI adapter or a similar logical unit.

Both channels and spans are identified by enumerating numbers (beginning
with 1). The number of the channel is the lowest unused one when it is
generated, and ditto for spans.


PROCFS Interface: /proc/zaptel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A simple way to get the current list of spans and channels each span
contains is the files under /proc/zaptel . /proc/zaptel is generated by
zaptel as it loads. As each span registers to Zaptel, a file under
/proc/zaptel is created for it. The name of that file is the number of
that span.

Each file has a 1-line title for the span followed by an empty line and
then a line for each channel of the span. 

The title line shows the number of the span, its name and title, and 
(potentially) the alarms in which it is.

The title shows the span number and name, followed by any allarms the
span may have: For example, here is the first span in my system (with no
alarms):

  Span 1: XBUS-00/XPD-00 "Xorcom XPD #0/0: FXS"

The channel line for each channel shows its channel number, name and the
actual signalling assigned to it through ztcfg. Before being configured
by ztcfg: This is Zaptel channel 2, whose name is 'XPP_FXS/0/0/1'.

           2 XPP_FXS/0/0/1

After being configured by ztcfg: the signalling 'FXOLS' was added. FXS
channels have FXO signalling and vice versa:

           2 XPP_FXS/0/0/1 FXOLS

If the channel is in use (typically opened by Asterisk) then you will
see an extra '(In use)':

           2 XPP_FXS/0/0/1 FXOLS (In use)

PPP Support
-----------
Zaptel digital cards can provide data channels through ppp as
point-to-point connections. This requires a plugin to the ppp daemon
that is included in the ppp/ subdirectory. To install it:

1. Make sure you have the PPP source / headers installed. On Debian:

   apt-get install ppp-dev

2. Run 'make' on the ppp subdirectory:

   make -C ppp 
   make -C ppp install

3. Make sure your kernel has support for both PPP (which is common is
   distribution kernels and for HDLC (much less common) - CONFIG_PPP and
   CONFIG_HDLC .


What is the license for the zaptel driver?
------------------------------------------
libpri is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, 
which permit its use and linking with other GPL'd software only.  
The GNU GPL is included in the file LICENSE in this directory.

If you wish to use the zaptel drivers in an application for which the 
GPL is not appropriate (e.g. a proprietary embedded system), licenses
under more flexible terms can be readily obtained through Digium, Inc.at reasonable cost.


How do I report bugs or contribute?
-----------------------------------
Please report bug and patches to the Asterisk.org bug tracker at
http://bugs.digium.com in the "zaptel" category.


Does anything use this library so far?
--------------------------------------
Yes, the Asterisk Open Source PBX does. http://www.asterisk.org


Links
-----
- http://asterisk.org/[] - The Asterisk PBX
- http://voip-info.org/[]
- http://voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk+Zaptel+Installation[]
- http://www.zapatatelephony.org/[] - A historical site.