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

[Benjamin on Asterisk Mailing Lists]

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 20:55:40 -0500, Karl Brose <khb at brose.com> wrote:
> And what to you base such an assertion on?
> Would you care to elaborate on the technical justifications?

In a nutshell: The future of voice will be peer-to-peer and that's
where IAX has a clear edge.

As for a technical discussion of the benefits of IAX, there is quite a
bit of material available in the list archives and on the Wiki (search
for SIP versus IAX).

> standards are not declared by publication or committee votes, but by
> the numbers of implementations.

precisely my point.

>  The activity surrounding IAX and
> Asterisk at present is encouraging and stimulating, no doubt.

indeed.

> But there is other competition as well, BT is implementing not SIP,
> but MGCP in their transition to an all voip-based network.

Is this an argument that bolsters SIP? I would think not. I would
think it is a sign that SIP isn't all that omni-potent as SIP
lobbyists would have us believe.

> Currently, I don't see how IAX can achieve the kind of flexibility
> and versatility of SIP, but let the market decide.

That may well be the difference between us, you seem to look at things
as they are *curently*, I look at the *potential* of things and how
they might be in the changed landscape of the future.

> Your zealous attitude does little to promote qualified technological
> exchange on this list or elsewhere, it rather reminds us of ideological
> battles between close-minded parties engaged in power struggles.

It's all about balance. While some play the part of a zealous
nay-sayer, I may be forgiven to play the role of the zealous
supporter. What you call zealous here is of course subject to whether
or not you want to take things out of context and how you interpret
them:

You may think that horse carriages are automatically a bad thing and
motorcars are automatically a good thing. The truth is though that
this depends on viewpoint.

When I say SIP is like a horse carriage, then this reflects the fact
that it is a design for the world we have come from, not necessarily
the world we are going to. It doesn't mean that horse carriages were a
bad thing. After all, motorcars have also brought us noise and
pollution.

When I say IAX is like a motorcar, then this reflects the fact that it
is a design for a modern world. Mind you, driving a motorcar in the
days of a non-motorised world was a rather impractical activity. No
gas station network, no garages to get things fixed, bad roads. A
horse carriage was far more suited to that world. However, that world
did change, for good or for worse.

rgds
benjk

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