Date: Sun, 29 Sep 1996 00:03:32 -0400 (EDT) From: William Lloyd <wlloyd@tolstoy.mpd.ca> To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org Subject: docs/1688: New handbook isdn section Message-ID: <199609290403.AAA23514@tolstoy.mpd.ca> Resent-Message-ID: <199609290410.VAA04938@freefall.freebsd.org>
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>Number: 1688 >Category: docs >Synopsis: New handbook isdn section >Confidential: no >Severity: non-critical >Priority: low >Responsible: freebsd-bugs >State: open >Class: sw-bug >Submitter-Id: current-users >Arrival-Date: Sat Sep 28 21:10:02 PDT 1996 >Last-Modified: >Originator: William Lloyd >Organization: William Lloyd (wlloyd@mpd.ca) | <http://www.mpd.ca>; >Release: FreeBSD 2.1.5-STABLE i386 >Environment: FreeBSD Stable and Current >Description: New isdn section for the handbook. Drop in replacement for /usr/src/share/doc/handbook/isdn.sgml >How-To-Repeat: >Fix: <!-- $Id$--> <!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project --> <sect><heading>ISDN<label id="isdn"></heading> <p><em>Last modified by <htmlurl url="mailto:wlloyd@mpd.ca" name="<wlloyd@mpd.ca>"></em>. <p>ISDN for FreeBSD is still largely under developement. Specifically, there are a lack of drivers for PC ISDN cards. <p>A good resource for information on ISDN technology and hardware is <htmlurl url="http://alumni.caltech.edu/~dank/isdn/" name="Dan Kegel's ISDN Page">. A quick simple roadmap to ISDN follows: <itemize> <item>If you live in Europe I suggest you investigate the ISDN card section. <item>If you are planning to use ISDN primarily to connect to the internet with an Internet Provider on a dialup non-dedicated basis, I suggest you look into Terminal Adapters. This will give you the most flexibility, with the fewest problems, if you change providers. <item>If you are conecting two lans together, or connecting to the internet with a dedicated ISDN connection, I suggest you consider the Standalone router/bridge option. </itemize> <p>Cost is a significant factor in determining what solution you will choose. The following options are listed from least expensive to most expensive. <sect1><heading>ISDN Cards</heading> <p><em>Originally Contribution by &a.hm;.</em> <p>This section is really only relevant to European ISDN users. The cards supported are not yet(?) availible for North American ISDN standards. <p>PC ISDN cards support the full bandwidth of ISDN, 128Kbs. These cards are often the least expensive type of ISDN equipment. <p>There is the bisdn ISDN package available from <htmlurl url="ftp://ftp.muc.ditec.de/isdn" name="ftp.muc.ditec.de"> supporting FreeBSD 2.1R, FreeBSD-current and NetBSD. The latest source can be found on the above mentioned ftp server under directory isdn as file bisdn-097.tar.gz. There are drivers for the following cards: <itemize> <item>Currently all (passive) Teles cards and their clones are supported for the EuroISDN (DSS1) and 1TR6 protocols. <item>Dr. Neuhaus - Niccy 1016 </itemize> There are several limitations with the bisdn stuff. Specifically the following features usually associated with ISDN are not supported. <itemize> <item>No PPP support, only raw hdlc. This means you cannot connect to a some standalone routers, such as a Cisco unit. <item>Bridging Control Protocol not supported. <item>Multiple cards are not supported. <item>No bandwidth on demand. <item>No channel bundling. </itemize> A majordomo maintained mailing list is available, to subscribe, send the usual majordomo requests to <htmlurl url="mailto:isdn-request@muc.ditec.de" name="isdn-request@muc.ditec.de">. <sect1><heading>ISDN Terminal Adapters</heading> <p>Terminal adapters(TA), are to ISDN what modems are to regular phone lines. <p>Most TA's use the standard hayes modem AT command set, and can be used as a drop in replacement for a modem. A TA will operate basically the same as a modem except connection and throughput speeds will be much faster than your old modem. You will need to configure <ref id="ppp" name="PPP"> exactly the same as for a modem setup. Make sure you set your serial speed as high as possible. The main advantage of using a TA to connect to an Internet Provider is that you can do Dynamic PPP. As IP address space becomes more and more scarce, most providers are not willing to provide you with a static IP anymore. Most standalone routers are not able to accomidate dynamic IP allocation. TA's completely rely on the PPP daemon that you are running for their features and stabiliy of connection. This allows you to upgrade easily from using a modem to ISDN on a FreeBSD machine, if you already have PPP setup. However, at the same time any problems you experienced with the PPP program and are going to persist. If you want maximum stability, use the kernel <ref id="ppp" name="PPP"> option, not the user-land <ref id="userppp" name="iijPPP">. <p>The following TA's are know to work with FreeBSD. <itemize> <item>Motorola BitSurfer and Bitsurfer Pro <item>Adtran </itemize> Most other TA's will probably work as well, TA vendors try to make sure their product can accept most of the standard modem AT command set. The real problam with external TA's is like modems you need a good serial card in your computer. You should read the <ref id="uart" name="serial ports"> section in the handbook for a detailed understanding of serial devices, and the differences between asynchronous and synchronous serial ports. A TA running off a standard PC serial port (asynchronous) limits you to 115.2Kbs, even though you have a 128Kbs connection. To fully utilize the 128Kbs that ISDN is capable of, you must move the TA to a synchronous serial card. Do not be fooled into buying an internal TA and thinking you have avoided the synchronous/asynchronous issue. Internal TA's simply have a standard PC serial port chip built into them. All this will do, is save you having to buy another serial cable, and find another empty electrical socket. A synchronous card with a TA is at least as fast as a standalone router, and with a simple 386 FreeBSD box driving it, probably more flexible. The choice of sync/TA vs standalone router is largely a religious issue. There has been some discussion of this in the mailing lists. I suggest you search the <htmlurl url="http://www.freebsd.org/search.html" name="archives"> for the complete discussion. <sect1><heading>Standalone ISDN Bridges/Routers</heading> <p>ISDN bridges or routers are not at all specific to FreeBSD or any other operating system. For a more complete description of routing and bridging technology, please refer to a Networking reference book. In the context of this page, I will use router and bridge interchangeably. <p>As the cost of low end ISDN routers/bridges comes down, it will likely become a more and more popular choice. An ISDN router is a small box that plugs directly into your local ethernet network(or card), and manages it's own connection to the other bridge/router. It has all the software to do PPP and other protocols built in. A router will allow you much faster thoughput that a standard TA, since it will be using a full synchronous ISDN connection. The main problem with ISDN routers and bridges is that interoperability between manufacturers can still be a problem. If you are planning to connect to an Internet provider, I recommend that you discuss your needs with them. <p>If you are planning to connect two lan segments together, ie: home lan to the office lan, this is the simplest lowest maintenance solution. Since you are buying the equipment for both sides of the connection you can be assured that the link will work. For example to connect a home computer or branch office network to a head office network the following setup could be used. <em>Branch office or Home network</em> Network is 10 Base T ethernet. Connect router to network cable with AUI/10bT transciever if necessary. <verb> ---Sun workstation | ---FreeBSD box | ---Windows 95 (Don't admit to owning it) | Standalone router | ISDN BRI line </verb> If your home/branch office is only one computer you can use a twisted pair crossover cable to connect to the standalone router directly. <em>Head office or other lan</em> Network is Twisted Pair ethernet. <verb> -------Novell Server | H | | ---Sun | | | U ---FreeBSD | | | ---Windows 95 | B | |___---Standalone router | ISDN BRI line </verb> One large advantage of most routers/bridges is that they allow you to have 2 SEPERATE INDEPENDANT PPP connections to 2 seperate sites at the SAME time. This is not supported on most TA's, except for specific(expensive) models that have two serial ports. Do not confuse this with channel bonding. This is a very usefull feature for example if you have an dedicated internet ISDN connection at your office and would like to tap into it, but don't want to get another ISDN line at work. A router at the office location can manage a dedicated B channel connection (64Kbs) to the internet as well as a use the other B channel for anything else, including dialin or dialout to another location or dynamically bonding it with the internet connection for more bandwidth. An alternate use of this is to connect to 2 different branch offices at the same time from the same ISDN line at your central office. >Audit-Trail: >Unformatted:
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