Livingston PortMaster 3¶

laforge bought three Livingston Portmaster 3 PM3A-1E, which are RAS (Remote Access Server) that

• terminates one 1E line (30 B-channels)
• provides ISDN dial-up on those channels
• provides DSP based modems in case analog modem calls should be handled.

One unit (rbbs-pm3) is part of the Dialup_Network_In_A_Box, another unit (pm3-2) is part of the Colocated_Hub, the third one is at @laforge's basement.

Livingston Enterprises, Inc. was acquired by Lucent Technologies in 1997, so the PM3 was also sold with Lucent branding.

Documentation¶

• portmaster3_hardware_installation.pdf
• portmaster3_configuration.pdf
• Wayback Machine page
• more below (Attachments)

Electronics / Pictures¶

External pictures¶

Mainboard¶

DSP / Modem Board¶

There are 6 slots for modem boards, each board typically has 10 soft-modems, resulting in a total capacity of maximum 60 modems (equaling the number of B-channels in 2 E1 PRI links)

PM3-CMP Stac Compression Board¶

There is a set of expansion headers on the mainboard which, according to the hardware installation guide, can accommodate a "compression or accelerator card". The compression card is model PM3-CMP and allows Stac compression to run on up to 60 channels.

Spare Parts / Mods¶

Fan¶

The original fan is a Fonsan DFB0812M (DC 12V 0.1A) fan by DELTA ELECTRONICS INC. The specs seem to state 2600 RPM / 24.8 dB(A) / 29 cfm.

I found it too noisy and replaced it with a Noctua NF-A8 FLX with L.N.A (reduced to 1650 rpm / 12.9 dB(A) / 24 cfm)

Fun fact: The PM3 actually seems to have a 5V -> 12V DC/DC upconverter just for the fan - instead of simply using a 5V fan...

Power Supply¶

One of the PM3A-E1 at laforge had a broken power supply. The original PSU is an ASTEC LPS1112 rated for 5V/22A output (80W convection cooled, 1120W with 30cfm forced air).

It was replaced with a Mean Well LRS-150F-5. Mechanical assembly via a custom adapter plate that was fabricated easily from a small piece of aluminium sheet metal (175 x 102 mm) with a few drill holes.

Serial console cable¶

A null-modem cable can be built with the following pin-out:

DB-9 female (PC)	DB-25 male (PM3)	Suggested RJ45
1	20	1
2	2	2
3	3	3
4	8	4
5	7	5
6	-	-
7	5	6
8	4	7
9	22	8

Configuration¶

route to different telnet hosts based on called party number¶

Assuming one wants to use a PM3 to act as modem bank for accessing different [virtualized] BBSs over telnet, the problem is how to route the inbound call to a specific telnet IP address. The non-radius stand-alone configuration of the PM3 only permits either:

• automatic forwarding of all calls to one global telnet/rlogin host
• allowing the users to enter the hostname for telnet themselves
• providing a list of pre-configured telnet destinations to all users (this was used at the 36C3 retronetworking installation, see 36C3)

However, with the Call-Check radius feature, it should be possible to receive the called + calling identity before the call is even accepted, and then in return provide the telnet IP/port to which the call shall be routed.

Details in

• Page 4-17 of the PM3A Radius for Unix manual
  • PM3A sends access-request with
    • User-Name=SETUP.Calling-Station-Id/No-Call-ID
    • Service-Type=Call-Check
    • Called-Station-Id=SETUP.Called-Station-Id
  • Radius sends response with
    • Login-IP-Host pointing to IP of telnet/rlogin
    • Login-Service=(Telnet,Rlogin,TCP-Clear)
    • Login-TCP-Port pointing to IP of telnet/rlogin
    • Service-Type=Login-User
• Page 3-4 of the PortMaster Command Line Reference
  • set call-check on