FreeSWITCH D500 PCI Express Single Server Installation

Owned by Kelli Higdon
Last updated: Mar 15, 2024
4 min read

 

Transcoding Package

 

Download the Latest Sangoma Media Transcoding Release:  
---> sng-tc-linux-1.3.8.i686.tgz                   (2016-01-07)             ChangeLog
---> sng-tc-linux-1.3.8.x86_64.tgz             (2016-01-07)

*A manual firmware upgrade is required to use the above 1.2.x releases for cards 
purchased before November 10th, 2010 
--> Firmware upgrade Procedure 

 

Transcoding Package Downloading & Installing 

To install the transcoding package follow the steps below. Insure you get the URL of the package you need from the list above. 

-> cd /usr/src/
-> wget <URL of Package>
-> tar xfz sng-tc-<ver>-<arch>.tgz
-> cd sng-tc-<arch>-<ver>

  1. make 

  2. make install

Hardware Installation & Configuration

  1. Insert the card in the server and boot it up.

  2. The NIC will be detected as Broadcom

  3. To check if the driver is installed run "ifconfig -a" and see if the new NIC is shown. 

  4. If the card is not detected then you will need to update the Ethernet driver to the latest release. Below is the steps to preform the update. 

-> cd sng-tc-<ver>/server/eth_driver
-> ./install.sh 
The install script will auto detect the NIC ( Broadcom & Micrel).
If drivers are not found it will try to build them for the current kernel you are running or contact Sangoma Technical Support. 
--------------

Configuring the Ethernet device

  • Note this step is distro-dependent

To Configure the network interface (RedHat/Fedora/CentOS-5.x)

--> run: system-config-network
--> Select new eth device created on eth driver module load
--> Specify a private IP address that is on different subnet than your local LAN.           
      eg: 10.1.1.1  netmask 255.255.255.0   
--> Leave gateway ip empty 

To apply network settings

--> run: /etc/init.d/network restart

If there are more than one D100 devices in the machine, each D100 eth device must have
     its own subnet IP.
       Eg: D500 card1 - IP 10.1.1.1/24
             D500 card2 - IP 10.1.2.1/24

Firmware Update

To check if the firmware requires updating run the firmware update utility

--> Run: sngtc_tool –dev ethX –firmware  (replace ‘X’ with the interface of the transcoder)

--> If the FROM and TO version are the same you are up to date so cancel the update; if the versions are different please update. 

--> If the update fails insure the ethX interface has a IP address (replace ‘X’ with the interface of the transcoder)

  • Note sngtc_server must NOT be running during the update; sngtc_server_ctrl stop will stop the server if it is running.

 

Transcoding Module Installation and Configuration

*Note: This step assumes FreeSWITCH is on the same server as the transcoder. If FreeSWITCH only exists on other servers please go to -> D500 PCI express sngtc server configuration

 The Sangoma FreeSWITCH codec is part of the FreeSWITCH git repository.  It can be easily attained by running the following command in linux CLI:

--> git clone https://freeswitch.org/stash/scm/fs/freeswitch.git

        Note*  You must have git installed

  In the FreeSWITCH source code edit:

 --> modules.conf and uncomment:

        --> # codecs/mod_sangoma_codec

Then compile FreeSWITCH Sangoma codec module:

  1. make mod_sangoma_codec    

  2. make mod_sangoma_codec-install

The FreeSWITCH Codec Module is now installed and requires configuration via the following steps. This step will auto detect ALL D500 transcoders and modules located on the same computer and will create FreeSWITCH codec module and sngtc_server configuration files.  All transcoders/modules detected will be controlled by this server and treated as one big transcoding resource.  There is no option to manually control particular transcoding modules onboard the D500 card.  Auto detection is performed through the PCI Bus of this computer.

   --> sngtc_cfg --server --freeswitch 
or
--> sngtc_cfg --server --freeswitch  --fsdir=/usr/local/freeswitch/conf/autoload_configs

The result of the above command creates an IP address for the transcoding card, by defaul <X.X.X>.150 is used

  FreeSWITCH Sangoma Transcoding Config file:         
/usr/local/freeswitch/conf/autoload_configs/sangoma_codec.conf.xml

Transcoder Hardware Configuration file:
/etc/sngtc/sngtc_server.conf

If you have more than one module (480) on the D500  "sngtc_server.conf" will only list information of the first module detected (i.e IP address).  The rest of the D500 module configurations are hidden and will use consecutive IP addresses. (i.e first D500 module- 10.1.1.150, second D500 module- 10.1.1.151, third D500 module- 10.1.1.152...)

Freeswitch now needs to be configured to load the "mod_sangoma_codec" module each time it starts. 

--> vi conf/autoload_configs/modules.conf.xml
--> Add the line "<load module="mod_sangoma_codec"/>" into the file. It can be placed anywhere below the line "<load module="mod_sofia"/>"; save and quit

 By default G729 is the only codec registered with FreeSWITCH.

 

 

Operation

  • The sngtc_server is at the heart of the transcoding environment. It interfaces the transcoder hardware and codec module (the codec module, in FreeSWITCH, communicates with the sngtc_server in order to pass information to/from transcoder). It controls all Sangoma transcoders that are located on the same computer (this means you cannot have multiple sngtc_servers controlling/communicating with specific transcoders).   

    The sngtc_server needs to be started before transcoding can be done. Below is the usage of the sngtc_server_ctrl command. 

 --> sngtc_server_ctrl (start|stop|restart)

*Note by default this script is started on system boot. 

  • To enable FreeSWITCH to connect to the sngtc_server and then to the transcoder you will need to have the module mod_sangoma_codec loaded. To load the module run the command below.

  FreeSWITCH CLI> load mod_sangoma_codec.so

  *Note the step above shows you how to auto load this on FreeSWITCH start.

  • To status the mod_sangoma_codec module use the commands below:

 FreeSWITCH CLI>  show codecs

 Several codecs will be listed, all codecs prefixed with "Sangoma" are registered by the module, for example: "Sangoma G729" or "Sangoma G.726 32k".

FreeSWITCH CLI> sangoma_codec sessions

 This command will show all current RTP transcoding sessions created by FreeSWITCH along with some statistics about Rx/Tx and lost RTP packets and read average times that can be used for debugging purposes. The first column show the session unique identifier for the transcoding session, you can use that identifier to query more information about that particular session using "sangoma_codec stats"

 FreeSWITCH CLI>  sangoma_codec stats <session number>

 This command will show the FreeSWITCH RTP statistics in the transcoding sessions. Each transcoding session has a RTP connection associated. You can dump the RTP counters with this command

 

FreeSWITCH CLI> sangoma_codec settings

 This command will show each vocallo configured settings

 

<- back to FreeSWITCH D500 main menu

 

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