[Asterisk-Users] Sipura SIP vs. IAX

[Jean-Michel Hiver]

>* SIP isn't a standard.  It could be made into an official standard,
>if there was a standards document.  Someone should write one, and
>start an IETF working-group.  If the IETF adopted it, there would be
>wider acceptance.
>  
>
True it isn't. However it has a written spec (I have not seen such a 
thing with IAX2) and the backing of major industry players like Cisco. 
For carrier traffic it appears to be the successor of H.323.

Now it would be awesome if IAX2 was not only open but also a well 
documented protocol. You know, with a RFC and stuff. Maybe this exists 
but I'm not aware of it.

>* SIP NAT traversal in Asterisk is harder than it needs to be.  This
>should be getting better.  But SIP in general isn't very easy to
>configure in Asterisk.  It sounds like this is getting a lot better in
>the next release (no more goofy "peer" vs. "friend" distinction).
>  
>
NAT traversal is really the area where IAX2 shines because "it just 
works". When we'll have more ATAs supporting it the word will be a 
better place - at least for me :)

Cheers,
Jean-Michel.