[Asterisk-Users] Re: How far is IAX to be a Standard

[Michael Giagnocavo]

>On Mon, 1 Nov 2004 16:13:15 -0600, Michael Giagnocavo
><mgg-digium at atrevido.net> wrote:
>> Unless SIP just plain does not work, I think it'll be hard (for IAX to
>get
>> excellent acceptance),
>
>Funny you should say that from the comfort of your first world
>environment. In many countries internet infrastructure is such that
>SIP does indeed simply not work, but IAX does.

Hi there, I'm in Guatemala. My current connectivity is via a modem (poorly
implemented EVDO or CDMA, whichever is actually working at the moment).
Before that we were using satellite. The telco tried to hook up ADSL (@ $229
for 512K) but fried the phone line, and two weeks later it's still messed
up. Hardly what I'd call comfortable or first world.

>Of course IAX, once going RFC, will have to start its own life outside
>of Asterisk.

My only point has been that IAX needs support. Marketing (in forms of
standardization, or even "open source gurus" spouting stuff) needs to
encourage people to pick it up. Simply writing a better spec and then hoping
that magically the entire world is going to support it is, well, an
interesting concept. (Hey, I hope it works!)

>> My only point is that we can't just rely on a better design to somehow
>> magically win out. Getting Digium to create a standard with input from
>other
>> vendors would be a huge plus and help pave the path forward.
>
>I totally disagree. IAX is not a standards committee protocol. It's a
>grassroots thing. If it catches on, and we have any reason to believe
>that it will, given how far it has already come, then it will be
>through grassroots implementations. It will be through small vendors
>who seek an edge and use IAX to get that edge, forcing other small
>vendors to follow. Once there is a critical mass, even the bigger
>vendors won't be able to ignore it.

Well, I guess that's certainly one approach. I still don't see why this is a
replacement or excuse for not trying other approaches. Nothing says you have
to be purely grassroots. Also, you can bet that some companies who are
making $$$,$$$ selling boxes just to "fix" SIP are going to be throwing lots
of money against stuff that puts them out of business...

-Michael