[arm-allstar] Echolink Conferences

[David McGough]

Hi Dan,

First, I'll mention that the echolink node designation (like: "-R" or 
"-L" or nothing) doesn't matter to the chan_echolink driver, all nodes are 
treated the same way by AllStar.

Second, for general info, I'll mention that only ONE instance of
chan_echolink can be used on any running instance of Asterisk, even though
the config file does allow you to attempt to setup multiple echolink nodes
on a single Asterisk instance....By single Asterisk instance, I'm implying
only one copy of Asterisk running on a single device, like a RPi2 or 3 
(or PC).

Note that the echolink.conf conference parameter (e.g.: "confmode=yes" or 
"confmode=no") is deprecated and does nothing. This parameter was removed 
from the source code a long time ago, predating the hamvoip project. All 
echolink connections are effectively treated as "confmode=yes".

As for the number of active echolink connections supported, I would think 
10+ concurrent connections on a RPi2 should work fine, however I've not 
personally tried this. I expect the limiting factor is more likely to 
Internet bandwidth, rather than RP2/3 processing power--all echolink 
connections use the GSM CODEC, so no Asterisk transcoding is required. 
Any time Transcoding is required, that is probably the first limiting 
factor for processor horsepower that you'll hit with large numbers of 
users. I know several hams are currently running RPi3 boards as hubs and 
frequently have 40+ simultaneously connected AllStar nodes with no 
problems.

73, David KB4FXC



On Tue, 13 Jun 2017, "Dan Ozment via arm-allstar" wrote:

> Still working with Echolink on my repeater connected node, and I
> wondered if someone could give me some advice on a direction. 
> 
> I set up Echolink on the node as a "-L" node with the default Echolink
> configuration (no conference mode).  I was able to connect to Echolink
> from my phone, and it works well with two way audio between Echolink and
> the RF side.   
> 
> My plan was to connect our public "-R" node to that one from an external
> source and let our users come in on the "-R" node.  It connects up
> great.  Audio from Echolink is sent out over the repeater, but we don't
> get audio from the repeater back to the Echolink "-R" node.  Any
> thoughts as to why that would happen? 
> 
> Another idea was to run the "-R" node from the Pi that is hosting
> Allstar.  I would need to allow conference mode and up to 20 users
> (although 5 to 10 is more realistic).  I'm using one of the later
> versions of the Pi 2.   Could it handle both?    
> 
> When we tried putting the "-R" node on the Allstar Pi we had mixed
> results keeping three users connected.  I wonder if I was just
> overpowering the Pi. 
> 
> I realize I'm not providing much configuration info here so that folks
> can help me diagnose what's going on.  At this point I'm trying to
> decide on the best approach to get our main Echolink node (WB4QOJ-R)
> successfully operational through our main Allstar node. 
> 
> Thanks for any input. 
> 
> 73, 
> 
> Dan 
> 
> W4DTO
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