RE: [Serusers] ser features - sr-users

7 Feb 2005

Ah.

Thanks very much for the replies Dragos and Jan - I'll take a closer
look at the developer documentation (I can't believe I missed it!).

Hmm .. I think I have got the wrong end of the stick somewhere, though -
I thought ser was a variant of a SIP Application Server.  If it is just
a SIP proxy that probably doesn't fit the purpose we're looking at (not
that it'll stop me installing it anyway .. ;).

Is there anything in the open source world in the SIP Application Server
space, or is ser as close as it gets?

Many thanks for the very fast responses!!

Peter.

...
  -----Original Message-----
 From: Jan Janak [mailto:jan@iptel.org] 
 Sent: 07 February 2005 11:37
 To: Edwards,PR,Peter,XKD44 R
 Cc: serusers(a)lists.iptel.org
 Subject: Re: [Serusers] ser features

 On 07-02 00:09, peter.3.edwards(a)bt.com wrote:
  Hi,

 Being one of those who tend towards open source, I'm trying   to put forward
ser for use within my current project as, from 
 my reading, it seems to have most of the features I think 
 we're going to need.  Problem is, before I've had a chance to 
 get it in and play with it, there's a paper sift going on 
 which may see it being shelved before I get a chance to even 
 propose it.  :(

 I realise it's entirely unforgivable, netiquette-wise, but   I was hoping if I
posted the list of criteria I was looking 
 at whether someone could help confirm or deny what I've 
 cobbled together wrt ser.  Any links to more information on 
 the web would be ideal.

 Any help at all would be gratefully received!

 Many thanks,

 Peter.

 1) Support for SIP - (preferably 3GPP ISC interface)
     - Obviously SIP is supported but I can't see any   explicit mention in the
docs wrt to 3GPP ISC .. ?  Has ser 
 been developed with this in mind?

    SIP yes, 3GPP ISC no.

  2) Provide flexible application run time support
in terms   of standard / well-defined API sets such as SIP servlets
      - As ser is written in C, it's obviously
not exposing   SIP servlets internally, but I can't seem to find a specific 
 API specificiation.  I think it sounds like applications are 
 created as C modules which plug into ser.  Is that right (I'm 
 not a C developer, so any clarification appreciated)?  Is it 
 a ser-properietary interface or something that follows a 
 particular standard?

   There is nothing comparable to SIP Servlets, SER is not a servlet
   container, but a SIP message mangler with the possibility to keep
   transaction state.

   SER modules are written in C and can access SER internals directly.
   Each module can export function that the administrator can then call
   in the configuration file.

   There is no particular standard for this, it is very 
 similar to the Apache
   module API.

  3) support carrier grade non functional
requirements e.g.   %age availability, multi-site installation, latency, throughputs
etc.
     - I can't see any specific claims for
reliability, or   any info on how to deal with redundancy etc.  Has this been 
 looked at before?

   Yes, high availability extensions are available under comercial
   license from iptel.org.

  4) Any interfaces that can be exposed to
application logic   hosted on a remote platform in an untrusted environment - 
 e.g. a Java RMI, Web Services etc.

    No.

     - Does ser expose anything else, other than
SIP?  How   would a third party application running on, let's say for 
 argument's sake, a J2EE application running on a separate 
 JBoss server?  Would a C module need to be written and 
 plugged into ser to expose, say web services?  Has anything 
 like that been done already?

   No, that is not possible. SER is not an application server, it is a
   sip proxy.

  5) Application Developer support / tools
    - Is there anything like a forum or tools to aid a   module developer?

   The C sources and SER developers guide describing the API.

   http://iptel.org/ser/devel.html

 6) OSS integration
    - Is there any?  
   No.

     Jan.