Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009!

Day by day, we ended another year. 2008 was full of events, starting with one major release and six minor releases, participation to workshops and conferences wordlwide, adoption in new production environments and acknowledgement of running platforms with millions of users and billions of routed minutes/month using Kamailio (OpenSER), check the News archive at:

http://www.kamailio.org

There were sad events as well, including the hijacking of the old domain name after the rename in Kamailio, still the SourceForge project goes on, with same name, proving the genuine openser project:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/openser/

We maintained release 1.3.x series, last being 1.3.4, which still keeps the old name and is available at:

http://www.openser-project.org/mos/view/News/NewsItem/OpenSER-v1.3.4-Released/

Life is going on, from the the latest major release, version 1.4.0, the project boosted in new features, a summary of what is new since then is available here:

http://www.kamailio.org/dokuwiki/doku.php/features:new-in-1.5.x

An important share of effort was directed to clean the code and improve the stability and performance, a proof of maturity and the need to make the maintenance of the project easier and open for new comers. Lot of documentation was added in doxygen format inside the source code, Devel Guide was published, new developers can start new easier to enhance the application.
Reference moment for the future was the launch of SIP Router project in November – a concentration of many people with great SIP and VoIP expertise, backed up by huge programming experience in this field. This came to strengthen the development workforce, to ensure the reliability, to remove the doubts of what projects is better now or is going to develop better in the future.

http://sip-router.org

So, 2009 is an year that announces already great achievements to be done in its first half:

• 1st Quarter – release of Kamailio (OpenSER) 1.5.0
• minor releases for 1.4x and 1.5.x
• 2nd Quarter – release of SIP Router project as stable version
• dedicated meeting to celebrate the first operational SIP Router and draw future directions

With the release of SIP Router project, everyone gets access to the features provided by Kamailio (OpenSER), SIP Express Router and OpenIMSCore projects:

http://sip-router.org/benefits/

Looking forward to a fruitful 2009!

Kamailio v1.4.3 Released

A new release in 1.4 series is out. Kamailio 1.4.3 is based on the latest version of branch 1.4, including many fixes in code and documentation, therefore those running 1.4.0, 1.4.1 or 1.4.2 are advised to upgrade.

Source tarballs are available at:

http://www.kamailio.org/pub/kamailio/1.4.3/src/

Detailed changelog:

http://www.kamailio.org/pub/kamailio/1.4.3/ChangeLog

Download via SVN:

svn co https://openser.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/openser/branches/1.4 kamailio

Tag for this release can be browsed at:

http://openser.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/openser/tags/1.4.3/

Project site at SourceForge.net (still using old name):

http://sourceforge.net/projects/openser/

Modules’ documentation:

http://www.kamailio.org/docs/modules/1.4.x/

What is new in 1.4.x release series is summarized in the announcement of v1.4.0:

http://www.kamailio.org/mos/view/KAMAILIO-v1.4.0-Released

Note: Kamailio is the new name of OpenSER project. First version under Kamailio name was 1.4.0. Older versions will continue to use OpenSER name.

time is passing – towards Kamailio 1.5.0

Autumn is craizy time, after the holiday season, starts the madness – travelings, discussions, meetings. It is already mid of autumn and wonder how a project can evolve in such time. The key is the open source and community – effort is distributed and we can benefit of each others work.

I was delighted to see that after about two months since the major release Kamailio (OpenSER) v1.4.0, the development branch to become v1.5.0 has an impressive bunch of new features and improvements. The new stuff and roadmap to v1.5.0 are available at:

http://www.kamailio.org/dokuwiki/doku.php/features:new-in-1.5.x

http://www.kamailio.org/dokuwiki/doku.php/roadmap:1.5.x

If you want to try it, check out the sources from SVN on sourceforge.net, the command is:

svn co https://openser.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/openser/trunk kamailio

Enjoy it and report any issue you may find to Kamailio (OpenSER) devel mailing list: devel [at] kamailio (dot) org .

Kamailio v1.4.1 Released

A new release in 1.4 series is out. Kamailio (OpenSER) 1.4.1 is based on the latest version of branch 1.4, therefore those running 1.4.0 are advised to upgrade.

Source tarballs are available at:

http://www.kamailio.org/pub/kamailio/1.4.1/src/

Detailed changelog:

http://www.kamailio.org/pub/kamailio/1.4.1/ChangeLog

Download via SVN:

svn co https://openser.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/openser/branches/1.4 kamailio

Tag for this release can be browsed at:

http://openser.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/openser/tags/1.4.1/

Project site at SourceForge.net (still using old name):

http://sourceforge.net/projects/openser/

Modules’ documentation:

http://www.kamailio.org/docs/modules/1.4.x/

Note: Kamailio is the new name of OpenSER project. First version under Kamailio name was 1.4.0. Older versions will continue to use OpenSER name.

Comments to pointed OpenSER project’s issues

Continuing the series of the previous post, these issues were pointed by the person that started the fork from Kamailio (OpenSER). I find none true or consistent. I am pasting here the comments I did on mailing list some days ago.

1) the need for a new reliable release – delayed or low-quality releases are affecting the credibility of the project

– http://lists.kamailio.org/pipermail/users/2008-August/018966.html
– the link above shows this one was a faster release than in past
– http://www.kamailio.org/mos/view/KAMAILIO-v1.4.0-Released/
– the link above shows the efforts in creating a testing suite which was running on devel server during this development cycle
– the link above shows no much new things in the core, but code cleanup, duplicity removal, source code documentation

2) degradation of the project quality – testing, performance measurements and code quality control are overlooked

– presented before, testing suite was built and running, lot of code was reviewed and improved
– who in the new project (n.r., the new forked project) will do that and couldn’t do it because was blocked in the old project

3) lack of the control, management and coordination of the project – critical project issues could not be handled or solved

– I am not aware of mis-coordinations that could affect the project so badly
– I am not aware of critical issues that could not be solved and there was no report of a critical deadlock
– if there was a failure in management, all from the board share same fault

Moreover, I believe there are facts in the past that openser took care of its quality. I repeat as I said that QA might not be enough no matter is done. If openser 1.3.x is the core component of a platform hosting about 2 millions of subscribers does not ensure some QA, then nothing else can be said, see:
http://www.ilocus.com/2008/03/the_largest_voip_offering_base.html

None above motivates such reactions as happened recently, but if does, then probably with some openess and discussions everything would have been better now.

Worth to link here the board discussions minutes:

http://lists.kamailio.org/pipermail/users/2008-August/018965.html

About the fork from OpenSER

Being one of the founders of OpenSER, involved deep in the management and development, I was (still am) asked about my position regarding the fork from OpenSER, so I am quoting here my email sent to mailing lists few days after.

As an update, the Kamailio project continues OpenSER and has already many new features:
http://openser.blogspot.com/2008/10/towards-kamailio-v150.html

<quote>
Following the last events (n.r. fork from OpenSER project) everybody perhaps wonders what is going on. I was surprised by the way everything happens and I am not sure yet how this resulted.

Probably a bit of time is needed to clarify relations between developers themselves and community as well. There is not any official statement that a developer quited the support for this project, but I guess the trust between some is at lowest level possible.

It is clear that we cannot say anything about a board right now that manages the project. From board discussions summary you may see that discussions were conducted to create a legal entity around the project, a non profit foundation. This might be hard to achieve in this status, but as a personal decision, I am not going in any other management group unless there is a legal framework backing up. Human relations prove to be pretty unpredictable and not conforming with initial statements.

What is sure now – openser 1.3.x and 1.4.x will be maintained properly and I am volunteering to take care but hope others will join. It is really a good achievement of a sip server. Decision about future development will be based on community and developers feedback for this project. I am not going to promise anything by myself as I admit one person (to be more specific: myself) cannot take care of the entire code base — I am just realistic, not willing to sell dreams. I think the people that still believe in the project can come with suggestions and alternatives of future development.

What I can tell for sure, I am not going to join a fork of the original openser project. If something happened to make developers not working together, solution to solve nicely could have been found, in the worst, maybe just by splitting teams, but keeping old domain together just to show the new alternatives.

“Why not joining a fork in this manner?” Because I was one of the founders of this one and involved in development and management at top level. If I failed to build something I started, I had all the tools in my hands, why just creating something similar saying the old is crap but this new one will be the best? What is the difference? Why I didn’t do it first time? Would I be able to fool someone? Does leaving my ship in secrecy on back door will bring more trust on me? I doubt and perhaps you, too.

I am certainly assuming share of the failure in managing this project. I was there, in management, period. There is no single person responsible for mis-management, but it comes just easy for some to blame the others. But I am really confident we built outstanding sip server, all of us contributed with code, documentation, testing to an application that routes million and millions of minutes per day. There were accuses of bad things about project, I will argument in a separate message, this will get too long.
</quote>

KAMAILIO (OpenSER) v1.4.0 is released

KAMAILIO (OpenSER) v1.4.0 is released

August 7, 2008

Kamailio is the new name of the SIP server known so far as OpenSER. Due to trademark issues, the OpenSER project had to change the name. Officially, the new name was announced on July 28, 2008.

Version 1.4.0 brings many new features since OpenSER v1.3.0 as well as improvements to existing components. An important share of effort was directed to code cleanup and stability. Moreover, new features in core and old modules were added while other 6 new modules were introduced.

Download:

You can download the tarball of the released sources at
http://www.kamailio.net/pub/kamailio/latest/src/
Binary packages for several distributions you can find at
http://www.kamailio.net/pub/kamailio/latest/bin/
http://www.kamailio.net/pub/kamailio/latest/packages/

Packages will be uploaded as soon as they are submitted.

Documentation:

* modules’ documentation: http://www.kamailio.net/docs/modules/1.4.x/
* migration guide : http://www.kamailio.net/dokuwiki/doku.php/install:1.3.x-to-1.4.0

Summary of the new stuff in core:

* overhauled DB API – better performance and safety, more common functionality integrated in the core
* extensive cleanups in database drivers – integrate common functionality into the core for more stability and maintainability
* SDP parser – provides an internal API for parsing SDP
* fixup functions – provides an internal API for fixing module parameters
* new free fixup functions – making safer to use some functions exported by modules in embedded languages such as Perl
* extension to module interface – its now possible to use up to 6 parameters in module functions

New modules:

* db_oracle – ORACLE DB driver – connect to Oracle SQL Server
* dialplan – Dialplan management – dialplan regular expression based translations
* nat_traversal – NAT traversal helper
* peering – RADIUS based peering allowing SIP providers to verify via a broker if source or destination request is from a trusted peer
* ratelimit – SIP ttraffic shaping control and server load control based on your rules
* userblacklist – User-specific blacklists

New in existing modules:

** acc module
* it is possible to log accounting related output to a different log facility
** cfgutils module
* new FIFO functions get_config_hash and check_config_hash for config file checks
* shared PV exported to configuration script
* debugging helpers usable from config script for abort, shm_status and pkg_status
** mysql module
* enable timeouts on connect, read and write to prevent blocking on errors
** database modules
* renaming of all database modules, addition of the prefix ‘db_’, e.g. mysql is now db_mysql
** carrierroute module
* much more flexibility in routing and database supported failure routing, improved internal structure
** dialog module
* internal API reworked for better flexibility
* direction of the message provided via the internal API
* new dialog callback types
* new mi command: dlg_list_ctx
** dispatcher module
* ability to load destination URI flags from database at startup or reload
* new algorithm to hash the content of a pseudo-variable
** enum module
* enum_fquery([…]) replaced by enum_pv_query([…])
** msilo module
* notification system refurbished – message body, content-type, from address and contact header can be dynamically specified with pseudo-variables
** pdt module
* accepts now same destination domain bound to different prefixes
* internal structures and logic optimized for memory and performance
** lcr module
* refactor module functions
* pseudo-variable support
** mediaproxy module
* update to version 2.0
* better performance and scalability as packets are forward in kernel space

New testing suite

* a testing suite to ensure quality checking and regression tests reports has been developed, included in the repository and used during this development cycle

Other important changes

* modules’ documentation has been migrated to DOCBOOK XML format
* doxygen documentation extended and developer guide published
* serweb tables have been removed
* command line tool to manage dbtext in a SQL fashion

These are not all, there is a big change log that gives more details:

* http://www.kamailio.net/pub/kamailio/latest/ChangeLog

eLearning channel for OPENSER config file

ASIPTO, the company I am working for, launched two months and a half ago the eLearning channel for OPENSER configuration file. Since then a broad number of topics were approached:

• introduction of configuration file structure
• overview of SIP message execution flow
• complete walk-through default configuration file
• debug options
• main routing blocks elements
• all about assignment operations, tips and tricks
• configuration file flags: per transaction, branch and script
• r-uri management – best options and available alternatives to handle the request URI
• config file statements: if, switch and while

Each document includes many examples to make easier the understanding of concepts and real word usage. With a rate of introducing couple documents and topics per week, the knowledge base of the channel is growing rapidly.

The eLearning channel offers full range of collaborative tools: forum, wiki, chat rooms, document uploading, allowing open discussions and easy interaction within the groups.

You can register now for OPENSER configuration file eLearning channel here.

See more details about eLearning programs here.

Truphone Anywhere

Just returned from a drive trip to Berlin, for Asterisk Tag and Linux Tag 2008 (see some comments at http://www.asipto.com/index.php/2008/06/04/remarks-asterisktag-and-linuxtag-2008/), I am catching up with latest VoIP news.

Interesting for me is the launch of TruphoneAnywhere, a new service from the UK-based VoIP mobile operator Truphone that allow you to do check calls from your mobile even if you are not connected to WiFi. These guys are going to reduce my phone bill a lot — last month I was 90% of the time in roaming. See here some price comparisons:

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/2008/05/truphone-40-with-truphone-anywhere.html

Here you can find more details about the service:

http://www.truphone.com/info/feature_anywhere.html

CERF 2008

The biggest IT show in Romania, CERF2008, took place last week at ROMEXPO facilities in Bucharest. I arrived late on Saturday from Barcelona (some pictures here), so I could pay a visit in the last day of the event.

It looked a bit smaller for me than last year. I was focused on communications technologies, and, apart of the big mobile operators and telco here (Romtelecom, Vodafone, Orange, Cosmote) having large exhibition area, very noisy, advertising latest services, giving gifts a.s.o., the companies came with interesting solutions and hardware to demo and present.

I could find several distributors for the major VoIP vendors, especially for phones and SOHO routers: Zyxel, Snom, Polycom, Linksys, DrayTek, Siemens. I can say I was satisfied by the show, comparing with last years, the Open Source seems more popular, the companies offering VoIP solutions, although they might be from other vendors, they do know about Asterisk, OPENSER or Yate.