This is fairly critical actually. It doesn't matter if you're talking about H323 or SIP although obviously there is a bias in each one towards one or the other. The commonly used VoIP name does NOT do enough to differentiate, we need to be talking about IP telephony and voice chat as two DIFFERENT beasts since they have substantially different expectations of availability!
People expect a telephony system to be available even if the power goes down, virtually all the time, how many nines of availability? Lots. More than the internet actually. In fact, they would basically expect IPtel systems to keep working even if the internet goes down. They reach for the IP phone, a physical object on their desk, most likely. This is not really "internet" stuff this is the adaptation of internet protocol to telephony fields where internet availability doesn't cut it.
On the other hand, voice chat is also VoIP but the expectation are completely different. People basically expect it will operate through the computer. It will only work if the internet connection is working. Power failure ? goodbye. This is not a telephone replacement. It's a supplement. It's going to be dirt cheap and have all the other goodness that typically characterizes internet technology.
simon
On Thursday, August 21, 2003, at 02:35 PM, Dan Kolis wrote:
Since SIP is IETF not ITU its only reasonable to have internet believers
lean towards it.
H.323 ? Ahhh no thanks.
No serious look at these can even consider H.323 etc and its derivitives as
useful in the general case. The only reason they were used is the absence of
a better alternative.
Try to hook your Sony Playstation up through H.323
When would that move through committee? Spring of 2010 ??
Oh. Another reason for IETF to believe in it is that its basically a free
comm technology. H.323 wants to drag in the old timers and their costs
structures... dependance of geography, etc so there is a credible reason by
most criterea.
Regs, Dan
-- anti-spam: do not post this address publicly www.simonwoodside.com -- 99% Devil, 1% Angel