Thanks to technorati for listing us as one of the featured Blogs.

Thanks to technorati ( http://www.technorati.com/ ) for listing us as one of the featured Blogs.

Congrats for the yankandpaste team (writers, readers) for making it a success and lets continue the good work.

tail piece : good stuff always sells, no need of marketing :-)

© yankandpaste®

Real world Multimedia with Jingle

What ?

What is Realworld needs Multimedia with Jingle means ?

Developing real world needs ( phone, fax, whiteboard , video etc etc ) application using jingle.

What is Jingle ?

'Jingle' is a set of extensions to XMPP for use in VoIP, video, and other peer-to-peer multimedia sessions.

What is XMPP ?

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is an open, XML-based protocol for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging (IM) and presence information (aka buddy lists). It is the core protocol of the Jabber Instant Messaging and Presence technology. The protocol is built to be extensible and other features such as Voice over IP and file transfers have been added

What is XML ?

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose markup language. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of data across different information systems, particularly via the Internet

When ?

When i have the know how ?
Now itself.


why ?

Why Jingle ?

XMPP has an all ready big, developed network which a lot ISP's provide jabber services for the clients. As voip is replacing the traditional PSTN.The options in front of the ISP's are
1) Use SIP
2) Use MGCP
3) Use H323

Or use an approch using XMPP Jingle ( low cost, low complexity )


Who makes these standards :
XMPP : www.jabber.org

How ?

Using Jingle you can write applications which helps the real world needs, The jingle is the core protocol which defines the session and the other content and trasport format definitons help to build application.

Content /Transport formats ?
Jingle Audio - for audio content format definition
Jingle Video- for video content format definition
Jingle UDP transport - transport using UDP
Jingle ICE transport - transport using ICE ( ICE - look previous post on ICE )
Jingle DTMF - a DTMF trasport using Jingle.

these format specifications uses XML mapped SDP for describing the session.

The problem with these definitions are
1) its only a subset of actual SDP.
2) These documents never gives the big picture as the RFC's descrbing the actual SDP and feature/extension definition( ex: ICE ).
3) Lot limitations as of now ( long way to go to become a full fledged telephony supoort ) (ex: early media , cancel a call ).


Options now ?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/95534/Jingle-Multimedia-Description-Using-SDP

Use SDP for session description and jingle for session initation.

Advantages :

1) SDP is an IETF protocol ( Open ).
2) SDP is well used by other protocols ( SIP, MGCP, RTSP etc etc ).This makes easy interoperability.
4) Avoiding duplicate information documents (copy paste of actual RFCs ) ex: ICE
5) Bringing in standard procedures for development ( ex: offer answer model ( rfc3264 rfc4317 ) ,PINT services (rfc2848), IPV6 rfc3266), Grouping of Media Lines ( rfc3388 ),Content Attribute (rfc4796), )
6) No IPR issues on usage of SDP because it is tracked by IETF.
7) New technologies have SDP extension ( ex: ICE-TCP, ICE etc etc ). Due to this addition of new standard applications
8) Already well written/matured documents for help on deployment and proved to best + good knowledge base.


Looks this is what the industry was looking for -

No more buzz words like sip trunking etc , XMPP has a server to server comminication defined and multimedia for all Jabber users using the Industry adapted applications using well defined SDP.


Where ?

Where i can find details ?

XMPP : RFC 3920
XMPP IM : RFC 3920

Jingle : XEP-0166
Jingle Audio : XEP-0167
Jingel Video : XEP-0180
Jingle DTMF : XEP-0181

Jingle UDP transport :XEP-0177
Jingle ICe transport :XEP-0176

The xeps can be found at :http://www.xmpp.org/extensions/
Jingle SDP content description: http://www.scribd.com/doc/95534/Jingle-Multimedia-Description-Using-SDP




© yankandpaste®

Maps/Local services and terror

Maps/Local service offers great feature to plan and commute fast. According to people, its a great service.

Problems ??

we discover that the suspects being held for the JFK terror plot supposedly referenced Google Maps as a part of the supposed plan.

Here is a look at what the suspects said:

One of the plotters behind the alleged scheme to explode gas pipelines at John F. Kennedy International Airport directed his co-conspirators to use Google Earth to obtain detailed aerial photos of the targeted facility.

Details : http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0604071google1.html

Now people started to say Maps/Local sites create new class of threat. Before map/local sites satellite image access of the earth was not the easly accessable.

Is maps sites are threat or the era we are now is a threat ? lets brainstorm But my 2 cents not to ban these local/map sites.


Tail piece : mosquito likes / looks for blood under a milk filled breast ( from an old proverb).

© yankandpaste®

Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE): Tutorial

Thanks for the Overwhelming responses for the ICE post, most asking for a good ICE tutorial. The link goes below

http://www.jdrosen.net/papers/ice-basic-tutorial.pdf

© yankandpaste® :

The Many Faces of Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE)

By J.D. Rosenberg



Without a doubt, one of the most challenging issues that VoIP system designers and network operators face is firewall and Network Address Translator (NAT) traversal. These days, almost every home with broadband Internet access has a NAT device — after all, NAT is the primary function of the broadband home router, the little magic that allows you to connect multiple computers to a single Internet connection. Most enterprises have one or more firewalls, and many smaller ones run NAT as well. Even some service providers use NAT; it is not uncommon for a cellular phone to have a private IP address. While NAT and firewalls are not a problem for traditional client-server protocols like those used for the web and e-mail, they are a huge problem for VoIP.

The industry has responded to this problem with many different solutions. These include Application Layer Gateways (ALGs), which add SIP awareness to NAT and firewalls, Simple Traversal of UDP Through NAT (STUN), which uses a “ping server” of sorts to allow low-cost traversal in consumer applications, and Session Border Controllers (SBCs), a close cousin to ALGs. SBCs have won the largest part of the market share of NAT and firewall traversal solutions. All of these techniques have their problems, and so the IETF worked steadily on producing a one-size-fits-all solution. That solution is called ICE: Interactive Connectivity Establishment.

ICE is a peer-to-peer cooperative NAT traversal solution, in which endpoints work with each other to discover paths through the network via a series of connectivity checks. This discovery is done in concert with network servers that help provide relaying and address translation functions. Work on ICE began in early 2003, and finally, a long four years later, it is now complete. ICE is extremely effective. It is robust, finding media paths even in the most complex network topologies. ICE makes sure that the called phone won’t ring unless a bidirectional media path is up and running. No more ghost rings and oneway audio that are common problems in VoIP. ICE is efficient, using relays and suboptimal paths only when absolutely necessary. It works across a broad range of environments without changes in configuration. It also provides lots of hooks for policy and allows for an evolutionary path from existing SBCs to ICE-based SBCs.


However, an interesting thing has begun to happen. ICE is also solving problems having little or nothing to do with firewall and NAT traversal. These include security, IPv6 transition, and dual-homing.

What does ICE have to do with security? Many VoIP systems today allow a malicious client to use the VoIP network to launch a denial-of-service (DoS) attack against a desired target. This attack, called the voice hammer, allows a single callsetup message to direct an 80 Kbps stream of packets (and possibly higher bandwidths) at a target device. This attack is easy to launch: An attacker sends a SIP INVITE message but lies about its media address, pointing to the target of the attack instead. Once the call is established, the called party will begin sending media toward the target. ICE prevents this attack. The called party won’t send any media at all until the ICE connectivity checks have taken place. Those checks happen along the media path, and in this case, they will fail since the target of the attack won’t respond to the checks. Consequently, no media is ever sent and the attack is prevented.

What does ICE have to do with IPv6 transition? One of the primary transition techniques is to use a dual-stack client, one that has both an IPv4 address and an IPv6 address. This introduces an interesting problem: When the dual-stack client makes a call, which address does it include in its INVITE as the target for media, IPv4 or IPv6? At the time it makes the call, it doesn’t know the capabilities of the called party, which could be IPv4 only, IPv6 only or dual stack. ICE has emerged as the solution to this problem. The caller includes both addresses, uses ICE’s connectivity checks to figure out which pairs work, and then uses them.

More generally, ICE helps dual-homed endpoints — those with more than one IP address. They are more common than you might think. My laptop has three IP addresses — one on the Wi-Fi network, one on the wired Ethernet, and one on my VPN. When I make a call from my softphone, which one should my laptop use? With ICE, my softphone would include all three, and then ICE would be used to dynamically figure out which one works. In fact, ICE can help me pick the one with the lowest latency, in order to optimize my experience in the call. ICE can also have configured policies to ensure only a specific address (such as my VPN), gets used.

These three applications are just the beginning. ICE can address other problems because it adds an important piece of functionality to SIP — exchange of messaging that follows the media path prior to call establishment and prior to the transmission of media. This small but important change will, I predict, make ICE a protocol for all seasons, not just the winter of NAT and firewall traversal. ICE is already considered one of the core SIP specifications by the IETF, and I anticipate we’ll see more and more reasons for this over time.


© yankandpaste® from : http://www.tmcnet.com/sip/0507/columns_speaking_sip_the_many_faces_of_ice.htm

Blogs won't change the world

The integration of the Internet into society at large necessarily meant individuals reverted to being marginalised in terms of overall influence.

The use of censorware by repressive governments is now becoming a legitimate policy matter. Conferences are being held, proposals are being made, press articles are being written. And people want to know: how can we make a difference in the fight against world censorship?

Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer. Non-governmental organisations, thinktanks, academic departments and so on all have their own hierarchies and barriers to entry.

Many years ago, when the Internet was much smaller, the corresponding reach of an individual aiming to be heard in it was much larger. But the integration of the Internet into society at large necessarily meant individuals reverted to being as marginalised in terms of overall influence as they are in society at large. It's not that nobody at all had a voice, but that the standard institutional power structures asserted themselves.

And blogs are no solution. Contrary to blog evangelism, blogging can sometimes even be detrimental in terms of building influence. That's counterintuitive, since the very rare person who achieves substantial influence via a blog is often widely touted as a success story.

But the complementary outcome is not widely publicised — that is, all the people who are blogging their hearts out and never being heard beyond a tiny fan audience. At this point, a blog evangelist usually states that it's possible to be happy even with only a select group of devotees. But they typically don't want to grant that it's also quite reasonable to be unhappy at not getting beyond that level. Talking mainly among a small self-selected group can also lead to a very misleading impression of the reach of one's ideas.

As one activist lamented (tinyurl.com/2jxb8q) regarding a censorware controversy: "I think the real lesson here is that, despite all the hype, blogs have not solved the `gatekeeper' problem. It's no longer true that a handful of media giants control what people get to find out about, but it's still true that an issue doesn't become an `issue', and has a hard time entering the public consciousness, unless it gets noticed by one of the new `gatekeepers of information'.

tail piece : Change is the only thing which never changes, Change will have a change resistance still change happens.world is a collection of people and people create blogs for expressing ideas, if these ideas reach more people and accepted , blogs can change the world.

© yankandpaste® from : The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2007/06/01/stories/2007060102721100.htm)

Chevy Sequel rolls into hydrogen history

General Motors made history as its Chevy Sequel, one of the world’s most technologically advanced automobiles, became the first electrically-driven fuel cell vehicle to achieve 300 miles on one tank of hydrogen, in and out of traffic on public roads, while producing zero emissions.


hoo, its time for hydrogen highways !!!!!. emits water and runs , some body told me the hydrogen cells are going to make 100 times more Carbon dioxade.


The GM link : http://www.chevrolet.com/fuelcell/


© yankandpaste® from : http://www.saanichnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=28&cat=46&id=996798&more=0