Disruptive Telephony

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.

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:

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.

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):

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:

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?

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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.

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

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One of the conferences I've found most interesting each year is the SIP Network Operators Conference (SIPNOC) produced by the SIP Forum, a nonprofit industry association. Part of my interest is that it is only an educational conference, i.e. there's no massive exhibit floor or anything... it's all about education. It also brings together pretty much all the major players in the "IP communications" space - certainly within North America but also from around the world.

I'll be there this week in Herndon, Virginia, talking about how VoIP can work over IPv6 and how DNSSEC can make VoIP more secure. The sessions I am directly involved with include:

• Panel Discussion: Anatomy of a VoIP DMZ
• VoIP Security BOF
• Panel Discussion:  IPv6 and SIP - Myth or Reality?
• Who Are You Really Calling? How DNSSEC Can Help

There are quite a range of other topics on the SIPNOC 2013 agenda, including a number of other talks related to security.  

It should be quite a good show and I'm very much looking forward to it.  I'm particularly looking forward to my "DNSSEC and VoIP" talk on Thursday as that is a topic I've not presented on before... but I think there is some quite valuable potential about using DNSSEC with VoIP.

If you are there at SIPNOC this week, please do say hello!

P.S. While SIPNOC is not being livestreamed, you may find some people tweeting using the hashtag #SIPNOC.

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Tomorrow morning I'm starting a trip to Beijing for the 46th meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a.k.a. "ICANN". ICANN is the organization at the heart of the Domain Name System (DNS) and I'll be there specifically to take part in several DNSSEC workshops related to how to better secure DNS.  I'll also attend an IPv6 workshop and some of the many other meetings scheduled for the week-long event. 

These are very good technical meetings in the midst of all the other business-related meetings at an ICANN event. You can participate remotely if you are interested to do so (details are in those links).

Some colleagues of mine prepared the "Internet Society's Rough Guide to ICANN 46's Hot Topics" which gives a sense of what those of us from the Internet Society will be doing there at ICANN.

ICANN meetings are always crazy-busy and I'm looking forward to meeting up with people I know from a variety of contexts.  We've got an outstanding program lined up for the DNSSEC workshop, so that will be a great event.

I've never been to China, so this should be an interesting experience.  I probably won't have much time to look around, but I'm hoping to squeeze in a few hours during the week to look around (probably during some morning runs, if the weather and pollution levels will allow me to do so).

If you are going to be at ICANN 46, please feel free to contact me.  I'll also of course be posting some live updates from there as well.

Here's a quick audio commentary on my trip:

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How does the Jitsi softphone work with IPv6? And what role could DNSSEC play with VoIP? At IETF86 earlier this month, I sat down with Emil Ivov, project leader of the Jitsi Project to talk about a wide range of topics including how Jitsi got started and why it does so much with IPv6 (interesting reason!), what they are looking to do with Jitsi now, the role of DNSSEC and why they added that support to Jitsi... and much, much more... I quite enjoyed talking to Emil and the Jitsi project is certainly one that I will continue to watch - and use!

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In about 15 minutes, at 5:30pm US Eastern At around 6:00pm US EDT, Henning Schulzrinne, CTO of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be speaking on "The End of Plain Old Telephone System (POTS): Transitioning the PSTN to IP" at the technical plenary of the 86th IETF meeting happening this week in Orlando, Florida.  You can listen or watch here:

• Audio stream – either Caribbean 3 or Caribbean 4
• Jabber chat: [email protected]
• Meetecho conferencing  (webinar)

Henning's slides are also available for download.

It should be quite an interesting session!

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What is new with the Jitsi softphone these days? What new capabilities does it have as it continues to expand its support of SIP, XMPP and other protocols?

I've long been a fan and user of Jitsi, in part because it supports IPv6 and is the only VoIP softphone I know of right now that supports DNSSEC, something I'm continuing to experiment with, so I'm looking forward to today's "VoIP Users Conference (VUC) call at 12 noon US Eastern - about 2.5 hours from now.

You can watch it live via a Google+ Hangout On Air, or call in (potentially using Jitsi!) via:

• sip:[email protected]
• +1 (646) 475-2098
• Skype:vuc.me

There's also an IRC backchannel where links are shared, questions are answered and other comments occur.

And for those of you using Google+, there is a Google+ Event you can join.

It should be a good show! (And yes, you can watch it / listen to it later...)

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Want to learn more about what I'm doing these days? Both with my work with the Internet Society Deploy360 Programme as well as other various projects? And what any of that has to do with VoIP and real-time communications these days?

If so, join us tomorrow, Friday, March 1, at 12 noon US Eastern on the "VoIP Users Conference (VUC)". You can join a Google+ Hangout, or call in via:

• sip:[email protected]
• +1 (646) 475-2098
• Skype:vuc.me

There's also an IRC backchannel where links are shared, questions are answered and other comments occur.

As long time readers know, I've been a huge fan of - and participant in, when I've been able to - the VUC calls and community that Randy Resnick has been spearheading since March 2007.

I don't remember when precisely I first started joining in... maybe sometime in 2007 or 2008. In those early days (and still today) it was a great place to discuss open source telephony solutions like Asterisk, Freeswitch and others. The VUC became a place where many of us gathered weekly to learn about the latest technologies from various projects or vendors... and just to chat about various topics relating to VoIP, Unified Communications, SIP and whatever else. We'd get down in the weeds in really geeky discussions about wideband audio... and then get into higher level discussions about trends in VoIP and UC.

When I was at Voxeo for four years, the VUC calls were a way to connect with the telephony developer community - and in fact there were several VUC sessions related to various Voxeo Labs products and services. There were also a couple of VUC sessions relating to IPv6 and several relating to security in which I was a participant (including discussion of my UC security book at one point). It's been a great community and several good friendships have evolved out of meeting people within the VUC world.

When I joined the Internet Society back in September 2011, my attention shifted rather dramatically away from VoIP as I focused more on IPv6, DNSSEC and now routing resiliency/security (and the drop-off in posts here at Disruptive Telephony was also apparent), but VoIP has always been a strong interest and I continued to dip into VUC episodes now and then.

For the last, oh, 6 or 7 months (or maybe 9 or 10!) Randy's been repeatedly asking me if I would be the guest on a VUC episode to talk about all the various stuff I've been up to. His persistence finally wore me down and I agreed to a date... hence the show tomorrow. :-)

Given the conversational nature of the VUC shows, I suspect we'll probably travel all over various topics. There's an abstract up that says this:

Dan York has been a member of the VUC community for many years now but he’s been away for a bit and in this episode we’ll learn about what he’s doing now and how it relates to VoIP and UC. We’ll talk about his work with the Internet Society Deploy360 Programme related to IPv6, DNSSEC and routing resiliency (and touch on what exactly the Internet Society is all about) as well as his views on WebRTC and some of the other standards relating to real-time communications being developed within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). We’ll also cover Dan’s favorite topic of VoIP security and some of the changes that are being seen there. We’ll probably also talk about some of Dan’s other activities and interests related to podcasting and social media.

How much of that we actually discuss will be an open question.

You're welcome to join us... we always do take questions from people calling in to the show and also via the IRC channel. This time there will also be a Google+ Hangout so people will get to see my smiling face! ;-)

And yes, for better or worse it will be archived for posterity for later listening/viewing...

P.S. If you'd like to join the VUC "community" yourself, a great way beyond attending the calls is to join the "IP Communications & VoIP" Community on Google+, as a lot of good interaction happens there.

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This week the WebRTC/RTCWEB initiative passed a HUGE milestone in adding a real-time communications layer to the Web with achieving interoperability between Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Google and Mozilla celebrated with a pair of blog posts:

• Hello Firefox, this is Chrome calling!
• Hello Chrome, it's Firefox calling!

They also published the video I've embedded below. On the surface, the video doesn't appear terribly exciting: two guys having a basic conversation over video. But consider this:

• The video conversation was initiated from within web browsers.
• There were NO plugins used... no Flash, Java or anything else.
• The entire conversation was securely encrypted.
• The call used "wideband audio" (also called "HD audio") to provide a much richer experience that far exceeds any kind of conversation you can have on traditional telecom and mobile networks.
• The call did not have to involve any external telecom networks or services and could have been initiated directly from one browser to the other. (I don't know exactly how they set up this call.)

And perhaps most importantly:

Any web developer can now create this kind of real-time communication using a few lines of JavaScript and other web programming languages.

As I'm said before, WebRTC will fundamentally disrupt telecommunications and add a real-time communications layer to the Internet that is based on open standards and is interoperable between systems. Creating applications that use voice, video and chat is being removed from the realm of "telecom developers" and made truly accessible to the zillions of "web developers" out there.

Congrats to the Google and Mozilla teams... this is a huge step forward for WebRTC!

You can see the video below... and if you are a developer interested in playing with WebRTC further, both the Google and Mozilla blog posts offer pointers to source code. The team over at Voxeo Labs also released a new version of their Phono SDK yesterday with WebRTC support that may be helpful as well.

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UPDATE #1: The discussion threads on Hacker News related to the Google and Chrome blog posts make for quite interesting reading and provide many additional links for exploration:

• Hacker News thread about Google blog post (long thread about relation to Skype)
• Hacker News thread about Mozilla blog post

UPDATE #2: Over at Forbes, Anthony Wing Kosner weighed in with a similar piece and proved he can write far more poetic headlines than mine: Google And Mozilla Strike The Golden Spike On The Tracks Of The Real Time Web

UPDATE #3: And over on No Jitter, Tsahi Levant-Levi gets the "wet blanket" award for dampening enthusiasm with his post: WebRTC Browser Interoperability: Heroic. Important. And...Expected

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Fascinating news today out of Oracle that they have purchased Acme Packet in a transaction estimated to be around $2 billion US. For those of you not really tracking the VoIP security space, Acme Packet is probably the world's largest vendor of "session border controllers (SBCs)", devices that are used to securely and reliable interconnect VoIP networks. SBCs also provide a very important role in helping with interoperability of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling between the SIP products and networks of different vendors.

As Andy Abramson writes, the fascinating aspect of this acquisition is this:

This is an interesting grab by one of the tech world's true giants because it sqaurly puts Oracle into a game where they begin to compete with the giants of telecom, many of whom run Oracle software to drive things including SBC's, media gateways and firewall technology that's sold.

This acquisition does put Oracle VERY firmly into the telecom sector at a carrier / large enterprise level, as Acme Packet's products are widely used within that tier of companies. As the news release notes:

"The company's solutions are deployed by more than 1,900 service providers and enterprises globally, including 89 of world's top 100 communications companies."

Acme Packet has also long been recognized as a leader by analyst firms such as Gartner. People from Acme Packet, in particular Hadriel Kaplan, have also been extremely involved with industry efforts such as the SIP Forum and standards activity in the IETF.

As far as integration, Oracle already has a wide array of "communications" products, including several unified communications (UC) products that could potentially interact with Acme Packet products extremely well. Beyond all of that, though, this acquisition will have Oracle being a strong player in providing telecom infrastructure as we continue to collectively move to basing all our communications on top of IP.

Congratulations to my friends at Acme Packet and Oracle... and I wish them the best as they proceed down the path to completing this acquisition.

More information here:

• Oracle news release
• Oracle page about the acquisition
• A letter from Acme Packet CEO

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Are you a vendor of SIP-based products and services? Do you have software or hardware (or cloud-based products) that use SIP? If so, are you planning to attend the next SIPit test event planned for February 18-22, 2013, in Raleigh, North Carolina?

The SIPit events are an outstanding place to test your SIP implementations. Where else will you have so many other vendors also testing their equipment? It's a great place to go, test... and iterate your code even while you are there so that you can test again.

The registration deadline is Feb 4, 2013 for SIPit 30, so you need to act soon if you want to attend.

Olle Johansson posted a great set of slides about why you should go to SIPit:

And reaching back to 2009, here's a video interview I did with Robert Sparks about the SIPit test events:

If you are a vendor of SIP products or services, I would strongly encourage you to consider attending the next SIPit. It's a great way to make sure your SIP works as best as it can.

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