Specifications

AVM System Architecture
ISDN-Controller B1 PCI v4.0 – 12 AVM System Architecture 61
12 AVM System Architecture
This chapter presents information about the ISDN interface
CAPI 2.0, the IDM architecture and the AVM system drivers
included in the package, along with special CAPI features of
the AVM ISDN-Controller B1 PCI v4.0.
12.1 The Applications Interface CAPI 2.0
After the ISDN-Controller B1 PCI v4.0 has been installed, the
ISDN interface CAPI 2.0 is available to the computer. This in-
terface allows you to use all features of ISDN.
What Is CAPI?
CAPI (COMMON-ISDN-API) is a standardized software inter-
face that provides applications with access to ISDN adapters
on basic-rate and primary-rate lines. Applications that build
on this standard interface use uniform mechanisms for com-
munication over ISDN connections, and thus do not need to
adapt to the peculiarities of particular manufacturers’ hard-
ware. This means that such applications are also unaffected
by future extensions or hardware modifications: CAPI makes
such changes transparent to the application. ISDN hardware
manufacturers benefit from this standard too, since it makes
all kinds of applications compatible with their products.
CAPI contains an abstract definition of ISDN services which is
not dependent on the specifics of underlying telecommunica-
tions networks or the adapters used to connect computers to
ISDN. The specification provides an interface that is easy for
application programmers to use, and thus offers uniform ac-
cess to the various ISDN services, such as data, voice and fax
transmission, video conferencing and telephony.
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