Tag: Telecom

Slides: IPv6 and Telecom – IPv4 Is FInally Running Out. Now What?

What is the impact of IPv6 on telecommunications, including Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and Unified Communications (UC)?  I recently presented in a webinar for US Telecom on exactly that topic – and my slides for the session are now available:

The webinar was recorded and I’m told that if you register you can view the archive of the session.  There were some excellent questions asked at the end that you can hear through the recording.

As more of the Internet moves to IPv6, it’s definitely important for telecommunications to work over IPv6 – to help with that we are continuing to compile a list of resources related to IPv6 and VoIP/UC/telecom.  Please do check the list out – and also please let us know of any additional resources we should add!

If you are looking to get started with IPv6, please do check out our “Start Here” pages where you can find resources relating to your type of company or organization.

Webinar TODAY (May 22) – IPv6 and Telecom: IPv4 Is Finally Running Out. Now What?

US Telecom logoIn about two hours, the free webinar we mentioned last week about IPv6 and telecommunications will be taking place hosted by US Telecom.  I’ll be addressing questions such as:

The webinar is happening TODAY, Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 1:00pm US Eastern time. (17:00 UTC).

Registration is free and open to all interested.  The presentation will be recorded if you are unable to view it live.

And if you are interested in the overall topic of IPv6 and telecommunications, please do check out our specific page on IPv6 and VoIP/telecom.

Webinar on May 22: IPv6 and Telecom – What’s Next?

US Telecom logoWant to understand the impact of IPv6 on telecommunications and Voice-over-IP (VoIP)? Interested to learn more about what telecom systems support IPv6? Would you like to know what efforts are underway within organizations like the IETF and the SIP Forum to ensure that telecommunications can work over IPv6?

If so, you can join in a free webinar offered by US Telecom on Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 1:00pm US Eastern time. (17:00 UTC). The title of the session is “IPv6 and Telecom: IPv4 Is Finally Running Out. Now What?” and part of the abstract is:

As we approach the second anniversary of World IPv6 Launch on June 6, the word from the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is that they are entering into their final stages of providing IPv4 addresses to service providers.  While this has been talked about for many years, the reality is finally here.  There will soon be no more new IPv4 addresses available for new networks and services.  What can be done? What are some of the mitigation strategies and what are their challenges? What is involved with moving to using telecommunications over IPv6? Viewers of this event will hear answers to these questions and more!

I’m very much looking forward to this session that combines two of my personal passions: IPv6 and IP telephony/communications.  This webinar is part of US Telecom’s ongoing education events.  Registration is free and open to all interested.  I understand the presentation will be recorded if you are unable to view it live.

Missed The VUC Hangout About DNSSEC and VoIP? Watch The Recording…

Interested in learning more about how DNSSEC can potentially work with VoIP?  If you missed the VoIP Users Conference (VUC) Hangout in Google+ back on May 3 where I discussed this topic, you can now watch the archive at:

It was a very enjoyable presentation and I do thank VUC host Randy Resnick for having me on the show.

I’ll note that I also have posted a set of slides about DNSSEC and VoIP, and we’ve now set up a “DNSSEC and IP Communications” page here on Deploy360 where we will continue to add resources as we become aware of them.

You Can Now Call Into Google+ From Regular Phones – Google Connects Google Voice To Hangouts

Want to hear the sound of Google further disrupting the world of telecom? If you have a Google Voice number and also use Google+ (as I do) with the Hangouts feature enabled, you'll soon be hearing this new sound if you haven't already.

UPDATE: I have written a follow-up post responding to several comments and expanding on several points.

An Unexpected Ringing

Yesterday a random PR person called the phone number in the sidebar of this blog to pitch me on why I should write about her client. This phone number is through Google Voice and I knew by the fact that my cell phone and Skype both started ringing simultaneously that someone was calling that number.

But as I was deciding whether or not to actually answer the call, I realized that there was another "ringing" sound coming from my computer that I had not heard before. Flipping quickly through my browser windows I found my Google+ window where this box appeared at the top of the "Hangouts" sidebar on the right:

Googleplus incoming call

Now, of course, I HAD to answer the call, even though I knew from experience that most calls to that number are PR pitches. I clicked the "Answer" button and in a moment a regular "Hangout" window appeared, complete with my own video, and with an audio connection to the phone call.

Hangouts phonecall

The PR person and I then had a pleasant conversation where I rather predictably determined quickly that she'd probably never actually readthis blog or she would have known that I've never written about her client's type of software. Be that as it may, the audio quality of the call was great and the call went on without any issues.

A subsequent test showed me that I also had access to the dialpad had I needed to send any button presses (for instance, in interacting with an IVR or robocall):

Hangout keypad

The only real "issue" with the phone call was that when I pressed the "Hang up" button I wound up still being in the Hangouts window with this message displayed:

Google+ Hangouts

The irony of course is that that phone number was never in the "video call"... at least via video. Regardless, I was now alone in the video call with my camera still running. I needed to press the "Exit" button in the upper right corner of the Hangouts window. Outside of that, the user experience for the phone call was fine.

The Future Of Google Voice?

Like many people interested in what Google is doing with Google+, I had read the announcement from Google of the new streams and Hangouts features last week and had gone ahead and installed the iOS Hangouts app onto my iPhone to try it out (marking Google's entrance into the OTT VoIP space). But nowhere in there had I seen that this connection was going to happen between Google Voice and Hangouts. I'd seen speculation in various media sites, but nothing direct.

So it was a bit of a surprise when it happened... particularly because I'd done nothing to enable it. Google had simply connected my Google Voice number to my Google+ account.

I admit that it is a pleasant surprise... although I do wish for the sake of my laptop's CPU that I could somehow configure it to NOT launch myvideo when I get an audio-only call. Yes, I can just go stop my video, but that's an annoying extra step.

It seems, though, that another feature removed from Hangouts, at least temporarily, was the ability to make outbound phone calls. Given that all signs of Google Voice were removed from Google's interface and replaced by "Hangouts", this has predictably upset people who used the service, particularly those who paid for credits to make outgoing calls. There does seem to be a way to restore the old Chat interfacefor those who want to make outgoing calls so that is at least a temporary workaround.

Google's Nikhyl Singhal posted to Google+ about the new Hangouts featuresstating these two points:

1) Today's version of Hangouts doesn't yet support outbound calls on the web and in the Chrome extension, but we do support inbound calls to your Google Voice number. We're working hard on supporting both, and outbound/inbound calls will soon be available. In the meantime, you can continue using Google Talk in Gmail.

2) Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice, and making/receiving phone calls is just the beginning. Future versions of Hangouts will integrate Google Voice more seamlessly.

I'm sure that won't satisfy those who are troubled by the change, but it will be interesting to see where they go with Hangouts and voice communication.

(Note: the comment thread on Nikhyl Singhal's Google+ post makes for very interesting reading as people are sounding off there about what they'd like to see in a Hangouts / Google Voice merger.)

Will Hangouts Do SIP?

Of course, my big question will be... will Hangouts let us truly move beyond the traditional telephony of the PSTN and into the world of IP-based communications where can connect directly over the Internet? Google Voice once briefly let us receive VoIP calls using the SIP protocol - can Hangouts finally deliver on this capability? (And let us make outbound SIP calls as well?)

What do you think? Do you like this new linkage of Google Voice PSTN numbers to your Google+ account?


UPDATE #1 - I have written a follow-up post about XMPP support in Hangouts and confusion over what level of XMPP/Jabber support is still in Google+ Hangouts.


Audio commentary related to this post can be found in TDYR episode #009 on SoundCloud:


If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:


Video: My Discussion of DNSSEC and DANE with VoIP / SIP on The VUC

What role could DNSSEC potentially play to help better secure voice-over-IP (VoIP)? How could the DANE protocol help provide a stronger level of security to SSL/TLS certificates used in VoIP? What VoIP software out there right now works with DNSSEC?

Back on May 3, 2013, I participated in a VoIP Users Conference (VUC) call on precisely these questions. In the call that went for close to 90 minutes I outlined what DNSSEC and DANE are all about, how they work in a web browser world and how they could potentially work in a world of VoIP with SIP. We also discussed the current support for DNSSEC in the Jitsi softphone and the Kamailio SIP server. There was also a healthy question and answer period where we went off on different tangents. I referenced a presentation I made at SIPNOC 2013 and the slides for that presentation as well as other resources are available from the Deploy360 DNSSEC and VoIP page.

It was a great call and the video is available on YouTube:

If you want to just listen to the audio, you can play or download it from the VUC episode page.


If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:


Can DNSSEC and DANE Help Make Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and Unified Communications (UC) More Secure?

Can DNSSEC help make voice and video communications over IP more secure?  Could DNSSEC combined with DANE provide a means to more easily distribute the TLS/SSL certificates needed for VoIP phones and systems?  Can DNSSEC help ensure that you are talking with the correct VoIP system or application server?  Can DNSSEC improve the security of the many WebRTC-based clients being developed? How can a DNS-based public key infrastructure (PKI) help improved the security of IP-based communications?  (whether you call it “VoIP”, “unified communications”, “real-time communications” or just simply “telecommunications”)

These were among the questions that I set out to address in a presentation at the SIP Network Operators Conference (SIPNOC) 2013 last week in Reston, Virginia. Speaking to network operators ranging from large carriers and telcos to smaller “over-the-top (OTT)” startups, I used this set of slides to frame the discussion:

I also spoke about how two VoIP software products have already incorporated DNSSEC – the Jitsi softphone and the Kamailio server – and mentioned the new “DNSSEC and IP-based Communications” resource page I’m starting to build (and for which I would appreciate any suggestions).

I don’t necessarily have the “answers” to these questions (although I have opinions :-) )… I was more starting to raise the questions. The DNS community has been building this mechanism (DNSSEC) that provides a “trust layer” and can increase the security of DNS, as well as, via DANE, the entire TLS/SSL certificate infrastructure that we have come to rely upon.  How can we use these improvements to increase the security of IP communications?

For some further context, you may be interested in this recording I made on the topic:

I think there could be some good potential benefit here – and I’m looking forward to further discussions on this topic in the weeks and months ahead.  I’d love to hear your thoughts… either as comments to this post on our site or in social networks … or via direct email to me.

How could we use DNSSEC to increase the overall security of our communications infrastructure?

 

P.S.  I’ll also be appearing on the VoIP Users Conference (VUC) podcast on this coming Friday, May 3, 2013, to discuss these ideas within that community (to which anyone is welcome to join in). More details soon… 

IPv6 and IP Communications (including VoIP, UC, RTC, SIP)

This page will serve as a repository of information of information related to IPv6 and communications protocols based on IP, including voice-over-IP (VoIP), unified communications (UC). real-time communications (RTC) and the use of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

(NOTE: Need to include reference here to how WebRTC is designed to work with IPv6.)

Documentation

Presentation Slides

Communities

There is a good amount of discussion about IPv6 happening in various IPv6 communities around the Internet. More specific discussion about IPv6 and IP communications is happening here:

Softphones

We are aware of the following softphones that support IPv6:

Communications Equipment

Beyond softphones, we are aware of the following equipment that supports IPv6.

(NOTE: Links need to be added, ideally to IPv6-specific pages. Also, it is worth considering whether this list should be moved to a separate page.)

IP Phones (Desktop):

  • Avaya (unclear on exact models)
  • Mitel 53xx Series
  • Mocet
  • Siemens OpenStage
  • Snom
  • Yealink SIP-T2x

IP-PBXs/Call Servers:

  • Asterisk 1.8+
  • Brekeke SIP
  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager 7.1
  • Freeswitch 1.1+
  • Kamailio 3.1+
  • Microsoft Lync Server 2013
  • OpenSIPS
  • Voxeo Prophecy and PRISM

Other SIP Devices

  • Cisco SIP Gateways ( ISR 28XX & 38XX, AS5400 )
  • Dialogic SBCs
  • Mediatrix
  • Mitel Border Gateway (MBG)

SIP Services (in the cloud)

  • INUM.net

Additional resources will be added to this page as we become aware of them.

Know of additional resources related to IPv6 and IP communications that we should list?  Please let us know!

Last Day To Submit Speaking Proposals for SIPNOC2013

Sipnoc 2013Got a great idea for a talk to give to an excellent gathering of SIP/VoIP network operators? Have a new way of handling security? Have a case study you'd like to present for how you solved an operational issue?

The SIP Network Operators Conference (SIPNOC) is an outstanding event happening in Herndon, Virginia, USA, from April 22-25. It brings together network operators working with SIP / VoIP networks for several days of talks, networking (of the human kind) and education. I've gone the past two years, speaking about IPv6, and they are truly excellent conferences. Not too big, not too small... and with an extremely high quality of people both attending and speaking.

If you think you'd like to present, TODAY, January 25, 2013, is the end of the call for presentations for SIPNOC 2013. They are seeking presentations on topics such as (see the CFP for more detail):

  • Peering
  • SIP Trunking
  • Congestion Control
  • Applications/content Development
  • Interoperability
  • Call Routing
  • Security
  • Monitoring/Troubleshoooting and Operational Issues
  • Testing Considerations and Tools
  • Availability/Disaster-Recovery
  • WebRTC and SIP
  • SIP-Network Operations Center Best Practices
  • Standardization Issues and Progress
  • FoIP/T.38 Deployment
  • User-Agent Configuration
  • IPv6 Deployment Challenges
  • Emergency Services
  • Scaling and Capacity Issues
  • HD-Voice Deployment Challenges
  • Video Interop Issues

They are seeking individual talks, panel sessions, research sessions and BOFs.

Even if you just have an idea for a session, I'd encourage you to submit a proposal so that the SIPNOC 2013 Program Committee will know of your interest and can reach out to you for more details. More info about the process can be found on the CFP page.

If you aren't interested in speaking, but are now intrigued by SIPNOC and would like to be learning from all the excellent sessions, you can go to the SIPNOC 2013 main page and find out information about how to register and attend.

If you work at or for a telecom/network operator who is involved with SIP and VoIP, I highly recommend SIPNOC as a conference you should attend - you'll learn a huge amount and make great connections.

P.S. I have no affiliation with SIPNOC other than being a speaker there in the past. SIPNOC is a production of the SIP Forum, a great group of people focused on advancing the deployment and interoperability of communications products and services based on SIP.


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Slides: Impact of IPv6 on Telecommunications Applications

At the recent Emerging Communications (eComm) Confernce 2011 I spoke about “How IPv6 Will Kill Telecom – And What We Need To Do About It“. It wasn’t all about applications – I also got into the impact of IPv6 on telecom protocols – but still I thought that some of you may find my slides of interest. I do include several examples of issues facing applications:

At some point a video of the session will be online and I will provide a link here when that is available.