SEMS v1.4.2 Released

The SIP Express Media Server (SEMS) version 1.4.2 is available. Users of SEMS 1.4 versions and anyone else is recommended to upgrade to that version. Please find below the relevant changelog, the source tarball is available at:

• ftp://ftp.iptel.org/pub/sems/sems-1.4.2.tar.gz

Debian/Ubuntu packages:

• https://build.opensuse.org/project/show?project=home%3Ateam-sems

Changelog for SEMS 1.4.2 release:
* auth’ed BYE (wait_for_bye_transaction)
* fixes SIP auth for qop header format
* xmlrpc: fix busyloop with keep-alive
* a few minor SST issues
* builds on Ubuntu 11.4 (build-deps)
* ivr: release GIL on blocking file I/O
* SBC: fix codec filter for unnamed payloads<96
* fixed DSM variables to outgoing call
* some examples and documentation added

This release introduces a new configuration option wait_for_bye_transaction=yes which enables authentication of BYE requests sent by SEMS, which is disabled by default. If this option is not enabled, SEMS behaves like in 1.4.1.

Freezing development for Kamailio v3.2.0

Based on the last development IRC meeting, the next major release Kamailio v.3.2.0 should happen sometime by end of September, therefore the code should be frozen and go into testing phase about one month before.

The date proposed for freezing is Monday, August 22. By then, every developer has to push to master branch what he/she wants to have in 3.2.0.

The very good side of 3.2.0 is that we didn’t need to touch much the core and main modules, meaning we have a solid tested foundation, further testing should be focused on the new modules and the other enhancements.

What is new in devel version at this time (to be part of v3.2.0) is summarized at:

• http://sip-router.org/wiki/features/new-in-devel

Kamailio at Cluecon 2011

ClueCon is an annual 3-Day Telephony User and Developer Conference bringing together the entire spectrum of Telephony from TDM circuits to VoIP and everything in between. The location is Chicago, USA, between August 9-11, 2011.

Kamailio project will be touched in at least three presentations:

• Daniel-Constantin Mierla, Asipto, co-founder of Kamailio – presenting latest news about development of Kamailio project and how to use it to enable strong security for large VoIP systems
• Stefan Wintermeyer, Amooma – presenting Gemeinschaft 4, an IP PBX system built with Kamailio and FreeSWITCH
• Alexandr Dubovikov – presenting Homer project, a Kamailio-based SIP capturing system for massive signaling traffic

If you are around Chicago and want to meet, drop a message on our mailing lists.

Kamailio and SER Usage Statistics

In order to present at 10 years SER conference in Berlin, I (Daniel-Constantin Mierla) am looking to get some statistics about usage of SER-based applications (e.g., SER, OpenSER, Kamailio, OpenIMSCore, …). Everything is going to be like a combined report, not individual listing. Therefore, if you want to participate, your name or company won’t be mentioned.

Here are some stats I thought of:

• type of usage: production, evaluation (testing), research
• number of subscribers (phone lines)
• percentage of phones behind NAT
• number of calls per month
• number of call minutes per month

I am not looking for exact numbers, but rough estimation (e.g., about 10 000 phone lines, …). Of course, some of the metrics don’t apply always (e.g., if you do termination routed through SIP server, you don’t have subscribers, but just calls traffic). Those doing deployments, can make one summary of statistics for all instances. You may send other statistics you think they worth publishing.

Again, this is voluntary, naming is not required. I hope only those giving real number will write back — I will try anyhow to figure out if someone is just dumping fantasy numbers. If privacy is really a big concern, from case to case, everything can be done under NDA.

Send the statistics or contact me for further details per email at: <daniel [at] kamailio.org>. Many thanks in advance to those that are going to participate in this survey!

10 years SER Conference – Sep 2, 2011, Berlin, Germany

We are organizing an open conference to celebrate 10 years since the first line of code in SER and Kamailio SIP servers. The event is hosted by FhG Fokus Research Institute in Berlin, Germany, the place where SER project was started. The web page for the event with details about location and program is available at:

• http://sip-router.org/10-years-ser/

There is no participation fee for the conference day, registration can be done via web form. At this moment there are about 20 special guests and 14 speakers, with participants from 15 countries.

If you use SER-based applications (like ser, openser, kamailio, openimscore, …) and want to present about it or you want to sponsor the event in exchange of advertising through project channels, contact us via event registration form.

3 years of Kamailio

Three years ago, OpenSER project had to choose a new name due to trademark infringements claims by an US company and Kamailio was the winner name.

Shortly after, the project faced a new hit, from inside this time, losing the old web domain. The sourceforge.net OpenSER project (where the source code was hosted) was the one showing the relation between the old name and new name, and the truth about whole thing.

Practically, from that moment Kamailio had to build a new brand from scratch, all the old web references being lost at that time. Despite the pessimism of many people and fighting FUD spread by cowards, I believe we succeeded to continue developing a great application, delivering a rock solid open source SIP server, withing a collaborative environment and open community.

I had no doubt about the success, just read (or google) about who is involved in management of the project or where are the people with relevant impact in the development of the project over the year (config file, database API, variables framework ... more to come soon on this blog).

Note that in present time the devel team is completed by the folks at SER project, Kamailio and SER are effectively same application right now, development being done together since autumn 2008 within sip-router.org development framework. To fully complete this picture, we are celebrating soon 10 years since the first line of code, where the major contributors to the project are among the special guests.

Apart of working to remove duplicates (and clarify better the relation and usage of two names Kamailio - SER -- briefly exposed here), the ongoing development of new features blossoms:

• IMS extensions being worked to be integrated in main repository
• Rich Communication Services enhancements (SIMPLE/OMA/RCS IM & Presence, embedded XCAP server)
• embedded interpreters for high level programming languages (such as Lua)
• distributed location service and message queues
• config file pre-processing
  
• asynchronous processing and more ...

All these facts are visible on the statistics offered by Ohloh service - few stats presented in the next graph.

If you are interested in the achievements of past releases since Kamailio name, see the release notes for versions 1.5.x, 3.0.0 and 3.1.x. Next major release, 3.2.0 is planned sometime by mid of autumn 2011.

Right now Kamailio is sitting now on a solid foundation, with a completely re-tailored architecture since OperSER time, suitable for current and future needs of real time communications, sustained by an increasing development team and backed up by major companies in the market. Its evolution is safer than ever.

My greetings to all Kamailians and thank you for your support over the last years! I am looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible at 10 years SER conference in Berlin, September 3, 2011.

ClueCon 2011

I am going to speak at Cluecon conference in Chicago, USA, Aug 9-11, 2011.

The speech focuses on how to build strong security for large VoIP operators, a topic where Asipto has broad expertise accumulated over the past 10 years. Some of our experiences were already shared via knowledge base site.

If you attend the conference or you are in Chicago area during these days and want to meet, do not hesitate to drop me a message via contact form.

10yearsSER - things done right - variables

The veteran users of this project probably remember that day in the summer of 2003 when xlog module was introduced in SIP Express Router (SER) by Elena-Ramona Modroiu.

Starting with that moment, the SER config files were invaded by many xlog(...) and xdbg(...) lines - it was a big step forward to allow SER administrators understand what is going internally during processing of SIP traffic.

Little 'bugs' starting with '%' (named at that time 'specifiers') present all over the config were replaced dynamically at runtime with values taken from SIP traffic or runtime environment, giving back meaningful information about current processing.

Driven by their popularity, the specifiers implemented inside xlog module were moved to core, the marker sign '%' was replaced by '$' and since then they were named 'variables' (aka pseudo-variables). (Note: this evolution happened initially through Kamailio (OpenSER) branch).

The 'little bugs' became free to fly everywhere inside configuration file, in expressions, in assignment operations, module parameters or function parameters. And they did so!

For example, adding the prefix 0049 to dialed number became as simple as:

$rU = "0049" + $rU;

Testing if the dialed number starts with 0049? Here it is:

if($rU =~ "^0049") { ... }

Looking over several configuration files I have these days running on production systems, the operations with variables have the leading role in defining the routing logic. Without them, none of these configs would have been possible, without them, many ideas of new services would have been impossible to implement.

In the year of 10th anniversary, it is the time of sending kudos to Elena-Ramona for her contributions to this project.

PS: to clarify, the terminology 'pseudo-variables' was used due to the fact that SER's configuration language variables concept is different than classic variables. For example: some are read only, some have the value in private memory or shared memory, some are single-value some are multi-value.