IP Telephony Applications for Handhelds

1. IP Telephony Applications for Handhelds Keith Weiner DiamondWare

2. Presentation goals • Look closely at cellular, cordless phones • Why computer telephony, why PDA, why now? • PDA telephony technologies • Engineering and market issues • Projections and statistics • Demo

3. PDA telephony is not cellular • Those are cool Devices! • Samsung I300, Nokia Communicator, Handspring Treo • It’s a cool Application! • Combine two functions into 1 device • …But different.

4. Cellular advantages • Nationwide WAN coverage • Roaming at 90mph • Low capex • Free or near-free • But no advantage within enterprise space

5. Cellular cellularness • Monthly bills • High latency • “Hello, Over?” • Poor voice quality • Especially “transcoding” between carriers • Doesn’t work well in some buildings • Fabs, dense high-rises

6. But everyone uses it • On the road • At lunch • In coworkers’ offices • Out of habit, even at their own desks! • Give out one number: the mobile • Mgmt. losing control and predictability • PSTN minutes negotiated in bulk

7. Cordless phones • Expensive • Nortel T7406 $525 MSRP • Trapped by system vendor • Or live with analog port limitations • Another extra device • Forget it when you wander down the hall • One more gadget on your belt

8. Ok, why computer telephony? • Why IP? • Converged networks • LAN, voice, wireless • Why a software-based telephone? • More usable • Presence • Availability

9. We need to do better

10. IP telephony for handhelds • PDA is becoming mission-critical • With decent CPU, audio chip, wireless NIC • Leverage it with a softphone • Inherently cheaper than dedicated phone • Cheaper to build and to upgrade • More powerful

11. PDA VoIP advantages • Same as for desktop and laptop • Features • Address book • Recording • Presence • Play tunes without worry, ring can interrupt • Better voice quality (wideband) • Plus mobility

12. Applications • Workforce communication in factory floors, warehouses, campuses • Walking over to the next office • Desktop phone replacement • Take it with you to Starbucks, airports, hotels and other hotspots

13. Why wireless PDA? I • PDA deployment is growing • Wireless IP deployment is growing • Leverage them • Network convergence • Wired LAN • Telephony • Wireless

14. Why wireless PDA? II • See list of conference attendees • Control your availability as seen by others • Whiteboard, Text (IM) • N-way calling • “Line” is never busy • Why limit to just 3-way?

15. Softphone architecture I • IP socket support • Call control protocol • SIP or H.323 • Realtime audio transport (i.e. RTP) • Audio is broken into packets

16. Softphone architecture II • Microphone capture • Process (e.g. echo, AGC) • Compress (e.g. G.711, G.729) • Wrap in an RTP header • Send to remote host

17. Softphone architecture III • Network receive • Decompress • Process (e.g. dejitter, echo) • Send to audio chip

18. What does it take? • Real computer (PocketPC, Zaurus, Webpad), with a real audio chip • Sorry Palm • Headphones • Wireless network, typically 802.11b • 802.11a gets cheaper (under twice 802.11b) • For PSTN calls, IP-PBX gateway

19. 802.11 issues I • Bandwidth Constrained • 802.11b has only 11 Mbps • 802.11a has 54 Mbps • 802.11g has 54 Mbps also, but 2.4GHz • QoS • Cannot add segments, like w/wired LANs • “Sto dow..oading so I .c.. ta..k” • No standard yet

20. 802.11 issues II • Airwave contention • NICs hidden from each other • RTS/CTS • RF Interference • 802.11b uses 2.4ghz, not great spectrum • 802.11a uses 5ghz, better spectrum

21. 802.11 issues III • Security • Encryption (wired equivalent privacy) is a toy • “Warchalking” • MAC address filtering helps, somewhat • Access controllers • Built-in authentication • Connect to auth server (e.g. RADIUS, LDAP) • Painless subnet roaming

22. VoIP issues • For IP calls to or from the outside • NAT • Firewall • Proxy • Some solutions • Server outside the gate (e.g. Ridgeway) • UPnP NAT

23. PocketPC issues • Speaker and mic coupled • Headphones req’d • Mic-less headphones • 50 lashes with a wet noodle • Compute-limited for echo cancellation • Battery life • Powered down when idle • But can’t receive calls!

24. Market issues • Inside your space, build what you want • Not many outside hotspots yet • Roaming problem • Dynamic routing • Mesh Networks • Mass acceptance req’d for business model • 200 users at airport gate—holy QoS, Batman!

25. Marketscape • Existing products • Avaya, support for their PBX • VTGO, supports Cisco Call Manager • SoftJoy Labs, supports H.323 and SIP • In Development • DiamondWare, SIP, lowest latency • Telesym, connects to 3rd party PBXs • Others

26. Resistance is futile! • (You will be assimilated) • The PDA is/will be mission-critical • You will carry it for many reasons • Why not use it for the voice function? • No worse off than before • Within wireless zones, much better

27. Necessary next steps • Ubiquitous Wireless access points • Outside the enterprise • Answers on the business side • 30 free minutes with every cup at Starbucks? • By the hour at airports? • 1000 minutes/month like cellular? • By the day at hotels?

28. My projections • Wideband (16khz) audio will win people • PDAs will be carried everywhere • PDAs will be net.connected when possible • PDAs will be used as phones when net.connected • SIP makes follow-me easy • PoE (power over ethernet) icing on cake

29. Statistics • 100% of communications shows I’ve attended, past 12 months • 5.3M NICs and 1.8M WAPs sold in 20011 • $400/$100 avg. cost, enterprise WAP/NIC • 44 “hotspots” in Arizona2 1Gartner 280211hotspots.com

30. About me • CEO of DiamondWare • Developers of low-latency voice software • mailto:keith@dw.com • cell: (602) 478-9275 • SIP:keith@dw.com (coming soon)

31. Wideband Audio • “Your confirmation number is FS5BP3TD” • Try that on a phone • Worse yet, a cell