Best of New in Kamailio 3.0.0 - #12: development team

The most important aspect of every open source project is long term reliability. Kamailio (OpenSER) is no longer a small application, version 3.0.0 packages over 100 modules and you can use now other over 50 modules coming from SIP Express Router (SER).

On another hand, we play on the availability-is-critical market - telecommunications. By law or user expectation, the service should not be down nor have long delays. If there is a bug, it has to be fixed quick, if there is a regression, then needs to be recovered asap. If the user has an emergency, you must route his 112 (911) call at any time.

Moreover, just voice communication is deprecated, providers need to offer new services to resist on the market, new features need to be brought in.

Considering all these, first thing to analyze to an open source project is the development team. And I think the SIP Router Project (out of which we package Kamailio (OpenSER) 3.0.0) has a great group of people and companies doing support and development.

With the risk of forgetting many of them (I will do that to myself, but just contact me if your name is missing), I am listing some names (no order preference) along with very short description (google their name for more):

• Andrei Pelinescu-Onciul - the one that wrote first line (and 2nd, 3rd, and couple more) of code for SIP Express Router (SER), credited for the application design, very active all the time since the SER project started, keeping SER the reference name of open source SIP server (NOTE: SER is the foundation for Kamailio (OpenSER) (fork of SER in 2005) or other variants, many Kamailio developers were working to SER project as well). He is working for Iptelorg
  
• Juha Heinanen - running TutPro consultancy service, member of Kamailio management team, doctor in computer science, former professor at Tampere University, author of many RFCs, and the list can continue … from the web:
  http://www.arkko.com/tools/rfcstats/juhaheinanen.html
• Jan Janak - one of the most important and oldest developers of SIP Express Router (SER), tight involved in project administration, working for Iptelorg
  
• Elena-Ramona Modroiu - member of Kamailio management team, co-founder of Kamailio (OpenSER), author of many tutorials about Kamailio, including the Devel Guide, running consultancy service at asipto.com
• Miklos Tirpak - among first contributors of SIP Express Router (SER) project, working for Iptelorg
• Klaus Darilion - doctor in computer science at Technical University Vienna, involved in ENUM and security of VoIP/SIP, author/contributor to several open source applications (e.g., QjSimple SIP phone) and papers related to these domains, working at ipcom.at
• Jiri Kuthan - in charge with SIP Express Router (SER) project management at FhG Fokus where it started just before year 2000, involved in development, author of IETF RFCs, running Iptelorg
• Henning Westerholt - developer and member of management board of Kamailio, in charge with the biggest VoIP deployment based on Kamailio(OpenSER) I ever heard of: by now about 3 000 000 users, 6 000 000 phone numbers, 2 000 000 000 routed minutes per month (older reference), working at 1&1
• Raphael Coeffic - initial author of SIP Express Media Server (SEMS), working at Iptelorg
  
• Andreas Granig - Kamailio developer, author of Kamailio Config Wizard, working at sipwise.com
  
• Martin Hoffmann - developer member of SER management team, working at Telio
  
• Jesus Rodriguez - Kamailio developer and FreeBSD packager, working at Voztele.com
  
• Greger Viken Teigre - member of SER management team, one of the authors of SER Getting Started guide
  
• Inaki Baz Castillo - Kamailio and SIP Router developer, running sipdoc.net
  
• Stefan Sayer - main author of SIP Express Media Server (SEMS), member of SER management team, working at Iptego
  
• Carsten Bock - Kamailio and SIP Router developer, in charge with many SIP deployments in telco and mobile operators across Europe, working for Basis Audionet
  
• Maxim Sobolev - developer of SER and author of RTPProxy, Sippy B2BUA, working at Sippy Soft
  
• Alex Balashov - Kamailio advocate, long term community support activist, running consultancy service at evaristesys.com
  
• Ovidiu Sas - Kamailio developer, running voipembedded.com
• Nils Ohlmeier - SER developer, author of sipsak, VoIP RFC Watch and other SIP testing tools, working as SIP and VoIP consultant
  
• Olle E. Johansson - registered developer of Kamailio and SIP Router, well known for its activity as main SIP developer for Asterisk, running edvina.net
• Hendrik Scholz - SER developer, in charge with Freenet VoIP platform of over 700 000 users, working at FreeNet AG (NOTE: Freenet DLS & VoIP was bought by 1&1 in 2009, resulting in 1&1 VoIP platform running a subscriber base of over 4 000 000 000 SIP accounts once integration is done)
  

I would say:

• with such squad, the future development is safe and guaranteed for high quality outcome
  
• the combined SIP and VoIP expertise is outstanding
  
• this is clear not one-man project, therefore not dependent of availability of one person
  
• it is no company that can take control over the project, ensuring impartial evolution and business environment
  
• having many companies behind the devs, the project has a strong business and financial backup for a solid future
• biggest VoIP providers in Europe are directly involved in the SIP Router project: 1&1, FreeNet and Telio

Do you need more references to convince you or your upper management to go with SIP-Router-project-based solutions? Contact me, I have dozen of other references for you, now I listed only those related to people involved in development team right now.

Next episode: number portability.