ISDN Over Ethernet

Overview

Prior to this release, the communication between the ISDN Series 3 card and the Matrix Controller Series 3 card used the mid-plane HDLC bus. Communication over the HDLC bus slows the maximum number of messages that can be transmitted to be less than 100 per second, not allowing the user to achieve high call rates that require ISDN services.

Using Ethernet communication for messaging between a ISDN Series 3 card and Matrix Controller Series 3 card allows increased performance by providing more message transactions per second.

This feature supports a new RCOMM state machine on the ISDN Series 3 card that monitors the status of the link between this card and Matrix Controller Series 3 card. Communication over the HDLC bus will continue to be supported. Licensing of this feature is not required.

Description

When using the Ethernet communication mode, all the I/O ports are connected to the same physical Ethernet switch/hub. Redundancy at the port level is provided by the RCOMM state machine that monitors the status of the link between the ISDN Series 3 and Matrix Series 3 ports. The message packets are sent out of the port which indicates a link-up state. Additional logic provides a fall-back to the HDLC option in the event of a failure of all the Ethernet ports.

ISDN Series 3 Card and Matrix Controller Series 3 Card Ethernet Interconnections

API Alarm Monitoring

The Alarm (0x00B9) message supports the new 0x02 Card Alarm, 0x52 ISDN Ethernet Unavailable:

• If at any point the message communication mode is changed from Ethernet to the HDLC bus, an alarm is sent to the host.

• An Alarm Cleared (0x00C1) message is sent if the communication mode is changed back to the Ethernet mode.