[asterisk-dev] AST_FRAME_DIGITAL/3G video calls

[Olle E Johansson]

Friends,

To try to summarize, I think we have two different issues on the table.

* 3G video on ISDN - a call that is multiplexed to fit into one
    ISDN channel, video and AMR audio.

* ISDN data calls is another issue. I don't know how frequent they
   are any more, but these are not really Asterisk calls and maybe
    we should look into a Zaptel/MISDN application to handle
    these, if it can be handled that low. Otherwise tunneling could
    be a solution for these, maybe.
    I'll drop this part of the discussion for now.

To handle demultiplexing and multiplexing of multimedia streams
in an application is a big "no, no" regardless of which Asterisk
developer you talk to. It might be that we need a new module
that can hook into various channels to handle this, but so far
I can only think of misdn and zaptel channels that need this.

It's unlikely to get a SIP call with a video call not de-multiplexed.

I don't see any need for tunneling un-multiplexed 324 data,
since it will cause issues in the architecture with a  lot of
our  applications and call scenarios.

What happens if a video call comes in and is forwarded to an
audio only device/channel?

We don't really know what the final endpoint will be when
the call comes in, so it's kind of strange to keep it in multiplexed
mode.

A big issue with 3G video calls in Asterisk is the licensing
of the audio part of the call, which is using the AMR codec
that's not free. Regardless, handling this in third-party
applications that break the asterisk architecture is not a
way I would recommend moving forward. I'd rather see
Digium handling the AMR license issue, which I proposed
to them many times without any answers. Please help
me in mailing Digium marketing and sales about this.

My 10+10c... :-)

Regards,
/O

PS. Please test videocaps if you're interested in video.
It adds a lot of video functionality to Asterisk.