Open Source Telecom Software Landscape by Alan Quayle

Open Source Telecom Software
Landscape

Open Source Software is Important
● Open-source software (OSS) has the source code released under a license that grants users the
rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.
○ Open-source software is a great example of open collaboration.
● OSS underpins the Web
○ 82% of web servers are open source (Apache, nginx)
● OSS became mainstream in the late 1990s / early 2000s
● Most of the telecoms / communications innovation in the past 2 decades has come from OSS – it’s
the future of our industry (being ‘free’ is a tertiary benefit)
© Alan Quayle, 2020

• Open source telecom / communications software is a global community of communities
• Open source telecom software is almost everywhere – 80% of CXTech companies rely on
open source telecom software. They have revolutionized telecoms/communications.
• Some open source projects overlap, which enables a degree of competition, which is
good for the ecosystem
• The entry barriers to using open source can be significant, hence the role service
providers play (CPaaS, UCaaS, CCaaS, next generation telcos, infrastructure vendors,
integrators / VARs / MSPs ) in making the benefits more broadly available to enterprises.
• The open source opportunity cost curve is an important consideration as you review your
projects as your business grows.
Key Points

Some of The Projects

Projects at a Glance
Asterisk (Sangoma) Leading open source telecom app server, largest community
dratchio (Dave Horton) The Node.js framework for SIP server applications (one to watch)
easyRTC (Priologic Software) WebRTC toolkit suitable for building highly secure, WebRTC applications
elastix (PaloSanto Solutions) UC wrap including Asterisk, FreePBX, HylaFAX, Openfire and Postfix.
FreePBX (Sangoma) open source GUI (graphical user interface) that controls and manages Asterisk
FreeSWITCH (Signalwire) Telecom application server for real-time communication, WebRTC, telecommunications, video and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
FusionPBX (FusionPBX.com)
FreeSWITCH GUI (Graphical User Interface) for PBX, carrier grade switch, call center server, fax server, voip server, voicemail server, conference
server, voice application server, appliance framework and more
HOMER (qxip) SIP Capture system and Monitoring Application
Janus (Meetecho) lightweight (written in C) WebRTC Gateway
jitsi.org (8X8) JavaScript WebRTC application and can be used for videoconferencing
Kamailio (Astipo + many more) SIP server for building SIP services such as a SIP proxy, SIP Presence Server, SIP location server (direct competitor to OpenSIPS)
Kazoo (2600Hz) Refocused on CPaaS / UCaaS enabler with Kazoo
Kurento (Twilio) WebRTC media server. Bought by Twilio, code still available.
mediasoup Open Source WebRTC SFU for Node.js. mediasoup is a low level component to build multi-party video conferencing applications.
Medooze SIP Video Multiconference Media Server with WebRTC support.
Mobicents / Restcomm
Mobicents is an Open Source VoIP Platform written in Java to help create, deploy, manage services and applications integrating voice, video and
data across a range of IP and legacy communications networks. The focus was principally telecom networks.
NodeRed (IBM)
Node-RED is a flow-based development tool for visual programming developed originally by IBM for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and
online services as part of the Internet of Things (IoT). Now seeing broader use across programmable communications.
openSIPS (OpenSIPS Solutions) SIP proxy/server for voice, video, IM, presence (direct competitor to Kamailio)
RTPENGINE (Sipwise / ALE)
The Sipwise (Alcatel Lucent Enterprise) NGCP (Next Generation Communication Platform) rtpengine is a proxy for RTP traffic and other UDP
based media traffic. It's meant to be used with the Kamailio SIP proxy and forms a drop-in replacement for any of the other available RTP and
media proxies.
RTPProxy (Sippy Software)
Sippy RTPproxy is a high-performance software proxy server for RTP streams that works together with OpenSIPS. Typical scenarios where
RTPproxy needs to be used are NAT traversal or network bridging
SIP3 (SIP3) RTC and VoIP traffic monitoring & analysis
sipXcom (eZuce)
Unified communications solution. Plug & play management system. Installation and configuration is automated and GUI based, phones from
over 10 manufacturers are plug & play managed including auto-discovery, full configuration, directory management, speed dial, BLF, and
firmware management, and users are provided with a Web portal for self-service administration.
VICIdial (VICIDial group) VICIdial is an enterprise class, open source, call center suite in use by many large call centers
Wazo Platform (Wazo) Open Source project to build carrier grade programmable IP communication infrastructures
WebRTC (Google + lots of others) provides browsers and mobile applications with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities via simple APIs.
Yate Project (Null Team/SS7WARE)
Yate (Yet Another Telephony Engine) is free and open source communications software with support for video, voice and instant messaging. It is
an extensible, GPL licensed PBX. It is written in C++ with a modular design, allowing the use of scripting languages like Perl, Python and PHP to
create external functionality.

• Important Definitions
• Understand the Projects
• Why open source telecom software is important in Asia, yet its still early days
Outline

• Someone with autism who also has a
single extraordinary area of
knowledge or ability.
• An individual or a small team can
produce what would take a large
highly skilled and well-managed team
to produce.
• Happiest when coding and solving
complex code/environment/protocol
problems.
• Unhappiest when answering
questions from people who do not
understand their documentation.
Definitions: Autistic Savant
Stephan Wiltshire has the extraordinary ability to draw a
perfect representation of anything he sees from memory.

• Needs of the open source community
• Commercial needs of the core team or
custodian
• Open-source software advocates can
be powerful allies, but also vocal
critics.
• Mistakes will be made. But when they
become systematic things start falling
apart and then there’s lots of forking.
Definitions: Balancing Act

• Its analogous to the web server
• 80% of web servers are open
source (Apache and Nginx)
• Telecom app server enables a
client to use simple APIs / protocols
to harness telecom services across
the PSTN and the Internet
Definitions: Telecom Application Server
Client
Web
Server
Data and
services on
the internet
Client
Telecom
App
Server
Telecom
protocols,
networks, &
services on
the PSTN /
internet

Telcos Internet
Carrier Aggregation: Voice, SMS/MMS,
RCS, DIDs, SIMs, Data, Mobile ID,
Charging
SBC Firewall
TAS: Voice, SMS/MMS, RCS, IoT, mobile
money
SIP AS
WebRTC
AS/GW
Value Added Services: Bots, fax, speech rec, device mngmnt, media server /
gateway, call recording, media forking, 2FA, NLU, PTT, omnichannel, mobile
payments. SIP VAS. WebRTC VAS.
Enterprise Enablers / Services: Twilio Flex, CCaaS, UCaaS, UC&C, workflow / task
scheduler, engagement/CRM, authentication / account security, trust scores, mobile
marketing
API Management (Security, SLA, Policy, Discovery, Lifecycle, Identity Management,
Orchestration – REST (likely to evolve to gRPC))
Common
Functions
Management
Console
GDPR
Compliance
Provisioning
Usage/Billing
Account
Management
Testing
Definitions: How it all fits together in CXTech

I’ll also be sharing some OSP Survey Responses
Collected over period 21 May 2019 to 21 June 2019
Google Slides Responses 19
Google Sheet Responses 12
Google Survey Responses 64
Total Good Responses 95
Numbers are OK for indicative analysis, though need to be closer to 200 for a fair representation
across the tens of thousands of people working on open source telecom software.

This is just my perspective

● Founded 1999 by Mark Spencer of Digium
○ Oldest open source telecom app server project. Mark is the original geek, no matter what others claim.
○ Second oldest is OpenCloud has founded in April 2000 by David Ferry and David Page.
○ Another is Mobicents created in 2004 by Ivelin Ivanov.
○ There have been tens of TAS open source projects over the years. And hundreds of proprietary TAS stretching
back into the 1970s and even into the ‘60s.
● Division of Sangoma. Custodian to protect = Stability & Security.
● Asterisk is so much more than an enterprise-class PBX.
○ Anyone who uses the above definition is trying to mis-leading you.
○ Its an open-source platform for building real-time communications applications. From a simple office phone
system with a few connections, to some of the most complex omni-channel call centers on the planet that
perform external database lookups and make intelligent call routing decisions.
● Largest and most diverse community of any project
● Presenting at TADSummit Asia. © Alan Quayle, 2020
Asterisk, asterisk.org

Asterisk Architecture

OSP Survey: Which OSPs do you use? (either in your current platform, or clients’
platforms) OR Which OSPs do you have experience with? (for example used in
projects over the past 2 years)
Which OSPs do you use? Responses %
Asterisk 71 75%
FreeSWITCH 39 41%
Kamailio 41 43%
OpenSIPS 51 54%
Restcomm/Mobicents 3 3%
The only TAS we did not receive feedback from was SIPfoundry/sipxcom. I only recently made
contacts there, likely my lack of credibility in that community meant it did not receive much attention.

OSP Survey: What is the main application(s) / market need(s)? (PBX,
Conferencing, Contact Center, Mobile App Comms, CPaaS, UCaaS, CCaaS,
PBX, video CC.) What is the scale of the implementation (100, 1000, 10k, 100k,
1M+))
Application (66 responses) Responses %
PBX 50 76%
Conferencing 28 42%
Contact Center 37 56%
Mobile App Comms 6 9%
CPaaS 4 6%
UCaaS 7 11%
CCaaS 0 0%
Video CC 0 0%
Media App Server 6 9%
Scale (66 responses) Responses %
100 22 33%
1000 12 18%
10k 25 38%
100k 11 17%
1M+ 3 5%
The “popular” view: Asterisk is used for PBX implementations at enterprise scale.
This provides some quantification on the breadth and scale of Asterisk applications.

OSP Survey: What do you consider the strengths and weaknesses of the OSP?
Strengths
41
responses %
Features 8 20%
Reliability 15 37%
Openness 3 7%
Flexibility 14 34%
Community 17 41%
Maturity 10 24%
Easy to set-up / configure 9 22%
Small footprint 8 20%
Well documented 3 7%
Weaknesses 33 results %
Uncertainty over new
ownership 5 15%
IPPBX centric 8 24%
Cloud support 7 21%
Multi-tenancy 6 18%
Scalability 9 27%
Performance 4 12%
Direction from Community 4 12%
Community, Reliability and Flexibility are top features.
A correlation on the weaknesses is those highlighting scalability, IPPBX-centric, cloud support, were
NOT providing feedback on the solution wraps / management interfaces.

Asterisk Project Community
Wazo: open source
project to build carrier
grade programmable IP
communication
infrastructures
VICIdial: an enterprise
class, open source, call
center suite in use by
many large call centersElastix: UC wrap
including Asterisk,
FreePBX, HylaFAX,
Openfire and Postfix.
Asterisk: The
granddaddy, open-source
platform for building real-
time communications
applications.
FreePBX: open source
GUI (graphical user
interface) that controls
and manages Asterisk.
HOMER: SIP Capture
system and monitoring
application from qxip
SIP3: RTC and VoIP
traffic monitoring &
analysis
Kamailio: SIP server for
building SIP services
such as a SIP proxy, SIP
Presence Server, SIP
location server
openSIPS: SIP server for
location server

● We have a presentation from Fred on
Kamailio at TADSummit Asia
● Started in 2001 with the SIP Express Router
(SER) project by Fokus Research Institute,
Berlin, Germany
● Kamilio is a building block of VoIP
infrastructures
● provides core services
● proxy
● registrar
● balancer or router application server
● no PBX, more like a router
● only about signaling, no media data
● foundation for custom high-performance SIP
services
Kamailio, Kamailio.org

OSP Survey: What is the main application(s) / market need(s)? (PBX,
Conferencing, Contact Center, Mobile App Comms, CPaaS, UCaaS, CCaaS,
PBX, video CC, what is the scale of the implementation (100, 1000, 10k, 100k,
1M+))
Application (40 responses) Responses %
PBX 17 43%
Conferencing 8 20%
Contact Center 9 23%
Mobile App Comms 8 20%
CPaaS 13 33%
UCaaS 12 30%
SBC 2 5%
Class 5 termination 3 8%
Class 4 telco interconnect 3 8%
CCaaS 3 8%
Call routing / SIP routing 9 23%
Header manipulation 2 5%
Video CC 1 3%
Scale (38 responses) Responses %
100 0 0%
1000 13 34%
10k 14 37%
100k 10 26%
1M+ 15 39%
Broad base of projects with a slight bias to large scale deployments, which jives with my discussions
on implementations where Kamailio is used as the front-end with multiple Asterisk or FreeSWITCH
applications servers on the backend.

OSP Survey: What to you consider the strengths and weaknesses of the OSP?
Strengths (34 Responses) Responses %
Performance 12 35%
Community 11 32%
Modularity 2 6%
Available Modules 3 9%
Flexible / Extensible / Open 12 35%
Secure 2 6%
Lightweight 3 9%
Stability 11 32%
Scalability 6 18%
Weaknesses (6 Responses) Responses %
Documentation is tough for
newcomers 4 67%
Can be tough to configure 3 50%
Strengths in Performance,
Community, Flexibility,
and Stability.
Weaknesses are well-
known, “You’ve got to
know what you’re doing.”

OSP Survey: How active and vibrant is developer community (Quiet - some
contributions mainly from the core team – active from a limited number of
companies - Lively (>10 companies contributions))? (32 Responses)
At the end of
this report we’ll
do some
comparisons
between the
OSPs on the
community
questions.

OSP Survey: Does the developer community make itself accessible for
participation (closed – OK – Open (with lots of fast help (hours) and dev events))?
(32 Responses)

OSP Survey: How easy is it to engage with the community on features/issues that
are important to you? (difficult (no/slow response) – OK (responses can take days)
– good (rapid response, within hours, day max)) (28 Responses)

OSP Survey: If you develop and enhance the platform yourself, how open do you
find the community to your submissions and pull requests? (closed – OK –
welcoming) (26 Responses)
The love is
strong for
Kamailio 

OSP Survey: Do you find it easy to hire knowledgeable consultants, or otherwise
access operational support for the platform from outside your immediate
organization (easy – OK - hard) (29 Responses)
Kamailio is the
archetype of
how to run a
successful
open source
project. With a
clear
separation
between
community and
commercial
interests.

● We have a presentation from Bodgan-Andrei
on OpenSIPS at TADSummit Asia
● OpenSIPS is a fork of SER
● OpenSIPS (Open SIP Server) is a mature Open Source implementation of a SIP
server.
● OpenSIPS is more than a SIP proxy/router as it includes application-level
functionalities. OpenSIPS, as a SIP server, is the core component of any SIP-
based VoIP solution. With a very flexible and customizable routing engine,
OpenSIPS unifies voice, video, IM and presence services in a highly efficient way,
thanks to its scalable (modular) design.
● While Kamailio and OpenSIPS have a common history the projects are diverging
openSIPS, openSIPS.org

● Founded in 2016 as a fork from XiVO by
the XiVO core dev team including
Sylvian Boily
○ Founded on principles of: Hybrid (on
prem and in the cloud) and Open
(powerful scripting)
● Built on Asterisk, KAMAILIO, and
RTPENGINE.
● Focus is UCaaS and CPaaS
○ Can be used for any RTC project
Wazo, wazo-platform.org & wazo.io

https://youtu.be/xXSM2VO7xws
https://youtu.be/JxKlxPDDnskhttps://youtu.be/vh43Vt40myY

● Project began in 2004 because it costs millions of dollars to buy commercial outbound
dialing solution for a 200 seat call center, and Asterisk was available
● Vicidial Group founded in 2007 to provide professional products and services to the
Vicidial user community
● The original creator and primary developer of VICIdial, Matt Florell, started the Vicidial
Group
● Open Source Contact Center Suite: 14,000 registered installations in 100 countries
● Inbound, Outbound and Blended Call Handling
● Inbound Email and Website Customer Chat
● Runs on top of Asterisk Open Source PBX
● Web-based user interfaces
VICIdial, vicidial.org & vicidial.com

OSP Survey: Which OSPs do you use? (either in your current platform, or clients’
platforms) OR Which OSPs do you have experience with? (for example used in
projects over the past 2 years)
Management Interfaces / Solution Wraps /
Monitoring & Capture
Responses %
Elastix (for Asterisk) 1 1%
FreePBX (for Asterisk) 21 22%
FusionPBX (for FreeSwitch) 10 11%
Kazoo 2 2%
RTPProxy 18 19%
SIP3 0 0%
Sipcapture - Homer 31 33%
Sippy Softswitch 2 2%
VICIdial (for Asterisk) 7 7%
Wazo (for Asterisk) 15 16%
YETISwitch 0 0%
sipsak, sipp 1 1%
Note: sipsak is a CLI for testing using SIPp (Open Source test tool / traffic generator)
Nice to see RTPProxy being used, it
comes up in discussions more often.
Nice to see more niche projects like
VICIdial being used.
All these projects helps explain the
diversity of application areas we see
for open source projects.
Even though Wazo is relatively new
(it is a fork from XiVo), adoption is
strong. It takes time for projects to be
adopted in open source, stability and
reliability are critical.

● FreePBX is a web-based open-source graphical user interface (GUI) that manages Asterisk
● It is a component of the FreePBX Distro, which is an independently maintained Linux system
derived from the source code of the CentOS distribution, having Asterisk pre-installed. It is also
included in various third-party distributions such as The FreePBX Distro and AsteriskNow.
● Making set-up as easy as possible.
● FreePBX was acquired by Schmooze.com in early 2013. That firm was, in turn, taken over by
Sangoma in 2015.
● FreePBX is a community of developers and contributors who devote their work to making
complicated phone system software easy to use and functional.
FreePBX, freepbx.org

● Elastix was created by PaloSanto Solutions, based in Ecuador, and released in 2006.
● Unifed communications server covering IP PBX, email, IM, faxing and collaboration
functionality. It has a Web interface and includes capabilities such as a call center
software with predictive dialing.
● The Elastix 2.5 functionality is based on open source projects including Asterisk,
FreePBX, HylaFAX, Openfire and Postfix. Those packages offer the PBX, fax, instant
messaging and email functions, respectively.
● Elastix 2.5 is free software, released under the GNU General Public License.
● As of Elastix 5.0 all functionality is provided through 3CX,
● Elastix 5.0 is Proprietary released under the terms of the 3CX license.
elastix, elastix.org

● RTC and VoIP traffic monitoring & analysis
● SIP3 is an open source project established in 2016
by Konstantin Mikhailov and Oleg Agafonov.
SIP3, github.com/sip3io & SIP3.io

● Remember engineers love to name things…
● QXIP {QuickSIP} is a Dutch R&D Company specializing in Open-Source and
Commercial Voice Technology Development
● SIPCAPTURE is an Open-Source community primarily sponsored by QXIP
● SIPCAPTURE HOMER is based on their open encapsulation protocol HEP/EEP
● Customers include large telephony network operators, voice service carriers, VoIP
service providers, cloud service providers, call center operators, voice equipment
vendors and Enterprises relying on VoIP including Fortune 500
● Their Capture Technologies are natively implemented in all major OSS VoIP
platforms such as Kamailio, OpenSIPS,FreeSWITCH, Asterisk, OpenUC and many
capture tools such as sipgrep, sngrep, our captagent etc.
● There’s value here, Callstats.io was acquired by 8X8 recently
Homer, https://github.com/sipcapture/homer

● The FreeSWITCH project was announced in 2006. Its first official release was on May,
2008. Twilio initially used Asterisk as its TAS, move to FreeSWITCH when it hit scalability
issues, and has since built out its own TAS.
● FreeSWITCH achieved broad adoption because of its API centric approach. Asterisk has
since caught up. Though not interchangeable, there is healthy competition between the
two projects.
● SignalWire Inc was founded in 2018 to provide commercial cloud telecommunication
services utilizing an elastic FreeSWITCH core and provides a permanent commercial
sponsor for the open source project that was controlled by the founders of FreeSWITCH
(acquired FreeSWITCH Solutions).
FreeSWITCH, freeswitch.org

FreeSWITCH Project Community
Kazoo: open source
project to build carrier
grade programmable IP
communication
infrastructures
FusionPBX:
FreeSWITCH GUI
(Graphical User
Interface).
FreeSWITCH: Open-
source platform for
building real-time
communications
applications.
HOMER: SIP Capture
system and monitoring
application from qxip
SIP3: RTC and VoIP
traffic monitoring &
analysis
Kamailio: SIP server for
location server
openSIPS: SIP server for
location server

● FreeSWITCH GUI (Graphical User Interface) for PBX, carrier grade switch, call
center server, fax server, voip server, voicemail server, conference server, voice
application server, appliance framework and more
● An open source project that provides a customizable and flexible web interface to the
very powerful and highly scalable multi-platform voice switch called FreeSWITCH.
● North America Centric
FusionPBX, fusionpbx.com

● KAZOO is an open-source, highly scalable software platform designed to provide
carrier-grade VoIP switch functions and features.
● Developers, system administrators, and telecom engineers can build flexible,
reliable telecom services using the extensive KAZOO APIs.
● Based on FreeSWITCH and Kamailio.
● Guardian is 2600Hz, founded in 2010. I became aware of Kazoo in 2014 with
Kazoocon. Strong engineering team.
● Small team (2600Hz is about 40 people), mostly based in North America, with some
solid accounts to pay the bills, and community members across Europe and Russia.
Kazoo, 2600hz.com & 2600hz.org

OSP Survey: Which OSPs do you use? (either in your current platform, or clients’ platforms) OR Which
OSPs do you have experience with? (for example used in projects over the past 2 years)
WebRTC Projects Responses %
EasyRTC 2 2%
Janus 25 26%
Kurento 1 1%
Jitsi 31 33%
Mediasoup 2 2%
Medooze 0 0%
OpenVidu 0 0%
JSSip 7 7% both SIP and WebRTC client library
Additional ones generated but not considered
opentok 2 2% Not an open source project
Other
Matrix 22 23% I include as federation and its RTC capabilities can not be ignored
SylkServe 2 2% I wasn't aware of this project, it's definitely relevant.
Node-RED 1 1%
flow-based development tool for visual programming - included as
it raises some interesting issues on service development

DevDay
L. Miniero
Intro
WebRTC
Standardization
Janus
Modules and APIs
Deploying
Troubleshooting
Examples
A few examples
Next steps
Extensible Architecture and API
● Janus is a popular (see OSP Survey) general purpose WebRTC
Server developed by Meetecho (founded 2009 in Napoli).
● The server implements the means to set up WebRTC media
communication with a browser, exchanging JSON messages with
it, and relaying RTP/RTCP and messages between browsers and
the server-side application logic they're attached to.
● Core only implements the WebRTC stack: JSEP/SDP, ICE,
DTLS-SRTP, Data Channels, etc.
● Plugins expose Janus API over different transports: HTTP /
WebSockets / RabbitMQ / Unix Sockets / MQTT
● Specific feature/application is provided by server-side plugins,
that browsers can then contact via Janus to take advantage of the
functionality they provide. Example of such plugins can be
implementations of applications like echo tests, conference
bridges, media recorders, SIP gateways and the like.
JANUS, https://github.com/meetecho/janus-gateway

● Work on Jitsi (then SIP Communicator) started in 2003 as a student project by Emil
Ivov
● Emil Ivov founded BlueJimp in 2009, which employed some of Jitsi's main
contributors
● In 2015 Atlassian bought BlueJimp, and then 8X8 took over the team in 2018, and
now fully funds the Jitsi project
● Main projects include:
● Jitsi Meet – video conferencing server
● Jitsi Videobridge – WebRTC Selective Forwarding Unit for multi-party conferences
● Jigasi - server-side app that allows SIP clients to join Jitsi Meet.
● lib-jitsi-meet - low-level JavaScript API for providing a customized UI for Jitsi Meet
● Jidesha – a Chrome and Firefox extension for Jitsi Meet
● Jitsi – an audio, video, and chat communicator that supports protocols such as SIP,
XMPP/Jabber, AIM/ICQ, and IRC
Jitsi, Jitsi.org

● Code is now on Github. Mobicents.org and Restcomm.org redirect to Telestax.com.
● Mobicents is an Open Source VoIP Platform written in Java to help create, deploy,
manage services and applications integrating voice, video and data across a range of
IP and legacy communications networks. The focus was principally telecom networks
and protocols.
● Mobicents LLC, was founded in 2004 by Ivelin Ivanov. Red Hat bought Mobicents in
2007. After Red Hat sunsetted Mobicents in 2011, TeleStax was created to take over
the leadership and commercial services around Mobicents.
● Telestax raised $8.3M across rounds in 2015, 2017 and 2018. With Ivelin leaving in
2019. Telestax are no longer supporting RESTCOMM.
RESTCOMM/Mobicents, https://github.com/RestComm

● One to watch! Promoted in 2018 by Dave Horton, @davehorton, project has been
around since 2013. https://github.com/davehorton/drachtio-server
● drachtio is the open source SIP application. It consists of a high-performance and
easily-configured SIP server (written in C++), and a Node.js framework that enables
applications to control the server and implement application logic.
Dratchio, https://drachtio.org

● Matrix is an open standard for interoperable, decentralized, real-time communication
over IP.
● Open standard - Matrix Specification
● Designed to interoperate with other communication systems, and being an Open Standard
means it's easy to see how to interoperate with it
● Matrix is decentralized, which means there is no central point - anyone can host their own
server and have control over their data
● Designed to function in real-time, which means it is ideal for building systems that require
immediate exchange of data, such as Instant Messaging
● Founded in 2014 by Matthew Hodgson and Amandine Le Pape within Amdocs. It
raised $5M and $8.5M rounds in 2017 and 2019.
● Selected by the French Government in 2018, German Ministry of Defense in 2019,
and in 2020 Mozilla announced they would replace IRC with Matrix.
● Matrix should be on the roadmap of any modern telecoms/comms project
Matrix, Matrix.org

● Node-RED is a flow-based development tool for visual programming developed
originally by IBM for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services as
part of the Internet of Things.
● Node-RED provides a web browser-based flow editor, which can be used to create
JavaScript functions. Elements of applications can be saved or shared for re-use. The
runtime is built on Node.js. The flows created in Node-RED are stored using JSON.
● In 2016, IBM contributed Node-RED as an open source JS Foundation project.
● Its proving increasingly popular within the CXTech community for service creation.
Node-Red, github.com/node-red/node-red

TADHack-mini Orlando 2020 Node-Red Hack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM-tv1tSxyQ
http://blog.tadhack.com/2020/03/29/tadhack-mini-orlando-2020-winners/

● Yate (Yet Another Telephony Engine) is free and
open source communications software with support
for video, voice and instant messaging.
● In 2004, NullTeam / SS7Ware, launched Yate.
● Current focus software defined mobile networks with
Yate-based RAN, Yate-based core network, and Yate
software defined network.
● An interesting evolution from a TAS into a complete
mobile network.
Yate

Open Source Software is Important
● Open-source software (OSS) has the source code is released under a license that
grants users the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for
any purpose.
○ Open-source software is a great example of open collaboration.
● OSS underpins the Web
○ 80% of web servers are open source (Apache, nginx)
● OSS became mainstream in the late 1990s
● Most of the telecoms / communications innovation in the past 2 decades has come
from OSS – it’s the future of our industry

Open Source Opportunity Cost
Time spent
earning $$$
on your core
business
Time spent
having fun
updating to the
latest release to
save $$
Over time
Costs Saved (can be)
< Revenue Forgone
Because its not core to
your business

• Open source telecom / communications software is a global community of communities
• Open source telecom software is almost everywhere – 80% of CXTech companies rely on
open source telecom software
• Some projects overlap, which enables a degree of competition – good for the ecosystem
• The entry barriers to using open source can be significant, hence the role service providers
play (CPaaS, UCaaS, CCaaS, next generation telcos, infrastructure vendors, integrators /
VARs / MSPs) in making the benefits more broadly available.
• Constantly evolving, do not see today’s landscape as permanent.
○ Signalwire could struggle in the evolution from coders to service providers
○ Sangoma could face pressure from shareholders in how it invests given the downturn
Key Points

Recommendations for Asia
● Asia is currently best served by the larger well-established projects: Asterisk, Kamailio, and OpenSIPS
● You need either in-house or external expertise to help you
○ Engineering team that can fork and maintain, or a service provider / partner that can abstract projects on your
behalf.
● Diversity of Asian market is ideal market for a range of service providers: CPaaS, UCaaS, CCaaS,
next generation telcos, infrastructure vendors, integrators / VARs / MSPs
● The gap I see across Asia is OSS telecom expertise in VARs / MSPs to meet the needs of SMB and
mid-market enterprises
○ Gap can be closed through education and networking

CXTech Gap in Asia: The VoIP Channel
● Every country in Asia is different!
● Japan has a long-established enterprise channel infrastructure. However, its closely tied to the
incumbent telcos. Which has been slow to adopt the benefits of open source software due to the
vested interests of its incumbent vendors.
● Most open source projects are only in the English Language, this is partially why we’ve seen more
rapid OSS adoption in AUSNZ, India and Singapore.
○ Need for greater language localization
● When I attend Astricon in the US, 5/10/15 people organizations are delivering the communications
needs of car dealerships, factories, supermarkets, restaurants, and many other SMB using OSS
○ Most businesses do not have an IT department, hence a local person/business they can trust that makes it easy
for them matters. Need for OSS education (hence this presentation) – contact the communities.
○ Most people/businesses are frugal, saving money >> long lists of features

Open Source Telecom Software Landscape by Alan Quayle

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