Hi there,
I’‘m brand new to the forum and I’'m quite interested in the VOIP features of OpenFire Enterprise.
how does the VOIP work from the server end and what are the hardware requirements?
I’‘m possibly interested in setting up a spark-based VOIP phone service for a group of users who are geographically spread out and I want to know what type of overhead that will put on the server. I wasn’‘t planning on using Asterisk so I’'m not sure what is required on the back end.
I’'m assuming that most of the load is on the server end but perhaps this is more of a client based application requirement.
thank you,
Kurt
Hi,
As far as I understand it the Spark clients will work for VOIP in a similar way to file transfers - i.e. they try a direct connect etc. and only use the server to relay if all other connection options fail. The main overhead being bandwidth.
So if you have a lot of clients with a harsh firewall so they all end up using the server as a relay then you may have bandwidth problems. I’'ve no numbers, but suspect VOIP would use approx 50-100kb a connection.
I.
With your mention of Asterisk, I want to clarify that you still need a VOIP SIP compliant server. Openfire acts as intermediary (along with Spark), where you can register your sprk session to the SIP server, and Openfire will forward conversations to the SIP server.
Openfire itself is not a VOIP server (although you can do spark to spark chats via Jingle with just Openfire).
that’'s great to know, I. is anyone using it this way?
I’'m toying with the idea of building an online business community among our clients where they could communicate quickly and easily without needing MSN, Skype etc. they could see someone online, chat or direct VOIP.
just not sure how feasible it is because if everyone is relaying through our server it could really hammer things.
how likely is it they couldn’'t get through with a direct connection vs going through our server. I remember doing voice chat via MSN a few times and its not very good.
Kurt
OK. good to know.
could you please explain a bit more.
what is the SIP server I would need?
what does it mean to have a Jingle conversation directly via Openfire.
I’'m trying to do a skype like direct phone call via spark and openfire. is that possible?
sounds like I need yet another server to handle the voip. wonder why the openfire website doesn’'t really mention that.
thanks for all your help with me as I’'m somewhat of a newbie here.
Cheers,
Kurt
If you want to know everything about Jingle, you can check out Jingle Protocol document here: http://www.xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0166.html
Jingle goes through the Openfire server like all other chat requests. I do not know much about Skype, however I believe to use Skype, both users have to have a skype client–if that is true, the Jingle is very similar.
The SIP functionality ties into a VoIP server–the most popular open source one being Asterisk. Any VoIP server that supports the SIP protocol (most do) can be used however. This allows you to make and receive calls to anyone with a phone number via Spark (theoretically other clients as well, assuming they have implemented the same protocols, however I am not aware of any others).