Expert Reference Series of White Papers Voice over IP Open-Source Platforms and the Session Initiation Protocol 1-800-COURSES www.globalknowledge.com Voice over IP Open-Source Platforms and the Session Initiation Protocol Donald Hill, Global Knowledge Course Developer and Instructor Introduction Voice over IP (VoIP) communications can be separated into two categories: business and residential The early growth of VoIP was primarily in the residential space, fueled mostly by PC enthusiasts Businesses need practical and reliable phone service, early VoIP technology proved unreliable At first, the business community didn’t pay much attention to VoIP because the early versions of the technology had very poor quality much of the time However, over the last 10 years, the world of voice communications has made dramatic changes Businesses usually purchase their phone systems from a particular voice equipment manufacturer or reseller In many cases they also rely on the same source for the installation and maintenance of these systems They usually decide on a particular product based on system features that map well to their business needs Today, voice equipment vendors scramble to get their latest VoIP products and/or upgrades to market In some instances, vendors have lost major market share due to poor products or by being a late entrant into the VoIP market Some vendors with an early lead have lost out to traditional phone equipment manufacturers that have developed superior VoIP system designs and strateies While competition is intense among equipment vendors, the emergence of open source VoIP software platforms adds a new threat to the voice equipment suppliers that serve small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs) If this trend continues, it is only be a matter of time before the steady improvement of these software platforms will threaten the equipment vendor’s market share of large businesses The Impact of Voice over IP (VoIP) in Telecom VoIP: the Early Years The Internet has made global communications very inexpensive First, the introduction of multimedia PCs and PC-based software provided the platform for virtual phones, known as softphones These softphones were the beginning of a revolution in voice communications known as VoIP This early version was basically PC-to-PC communications using a headset or a microphone and speakers Connectivity could only be achieved between two parties if the caller knew the recipient’s IP address To establish a voice call, both parties needed a PC connected to the internet, and the softphone application had to be launched In addition, early multimedia systems could only provide half-duplex communications or a walkietalkie type experience Copyright ©2006 Global Knowledge Training LLC All rights reserved Page During this early period, most residential access to the Internet was dial-up connectivity, which offered very limited capacity Data packets traversing the Internet were usually delayed, due to limited dial-up capacity and network Voice calls over the Internet weren’t a very practical means of voice communications Standardizing VoIP Three major protocols have shaped the VoIP landscape of today The first two are signaling protocols developed to establish communication between two or more parties The third protocol focuses on the actual transport of the media (e.g., voice or video) The first signaling protocol was developed through the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-T) The second protocol for signaling and a third protocol for media transport were developed through Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) In 1996, the ITU-T began to develop international recommendations for multimedia communications over packet-based networks The goal was to facilitate the convergence of voice, video, and data communications The core recommendation, or standard, was called H.323; version of this protocol suite is the latest update More information detailing various audiovisual and multimedia systems can be obtained at http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H/e IETF developed the first version of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), which was released in 1999 It was developed to initiate, modify, and terminate an interactive user session that involves multimedia elements (e.g., video, voice, instant messaging, etc.) The Multiparty Multimedia Session Control (MMUSIC) working group (http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/mmusic-charter.html) continues to guide the development of SIP In 1996, the IETF published Request for Comment (RFC) 1889, which defined a standardized packet format used for packaging and delivering real-time communications, such as audio and video, over the Internet The original document has since been superceded by RFC 3550, RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time applications The VoIP Equipment Vendor Landscape The H.323 recommendation was the first real-time communications standard available to the market As a result, H.323 has been the springboard for the development of many proprietary systems by traditional telephone equipment vendors, as well as their data network equipment vendors As a result of these standardization efforts, commercial VoIP has had a significant impact on the type of products being developed and from whom they are being purchased In 1998, networking equipment giant Cisco Systems got off to an early lead in the VoIP market after acquiring the CallManager product through the acquisition of Selsius Systems This allowed Cisco Systems to introduce a packet-based voice system that competed with other traditional vendors, such as Alcatel, Avaya, Mitel, Nortel, and Siemens Since then, these and many other vendors have developed their own proprietary VoIP systems in response to the growing demand for VoIP systems Traditional phone systems for enterprise (private) networks are known as Private Branch Exchanges (PBXs), and VoIP-based PBXs are referred to as IP-PBXs These systems are not limited to products based on H.323; they are now spread across a wider standards base for signaling (call control) Copyright ©2006 Global Knowledge Training LLC All rights reserved Page Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) SIP Gains Support from the Cellular (Mobile Wireless) Community SIP’s popularity has grown enormously over the past few years A big boost in support came in November 2000, with the acceptance of SIP by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) 3GPP is composed of standards organizations in China, Europe, Japan, North America and South Korea, and is dedicated to the proliferation of a third-generation wireless global standard More specifically, this organization focuses on the development of standards for the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Furthermore, the 3GPP developed the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), which defines the way VoIP services will be implemented over General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) and UMTS cellular networks Another cellular standards organization, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP2), is dedicated to promoting their version of the next-generation mobile wireless standard, called cdma2000 The 3GPP2 is in the process of adopting the 3GPP IMS framework, which means they also see the significance of SIP They refer to their IMS innovation as Multi-Media Domain (MMD), sometimes called “All IP Core.” SIP Affects Service Providers and the Public Network SIP has become an acceptable way for signaling voice communication connections and related services It is now used as a gateway service between the Internet and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) Currently, the most popular service provider in the U.S is Vonage Advertisements for these providers state that all a prospective customer needs is broadband access to the Internet The analog telephone adapter (ATA) devices used to connect a standard phone to the Internet via the broadband connection are sold in many retail outlets The operation is dependent on a protocol that can connect these ATAs, to SIP proxy servers, which provide both inbound and outbound service to a registered device, allowing Vonage customers to call other Vonage customers However, the other critical piece to their service is the Internet-to-PSTN gateways, where PSTN traffic converts to VoIP packets and vice versa, strategically placed throughout the world to provide international voice service These gateways allow Vonage customers to make and receive calls over the public switched network as well Vonage is not the only company providing phone service over the Internet However, SIP is one common thread among most of the Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSPs) that are providing this type of service The Evolution of SIP in Enterprise VoIP Networks In addition to the mobile wireless industries, support for SIP is found in many IP-PBXs originally developed using a proprietary version of H.323 This strong demand by customers has translated into a more open standard supported by many vendors The move towards SIP opens up these platforms for third-party SIP phone support, which is a very significant change In the past, an enterprise purchased their phone system from one vendor The entire system was proprietary, and the phones and the system came from the same vendor If you liked the features of another vendor’s phone sets, you had to purchase their system to support those features There were very few instances of cross-vendor phone support, and certainly no relationships between major competitors SIP is undoing this proprietary vendor hardware lock Copyright ©2006 Global Knowledge Training LLC All rights reserved Page SIP Is Ubiquitous • With the adoption of SIP, the new version of Cisco’s CallManager (v.5) supports SIP-based third-party phones The core platform is supporting SIP along with their proprietary protocol, Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP) • Avaya’s MultiVantage VoIP system uses the SIP Enablement Services (SES) to create a communication services layer within the architecture that supports SIP • In June 2005, Nortel and Polycom announced a partnership to support video conferencing based on the SIP protocol between their equipment Interestingly, the solution also supports H.323 • Now we are seeing the emergence of a SIP-based product from the ground up, versus dual support of a proprietary protocol and SIP as an added option Pingtel’s SIPxchange PBX is an example of this Another good example is Zultys MX1200, a SIP-based platform These are all good examples of the impact SIP is making on the voice industry, whether they are wired or wireless systems Since SIP has become an ubiquitous open signaling standard, the other necessary ingredient for inexpensive communications is opening the voice platform itself Open-Source Operating Systems The Affect of Linux on the Operating System Market A group of employees at AT&T’s Bell Labs developed the UNIX operating system for the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-7 mini computer during the late 1960s and early 1970s This spawned other popular versions of UNIX, including the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) Various other versions of UNIX, such as Sun and Hewlett-Packard, continued to evolve at universities and corporations These various iterations of UNIX spurred a development project by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Their goal was to create a free operating system that was UNIX-like but didn’t contain any actual UNIX code The success of Linux has been phenomenal At first, the operating system interface was command line-based However, back in 1984, MIT originated the x project, which later evolved into the X Window System, providing the framework for a Graphical User Interface (GUI) Once this development was integrated with the Linux distribution, desktop environments like GNOME and KDE gave Linux a look and feel similar to Microsoft Windows and the Mac environments This has allowed a wider acceptance of Linux in the desktop operating system arena More importantly, Linux has been widely accepted in the server environment Apache is a free software/open source HTTP Web server that runs on UNIX, BSD and Linux operating systems Various surveys repeatedly show that Apache runs on over 60 percent of the world’s Web servers This powerful open source free software operating system/Web server combination has been the cornerstone for many application development projects Note: Some versions of Linux must be purchased These versions normally provide support, solid documentation, and additional tools developed by the software distributor Red Hat is one of the best examples of a company that packages Linux for sale, along with many other solutions and services Copyright ©2006 Global Knowledge Training LLC All rights reserved Page Comparison of Open-Source Software to Proprietary Software Advantages of Open Source • There is no license fee Proprietary software requires either a per-seat or site license • Open source allows users to change the source code at will Proprietary source code is tightly controlled, with limited or no alteration allowed • Open source engages a community of developers Proprietary software depends solely on the vendor’s development staff for revisions and bug fixes Advantages of Proprietary Software • With proprietary software, there is dedicated support Usually, with open source software, there is no dedicated support However, IBM and Hewlett-Packard, along with other organizations support open source software platforms for fees • Proprietary software has professionally written documentation Open source software is provided by the community, which usually means not well written documentation; in some cases documentation is nonexistent In many cases there are books on the subject available at a reasonable cost However, many of these books don’t necessarily reflect the latest revision released by the software community • Software releases for proprietary software are driven by vendor revenue targets and customer feedback Software releases for open source are driven by the community as time permits the individual developers to create new features or fix bugs within the existing software Open-Source Software Products for VoIP Many of the VoIP software developments listed here run strictly on Linux,since open source projects tend to gravitate towards open source operating systems However, there is support for UNIX variants and Microsoft Windows operating systems In a few cases, some software has been written for both operating system environments There are several new developments and operating system platforms, you simply have to check before downloading a package you may wish to try H.323-Based Open Source Open source software packages that support VoIP can be divided into two categories: H.323 and SIP A good example of open source development based on H.323 is the GNU Gatekeeper, OpenH323, which has the functionality of an IP-PBX It is very powerful, but doesn’t contain many of the bells and whistles found in proprietary systems In addition, there are several others, including softphones, software VoIP-to-PSTN gateways, etc SIP-Based Open Source There are several SIP development packages making it difficult to list them all A few of the more visible projects are covered below There are a few Web sites that post these SIP software packages for downloading, and they are good resources to find out more about each of these projects Pingtel and SipX SipX is a IP-PBX solution that was originally based on SIP that runs on Linux The three versions of open source, Linux-supported software are: CentOS (v 4.2), Fedora Core (version and 4), and Debian Sarge Copyright ©2006 Global Knowledge Training LLC All rights reserved Page SipX (Release 3.0) can be found on the SIPfoundry Web site, www.sipfoundry.org According to that site (under Open Source VoIP Solutions): “SIPfoundry is committed to providing highly functional open source VoIP solutions of exceptional quality to end users Ease of use and proper documentation, as well as qualified and timely support on our mailing lists, are among our objectives and commitments to the community.” www.sipfoundry.org SipXphone is available in both Windows and Linux versions Pingtel, offers three software products for sale: • SIPexchange Enterprise Communications Server is an IP-PBX software package that includes integrated voice mail, Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), with multiple auto attendants supported It has a Webbased system configuration and management tool • CallManager is a server-based integrated central call routing system In addition, it provides directory services throughout the enterprise VoIP network • The SIP Softphone is a virtual phone In addition to these software products, Pingtel offers turnkey, or pre-packaged, solutions There are two server options: one supports up to 50 users (via an analog gateway), and the other supports up to 250 users (via either analog or digital gateway) Three models of Polycom SIP phones are supported The user selects a system and determines how many phones and what model(s) they want The system is then pre-configured and shipped How does all this information relate to open source? In 2004, Pingtel decided to release the source code for their SIP software, which is available through SIPfoundry This includes the SipXpbx that runs on Linux and the sipXphone that runs on Windows Documentation for these software packages is provided via a link Why would Pingtel give source code away and try to sell it at the same time? Apparently, they felt that the open source would give them a better exposure and a community of developers behind the product Organizations can purchase software and load it on the hardware platform of their choice, as well as support Other organizations may want a turnkey solution, which is also available This is a very different strategy that may well prove to be a great formula Vovida Networks and VOCAL Vovida Networks, a Silicon Valleystart-up by Alan Knitowski and Luan Dang, assembled a team of talented developers to build an open-source VoIP system, later known as the Vovida Open Communication Application Library (VOCAL) The related Web site is www.opensource.org Eventually, Vovida was acquired by Cisco Systems, and a new Web site, www.vovida.org, now provides a forum for the open source software development The current IETF standard, RFC 3261, defines three types of SIP servers: the Proxy, Redirect, and Registrar The developers made innovations to the basic SIP model, so VOCAL defines four different servers: Redirect, Feature, Provisioning, and Marshal The current version of VOCAL (1.5.0) deals with some security issues with SIP that are vulnerable in older releases The Vovida Web site does post a list of various tests that were performed and the result (i.e., pass, partial, fail) This includes different features tested on various hardware platforms connected to the SIP servers It currently shows Redhat Linux 7.3, but this list will grow as this version is tested on different versions of Linux Copyright ©2006 Global Knowledge Training LLC All rights reserved Page Asterisk Asterisk, created by Mark Spencer at Digium, is the most popular open-source SIP development to date The current version (1.2.5), along with several related developments, can be downloaded from www.asterisk.org Asterisk is a good platform with a lot of open source pieces coming together to make a great product Asterisk runs on several variants of Linux as well as on OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Sun Solaris It also runs on Microsoft Windows With Asterisk able to run on Windows, things have changed dramatically A recent release allows Asterisk to run using a VMware player (mentioned below) The VMware player is a free virtual machine that allows one operating system to run on top of another operating system, Windows in this case Although it appears to be a very stable test platform, it is not designed to handle high call volumes It does prove the concept Scaling Asterisk A key challenge to any open source software is scalability Scalability can be done through the deployment of distributed Asterisk systems The individual tasks can be spread among several or many servers: there is no minimum or maximum size to consider when using Asterisk Unfortunately, distributed Asterisk systems are not easy to design and implement Although not a project for a beginner, over time the system can be grown by adding additional hardware Digium and Asterisk A relationship previously existed between Pingtel’s SIPexchange Enterprise Communications Server and sipX, the open source variant The same relationship applies with Digium and Asterisk open source Digium offers a software bundle called Asterisk Business Edition According to the information on the Digium Web site, the Business Edition of Asterisk support up to 120 simultaneous calls and can be upgraded to allow up to 240 calls Why buy the Business Edition when the open source is free? In addition to the software, Digium offers reliability through stress testing, technical documentation, certified interoperability of third party products, technical support and free upgrades for one year, plus additional software (binaries, installer and scripts) Asterisk Business Edition Bundles is not a turnkey like Pingtel’s other offering This product contains the Business Edition package along with PCI hardware cards that can be installed in your Asterisk server for gateway purposes (inbound/outbound calls to/from the PSTN) The hardware cards support both analog and digital line/trunk interfaces The Challenge with Installing and Maintaining Open-Source Telephony Platforms The biggest drawback with Linux is Linux itself Linux is very different from Microsoft Windows For example, loading software on Windows is virtually foolproof Using Linux in command line mode and having to mount CD-ROMs to install their contents is a daunting task for those unfamiliar with this environment Not all of us have someone on staff who understands the open source world If you do, your prospects of testing each one of these platforms to see which may be right for your organization are quite good However, if you don’t have such a person, what then? Asterisk@Home If you are not a Linux guru, but you still want to try out a good open source PBX, there is another version called Asterisk@Home This product is very user-friendly, which is the kind of news that proprietary vendors fear When there is a shakeup in an industry, there is a particular event that triggered it Asterisk@Home is the product that will one day turn this industry on its head Copyright ©2006 Global Knowledge Training LLC All rights reserved Page ISO Image for Asterisk@Home An ISO image of Asterisk@Home can be downloaded at http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net The Linux guru would probably yawn, but, to the non-Linux person, this is huge! The ISO image can be burned onto a CDROM and loaded “automagically” on a system of your choice CAUTION! Once you place the CD-ROM with the ISO image in the drive and boot the computer, a screen notification will ask you if you wish to load the software If you press the enter key, whatever was on the hard drive of your computer is erased and replaced with the software load Here is a partial list of what is included in the Installer program that will all load automatically: • CentOS/4.2 (the version of Linux used for Asterisk@Home) • Apache Web Server • SendMail—e-mail service • Comedian Mail—voice mail system • SugarCRM—Customer relationship management • MySQL—database management system • PHP—scripted programming language • phpMyAdmin—a tool used for handling the administration of MySQL over the Internet • SSH—Secure Shell, which is designed to securely log into and execute command on a network computer • Bluetooth—Wireless standard that provides a way to connect and exchange information • Asterisk Management Portal (AMP)—A web portal for configuring and managing the Asterisk server • Flash Operator Panel • Call Detail Reporting Is it really that simple to get all that loaded on a system? Yes, it really is, but you now need to go to work to learn your way around and how to configure it That will take a lot of time and energy, because there is so much to it However, it will be worth the effort Those that would like a step-by-step guide in configuration have a friend: Ward Mundy is his name, and Asterisk@Home is his game Visit the “Nerd Vittles” Web site at http://nerdvittles.com/ If you decide to begin the experimentation journey with Asterisk@Home, it with the multitude of helpful tips from this Web site Asterisk@Home was really designed for the hobbyist who may just want to experiment with a phone system in a residential or home office setting However, over the past year, this package has become powerful enough to enter the small business arena, so maybe they will need to consider a name that is more fitting for its capabilities Asterisk@Home is the same software as Asterisk, but runs a little behind in development The list below with indicate how quick the pace has been with the development cycle: Copyright ©2006 Global Knowledge Training LLC All rights reserved Page @HomeVersion Asterisk Release 0.2 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.1 2.2 1.2.1 2.3 1.2.2 2.4 1.2.3 2.5 1.2.4 2.6 2.7 2.7 VM (Virtual Machine) 2.8 Release date November 24, 2004 February 11, 2005 April 29, 2005 August 19, 2005 November 23, 2005 November 30, 2005 December 8, 2005 January 23, 2006 January 26, 2006 February, 2, 2006 February, 26, 2006 March 9, 2006 March 15, 2006 April 13, 2006 The second to the last release in the list now supports a VMware virtual machine, which really takes Asterisk@Home to a new level The pace is keeping up with the standard Asterisk development, but it is much simpler to load and is now supported on a virtual machine This really puts Asterisk in the hands of many who can experiment to find out just what VoIP can do! That is the real power of open source The following quote is from the Sourceforge Web site page (http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=551485), where this version can be downloaded: “The VMware version allows testing of Asterisk@Home without the use of a dedicated system Asteriskathome_27.exe is a compressed archive with a fully installed and running Asterisk@Home system Install the free VMware player from http://www.vmware.com/products/player/ and launch the VM.” Conclusion This paper shows the industry-wide acceptance of SIP and the recent advances of the open source software projects related to VoIP The author firmly believes that the VoIP open source is still in its infancy, but its acceptance and product maturity will grow rapidly over the next few years Digium and Pingtel have enhanced products over and above the open source software, and there are several companies that are designing easy-to-use interfaces with Asterisk and providing turnkey solutions on top of that A good source to view these products can be found at the Voipsupply.com Web site under the IPPBX/Asterisk Hardware tab So what does all this really mean? It means that open source is really beginning to turn a lot of heads in the industry What impact will open source make over the next couple of years? The market will evolve to meet that need with more interconnect vendors moving into the open source market, where a much better profit can be made At some point these systems will become more of a commodity Eventually, the big vendors may have a challenge for the lower end market But not to worry, the heat poured on by staying ahead of the open source developments will drive their new innovations farther than we can possibly imagine Copyright ©2006 Global Knowledge Training LLC All rights reserved Page 10 Here is a powerful thought: A free market has the power to innovate and offer many solutions, because there is no one best solution There are a host of solutions out there to meet each individual need At some point, buying a phone system at your local discount store may not be that far-fetched after all! Learn More Learn more about how you can improve productivity, enhance efficiency, and sharpen your competitive edge Check out the following Global Knowledge courses: Voice over IP Foundations Advanced Deployment of Voice over IP For more information or to register, visit www.globalknowledge.com or call 1-800-COURSES to speak with a sales representative Our courses and enhanced, hands-on labs offer practical skills and tips that you can immediately put to use Our expert instructors draw upon their experiences to help you understand key concepts and how to apply them to your specific work situation Choose from our more than 700 courses, delivered through Classrooms, e-Learning, and On-site sessions, to meet your IT and management training needs About the Author Donald Hill is president of ProActive Technical Solutions (PTS), Inc PTS is a consulting company that helps small- and medium-sized businesses with their voice communication systems and networking needs He has been working as a contract Instructor for Global Knowledge for 10 years Don also developed the Telecommunications Fundamentals curriculum, which he has been involved with for eight years He also has nine years of experience as a telecommunications manager for industry-leading financial services and manufacturing companies Books Referenced Kelly, David, Cullen Jennings and Luan Danag Practical VoIP – Using VOCAL Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2002 Van Meggelen, Jim, Jared Smith, and Leif Madsen Asterisk – The Future of Telephony Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2005 Wallingford, Ted Switching to VoIP Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc., 2005 Web Sites Referenced http://www.sipfoundry.org http://www.opensource.org http://www.vovida.org http://www.vovida.org http://www.asterisk.org http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk http://asteriskathome.sourceforge.net http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=551485 http://www.digium.com Copyright ©2006 Global Knowledge Training LLC All rights reserved Page 11 .. .Voice over IP Open-Source Platforms and the Session Initiation Protocol Donald Hill, Global Knowledge Course Developer and Instructor Introduction Voice over IP (VoIP) communications... before the steady improvement of these software platforms will threaten the equipment vendor’s market share of large businesses The Impact of Voice over IP (VoIP) in Telecom VoIP: the Early Years The. .. calls over the Internet weren’t a very practical means of voice communications Standardizing VoIP Three major protocols have shaped the VoIP landscape of today The first two are signaling protocols