Fax Sync Solution

Fax Quality and Reliability on T1/E1, BRI & Analog Phone Systems

Until now, users of Asterisk^® and other PC-based systems with T1/E1 or BRI connections needed a separate external analog line at an additional cost if they wanted reliable fax service. Fax machines connected to a PBX using T1/E1 or BRI connections would run inconsistently at best because the analog interface supporting the fax machine were not synchronized with the PSTN timing.

Sangoma's latest AFT hardware & firmware revisions include an option for the analog card to receive its clocking from a T1/E1 or BRI card via a simple two-wire jumper cable.

1. Synchronization Cable
2. Hardware Requirements
3. Firmware Requirements
4. Driver Requirements
5. Configuration Requirements
6. Asterisk: T.38
                  Hylafax
                  fax detection
7. FreeSWITCH: T.38

 

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Synchronization Cable

Standard Two Pin Jumper cable, also available from Sangoma. 

Install the cable on to the board jumpers RED cable uppermost both sides as shown in the picture.

 

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Hardware Requirements

List of currently supported hardware:

          AFT A101/2/4/8dm: All AFT T1/E1 cards with HW Echo Cancellation
                   - hardware echo canceler is mandatory

AFT A500d: BRI card
         - If the card is being used as a clocking source then hardware echo canceler is mandatory
         - If the card is receiving the clock then the hardware echo canceler is NOT mandatory

          AFT A200: Quad Port Analog FXO/FXS Card, (upto to 24 ports)
                   - hardware echo canceler is optional for analog cards
 
          AFT A400: 12 Port Analog FXO/FXS Card, (upto 24 ports)
                   - hardware echo canceler is optional for analog cards
 
          AFT B600: 5 Port Analog FXO/FXS Card  (Note: Sync cable goes on jumper JP6)
                   - hardware echo canceler is optional for analog cards

Please note that AFT A101/2/4/8 and A200/400 cards that were shipped before June 1st, 2007 do not support this feature and are not field upgradeable!

This feature is only supported on Maxim based T1/E1 AFT cards (AFT A101dm/A102dm/A104dm/A108dm).

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Firmware Requirements

The minimum AFT hardware firmware requirements that support clock synchronization.

          AFT A101dm --- V31
          AFT A102dm --- V31
          AFT A104dm --- V31
          AFT A108dm --- V31
          AFT A200      --- V10
          AFT A400      --- V10
          AFT A500      --- V31

Latest Firmware Download

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Driver Requirements

Download: Wanpipe driver

 

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Configuration 

 

All T1/E1 & BRI cards supporting this feature will automatically provide the clock, and therefore no additional configuration is necessary.
 
The latest wanpipe releases have updated configuration utilities (wancfg and wancfg_dahdi) to configure AFT Analog devices for external clock sync.

The Analog Cards must be configure with RM_NETWORK_SYNC option.  This option configures the Analog card to accept the clock from the jumper cable.
If the clock is not present, the analog card will not start!

AFT T1/E1 + Analog Fax

• Use the wancfg_dahdi configuratoin tool.  There will be a prompt for taking the clock source from another card in the system, select YES
  You will be prompted for this option if there is a T1/E1 or BRI card with HWEC in your system.
  -> Refer to Asterisk Wanpipe Configuration for T1/E1/Analog  

AFT A500 + Analog Fax

• Use the wancfg_dahdi (for wanpipe driver versions 3.5.21 and above) or  wancfg_smg (for wanpipe driver 3.5.20 and below) configuration tool. 
  You will be prompted for this option if there is a BRI card with HWEC in your system.
  -> Refer to Asterisk Wanpipe Configuration for BRI

 

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Manual Configuration
In the configuration files for Analog cards only, please add RM_NETWORK_SYNC = YES as follows:

#================================================
# WANPIPE2 Configuration File
#================================================
#
# Date: Tue Apr 24 16:59:04 EDT 2007
#
# Note: This file was generated automatically
#       by /usr/sbin/wancfg program.
#
#       If you want to edit this file, it is
#       recommended that you use wancfg program
#       to do so.
#================================================
# Sangoma Technologies Inc.
#================================================

[devices]
wanpipe2 = WAN_AFT_ANALOG, Comment

[interfaces]
w2g1 = wanpipe2, , TDM_VOICE, Comment
[wanpipe2]
CARD_TYPE       = AFT
S514CPU         = A
CommPort        = PRI
AUTO_PCISLOT    = NO
PCISLOT         = 9
PCIBUS           = 1
FE_MEDIA       = FXO/FXS
TDMV_LAW        = MULAW
TDMV_OPERMODE   = FCC
RM_NETWORK_SYNC = YES
MTU             = 1500
UDPPORT         = 9000
TTL             = 255
IGNORE_FRONT_END = NO
TDMV_SPAN       = 2

[w2g1]
ACTIVE_CH       = ALL
TDMV_ECHO_OFF   = NO
TDMV_HWEC       = NO