AlphaCom 10.4x - Release Notes

Software in production: AMC 10.20<br\> Software released date: 2007-04-12<br\> Note 1: We sometimes do bug fixes in older versions while working with a new version. You can’t read the list version by version, and always assume that a correction is included in the next. Be aware of high release numbers, e.g. 06.05 vs. 07.01. Check version dates, and also comments for each version. <br\> Note 2: For each software version the NVRAM version is listed. If the NVRAM version is different, the AMC board must be cold started, and then you must do a SendAll from AlphaPro to restore the configuration.<br\><br\><br\>

AlphaCom 10.xx Release Notes

<br\>

AMC 10.43X0609 (2008-06-09)

Release: Official, available on request
/opt/amc/bin/amcd
NVRAM version 10.30. 

System upgrade file:<br\> alpha_sys_10_43x0609.tbz2<br\>

Precautions:<br\> alpha_sys_10_00.tbz2 must be installed.<br\><br\> AlphaPro 1028 or later must be used due to WACS crash caused by to large nvram size when using older versions.

Errors Corrected

Open Duplex Conference with Line Echo Cancelation (LEC)

introduced in 10.43x430: 56-odc-transfer from conversation was not working, unless old 3 AGA mixers present.

Ringing group activation from SIP in a multi-node system fails.

Ringing group functionality changed, see "Functional changes" bellow

Issue 3356: Hold/Trf from IP Master

On hold / Transfer is now available from IP master when nvram variable : ex_profile.glob_const.trans_mode_dak is set to Dak key available on IP-master (1-4)

Functional changes / Enhancement

RCO and RCI now available in slave modules

RCO and RCI from slave modules can now be programmed and used. RCO numbers follow the station physical numbers. RCI is related to device number of slave module.

Ringing group is now default global.

The ringing group system will now broadcast ringing group calls on AlphaNet. Global Ringing Group Description

Play DAK system added.

A system for single digit dialing with programmable delay. Play DAK feature description <br\> This feature can be programmed within a DAK string or with a DP command.

Beta version IP master support adjusted

• Support of privacy setting
• Display protocol with UniCode and UTF-8 coding

AMC 10.43X0430 (2008-04-30)

Release: Official, available on request
/opt/amc/bin/amcd
NVRAM version 10.30. 

System upgrade file:<br\> alpha_sys_10_43x0430.tbz2<br\>

Precautions:<br\> alpha_sys_10_00.tbz2 must be installed.<br\><br\> AlphaPro 1028 or later must be used due to WACS crash caused by to large nvram size when using older versions.

Functional changes / Enhancement

Beta version IP master support adjusted

• Support of volume and backlight adjustment.
• New display protocol,

AMC 10.42 (2008-04-17)

NVRAM version 10.30.

System upgrade file:<br\> alpha_sys_10_42.tbz2<br\>

Errors Corrected

Repaired SimpleLinklayer broadcast of ACDP-links

... which was also broken in 10.40

AMC 10.41 (2008-04-14)

NVRAM version 10.30.

System upgrade file:<br\> alpha_sys_10_41.tbz2<br\>

Errors Corrected

Repaired AlphaNet data over UART

... which was broken in 10.40

AMC 10.40 (2008-04-10)

Release: Official, available on request
/opt/amc/bin/amcd
NVRAM version 10.30. 

System upgrade file:<br\> alpha_sys_10_40.tbz2<br\>

Precautions:<br\> alpha_sys_10_00.tbz2 must be installed.<br\><br\> AlphaPro 1028 or later must be used due to WACS crash caused by to large nvram size when using older versions.

Errors Corrected

Issue 3326 IP master use of "7638" mail call back

The "7638" function is now working also from the IP master station

Issue 3333 IP substation volume control fails

Setting of volume with DP message now works for IP stations

Issue 3341 Master IP and Ringing Group

Call request queue on IP master with different priorities, ringing group and call req now works.

Issue Inquiry/transfer

Possible lockup state during faulty use of inquiry/transfer removed.

Audio quality problems with max number of voip channels in use

DSP SW optimized, 31 active VoIP channels now works without distortion.

Functional changes / Enhancement

Default use of TCP-IP with Simple Linklayer between AlphaCom nodes in AlphaNet

Description : Data_link_layer#Selecting_data_link_layer_between_IP_nodes

IP station enhancement

• IP station tones during call request mode and "notify" are now generated in the IP station.
• ON/OFF hook state support for IP master station

ATLB stations and SIP

Allow ATLB stations to use R-key (Flash key) during call to SIP. (Do inquiry and transfer).<br\> ATLB12 cards currently not support R-key. (ATLB-6 cards works).

DAK programming from station

When programming a global number (feat 83) the destination node type is checked.

• SIP node or "collect N digits" programmed allow extra digit being programmed, accept with M-key.
• Destination node AlphaCom behave as AMC 8-9.

<br\> <br\> <br\> <br\>

Known Issues (Latest release)

<br\>

Known Issues

Issue 3020: Missing “Exch. Missing” text:

When making a global group call and some exchanges do not receive the group call due to not available audio links, there should be a display message "Exchange Missing".<br\>

Issue 3050: ODX from slaves via VoIP link:

ODX from stations in slave modules are not supported over VoIP link<br\>

Issue 3124: AlphaNet - NAT

AlphaNet does not work if NAT traverse is used.

Log System (Syslog)

<br\> The logging is handled by the syslog-ng log daemon. This can be configured to route the logs to different media. The log can be stored on on-board flash, or sent over the network with different protocols.

Known Issues

Large log files on on-board FLASH

The log is stored on a limited sized Flash partition by a file system. Routines to handle larger log amounts, like automatic clean up of older files have been implemented, but we still experience problems if the log rates get to large. These problems occur before a theoretical log rate versus free space analysis, mainly because of file system issues with a small number of available flash sectors. This file system factor makes it difficult to make an accurate estimate of handled log rates so the following is based on experience:

Limits:

Log rates lesser than 1440 events a day (an average of one each minute) should be handled with no problem.
Log rates of 17280 events a day (one each 5th second) is experienced to give problems.

Guideline:

If you are above 1440 events a day you should evaluate to use the Remote Syslog option, and turn off the Local Filesystem Log.
If you are closer to the 17280 events log rate we strongly advise to use only the Remote Syslog option. 
If your system are logging above the 1440 events a day to the filesystem you should regularly monitor the logs.

Note:

From AlphaCom 10.23 a log limiter on the System and Debug log is implemented, allowing for a maximum of 60 events a hour. 
If this limit  is reached, it will be notified by a log message. Because of this limit the above guidline will only apply 
to the Statistics log.

Hardware Drivers

<br\>

Rtpdaemon

/opt/amc/bin/rtpdaemon

Rtpdaemon is a user mode service which handle the RTP audio streams. It receives control commands from the AMCD main application on a control socket (/tmp/rtpd). Rtpdaemon transfers and receives RTP packets via standard Linux network sockets. Rtpdaemon packs and unpacks RTP packets. Received packets are buffered before play out. It transfers and receives serialized audio data to the DSP via a DSP driver.<br\>

Version 01.06: 2007-12-10<br\> Description:

• Support of Line Echo Cancellation (by using DSP#2 for LEC, infrastructure added for controlling DSP#2)

Version 01.05: 2007-11-08<br\> Description:

• Optimised socket handling for unicast'ed groupcalls.

Version 01.04: 2007-10-17<br\> Description:

• G.729, first experimental support (no support for DTX, lost or reorderd packets).

Version 01.03: 2007-10-11<br\> Description:

• Issue 3269 Different UDP port on send/receive: Use sendto(), instead of connect()+write()
• txtap function to tap audio to an internal socket.

Version 01.02: 2007-03-23<br\> Description: Released version. <br\> Introduced in system upgrade file: alpha_sys_10_20.tbz2<br\>

• Jitterbuffer adjustments (Issue 3101 Xlite). Improve stabilty of delay adaptation, as well on adaptive delay target.
• Set IP TTL to 31 when connecting to UDP to multicast.

Version 01.01: 2007-03-05<br\> Description:<br\>

• Fix issue 2935: Crash when ExpressTalk sends packet with zero payload at disconnect.
• Improved handling of termination signals with logging.

Version 01.00: 2006-05-31<br\> Description: Released version. <br\> Introduced in initial release<br\><br\>

SIPdaemon

/opt/amc/bin/sipd

SIPdaemon is a user mode service which handle data communications with SIP devices. It receives AlphaNet control commands from the AMCD main application on a TCP socket (port 40000).<br\>

Version 01.13 upcomming:

• Send and receive INFOs for DTMF signals A - D

Version 01.12 (2008-01-03):

• Outgoing INVITE, early cancel: Cancel before "180 Ringing" caused lockup, because of incorrect check for "SIP-dialog".

Version 01.11 (2007-12-10):

• Outgoing INVITE: Send AUDIO_PATH_STATE(TRYING) to AMCD immediately, allowing AMCD to handle cancel before first response from external SIP device.

Version 01.10 (2007-10-12):

• CANCEL of outgoing INVITE: Send CANCEL, not BYE

Version 01.09 (2007-09-18):

• Fixed bug in reINVITE handling as implemented in 01.08: Wrong RTP portnumber is used if port number in reINVITE is less than 4096 (0x1000).

Version 01.08 (2007-08-30):
Only released in X-version 10.22 package

• Handle reINVITE which redirects RTP audio to different IP address and port.
• Fixed bug in parsing of AUDIO_LINK_OK from AMCD, which could be rejected erroneously

Version 01.07 (2007-07-01):
Description: Released version, date 2007-06-01.
Introduced in system upgrade file: alpha_sys_10_21x0604.tbz2

• Removed memory leaks, increasing stability (issue 3176).
• Issues 3203, 3182.
• Debug error messages forwarded to syslog.
• Set scheduling priority.

Version 01.05:
Description: Released version.
Introduced in system upgrade file: alpha_sys_10_20.tbz2<br\><br\>

DSP driver

/opt/amc/modules/dsp_drv

DSP driver is a kernel mode driver which provides a device file interface (/dev/dsp/) to RTP daemon for communicating control commands and audio to/from the DSPs. <br\>

Version 02.10: (2008-01-16)
Support for DSP_SW version 01.10: Setup of codec remapping for optimized DSP SW. (DSP SW 01.10 require driver version 02.10, but driver version 02.10 can support older versions of DSP SW)

Version 02.01 (2007-12-10):

• Required for Line Echo Cancellation ("disable" command, used to free DSP power for LEC).

Version 02.00: Board support package 03.xx (Linux 2.6):<br\> Description: Released version.
Introduced in system upgrade file: alpha_sys_10_03.tbz2<br\><br\>

Version 01.10 (2008-01-16):

• Same as 02.10, but for 2.4 linux kernel: Support for DSP_SW version 01.10

Version 01.01 (2007-12-10):

• Same as 02.01, but for 2.4 linux kernel

Version 01.00: Board support package 02.xx (Linux 2.4):<br\> Description: Released version.
Introduced in system upgrade file: alpha_sys_10_03.tbz2<br\>

DSP SW

/opt/amc/images/amc_dsp.hex

SW for the two DSPs. Currently the two DSPs runs identical SW. DSP does the G.711/G.722 transcoding. It also generates tones which are used in the system. Audio is transferred to the FPGA in 16 bit PCM format.

Version 01.14: 2008-04-21
Conference mixing resources in DSP.

Version 01.13: 2008-04-07
More AGC adjusting: Reset at connection start, and wait 5 sec before start adjusting.

Version 01.12: 2008-03-03
AGC adjusted, stability timer wait 1 sec before reducing gain.

Version 01.11: 2008-02-15
Treble preemphasis towards backplane (DeEmp from backplane done in FPGA). Level adjustment and limiter function on 20xx/21xx codecs, ref AMCD 10.31.

Version 01.10: 2008-01-16
Optimized codec processing. Each codec type has now variable number of channels, sum is always 32. Controlled by structures set up from dsp_drv. Also optimised DTMF generators, units 0400-040f. Bottom line is that 32 channels is now working, with headroom for further development.
Requires dsp_drv version 02.10 / 01.10

Version 01.06: 2007-12-10
Full version with Line Echo Cancellation (LEC). 10 LEC-instances. (LEC processing moved to DSP#2, allowing 32 codec instances in DSP#1).

Version 01.05: 2007-11-20
Customer specific variant with Line Echo Canceling (LEC). Based on OSLEC. 6 channels of LEC, number of codec channels (G711/G722) reduced to 6.

Version 01.04: 2007-10-17<br\> Description: <br\>

• 16 bit linear PCM at 8Hz support, which is required for the G.729 support in rtpdaemon 01.04.

Version 01.03: 2007-03-05<br\> Description: Released version. <br\> Introduced in system upgrade file: alpha_sys_10_21.tbz2<br\>

• Improved mixing units to support DTMF tones: 32 mixers, independent mixers(function=1 in "con" of input)

Version 01.02: 2006-11-30<br\> Description: <br\>

• DC-reduction filter on signals from backplane (to IP).(First order high pass IIR filter: timeconstant T ca 4ms, cutoff frequency ca 40 Hz)

Version 01.01: 2006-06-14<br\> Description: Released version. <br\> Introduced in system upgrade file: alpha_sys_10_00.tbz2<br\><br\>

FPGA FW

/opt/amc/images/amc_ip_fpga.bit

Firmware for the FPGA. FPGA converts audio between PCM and the AlphaCom SigmaDelta format. FPGA also interfaces the time slotted audio buses on the AlphaCom backplane, and thus replaces the SBI ASIC used on earlier AlphaCom boards. <br\>

Version 01.67:<br\> Description: Released version. <br\> Introduced in system upgrade file: alpha_sys_10_03.tbz2<br\><br\>

MBI driver

/opt/amc/modules/mbi_irq

MBI irq driver is a kernel mode driver which provides a signal to the AMCD main application when an interrupt is generated from the master backplane interface (MBI) <br\>

Version 01.00: Board support package 02.xx (Linux 2.4):<br\> Description: Released version. <br\> Introduced in system upgrade file: alpha_sys_10_00.tbz2<br\>

Version 02.00: Board support package 03.xx (Linux 2.6):<br\> Description: Released version. <br\> Introduced in system upgrade file: alpha_sys_10_03.tbz2<br\><br\>

LED / Watchdog driver

/opt/amc/modules/dev_amc_wdog

The watchdog driver is a kernel mode driver which is used for updating the hardware watchdog. This driver is also used for accessing the AMC-card LEDs <br\>

Version 01.00: Board support package 02.xx (Linux 2.4):<br\> Description: Released version. <br\> Introduced in system upgrade file: alpha_sys_10_00.tbz2<br\>

Version 02.00: Board support package 03.xx (Linux 2.6):<br\> Description: Released version. <br\> Introduced in system upgrade file: alpha_sys_10_03.tbz2<br\> <br\> <br\> <br\>

Hardware Versions

<br\>

AMC hardware versions

Known problems AMC hardware 8000/4

---

None as of now<br\><br\>

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Issue 2747: RCI not supported on ACE7:

RCI not supported on ACE7. The RCI signals on P1-c19 and P1-c22 are terminated in test points on AMC-IP. <br\>

Issue 2741: Redundancy control from APC:

The redundancy control system from APC is not working (software and hardware).<br\>

Issue 2787: AMC serial port: No RX, no data on TX:

It turns out that the RS232-drivers on the AMC-IP-board have an automatic shutdown when it detects missing received data (illegal voltage levels). This will be fixed in future hardware version, but it can be fixed on current hardware by a minor modification. Remove R698 and R695. The pins must be connected to Vcc (3,3V). <br\>

Issue 2806: “Temperature Alarm" in ACE.7:

This problem is probably related to the fact that the AMC-IP board never had a connection to the over-temp. signal from the ACE7 backplane. This is related to the problems with RCIs from the same backplane.

AMC Filter board

Issue 2723: RS422/RS485 Signal Pinning:

The pin out for RS422 signals on the filter print for E20 and E26 differs from the pin out on the E7. The Rx+ is switched with the Rx- and the Tx+ is switched with the Tx-. The only consequence is that the same cable can't be used on E7 and the E20-series. From filter print version 3 (DB8001/3) the mapping is correct.<br\>