Specifications

AVM System Architecture
66 ISDN-Controller B1 PCI v4.0 – 14 AVM System Architecture
14 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 ISDN-Controller B1 PCI v4.0.
14.1 The CAPI 2.0 Application Interface
After the ISDN-Controller B1 PCI v4.0 has been installed,
the ISDN interface CAPI 2.0 is available to the computer.
This interface 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 adapt-
ers on basic-rate and primary-rate lines. Applications that
build on this standard interface use uniform mechanisms
for communication over ISDN connections, and thus do not
need to adapt to the peculiarities of particular manufactur-
ers’ hardware. 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 telecommu-
nications networks or the adapters used to connect com-
puters to ISDN. The specification provides an interface that
is easy for applications to use, and thus offers uniform ac-
cess to the various ISDN services, such as data, voice and
fax transmission, video conferencing and telephony.