October 2005 Archives

Is XMPP going to be the near term winner of the IM protocol battle? Comments from Robert Sparks - organizer of SIPit...

"The general opinion still seems to be that XMPP is good for right now for medium sized solutions. When people start looking at large portals and interdomain, they start looking at SIMPLE. You have seen folks like Nokia making more noise about OMA, PoC, and related things? Those tout SIMPLE pretty strongly."

I think Robert is correct and that XMPP has proven to be a worthy protocol for small and medium business but I also agree with Google's strategy on embracing SIP as well. I would imagine they are planning to use SIP for VOIP signalling in the early stages with SIMPLE and XCAP on the roadmap as the use of SIP for IM matures. It is quite likely that MSRP will also play a role in the deployment of SIMPLE.

All in all it's looking like it might be a wise idea to support both XMPP and SIMPLE, at least on the softphone / soft client side of things.

Tags: XMPP Presence IM VOIP SIP Softphone

According to Rick Moran at Cisco Presence is near the number one priority. In a caption from Rick's blog via IT EXPO he mentions, "The application and the network need to work together better and it doesn't make sense that cell phones ring at 3:00 am local time when you travel as the phone and network realize what time it is."

This is an excellent example of the use of Presence. If the phone knows what time it is (which it does) then why is is ringing at 3AM ? Better yet why doesn;t the network immediately respond with an automated call or SMS back to the caller informing them that "Hey caller, it's 3AM, send me an email @ and I will get back to you at a sane time." Presence can play a huge part in the enterprise. It would be very beneficial for team members to understand what environment or what the status is of other members without having to do anything more than look at their phone or messenger. This way they would know that an instant message is not going to cut it, or maybe it would be very timely to send some critical business info to that team member during that meeting.

We have seen Presence in action via proprietary personal Instant Messagers for years; Yahoo, Skype, AIM, ICQ, MSN and there are others. Google has in some ways broken the proprietary chain with the introduction of GoogleTalk IM using XMPP for Presence and IM. I have been preaching open standards in VoIP, IM and Presence for a lifetime it seems and I am glad to see Google has gone in this direction. But did Google choose the right protocol/technology? Could SIMPLE and XCAP serve them better? It seems as though Google wants to support both SIP/SIMPLE and XMPP.

Here is what Robert Sparks - organizer of SIPit had to say about Presence during a brief conversation I had with him today. "The general opinion still seems to be that XMPP is good for right now for medium sized solutions. When people start looking at large portals and interdomain, they start looking at SIMPLE. You have seen folks like Nokia making more noise about OMA, PoC, and related things? Those tout SIMPLE pretty strongly." Robert is also the author of SIP Beyond VoIP. Chapters 5, 8 and 15 talk why someone might want to deploy SIMPLE, including the new possibilities it uniquely brings to the market. It's a great read, check it out.

Tags: VoIP Presence IM XMPP

We have seen some evidence of SPAM over Internet Telephony or SPIT but what about SPIT on P2P networks? Can that be solved the same way we are addressing it on traditional networks? How will this affect the new P2P SIP initiatives? There have been a few questions like this being raised on the P2P SIP mail list and it would seem as though the answer is not so simple. One member on the list writes:

"Well, I was reading how SPIT (Spam over Internet Telephony) could become a problem in SIP VoIP providers. This problem could be resulted with an array of SBC's, if they are enough mature to that kind of functions. However, in p2p networks, it's pretty more difficult to solve the problem; in fact, I really don't know how it could be done, unless you control any node or super node with a heavy application. Am I right?"

P2P SIP is still in it's very infancy so it's not critical that we solve this today but it sure would help if we could address it before vendors start jumping on board with this new extension to SIP. This and other topics will be discussed at the 64th IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) Meeting during the P2P-SIP ADHOC BOF (Birds of a Feather) meeting. This ADHOC BOF will be held at the Sheraton Wall Centre on November 11,  2005 in Vancouver. There is a shuttle running between the main IETF venue at the Westin Bayshore. The Bayshore is completely sold out so if you are still thinking of attending the Wall Centre might be a better bet. See you there!

Tags: P2P VoIP, VoIP

One of the biggest issues in the world of VoIP and IP Videoconferencing today is Firewall Traversal. Yes, we can use open standards such as STUN, TURN and ICE along with SBCs (Session Border Controllers) to assist end points in their quest to traverse Firewalls. But is that enough? Nay I say.

Intelligent Firewall Traversal for SIP and VoIP/Video media in particular is in short supply out there and the proof is in the pudding. Grab a SIP end point (there are many) and try making some calls over a few enterprise Firewalls (ie. Fortinet) and you will be sadly defeated.  If you ask the industry network aficionados for an answer they will probably give you some long winded explanation including reference to Reverse UDP Mapping, PAT++ configurations and alike which is really not the answer we are all searching for. As a potential stakeholder in a large network I may not care about the methodology but do want to know that I have a solution that works! My questions would probably be more like, "What is the most efficient and effective Firewall Traversal solution, how much does it cost and when can I get it?"

Firewall Traversal SDK
As the Chief Operating Officer of now my second VoIP, Video and IM  software company (this time it's endpoints and servers) it is my job to make sure we define the best possible solution for our customers. The best NAT/PAT/Firewall Traversal solution does not stop at simply implementing the open standards and using an SBC. No, we need that special sauce that solves more than the just most of the issues caused by Firewall Traversal, it solves them all.

Am I dreaming here? I don't think so. As a matter of fact I believe in it so strongly that I have asked our engineering department at Eyeball to build a prototype of the world's best stand alone Firewall Traversal SDK. A part of this prototype building process I would like to hear what YOU want addressed in this Firewall Traversal SDK, send me an email with your thoughts and we will do our best to inlcude your ideas in this new project.

Tags: Firewall Traversal, VoIP

Andy reflects on Alec's perspective.

If you are the best VoIP software Project Manager or your know someone who is, and you/they want to work for the most exciting IM, VoIP and Video software company around (located in beautiful Vancouver BC) send your resume in Word Doc format to [email protected]. I have a job for you.

A few acquisitions and mergers between Softphone and IM services have been making the news and Mr. Murdoch seems to be on the prowl for something in VoIP, my guess is that it will include a soft client offering.

Are soft VoIP clients gaining more momentum lately? Back in June of this year a research firm provided some stats ...

Excerpt:
More than 11 million people worldwide were using a retail voice over IP (VoIP) service for at least some of their telephone calls at the end of March 2005, according to market research group Point Topic.

The number climbs to just under 17.5 million users when 'soft-clients' like Skype and VoiceGlo are added in, according to John Bosnell, senior analyst at Point Topic.
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I am sure this report does not take into consideration soft clients or softphones supplied by some of the vendors not mentioned here like Eyeball Networks who in their own right are reporting more than 18 Million distributed end points. With that in mind I think the researchers are missing a great deal of information in these reports and need to do a little more digging before putting these types of reports in front of the press and alike. Come on guys, isn't it time we started seeing some well quantified data?

Sean Egan, GAIM lead developer has been reportedly snapped up Google to work on their GoogleTalk application. According to CRN Egan will continue to work on Gaim, which is scheduled to release a 2.0 version before the end of the year. Among the new Gaim features, Egan highlighted support for Google Talk's voice chat, as well as webcam connections with MSN and Yahoo! contacts.

Yahoo! + MSN, Skype + eBay, AOL/ICQ + Apple, GoogleTalk + XMPP. Competition is good for technology, it truly inspirers innovation and the result usually means better products in the marketplace.

IM Pairing & Federating is a good thing but is it enough to have 2 vendors interoperating? Hmm, not according to many of the users I have been talking to. The first scenario offering promise is to use one IM (with Voice and Video) application for access to all of the above networks using Text messaging and Presence as the common denominator. This of course is already being done.

The next phase should include integrated access to the various network email web accounts, Voice and Video interop and some real Enterprise tools for those of us who work for a living, ie. a dial pad with hold, transfer, conference etc.

K, I think I have this figured now. I will be setting up a permanent redirect for SIPthat.com pointing to this new home this weekend. Have a good weekend everyone!

Until I can get my templates and podcasts set up the way I like, I am reverting back to SIPthat.com

I will post another note when I have rectified the issues here.

See you there.

Chris Pirillo and I spoke today on the MSN/Yahoo federation and why AOL has potentially missed the boat. We had a brief conversation on Eyeball's new IM product as a Trillium replacement. The new iPod made it into the conversation with Chris telling Apple exactly where they can shove their current pay-for velcro arm straps among other things. We talked about the impact that Video Blogging will have now that this product is out there, according to Chris, not a hell of a lot.

The MP3: http://sipthat.com/mp3/Pirillo-gadaBe-10-12-2005-8.19.19PM.mp3

Get the Podcast

We saved the best for last... Chris's own Gada.be service. I happen to think that Chris is on to something here, gada.be is essentially a Search Conduit for RSS which was initially built for mobile apps (Smartphones and PSP) but has mass appeal. I use it regularly now to search for VoIP news in the morning as part of my wake-up ritual. http://voip.gada.be/. It rocks for current news research, check it!

Don't forget to sign on to Chris's weekly podcast tomorrow eve: http://thechrispirilloshow.com

I have always said that Video Blogging will take off. Mac gets it. The new iPod launched today now supports video. Something else I thought was super cool is that new iMac has a built in video camera and there is also a new remote control that you can use to view your favorite video blogs. Nice one Steve, keep it up!

Check out the Special Event clip.

Lots going on today! Yahoo! and MSN joining IM networks (FinallY!), this is good news for everyone. Now I can get rid of that crappy MSN messenger I am hoping to catch up with Chris Pirillo later this eve., if so I will podcast our conversation right away.

Excerpt...
Yahoo (Quote, Chart) and Microsoft (Quote, Chart) are linking up their IM networks to allow MSN and Yahoo! Messenger users to communicate across the two platforms, creating a network of more than 275 million strong.

Nokia's E60 is a classically designed candybar handset that still offers the same basic functionality as its two more extravagant looking Eseries brethren, the E61 and E70. The E60 is a Series 60 3rd Edition device that runs on top of Symbian OS v9.1. The E60 was designed to provide a great voice experience both inside and out of the office, thanks to its triband GSM, WCDMA, and VOIP capabilities over WiFi.

more...

Linksys and Skype team up to deliver a cordless Skype handset for VoIP calling. Now if I could call any PC running  Yahoo!, GoogleTalk, AOL, MSN, Skype + SIP compliant softphones for FREE I would get really excited.

more...

Instant Messaging, now with VoIP & Video, will continue it's rapid adoption across the globe. According to IDC study of the worldwide enterprise instant messaging (EIM) applications market and leading vendors, the value, necessity, and use of instant messaging (IM) applications for business use will continue to increase at least through 2009. Riding a wave of media attention, hype and new product releases, the worldwide enterprise instant messaging market, which includes both instant messaging server products as well as enterprise instant messaging security, compliance, and management products, jumped 37% in terms of YTY revenue in 2004, and is expected to grow from $315 mln in 2005 to $736 mln in 2009. With more than 28 mln business users worldwide using enterprise instant messaging products to send nearly 1 bln messages each day in 2005.