ax.25 using WAN cards

ax.25 using WAN cards

[İskender YİĞİTEL]

Hi everybody. I am curious about using a PC + PCI HDLC card + Modem instead
of PC+TNC+Modem configuration. What is the most suitable solution (I mean
hardware and drivers) for this kind of approach. Can you suggest any cards
and where can I find them? 

I wonder if is it possible to use a WAN card (supporting HDLC, PPP, X25) for
AX.25. There are many HDLC cards that are currently being sold but most of
the cards nowadays are not based on Z8530 or Z85130. Although the prices of
these cards are high, these new generation WAN cards support HDLC, cisco
HDLC, X25 etc. at very high speeds. Is it possible to use such a card for
ax.25? If yes which drivers must be used?

 

Thanks.
Iskender Yigitel

Re: ax.25 using WAN cards

[Ralf Baechle DL5RB]

On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 04:21:17PM +0200, İskender YİĞİTEL wrote:

> Hi everybody. I am curious about using a PC + PCI HDLC card + Modem instead
> of PC+TNC+Modem configuration. What is the most suitable solution (I mean
> hardware and drivers) for this kind of approach. Can you suggest any cards
> and where can I find them? 
> 
> I wonder if is it possible to use a WAN card (supporting HDLC, PPP, X25) for
> AX.25. There are many HDLC cards that are currently being sold but most of
> the cards nowadays are not based on Z8530 or Z85130. Although the prices of
> these cards are high, these new generation WAN cards support HDLC, cisco
> HDLC, X25 etc. at very high speeds. Is it possible to use such a card for
> ax.25? If yes which drivers must be used?

For the hardware which I'm familiar with the support for higher level
protocols such as HDLC would need to be disabled running them effectivly
as dumb highspeed UARTs.  Some of such interfaces have reloadable firmware
but the architecture and interfaces rarely seem to be documented.  So
what you suggest isn't impossible but it's not (always?) quite trivial.

73 de DL5RB op Ralf

---
DL5RB / M0LRB / AB1IN
Loc.    JN47BS / CQ 14 / ITU 28 / DOK A21
Packet: DL5RB@DB0FHN.#BAY.DEU.EU
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RE: ax.25 using WAN cards

[İskender YİĞİTEL]

Hi, in fact I don't want to use such a card as a dumb high speed UART. My
aim is different. I have found some cards that have Linux drivers to send
and receive HDLC frames. For example there are drivers for Farsync WAN cards
in the kernel source tree. By the use of this cards and drivers it is
possible to send and receive HDLC frames. And if we can put the AX.25 data
in an HDLC frame (by changing and hacking the driver code) it may be
possible to achieve AX25. I don't know the correct strategy but this kind of
approach seemed reasonable to me (Well I am not an expert. Too optimistic
maybe).For example think about the KISS TNC usage, The kernel sends the AX25
frame bytes to the TNC asynchronously by the use of KISS protocol and
driver. And the TNC puts the coming bytes into an HDLC frame and sends to
the modem. Here we already have a card that that can send and receive HDLC
frames. If we can find a way to pass the AX25 data to this card instead of
the TNC (a new kernel module acting as a bridge between the kernel and the
HDLC driver maybe), it is done. I don't know. Just an idea. Any comments?

-----Original Message-----
From: Ralf Baechle DL5RB [mailto:ralf@linux-mips.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 12:22 AM
To: Ýskender YÝÐÝTEL
Cc: Linux-Hams@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: ax.25 using WAN cards

On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 04:21:17PM +0200, Ýskender YÝÐÝTEL wrote:

> Hi everybody. I am curious about using a PC + PCI HDLC card + Modem
instead
> of PC+TNC+Modem configuration. What is the most suitable solution (I mean
> hardware and drivers) for this kind of approach. Can you suggest any cards
> and where can I find them? 
> 
> I wonder if is it possible to use a WAN card (supporting HDLC, PPP, X25)
for
> AX.25. There are many HDLC cards that are currently being sold but most of
> the cards nowadays are not based on Z8530 or Z85130. Although the prices
of
> these cards are high, these new generation WAN cards support HDLC, cisco
> HDLC, X25 etc. at very high speeds. Is it possible to use such a card for
> ax.25? If yes which drivers must be used?

For the hardware which I'm familiar with the support for higher level
protocols such as HDLC would need to be disabled running them effectivly
as dumb highspeed UARTs.  Some of such interfaces have reloadable firmware
but the architecture and interfaces rarely seem to be documented.  So
what you suggest isn't impossible but it's not (always?) quite trivial.

73 de DL5RB op Ralf

---
DL5RB / M0LRB / AB1IN
Loc.    JN47BS / CQ 14 / ITU 28 / DOK A21
Packet: DL5RB@DB0FHN.#BAY.DEU.EU



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