P2P

BitTorrent battles accusations of VoIP, network clobbering

Doug Mohney — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:02:46 -0500

A full-blown blog-o-war has started between The Register and BitTorrent. A Register columnist said BitTorrent's uTorrent client is going to bring the internet to a crawl because of its preference for using UDP.

The use of UDP as UTorrent's default peer-to-peer protocol allegedly could make the amount of ungovernable traffic go through the roof, clobbering bandwidth, slowing gamers and VoIP. ISPs could control traffic flow by slowing down UDP traffic, but such a move would "utterly destroy VoIP," alleges The Register.

Techno sites have taken the cannon fodder and fired it with differing results. Excess UDP traffic could slow last-mile connections, say some, rather than bringing the whole Internet to its knees.

BitTorrent says The Register piece is "utter nonsense" and a switch to a UDP-based implementation of its client was intended to reduce internet congestion, not kill the Internet proper.

We suspect some of this brouhaha has to do with the fine British journalistic tradition (The Register is published in the UK) of running wild headlines and wilder stories to generate controversy and more readership. Gotta get those web hits up for the end of the year bonuses, wot?

For more:
- The Industry Standard raps on UDP vs TCP. Article.

The power of VoIP in Adobe Flash 10

Doug Mohney — Sun, 18 May 2008 22:07:43 -0400

Adobe Flash 10 beta is being credited with super powers with the inclusion of peer to peer (P2P) and the ability to seamlessly integrate VoIP without a Skype install. Using P2P, Flash sites will be able to serve higher quality video than YouTube at a fraction of the cost. VoIP is enabled by a combination of the Speex audio codec and the Real Time Media Flow Protocol (RTMFP).

Anyone in the client-side VoIP space is vulnerable, says Adam Fisk. Writing a VoIP app now becomes as easy as writing a Flash video play, with all the "hard stuff" already done. And since it's in Flash, you don't need to worry about a separate install--unlike Skype. Finally, the code is not based on SIP or P2P-SIP in any way. Adobe's SIP work has so far only been shown in Adobe Pacifica, not in the Flash Player.

Adobe has put a lot of money into SIP, including the hiring of Dr. Henry Sinnreich, the "Godfather" of SIP. There has been continued talk Adobe would be offering some sort of service revolving around SIP, but the company has yet to make any official announcements. If Adobe could implement a P2P CDN and/or P2P-SIP infrastructure through Flash, it would be a serious game changer.

For more:
- Adam Fisk's blog on Flash 10 Beta being a YouTube, Skype, and BitTorrent Killer
- GigaOm chimes in on Flash P2P being disruptive; comment reading recommended.
- A prediction Flash based VoiP, Adobe please wakeup!
- A Spartan Adobe Pacifica Blog

Related articles:
Jobs: Adobe Flash not good enough for iPhone
Adobe Media Player, TV launched
Level 3 Adds Adobe Flash Streaming Server Support

ALSO NOTED: P2P VoIP Outfit Ooma Struggling?; Jaxtr Raises $6.4 Million for Blog, Social Net VoIP Service

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:59:52 -0400

> P2P VoIP outfit Ooma struggling?

> Jaxtr Raises $6.4 Million for blog, social net VoIP service

UTStarcom: 500 Billion Minutes Served

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:59:57 -0400

UTStarcom reports the company's mSwitch has carried more than 500 billion minutes of usage from the second quarter of 2005 through the fourth quarter of 2007. Using data from market researcher iLocus, the number would represent 16 percent of global VoIP traffic. In addition, iLocus ranked UTStarcom as the No. 1 vendor for global Class 5 VoIP minutes of usage for the 11th consecutive quarter, giving the company a cumulative 45 percent share of global traffic.

Next Generation Networks (NGN) is a core business area for UTStarcom, as the company capitalizes upon the continuing growth of Internet traffic and the end-of-life of legacy switches. Recent deployment contracts include PLDT in Asia and Jersey Telecom in Europe. UTStarcom includes a comprehensive feature set in the switch and also supports value-added applications such as unified messaging and communications and fixed mobile convergence.

For more:
- UTStarcom NGN Milestone Release
- UTStarcom mSwitch information

Related articles:
1 trillion minutes of VoIP in 2006
P2P VoIP network traffic doubles