This page contains configuration instructions and examples for the ftmod_isdn OpenISDN connector plugin for FreeTDM (FreeSWITCH).
Before you start
Make sure you have all the information required for set up:
1. Type of Link?
T1 (US) or J1 (Japan), 23 B-Channels + 1 D-Channel?
E1 (Europe), 30 B-Channels + 1 D-Channel + 1 E-Channel (Sync)?
BRI PtP (Point-to-Point (Germany: Anlagenanschluss)) or BRI PtMP (Point-to-MultiPoint (Germany: Mehrgeräteanschluss))?
2. Mode of link?
TE (Terminal Equipment) / CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) – User side of the connection (e.g. Phone)?
NT (Network Termination) / NET (Network) – Network side (e.g. Phone ports on a PBX)? (NOTE: Unsupported)
3. Dialect used?
Depending on your location or the type of equipment you want to connect to, the link will use one of the following dialects:
EuroISDN (DSS1 / Q.931) – Used in most of Europe, a slightly trimmed down version of the ITU-T Q.931 base standard.
5ESS – The AT&T / Lucent dialect spoken by some equipment in the U.S.
DMS-100 – The Nortel dialect used by some of their equipment, usually found in the U.S.
Q.SIG – International standard for connections between multiple PBXes and private networks (NOTE: Unsupported)
Please make sure whatever you choose here is actually supported by your build of the stack (‘libisdn-config -d’ will tell you).
These are the most important details you’ll need for setup.
Misconfiguration of one of these parameters may cause (sometimes hard to debug) failures later, like:
- Link down (Trunk in state “Not aligned”)
- New Calls in one (outgoing/incoming) or both directions failing
- Active calls aborted
- Errors/Warnings for invalid messages or Information Elements (IEs) reported by the stack
Configuration files
Here’s a short overview of FreeTDM’s configuration files and the settings.
NOTE: The FreeSWITCH wiki pages on FreeTDM have more example configurations.
First we’ll start with freetdm.conf which contains the base per-span settings such as channel mappings and line type:
#[span <IO_MODULE> <SPAN_NAME>] # Name of the FreeTDM I/O plugin (e.g. zt) # # and our name for the span (e.g. PRI_1) #trunk_type => <TYPE> # One of: T1, J1, E1, BRI, BRI_PTMP #b-channel => <LIST OF B-CHANNELS> # List/Range of B-Channel IDs, e.g.: 1-15,17-31 #d-channel => <D-CHANNEL> # D-Channel ID, e.g.: 16 # Example #1: E1 PRI, using a Dahdi/Zaptel card [span zt PRI_1] trunk_type => E1 b-channel => 1-15,17-31 d-channel => 16 # Example #2: BRI PTMP, using a Dahdi/Zaptel card [span zt BRI_1] trunk_type => BRI_PTMP b-channel => 1,2 d-channel => 3
Next up is freetdm.conf.xml, mod_freetdm’s configuration file, where we will have to set mode and dialect parameters for the spans:
<configuration name="freetdm.conf" description="FreeTDM Configuration"> <settings> <param name="debug" value="0"/> </settings> <pri_spans> <!-- Known parameters: mode # One of: te / user or nt / net dialect # Possible values: q931, dms100, 5ess # See 'libisdn-config -d' # output for a list of supported dialects dialplan # Send incoming calls to this dialplan context # Send incoming calls to this context q921loglevel # Layer 2 log level: debug, info, notice, warning, error, critical q931loglevel # Layer 3 log level: debug, info, notice, warning, error, critical --> <!-- Example #1: <span name="PRI_1"> <param name="mode" value="te"/> <param name="dialect" value="q931"/> <param name="dialplan" value="XML"/> <param name="context" value="isdn"/> </span> --> <!-- Example #2: <span name="BRI_1"> <param name="mode" value="te"/> <param name="dialect" value="q931"/> <param name="dialplan" value="XML"/> <param name="context" value="isdn"/> </span> --> </pri_spans> </configuration>