Operation Manual

AVM System Architecture
42 ISDN-Controller C2 – 8 AVM System Architecture
8 AVM System Architecture
This chapter presents information about the ISDN interface
CAPI 2.0, the IDM architecture, the AVM system drivers in-
cluded in the package, and about special CAPI features of
the AVM ISDN-Controller C2.
8.1 The Applications Interface CAPI 2.0
After the AVM ISDN-Controller C2 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-Control-
lers 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 comput-
ers to ISDN. The specification provides an interface that is
easy for application programmers to use, and thus offers
uniform access to the various ISDN services, such as data,
voice and fax transmission, video conferencing and telepho-
ny.
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