Some news to share about Linux in telecom. Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux in the enterprise, today announced it has published its Carrier Grade Linux requirements definition version 3.1 (CGL v3.1) and will host two SUPERCOMM panels, "Accelerating Linux Deployment in Communications" and "The Business Case for Linux," to meet the growing interest in CGL applications for telecommunications infrastructure.
Hosted by Ibrahim Haddad - author, former Linux researcher at Ericsson, and strategic program manager at OSDL- the "Accelerating Linux Deployment in the Enterprise" panel will look at the most recent requirements from the Carrier Grade Linux working group, including high availability and clustering definitions. Haddad will also deliver the "State of the Penguin" keynote address at the Linux Solutions Telecom Conference being held at SUPERCOMM.
A second panel hosted by OSDL at the Linux Solutions Telecom Conference is "The Business Case for Linux," led by Bill Weinberg, OSDL's Open Source Architecture Specialist. Weinberg was a founding team member at MontaVista Software and is a regular speaker and contributor on open source topics.
"The tide has already turned in the telecommunications market. Recent announcements from a number of telecommunications companies demonstrate the increasing adoption of Linux to reduce costs and enable a higher level of flexibility in telecommunications devices," said Stuart Cohen, CEO of Open Source Development Labs. "With increasing awareness of CGL benefits, telecommunications equipment manufacturers are moving quickly to implement Linux in mission critical applications."
"Common specifications such as CGL are an integral part of the emerging class of computers called communications servers that are able to handle a broad range of communications computing applications," said Markus Leberecht, director of strategy and architecture, Switched Platform Operations, Embedded Communications Computing, Motorola. "The presence of OSDL and the various CGL discussions at SUPERCOMM confirms the progress that Linux is making in the telecom space. The panel discussion will enable this penetration to continue by educating those companies that are implementing CGL."
The latest CGL Requirements Definition, CGL v3.1, is now available for evaluation by developers and Linux distributors and will be discussed at SUPERCOMM. The new Requirements Definition addresses new capabilities, particularly in the areas of clustering, manageability and security. Acknowledging the increasing threat to telecommunications companies by unauthorized access to their management and control interfaces, OSDL's CGL Working Group has found that a new level of security can be achieved through sophisticated access control, strong authentication and tamper-proof auditing of administrative actions and logs. CGL v3.1 identifies security capabilities including file integrity checking, PKI and SSL support, resource management and operating system support for Trusted Platform Module (TPM) hardware.
Panelists for the "Accelerating Linux Deployment in Communications" include: Anthony Ambrose, general manager for Platform Programs and Communications Infrastructure Group, Intel; Peter Badovinatz, senior technical staff manager, Advanced Linux Response Team, IBM Linux Technology Center; Alex deVries, Linux architect, Wind River Systems; Markus Leberecht, director of strategy and architecture, Motorola; Manas Saksena, chief technology officer, TimeSys; and Glenn Seiler, director of product marketing, MontaVista Software. The panel will be held Monday, June 6, 2005 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in M14C at McCormick Place in Chicago.
Panelists for "The Business Case for Linux" discussion include Anjan Ghosal, chief executive officer and founder, IntelliNet Technologies; Mark Matthews of MySQL; and Peder Ulander, vice president of marketing, MontaVista Software. The panel will be held Wednesday, June 8, 2005 from 1:45 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. at the Linux Solutions Telecom Conference and Pavilion Theater.
About Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) OSDL - home to Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux - is dedicated to accelerating the growth and adoption of Linux. Founded in 2000 by CA, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel and NEC, OSDL is a non-profit organization at the center of Linux supported by a global consortium of more than 60 of the world's largest Linux customers and IT industry leaders. Currently, 24 companies are producing products based on CGL - eight Linux distributions and 16 of the industry's leading TEMs and NEPs. OSDL sponsors industry-wide initiatives around Linux in telecommunications, in the enterprise data center and on corporate desktops. The Lab also provides Linux expertise and computing and test facilities in the United States and Japan available to developers around the world. Visit OSDL on the Web at http://www.osdl.org/.
OSDL is a trademark of Open Source Development Labs, Inc. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party marks and brands are the property of their respective holders.
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I wonder how much Microsoft "secretly" invested in this study. 
Mid-Sized Companies Not Interested in Linux -Microsoft Still Dominates, Study Says
London, ON - Most mid-sized enterprises are simply not interested in Linux, according to a recent study by Info-Tech Research Group, a leading technology research firm.A tiny 10 percent of mid-sized enterprises plan to evaluate Linux within the next three years and only a portion of these will actually adopt it.
"Just 27 percent of mid-sized companies currently have Linux installed and almost half of the respondents said they have no interest in Linux.The Linux advance into this market has stalled," says Frank Koelsch, Executive Vice President of Info-Tech Research Group."Microsoft still dominates this market and is the clear leader for mid-sized companies," he adds."Linux was initially hot, but interest has substantially declined.Companies are past the hype and taking a much more cautious approach towards Linux."
The study highlighted the divide that is occurring between large companies who are increasingly embracing open source, and smaller companies who remain Microsoft-centric.Of the companies who did not already have Linux installed, 48 percent have no interest whatsoever and a further 15 percent are not sure.
"An important consideration for any mid-sized enterprise evaluating Linux is that although Linux is free, the support for it is not," says Koelsch."For smaller organizations that already have a trained Windows-based support staff, adding Linux to the mix can add headcount, complexity and create havoc," he continues."Unless there is a compelling business reason to implement a Linux system, IT decision makers in mid-sized enterprises should stick to Microsoft solutions, even though they are not perfect either."
The findings and trend analysis are included in Info-Tech Research Group's annual "IT Priorities 2005" report.With over 1,400 companies responding, it is the largest annual survey of its kind.The study focused on mid-sized enterprises in the US, Canada and the UK.
With a paid membership of over 25,000 worldwide, Info~Tech Research Group is the global leader in providing IT research and analysis to the mid-sized enterprise market.It is North America's fastest growing full-service IT analyst firm.
Hat Tip to Linux Devices for this i3 micro technology news...
i3 micro technology claims that its new Mood 130 is the first high-performance IP set-top box to provide video streaming for under $99. Housed in a very compact (6.69 x 4.21 x 1.10 inch) enclosure and running embedded Linux, the Mood 130 provides "triple play" services to users: Internet access, VoIP, IP television, and on-demand entertainment, along with MPEG-1 and -2 video, and MPEG-1 audio streaming.
The Mood 130 is a "carrier grade" set-top box (STB) that meets the quality and security requirements of "both incumbent operators and demanding residential subscribers," according to Jan Werne, CEO of i3.
It provides DVD-quality viewing for the user, he said, and "remote and encrypted anti-fraud provisioning of base services and centralized upgrade management" for the service provider. Based on an STMicroelectronics STi5528 chipset, along with embedded Linux, the Espial Escape browser, and Skelmir JVM, the STB's support for industry standards provides maximum flexibility for rapid custom development, said Werne.
The new STB handles PAL, NTSC, and SECAM TV formats, along with teletext, closed captioning, WSS, and CGMS. Among the Mood 130's options are an integrated SmartCard reader, a Macromedia flash player, a wireless keyboard, and a variety of cable kits for different geographical regions. It is equipped with a 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet interface and, optionally, a USB 1.1 interface and RF output port.
This Userful, Inc. press release pasted below is very interesting.Basically it allows you to turn one Linux computer into ten Linux computers.Sounds like a Citrix competitor - only on the Linux platform.Although, one major difference is that Citrix is pretty much all software (except the server) and then uses a softclient to connect to the Citrix server which transmits all the keystrokes, mouse movements, pixels, etc. over an IP network. Anyway, you could probably recoup the investment in the VGA cables due to the ease of management, only 1 server serving 10 clients, including software. Perhaps Useful bundles long VGA cables with their solution and is able to get long VGA cables at a discounted rate? I believe they use USB keyboards and USB mice as well, which also have distance limits. Their website claims they supply all the hardware and cabling, making it a true "plug and play" solution - so I would assume they are providing long VGA cables. On their website, their marketing materials appear to be focused on libraries, but their solution seems well suited for the SMB market as well.In any event, it has some good multi-tasking capabalities, i.e. "Userful's software allocates resources among the stations based on demand. Typically, an ordinary desktop computer sits idle over 90% of the workday. People use computing power in spikes when launching an application or rendering a web-page, the rest of the time is spent typing a document or reading the page. Essentially, this means that 1-Box users typically have access to 100% of the machine's computing power. On the occasion that multiple users request a task at once, the computer divides its processing time between them.Users often find the system more responsive than individual computers for common tasks like loading a web-page or launching an application. This is because another user often has the application open, or has recently viewed the web-page, therefore, 1-Box can load it from memory rather than the hard-disk or the Internet." Here's their press release: Linux-Based Software Turns One Computer into Ten CALGARY, AB (February 8, 2005) - Userful, an innovative desktop Linux company, introduces, 1-Box Desktop Multiplier, a Linux-based software, that turns one computer into ten. Userful's 1-Box Desktop Multiplier software creates a ten-to-one advantage over traditional desktop deployments by using extra video cards to quickly turn a single ordinary PC into a network of up to ten workstations. After three years of selling the 1-Box software as a turnkey solution, Userful is releasing 1-Box Desktop Multiplier as a stand-alone product for global distribution, and is looking to expand their network of partners and resellers internationally. "The portability and speed of deploying 1-Box Desktop Multiplier software is outstanding. We've literally been able to unpack, set-up, and test an eight-user network in less than twenty-five minutes," said David Cooper, President of ITSportsNet. "The 1-Box Desktop Multiplier software gives us a dramatic edge over our competitors who are still struggling using traditional PCs or thin clients." With 1-Box Desktop Multiplier software, up to ten users can work off of a single computer box. Each user requires only a standard monitor, USB keyboard, and mouse. Users can simultaneously browse the Internet, send email, and independently run any installed software they desire. By reducing hardware, software, and maintenance costs, Userful's 1-Box Desktop Multiplier software reduces the total cost of ownership by as much as seventy per cent. Tim Griffin, President of Userful, states, "Our 1-Box Desktop Multiplier software leverages Linux's significant advantages of security, reliability, virus-immunity, affordability and extensibility. Our software combines the best of both PCs and Thin-Clients, allowing for both high performance and low maintenance. 1-Box Desktop Multiplier software easily integrates with all major Linux distributions, creating a powerful and compelling enhancement for anyone deploying Linux on the desktop." In addition to making desktop computing drastically more affordable, 1-Box Desktop Multiplier software has substantial environmental benefits. The ninety per cent reduction in hardware greatly reduces an organization's power, air conditioning and computer disposal costs. 1-Box Desktop Multiplier offers support for most Linux distributions, including Novell, Mandrake, Fedora Core and Red Hat. About Userful For the past three years, Userful has been transforming the world of desktop computing with their unique 1-Box Desktop Multiplier software. Userful's innovation of turning one computer into ten has earned them the status of technology leaders in desktop computing, and has recently been named one of Alberta's fastest growing companies. With this ten-to-one advantage, Userful has gained a strong presence in the public computing market; with the mission to become the dominant platform for affordable desktop computing worldwide. For more information about Userful and 1-Box Desktop Multiplier, visit Userful's online newsroom at
Conversely, if I am reading this release correctly, this solution requires that you put 1 video card per remote PC.So if you want 10 clients, you need 10 video cards? Aren't VGA cables typically only 5 feet long? I'm not sure this would work as a desktop replacement unless you have 10 people all huddled into one cubicle - or you buy very expensive long VGA cables. I looked into a 50 foot VGA cable for my house and if I recall it was like $130.
I received an email telling me about another IP-PBX from a company based out of Belgium. Packetbox is a turn-key software and hardware solution based on a customized Linux operating system.. It's called Packetbox, a preinstalled appliance that contains anti-spam, anti-virus solutions, ipsec for vpn's, groupware and a customized Asterisk solution with web based interface and flash panel. It provides a Windows compatible domain controller for user authentication & management, file & printer sharing and DHCP & DNS services. You can find more information about it at http://www.packetbox.net
The device retails at around 1000 Euro.
The Asterisk forums have been pretty active lately on TMC's website. Someone posted asking for help getting SIP clients to register on his Asterisk server. If you think you can lend him a helping hand, go check out the Asterisk forums. Looks like someone deleted that post, but I found another interesting Asterisk post: How to Connect SPA-3000 to Asterisk so Asterisk will answer?
How to Connect SPA-3000 to Asterisk so Asterisk will answer?
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| George Tang Industrial Corporation GDV-08 DVR |
George Tang Industrial Corporation introduced the GDV-08, its latest 8-channel DVR with built-in LAN and CD-RW. The Linux-embedded unit is bundled with Software Watchdog and realtime MPEG-4 compression. 8 channels? Now this is one sick DVR... Too bad it's not a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) with the ability to pause and rewind Live TV - it would put Tivo and my Windows Media Center Edition 2005 PC along with my LinkSys Media Center Extender to shame if it could record/pause/rewind/fast-forward up to 8 different channels.
I believe this system is more designed to record video surveillance cameras that require high resolution, such as casinos, banks, etc. Though nothing can prevent you from using it to record video from a coax cable TV signal. Although my guess is that this unit only monitors or tunes into channels 3 and 4 as opposed to a full TV tuner. Nevertheless, a pretty cool unit that if I got my hands on I'm sure I could have fun with - especially since it runs on the open source Linux platform.
It features multiple password protection, two IDE-supported hard disk storage, video loss detection, pre-scheduled recording and date code functions. Specifications include resolutions of 640 x 480 pixels (display) and 320 x 240 pixels (recording), display speeds of up to 240fps (NTSC) and 200fps (PAL), and recording speed of 60fps. It has four/eight BNC video input connectors, D type VGA, BNC TV-out and four/eight loop-through video output connectors, eight NC/NO digital alarm inputs and two NC/NO relay outputs.
Other features include alarm to e-mail function, CD-R/RW backup alarm solution, PTZ camera-supported control, LAN/WAN/Internet access, JPEG (by Java) and MPEG-4 (by OCX) remote views and remote online playback via MPEG-4 streaming. The unit supports PAL, NTSC and SECAM systems.
New CCTV digital video recorders: Linux-embedded DVR has built-in LAN and CD-RW
Related article(s):
Tivo - A Quick Overview
With open-source Linux telecom solutions such as Asterisk and Pingtel gaining steam, it's always good to hear about another Linux telecom solution.
While this one is not open-source, it is important in that it is the world's first Linux-based call recording system.
here's the news:
October 5, 2004 - ASC (www.asctelecom.com) offers world's first Linux based voice logging system based on SPIRIT (www.spiritdsp.com) speech compression software providing toll quality even in narrowband channels.
For what purposes do people record speech? Usually, to be able to listen to the records later to recover important pieces of data gone unnoticed initially. That's why speech quality is extremely important for communication logging systems. At the same time compression rate (higher compression leads to lower speech quality) is one of the crucial selling points for communication loggers. The good news is that ASC designed a logging system providing toll speech quality at low bit rate.
Having more than 40 years of experience and recording thousands of hours of speech, ASC is focused on recorded speech quality. That's why ASC chose SPIRIT software as the base for its new voice logging system.
Thinking about desired compression rate, speech quality and available processing power SPIRIT experts advised ASC to choose SPIRIT proprietary 4800 bps vocoder based on well-known CELP model and strongly optimized, providing nearly toll speech quality (MOS about 3.7) at low computational complexity.
Since ASC provides a Linux based voice logger, a decoder that runs with Linux as well as with Windows was required. SPIRIT 4800 bps vocoder was divided into DSP-based encoder and OS-independent PC-based decoder. This allowed ASC to get a speech codec targeted at their specifics and satisfying all their technical requirements (speech compression < 8 kbps and quality MOS >= 3)
SPIRIT solution ensures desired speech quality that is extremely important for logger as well as design flexibility and ability for system upgrades without considerable effort. So without wasting additional time and money ASC could make its business more effective and user-friendly. "You can't argue flexibility is a very useful feature. Imagine you have a running system and would like to make it more effective. With SPIRIT software embedded you don't need to buy a new system as we can just update the current version." - says ASC's Volkmar Henkel, Director New Technologies.
"Combination of toll speech quality and low bit rate is a real challenge, but ASC perfectly coped with this providing world's first Linux-based voice logging system for narrowband channels" - comments Andrew Sviridenko, founding CEO of SPIRIT.