Joint Efforts of Xorcom & Digium Solve DAHDI Plug & Play Issue

Asterisk-based IP-PBX can continue to function seamlessly, even after telephony interface are added or removed during operation.

Xorcom has developed a software patch for Asterisk® which enables DAHDI (Digium Asterisk Hardware Device Interface) devices, such as the Xorcom Astribank telephony interfaces, to be added or removed from a live Asterisk-based IP-PBX while it remains fully operational. In the Xorcom solution, channels are referred to by absolute names (on the bus) rather than by channel numbering, which changes as the devices are added or removed. The Asterisk community has agreed to include the Xorcom “Plug & Play” solution for DAHDI devices in the next release of Asterisk, version 12. It will also be standard in Xorcom CompletePBX version 4.0 and up.

Watch DAHDI Plug & Play Solution Demo Here


This software patch for Asterisk® enables DAHDI (Digium Asterisk Hardware Device Interface) devices, such as the Xorcom Astribank telephony interfaces, to be added or removed from a live Asterisk-based IP-PBX while it remains fully operational.

Now All DAHDI Devices Can Be “Plug & Play”

“We always had a challenge in our Astribanks because although they were designed to be hot-pluggable devices, the Asterisk infrastructure was not,” notes Leonid Fainshtein, CTO at Xorcom. “The DAHDI drivers and infrastructure always assumed that when you power up an Asterisk system, all the DAHDI devices are present and none would be added or moved during operation. However, this is not a true reflection of reality, especially since Xorcom telephony systems can support more than 1000 analog ports. Very often businesses need to make changes to their telephony systems by adding new cards and removing and/or replacing faulty cards. The change we have submitted to the Asterisk code will address this issue for all DAHDI devices, making them truly ‘plug & play’.”

DAHDI Plug & Play Solution Availability

In addition to being a standard component of Asterisk version 12, Xorcom has back-ported the DAHDI devices “Plug & Play” patch to Asterisk version 11. This patch is available from Xorcom’s worldwide channel of distribution partners.