Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:22:42 +0100 | From | Tilman Schmidt <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH 0/9] isdn4linux: add drivers for Siemens Gigaset ISDN DECT PABX |
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On 2005-12-19 18:01, Lee Revell wrote: > On Mon, 2005-12-19 at 17:38 +0100, Tilman Schmidt wrote: > >>Unfortunately these don't fit our needs, as we are not dealing with a >>network device, but with an ISDN device. > > Um, isn't that what the N in ISDN stands for?
While the ISDN is indeed called a network, devices connecting a computer to it are nevertheless not commonly referred to as network devices.
> I guess what you mean is that although ISDN devices are obviously > networking devices, the kernel uses a separate subsystem for ISDN?
There's more to it than that. The notion of a "network" is a rather broad one, including such diverse phenomena as Ethernet, ISDN, TV cable or even roads or TV stations. The notion of a "network device", on the other hand, is a quite specific one, at least in the computer world, and it certainly doesn't include ISDN TAs.
In fact, the operation of an ISDN device is much closer to a modem or even an answering machine than to that prototypical network device which is the Ethernet card. This is of course the reason why the Linux kernel puts them in a subsystem of their own. Making them net_device-s just wouldn't work.
-- Tilman Schmidt E-Mail: tilman@imap.cc Bonn, Germany Diese Nachricht besteht zu 100% aus wiederverwerteten Bits. Ungeöffnet mindestens haltbar bis: (siehe Rückseite)
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