Re: [GnomeMeeting-list] Open discussion about ILS/SIP/FWD

[Craig Southeren <craigs postincrement com>]

On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 22:13:18 -0700
Florin Andrei <florin andrei myip org> wrote:

> On Fri, 2004-08-27 at 06:25, Damien Sandras wrote:
> 
> > However, I planned to deprecate that system by GnomeMeeting 1.2 and to
> > replace it by a gatekeeper/LDAP system where users would sign up for an
> > account, register to the gatekeeper with their account info and be
> > published on ldap.seconix.com.
> 
> I betcha quite a few people are waiting for SIP support in GnomeMeeting
> to use it with Asterisk:
> 
> http://www.asterisk.org/
> 
> In addition to being a SIP proxy, it is also a full-blown PBX that can
> interface VoIP with PSTN.

While Asterisk is nice for certain applications, it is far from being
a complete solution in all situations. I think that most potential users
of GM with SIP are *not* potential Asterisk users.

> There are already quite a few SIP soft- and hard-clients (either
> audio-only or audio-video) that work very well with Asterisk.
> There is some H.323 support in Asterisk, but it's rather sketchy. No one
> seems genuinely interested in H.323 anymore these days.

This is simply not correct as a general statement. 

It is true that SIP is being pushed very hard by equipment vendors (as
it represents an ideal opportunity to make new sales) and SIP also has
very real advantages when used in an IP-only environment. But H.323 is
still by far the most commonly deployed protocol for trunking and PSTN
connectivity, despite what the very vocal SIP advocates would have you
believe.

> But to get back to the issue you mentioned:
> I have a feeling that many people will simply be interested in a
> full-featured SIP client, rather than in a SIP software that comes with
> some kind of LDAP registry. A solid SIP foundation should be the main
> focus, the rest is secondary.

Again this is not true as a general statement.

There are many applications that require a dynamic directory of
registered endpoints, perhaps linked into existing authentication
methods, or federated together to create a distributed network. Both SIP
and H.323 are designed to do this - Asterisk is not.

> > Notice they also provide an outbound proxy for audio-only allowing
> > people with symmetric NAT (linux) to transparently go through their
> > firewalls.
> 
> While there are NAT workarounds for H.323 and SIP, the NAT issue is
> solved in an elegant fashion by IAX, the protocol developed with
> Asterisk:

The very feature that makes Asterisk very nice for PBX-style
applications (combining signalling and media into a single data stream)
makes it very unsuitable for highly distributed configurations. Every
entity that handles IAX has to be both a signalling and media gateway
which introduces both latency and complexity.

> But of course, the focus should be first on SIP, since that's what the
> majority looks after. If IAX will be added to GnomeMeeting (and that's a
> big IF), it should be a later addition.
> 
> > My question is simple, what do my users want ?
> > 1) H.323 or SIP or both or I don't care
> 
> Well, H.323 is the "dying protocol" and SIP is the "emerging standard",
> so...

To paraphrase Mark Twain, 

"The reports of the death of H.323 are greatly exagerrated"

   Craig

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Craig Southeren      craigs postincrement com / craigs voxgratia org

 Phone:  +61 243654666      ICQ: #86852844
 Fax:    +61 243673140      MSN: craig_southeren hotmail com
 Mobile: +61 417231046   Jabber: craigs jabber voxgratia org

 Post Increment - Consulting & Services    http://www.postincrement.com
 Vox Gratia - The Open Source VoIP portal  http://www.voxgratia.org
 Raving Of A Strange Mind - the VoIP blog  http://www.southeren.com/blog