Channel driver
In telecommunications, a channel driver is a software module as part of a soft switch , which offers the host system a uniform interface to a specific medium or a specific transmission technology. This abstraction makes it possible to connect any transmission media to the softswitch and to interconnect them using a uniform configuration ( dial plan ).
The channel driver can receive connections and transfer the connection-related parameters to the host system and initiate connections itself. The configuration of the hardware is controlled by means of configuration files via the driver.
Naming
The name of a channel driver is often derived from the underlying technology:
Chan_sip is a channel driver for SIP-based Voice-over-IP connections - chan_h323, chan_sccp are called additional channel drivers for other VoIP transmission protocols.
If a channel driver controls interface hardware from a specific manufacturer, the naming of the device often refers to the manufacturer of the interface cards:
For example, the channel driver for Digium TDM interface cards is called chan_zap, where "zap" is an abbreviation for "Zapata", the name of the original project in which the interface cards were developed.
Chan_dialogicdiva is the driver name for Diva cards from Dialogic, chan_ac is the name of the channel driver for AudioCodes hardware.