XLXD (or XRFD)

The XLX Multiprotocol Gateway Reflector Server is part of the software system for the D-Star Network. The sources are published under GPL Licenses.

Introduction

This will build either a new kind of XLX reflector or a tri-mode XRF reflector. This build support dual-stack operation, so the server on which it's running, must have both an IPv4 and IPv6 routable address if you are going to configure a dual-stack reflector. This XLX is different from the original because it can support out-going DExtra links, by adding a new DExtra Peer type and it has many changes designed to increase reliability and stability. The XRF reflector built from this source supports inbound DExtra, DPlus and DCS connections. Like XLX, XRF also supports out-going DExtra linking. Please note that for now, only one DExtra peer link per node is supported.

This is an improved version of the multi-protocol Reflector. Nearly all std::vector containers have been replaced with std::list containers. This is a far better choice for any collection where it is common to delete elements that are not at the end of the collection. Also in this package, no classes are derived from any standard containers. Because standard containers don't have a virtual destructor, derriving from them is highly ill-advised and while the origin XLX server worked using such derivations, it represents a possible serious problem when considering future development. Also, the clean-up routines designed to be executed when shutting down were unreachable as designed and this has been fixed. In addtion, long sleep times in certain threads were preventing a polite systemd shutdown and this has been fixed. Please note that it can still take several seconds to complete the shutdown while some execution threads complete their i/o cycle. The C++ warning flag, -W has been turned on and a significant number of warning have been fixed.

Only systemd-based operating systems are supported. Debian or Ubuntu is recommended. If you want to install this on a non-systemd based OS, you are on your own. Also, by default, ambed and xlxd or xrfd are built without gdb support. If you want to add it, modify the Makefile in each build directory. Finally, this repository is designed so that you don't have to modify any file in the repository when you build your system. Any file you need to modify to properly configure your reflector will be a file you copy from you locally cloned repo. This makes it easier to update the source code when this repository is updated. Follow the instructions below to build your transcoding XLX reflector or tri-mode XRF reflector.

• 73 de n7tae

Usage

The packages which are described in this document are designed to install server software which is used for the D-Star network infrastructure. It requires a 24/7 internet connection which can support 20 voice streams or more to connect repeaters and hot-spot dongles!

• The server can build a reflector that support IPv4, IPv6 or both (dual stack).
• The public IP addresses should have a DNS record which must be published in the common host files.

If you want to run this software please make sure that you can provide this service free of charge, like the developer team provides the software and they network infrastructure free of charge! If you don't need transcoding support, you don't need to build or install ambed.

Installation

Below are instructions for building either an XLX or XRF reflector. It is assumed that the XLX system will support transcoding. If this is not the case, you can safely ignore commands associated with building and installing ambed.

After a clean installation of Debian make sure to run update and upgrade

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Required packages (some of these will probably already be installed)

sudo apt install git git-core
sudo apt install apache2 php5
sudo apt install build-essential
sudo apt install g++

Download the sources

git clone https://github.com/n7tae/new-xlxd.git

move to the ambed directory

cd ambed

Edit the makefile

You only need to do this if you are not going to use 127.0.0.1 for the ambed IP address:

cp Makefile makefile

The only thing to change here is your new IP address.

Compile, install and start the ambed program

make -j<N>
sudo make install

Configure your reflector software

All of the software configuration is done in the makefile, so first, copy it:

cd ../src
cp Makefile makefile

Everything you need to change is in one section near the top of the makefile. Specify a reflector callsign that is not currently being used. Make sure you check carefully to be sure your callsign choice is not already in use. You need to also set the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to be used for binding. This should be static IP address that uses only a dotted number for IPv4 or a coloned hexidecimal number for IPv6. You can comment out either the IPv4 or the IPv6 address to create an IPv4-only or an IPv6-only reflector. Define both to build a dual stack (IPv4 and IPv6) reflector. Of course if you build a reflector with only IPv6, you should disable G3 support, because it's the one protocol that only operates on IPv4. In fact, currently, it would be silly to build an IPv6-only XLX reflector because there are currently no DMR or YSF system that could use it. For and XLX reflector, you can also supply a binding address for the transcoder. If you comment out this definition, you will build an XLX reflector without transcoding support. You can also control whether you reflector will support linking from Icom's G3 routing transceivers. This lining is IPv4 only! Finally you can build your reflector software with debugging support.

Create and edit your blacklist, whitelist and linking files and systemd file

If you are building an XLX reflector:

cp ../config/xlxd.blacklist .
cp ../config/xlxd.whitelist .
cp ../config/xlxd.interlink .
cp ../config/xlxd.terminal .

If you are building an XRF reflector (please note the name changes, especially for the interlink file):

cp ../config/xlxd.blacklist xrfd.blacklist
cp ../config/xlxd.whitelist xrfd.whitelist
cp ../config/xlxd.interlink xrfd.interlink
cp ../config/xlxd.terminal xrfd.terminal

If you are not going to support G3 links, you don't need to copy the .terminal file. Use your favorite editor to modify each of these files. If you want a totally open network, the blacklist and whitelist files are ready to go. The blacklist determine which callsigns can't use the reflector. The whitelist determines which callsigns can use the reflector and the interlink or linklist file sets up the XLX<--->XLX linking and/or out-going XRF linking. When building your network, remember that XLX only supports a single hop, so each XLX reflector needs to be interlinked with all the reflectors for that module's network. Along with multi-protocol support, this is the outstanding feature of the XLX design! The down-side is that a Brand Meister link is of the same Peer group as XLX, so if you want to set up a big XLX cluster that supports transcoding, you need a transcoder for all nodes!

Start the reflector

Now for the reflector:

cd ../xlxd

There are several options in reflector Makefile, by default, you will not have debugging support, you will build an XLX (not an XRF) reflector and you will support Icom's G3 routing. If you want to change any of these, you need to modify you Makefile:

cp Makefile makefile

Edit the makefile to change your configuration. Just uncomment the lines indicated near the beginning of the file. Now your ready to comile and install:

make -j<N>
sudo make install

Replace the <N> with the number of processors on your system, which can be found with cat /proc/cpuinfo.

Stoping and starting the services

sudo systemctl stop xlxd # (or xrfd)
sudo systemctl stop ambed

You can start each component by replacing stop with start, or you can restart each by using restart.

Copy dashboard to /var/www

There are two supplied, one for XRF systems and one for XLX systems.

sudo cp -r ~/xlxd/dashboard.xlx /var/www/db     # or dashboard.xrf

Please note that your www root directory might be some place else. There is one file that needs configuration. Edit the copied files, not the ones from the repository:

• pgs/config.inc.php - At a minimum set your email address, country and comment. Do not enable the calling home feature if you built an XRF reflector. This feature is for XLX systems only.

Updating xlxd and ambed

Go to the build directory and do a git pull. If you notice there is new version of the Makefile after you do the git pull, you will want to reconcile those new files with your copies before you make and install the executables.

Firewall settings

XLX Server requires the following ports to be open and forwarded properly for in- and outgoing network traffic:

• TCP port 80 (http) optional TCP port 443 (https)
• TCP port 8080 (RepNet) optional
• UDP port 10001 (json interface XLX Core)
• UDP port 10002 (XLX interlink)
• TCP port 22 (ssh) optional TCP port 10022
• UDP port 42000 (YSF protocol)
• UDP port 30001 (DExtra protocol)
• UPD port 20001 (DPlus protocol)
• UDP port 30051 (DCS protocol)
• UDP port 8880 (DMR+ DMO mode)
• UDP port 62030 (MMDVM protocol)
• UDP port 10100 (AMBE controller port)
• UDP port 10101 - 10199 (AMBE transcoding port)
• UDP port 12345 - 12346 (Icom Terminal presence and request port)
• UDP port 40000 (Icom Terminal dv port)

YSF Master Server

Pay attention, the XLX Server acts as an YSF Master, which provides 26 wires-x rooms. It has nothing to do with the regular YSFReflector network, hence you don’t need to register your XLX at ysfreflector.de !

Copyright

• Copyright © 2016 Jean-Luc Deltombe LX3JL and Luc Engelmann LX1IQ
• Copyright © 2020 Thomas A. Early N7TAE