def channel(obj):
return _ec.channel(_get_opc(obj))<EOL>
Return the parallel region global channel number `obj` is executing in.

The channel number is in the range of 0 to ``max_channel(obj)``.

When the parallel region is not nested this is the same value
as ``local_channel(obj)``. 

If the parallel region is nested the value will be between
zero and ``(width*N - 1)`` where N is the number of times the
parallel region has been replicated due to nesting.

Args:
    obj: Instance of a class executing within Streams.

Returns:
    int: Parallel region global channel number or -1 if not located in a parallel region.