The SIP Invite

 

I've been holding my tongue on this topic for since word first got out that PulverMedia had been shut down by it's investors.  I figured that like most rumors, they were only partially true.  In this case, it seems they were true.  The resumes are rolling into our marketing department - confirming what was reported.

Somehow the end of VON has hit me in a way I didn't expect.  Besides missing my annual treks to San Jose in the early Spring and Boston in the Fall, there is a community of people that I knew would always be there.  Knowing that we had a place where we could meet with our mid-tier customers was important.  It saved lots of travel to far flung locations and endless nights in another Marriott Courtyard.

But what is odd is that it marks the end of one era and invariably the start of another.  Like after the end of  CTExpo in 2002, we'll surely all scatter our marketing budgets into new venues and locations, but invariably some people never resurface.  

That special collection of Jeff's groupies with the Hawaiian Shirts.  Industry captains dancing by themselves at the conference parties.  Sure, VoiceCon, Internet Telephony and other venues will fill the business void, but those truly unique "VONisms" will be the part that I'll miss the most.  

PS: I've got a closet full of VONware (shirts, bags, jackets, etc.) that just became collectors items.
Tags: Pulvermedia, VON

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 In all my travels and discussions with both Enterprise and Service Provider customers, one topic of discussion that gets far more attention than all the others is SIP Survivability and Security.  It seems that all the benefits of SIP have opened up many new applications and network configurations that solve service and scalability barriers.  However, now that SIP has entered the real world, there are some serious challenges that remain....

I'd like to invite you to a discussion on these challenges and share with you some interesting solutions.

Join me Wednesday, May 7th at 2 PM EDT for 

"SIP Survivability and Security"

Abstract:
With the increasing adoption of SIP in the enterprise and service providers, many network designers have been engineering solutions around SIP, leveraging the flexibility and modularity advantages. However, those same designers also have concerns about survivability and security. How do SIP solutions deal with equipment and network failures? Can SIP solutions be made as reliable at the traditional TDM equipment? What security and survivability issues exist and how will they be addressed? By participating in this session, you will learn how these and many other aspects of SIP are being addressed.

Click here to register: 
https://audiocodes-training.webex.com/audiocodes-training/k2/j.php?ED=97767197&UID=17729992&FM=1

    


Tags: security, SIP, survivability, webinar

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I'm feeling guilty - it has been weeks since my last posting to the "The SIP Invite".  This spring has been a particularly busy time of the year for me and unfortunately, blogging took the hit when allocating time/resources.

With that, I'm making a promise to get regular weekly messages on this blog, keeping you informed of new developments in SIP and the market.

Staying in touch.....

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It's with great pleasure that I read about Apple opening up the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch platforms to developers this week.  This move surely is due to pressure from the iPhone user community (and trying to keep up the the Microsoft Mobile developer community)

If you participated in my session at Internet Telephony this January, you know how strongly I believe this is a big deal.  History has shown over and over again that allowing the creative minds of application developers to fill market needs is the best way to expand the market and build new solutions.  Imagine what life would be like If you limited application development to the AT&T and IBMs of the 70's?  You'd still have plain-old-dialtone and IBM 3720 terminals on our desks.  No Google, no Wikipedia, no Linux. 

This is also why I think IMS is a huge mistake.  IMS is based on the concept that the carriers will develop and deploy all the applications.   The carriers should stick to managing the core of the network and delivering services over the last mile.  Letting the Google, Microsoft and smaller developers of the world create applications is a far better way to great applications deployed quickly. 

Still don't believe me?  How long do you think it will take to create the equivalent of Google Maps for my Verizon phone?  Years (if ever).

I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes next for the iPhone and family!

Tags: Apple, AT&T, IBM, iphone, ipod, Microsoft, Verizon, VONX08

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This next week is going to be a busy one with the re-monikered "VON.x" (what was wrong with VON?), and Digium|Asterisk World all at the same time and under the same roof.  I've been invited to speak at five different sessions in both events, so you may see me running from one end of the building to the other during the week.

Where you can catch up with me during the show:

Tuesday, March 18th
1:30 pm: Digium|Asterisk World Theater – Building Reliable SIP Solutions using Digium|Asterisk (Part I)
2:30pm -3:00 pm: VONDEX Theater – Taking SIP from the Lab to the Bank
4:15 pm: Digium|Asterisk World Room A7 – The Strategic Purpose of Open Source (panel)

Wednesday, March 19th
2:00 pm: - Building Reliable SIP Solutions using Digium|Asterisk (Part II)

Thursday, March 20th
10:45 am – 12:00 pm: VON.x – Designing High Availability VoIP Solutions (panel)

If you'd like to catch me one-on-one, I'd highly recommend making an appointment by dropping me an email at:  alan.percy@audiocodes.com

Lastly, as a special treat to my readers and participants in past webinars: If you stop by the AudioCodes booth #827 and ask the questions "Show me how to Break Free?", we'll give you a FREE copy of SIP Beyond VoIP. 

Tags: asterisk, digium, von, vondex, von.x, VONX08

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This story is about unintended consequences - most notably how the weak US Dollar affects those of us that live on the border with Canada. 

This last week has been particularly difficult for those of us who are frequent travelers out of the Buffalo Airport.  It's seems the perfect storm has hit the Buffalo Niagara International Airport (BUF) and it really messed up my travel plans earlier this week: 

#1 - This last weekend we received a good 12+ inches of fresh snow (the skiing was awesome), which even snow-hardened Buffalonians can find a pain-in-the-neck when it comes to getting around town.    Unfortunately, piled up snow takes up valuable parking spaces.

#2 - It marked the start of "Spring Break" weekend for most of the local colleges and public schools in Canada.

#3 - Our neighbors to the north who have new buying power, have figured out my little secret.

It seems that an article in the Toronto Star last summer tipped off my Canadian neighbors about the inexpensive flights and easy access in and out of the Buffalo Airport.  If you've ever flow out of Toronto's Pearson Airport, you know how expensive and difficult travel is for most Southern Ontario residents.  With Buffalo only 90 miles down the QEW, the lure of lower fares and access to JetBlue and Southwest Airlines has created a new North-to-South migration path.  The result?  Full parking lots, very long security lines, and jammed-to-the-gills flights.

While I appreciate the new travelers will bring with them their loonies to spend here in Western New York and wherever their destination takes them, I still miss my airport.  Parking close to the terminal and the predictability of normally short security lines are now distant memories.

I thought the "International" in Buffalo Niagara International Airport was referring to the occasional charter flights to Mexico, not the license plates in the parking lot.

Back to work....

Tags: BUF, Canada

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As I mentioned in my last post, Verizon has started installing Fios down our street.  It's fascinating process to see how the contractor buries the conduit that will eventually carry the fibreoptic cable all the way down the street and to each home. 

You can see in this photo looking across the street just one of the excavators, trucks and other heavy equipment the contractors are using to do the installation. 

What is amazing to me is how difficult this installation actually is to complete and the pace.  It took a crew of four guys and untold pieces of equipment to run a conduit under the street to the curb box on my side of the street.  In four day they have finished about six houses with many more to go before being done with just my one street. 

Oh, and if you wondered if our regular phone lines survived the digging - they dug those up within 15 minutes of unloading the equipment.  Thank god for cell phones.

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After it seems like an eternity of waiting, Verizon is finally starting the process to install Fios on my street.  They have most of my home town of Orchard Park, NY strung with fiberoptic cable from pole to pole, but those of us that are serviced by underground cables were last in line.

Anyhow, now I understand why Verizon plans on spending an average of $1,000 per household to install Fios.  First all the utility companies (gas, water, telephone, cable...) all have to mark/flag their lines.  (Our front lawn looks like a miniature golf course)  Then the Verizon guys come out and....sit in the truck.  So far this truck has been parked in front of my house for two days with at least two guys sitting in it.  God knows what they are doing, but there they sit - idling the engine.

$1,000 per household?  Verizon has spent that so far just in fueling this idling truck.

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Thankfully the battle is now over between the competing high-definition DVD formats and Sony's Blu-ray format is the victor.  Fortunately, this played out a lot faster than the Beta/VHS battle that lasted through most of the 80's (BTW: to this day, I still have one of each in my AV cabinet) Settling the Blu-ray / HD-DVD battle will end much of the consumer confusion and let us get back to spending our "economic stimulus" checks when they arrive later this summer.

Now that this is behind us, what can we learn from this?

#1 - The first to market advantage does not necessarily create a victor.  It's all about market positioning and market might.  Sony and Panasonic out positioned Toshiba.

#2 - Better technology will not win the war.  As with the Beta/VHS war, it's not clear that the better technology actually won the war.  HD-DVD did have a number of features and capabilities that Blu-ray is just now introducing.

#3 - Customers don't always control who wins.  In the end, the movie distribution houses made the choice, not the consumers.  As bad as the video rental stores and NetFlix of the world didn't want two formats, the movie distributors hated the specter of two formats even more.

#4 Being stubborn costs $.  The biggest mistake is that the Sony and Toshiba didn't sit down and come up with a compromise format from the beginning.  Would the few months it would have taken to work out the details really have hurt the market?  I doubt it.  Did having two formats for the last two years hurt the market and cost millions of dollars?  Absolutely.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program....

 

 

 

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Another great turnout for today's two webinars on "Fax - SIP+T.38 to the Rescue", thanks everyone for participating.

And more great questions:

Q: (Brian) a slide showed FAX machine - T.38 gateway - T.38 Gateway - FAX Machine.  I was under the impression that once a FAX was converted into T.38 It coudlnt be changed back into a audio FAX call.
A: Actually, a fax can be converted to T.38 and back no problem or loss of information.  This is what happens with virtually all fax calls that are transported over VoIP carriers.  It works fine.

Q: (Darren) Do your gateways support V.34 fax over T.38? Does your T.38 fax SDK? If not, where is this on your development roadmap? We have identified this as one of the major monetary objections to using T.38 instead of TDM.
A: Our T.38 Fax SDK does support V.34 transport, but at this time our gateways are limited to V.17 speeds when used with T.38.  We are working toward delivering V.34 with T.38 on our current gateways and hope to announce our formal plans soon.

Q: (Darren) Is your T.38 fax SDK available for Linux?
A: Our T.38 Fax SDK is for Windows, but there are many others on the market and do believe a few of them support Linux.  We've had many customers use T.38 SDKs from one vendor and our gateways with no interoperability issues.

Q: (Yaniv) When using an analog MediaPack gateway, can the DID/DNIS information be passed to the SIP application?
A: Absolutely - is appears in the SIP INVITE.

Q: (Roger) Will these slides/audio be available?
A: Yes, a previously recorded version of the webinar is available at: http://www.tmcnet.com/webinar/audiocodes5/

Just as a reminder, the questions from the previous session can be found at:  http://blog.tmcnet.com/sip-invite/sip/fax-webinar-qa.asp

You can address your questions to me at:  alan.percy@audiocodes.com

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Thanks again to all those that participated in the Webinar titled "Fax - SIP+T.38 to the Rescue" we held a few weeks ago.  As noted in a previous blog post, it was a very busy webinar.  You can listen to the on-demand recording of the webinar at: http://www.tmcnet.com/webinar/audiocodes5/

As noted on the webinar, we had run out of time and were unable to get to all the great questions posed by the attendees. Find below some of the Questions and Answers that we didn't have time to address:

Q: (from Scott) is T.37 being employed and deployed?
A: T.37 is used in some messaging applications, but it is quite different than T.38.  T.37 uses email technology to transport documents and thus is not real-time.  It's great for store and forward applications, but not widely used or supported by carriers. For more on T.37, visit wikipedia

Q: (from Scott) who offers T.38 SDK's for fax API's?
A: AudioCodes and a number of other manufacturers offer a T.38 SDKs.  AudioCodes has certified our gateways with a number of other other third-party manufacturer's T.38 software.

Q: (from Tim) I think T.38 was specified to use "UDPTL" or TCP - with RTP only added to the spec recently. What do people use in practice?
A: We are using UDPTL, TCP adds addional timing issues into the equation.

Q: (from Jayaprakash) Does Gateways always do the Fax tone detection? or it is Fax Application server responsibility?
A: Our gateways can detect the CNG fax tone, which makes fax detection much easier for application developers.  Detection can be done by the application servers, but it is much harder and less accurate.

Q: (from Oliver) Which SIP trunking carriers support T.38?
A: AT&T and Quest are two carriers which have been certified to work very well.  Others are in lab testing.

Q: (from Edward) How much bandwidth required for SIP+T.38 normally ?
A: T.38 with triple redundancy and operating with V.17 speeds would use roughly 48 kbps.  Less redundency on good networks would use even less.   In comparison, a fax over G.711 would require close to 80 kbps.

Q: (from Prashanth) Can T.38 fax be done using other codecs than G.711?
A: No, transporting fax via T.38 is done instead of using a voice coder (like G.711).  Other voice coders compress the audio and are even less reliable than G.711.

Q: (from Yossman) Is your media gateway compatible with other brand devices that also supports SIP+T.38 ?
A: Yes, AudioCodes media gateways are many times deployed in mixed network environments and have excellent compatibility and reliability.

Q: (from Shawn) do you need to have a t.38 media server on both sides (sending and receiving)?
A: For T.38 to work, both ends of the IP connection need to support T.38

Q: (from Anil) Does these Media Gateways also have similar issues like Denial of service and other attacks and how do we solve this?
A: (While not the topic of this thread, this is a good question) Security is always a big concern and media gateways do need to be hardened to protect against attack.  AudioCodes gateways have been hardened and passed stringent DoD certifications for deployment in DoD networks. 

There are many more questions and I'll post more in the next few days....

 

 

 

 

 

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If you recall back in October, I posted a blog article about the intersection between personal and professional "friends" on Facebook and other social networking sites.

I noticed this morning that USAtoday picked up on the issue and published a lengthy article about the issue.  It's good reading and expands on what I have been sensing would be an issue going forward.  Fortunately, it sounds like Facebook is adding functionality to their offering that will allow creation of "circles", providing some insulation between our social and profession lives.

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After yesterday's webinar on fax, I'm overwhelmed. 

When we were developing the plans and presentation materials for yesterdays webinar titled "Fax - SIP+T.38 to the Rescue", our expectations were that a few "fax gurus" would join in and we would have a small very focused 20 - 30 person session on a rather deep dark secret of the industry.  Can you imagine my surprise when during the first few minutes of the session the participant count kept climbing and climbing to over 160 people!  Talk about standing room only. 

After 45 minutes of presentation and another almost 30 minutes of Q/A, I was toast.  There were some fantastic questions that I was able to address, but because of time limitations, we were unable to get to dozens more great questions.

The session moderator, Erik Linask published a great summary of the webinar.

What does this mean?  It can mean only one thing - there is serious pain in the VoIP industry when it comes to delivering reliable fax services and people are looking for solutions.

So what can I do to help close the gap?  I've decided to use this forum to provide both a recap of the webinar and address the many questions you in the audience posed both during and after the session.  This concept of tying both the webinar and companion blog together is a new experiment, so let's give it a try.  If you have questions and didn't get a chance to pose them during the session, you can send them to me at: alan.percy@audiocodes.com

I'm starting to work on the whitepaper version of the presentation, posting pieces in this venue as they are ready.   Once the completed whitepaper is ready for download, we'll be posting it on the TMC whitepaper library.

In the mean time, the abstract for yesterday's webinar:

Fax continues to be a key communications medium for many enterprises and service providers alike. Financial institutions, real-estate, government, law offices, and many others still depend heavily on fax to transfer thousands of documents daily into and from business-critical document management and ERP systems. Many service providers and enterprises have only recently recognized the challenges associated with delivering reliable fax documents over IP networks. What are the reliability issues with fax over G.711 and how can SIP and T.38 improve the reliability? Is there a way to eliminate the expensive dedicated fax boards? How can legacy TDM fax systems connect to SIP trunking carriers? How is fax document security addressed? What is the future of fax? This session will address these questions and many others, showing how SIP and T.38 can be leveraged to create reliable and scalable fax solutions for both enterprises and service providers.

For those that missed the live event, you can listen to the on-demand version at any time.

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This last week was very successful and action packed week for a number of our partners, AudioCodes staff and myself at the AudioCodes Global Channel Partner Meeting.   The event brought together 220 of the leading AudioCodes global channels, leading ISV partners and key AudioCodes executives for two days of introductions, information sharing and a little socializing beautiful and historical Jerusalem.

Shabtai Adlersberg, AudioCodes CEO during his opening keynote

 A key component of the agenda was presentations from our executives and product management teams, reviewing where we are and where we are going in the future.  The presentations included some fantastic vision on how AudioCodes sees the evolution of the communications infrastructure and a number of new products and services specifically designed to address this evolution.    

Scott Wharton from Broadsoft

We were fortunate to also hear from a number of leading industry thinkers, including Scott Wharton from Broadsoft and Haim Fried from Google who came to share their thoughts.   I was most impressed by the range of customers that came to present their case studies, showing how they put us to the test and won new business with AudioCodes.

A range of products and partners were highlighted in the Expo

 The conference Expo included a host of key partners, showing their software applications and services to the long list of channel partners and distributors that attended the event.  AudioCodes showed a number of enhanced intelligent media gateways, media server platforms with video and conferencing capabilities, plus a range of session border controller offerings.

One of the many great views during the walking tour of Jerusalem

 A highlight of the event was the Wednesday evening walking tour of Old Jerusalem.  For many, this was the first time to the city that the three major religions call home.  From the narrow streets filled with vendors, to the most holy sites, it was an awe inspiring opportunity to see and hear a very special place first hand.

From talking to many of the partners, the feedback was very positive and I'm sure they will join me in returning next year.

 

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