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Category: Releases

Product release messages, including LTS, stable, development versions and patches.

RFC3262

RFC3262

RFC3262 defines a method to provide reliable provisional response messages in SIP dialog. Simply, it uses a new message which is PRACK to response “response” messages. We don’t think it is a good idea, and most traditional VoIP devices don’t following this RFC document.

But now in some interoperability scenarios with the PSTN, it is required to provide RFC3262 capability. Specially in some 4G-IMS networks, for example, in China telcom markets, mobile carriers’ networks will reject SIP calls if they don’t have this capablity.

So we upgrade MSS to V31 to support RFC3262. New MSS will add ‘100rel’ in outgoing calls to update peer sides or SIP phones that it has RFC3262 capability, they can decide to invoke it by themselves. For incoming calls, MSS will not invoke RFC3262 procedures automatically unless peer sides or SIP phones require that.

If you have problem to work MSS with your local ISP networks, please try the latest MSS and hope you can enjoy it.

Media gateway and V30

Media gateway and V30

V30 is released. The key feature of this version is “media gateway”.

In fact, previous version has media gateway functions too, but these functions were combined in the same core with call-control and service-control tasks. For small size or middle size business, it is no problem to do that. But for huge size business, for example, our cloud-mss system, it could effect performance if media gateway is combined with other tasks.

We decided to separate media gateway module into an independent application. In cloud system, media gateway can be run in separated device. Several call servers can share the same media gateway server.

Since local MSS and cloud MSS have the same core, we merge this function back to V30. The difference is that the media gateway is an independent inner task in local MSS application.

This feature doesn’t require any modification in configuration or GUI. By default, you should not notice this change. We believe new core can be more stabler and more flexible.  Hope you can enjoy it!

Operator services

Operator services

We added two traditional PBX services in new MSS version: operator break-in and operator overstep. Please refer to service document for more details.

Both local-MSS and cloud-MSS have been upgraded for these services. The latest MSS version is V29 now.

Next local MSS version will be V30 and we will focus on refining media gateway functions. If you have any suggestions or requirements, please update us and we are very glad to discuss with you.

V28 and Lua services

V28 and Lua services

V28 is released today! We have spent several months on this version. The key feature of this version is “Lua service engine”.

As you know, previous MSS has a service engine which is written in Python language. It serves very well, but still has some limitations. Now the engine is rewritten in Lua language.  Following items are some key points about why we make this decision.

(1) Lua is much simpler than Python. Python is full stack language,Lua is a embed script, it has less function but it is simple. We love Python but still find that Lua is suitable for MSS to provide service engine. We don’t need full functions, we only need the engine to packing MSS core functions and capabilities.

(2) The most important is stability. Python service engine uses one Python VM to serve all services. That means one unknown exception could block all services. With new Lua service engine, one Lua VM serves one service. That means one unknown exception can only block one service, other services can keep on working. That’s amazing, the whole system can step into higher level now!

(3) Faster! faster! faster! In fact, because of GIL, Python cannot provide high performance, so we have to limit the engine in service level. Lua doesn’t have such limitation, each Lua VM is tiny and independent, Now we can use it to be a service engine and will even use it to provide a basic call engine. The future is coming.

In V28, Python services are replaced with Lua services. You can find these Lua services in “lua/services” sub-directory. If you have modified Python services by yourself, you will have to update related Lua services.

Lua service engine is in background, you don’t need change any configuration by default.

No-answer timer in external line

No-answer timer in external line

In the external line “outgoing calls” configuration, we add an item “no-answer timer”. This item is used to limit the no-answer timer value when make outgoing calls. Please refer to attached figure.

No-answer timer value
No-answer timer vaule in outgoing calls of external line.

By default, its value is zero that means the line will use system default no-answer timer value. If it is set a value, the line will use it firstly.

For example, if it is set to be “15”, then the line will force to release the call in 15 seconds if peer side doesn’t answer the call.

miniSIPServer on Ubuntu 16.04

miniSIPServer on Ubuntu 16.04

The latest Ubuntu 16.04 was released yesterday.  Since it is a LTS version, we downloaded it as soon as possible and made some test in lab.

Some libraries have been upgraded or changed in this version, we need update MSS to fit these modifications. If you want to try miniSIPServer on Ubuntu 16.04, or you want to upgrade your previous Ubuntu to 16.04, you need install latest miniSIPServer V27 (build 20160422) .

Please refer to attached figure, we run the latest MSS on Ubuntu 16.04.

miniSIPServer on Ubuntu 16.04
miniSIPServer on Ubuntu 16.04
miniSIPServer updated and say goodbye to webRTC

miniSIPServer updated and say goodbye to webRTC

miniSIPServer V25 is updated to fix some bugs and refine system to be more stable. The most important change is that we cut ‘webRTC’ feature from this version and abover.

As we described in previous post, MSS webRTC feature can work with Chrome navigator. Chrome is upgraded to V48 and make some changes to webRTC and doesn’t consider compatibility with previous version. We think maybe webRTC is perfect for public network services, such as Google hangouts, but it is not suitable or flexible for small or middle size enterprise communication markets.

So we cut it from V25, and keep it in V24. If you are using webRTC feature, please keep your Chrome to V47 or lower versions.

IP address authorization

IP address authorization

This feature was merged to the latest V25 (build 20160126).

Some special SIP devices, for example embeded devices in automaticated system, don’t have full SIP capabilities, they can make or receive simple SIP calls without account and password authorization. They even cannot send REGISTER messages to MSS to update their own status.

Yep, we can configure them as “SIP trunk” in MSS. but it will lost several key features, such as ringing-group. In some scenarios, customers hope to ring all such devices together, so we have to treat them as “local users”.

To fit these requirements, we add “IP address authorization” in local user’s configuration. That means MSS will not require SIP phones/devices to register them firstly, and will not check their account and password if their messages are from specific or configured IP addresses. Please refer to below figure for more details.

IP address authorization
IP address authorization

By the way, we update openAPI document according to the latest V25. If you are interesting in it, please refer to openAPI document.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! 2016 is coming!

We upgrade the latest LTS version to V24 and the latest stable version to V25. Hope it can be great in the new year!

Enjoy your holiday!

And enjoy our products when you back to work! 🙂

Refined SMTP library

Refined SMTP library

In voice mail feature, MSS need use SMTP library to send emails. Since MSS can embed Python script functions, it is easy to use Python-smtplib to send email. That’s what we done and it works well, we are satisfied with it.

But smtplib is too old ( in python 2.7) to fit some modem SMTP servers’ requirements. It also has a shortage. It is synchronous. That means it can block thread when sending a email, then its performance is poor and cannot fit our requirements in cloud system.

Something is changed, we want MSS to be better, so we develop a new SMTP library to send voice mails. This SMTP library is asynchronous and can work perfectly with most SMTP servers. And, it is written in C/C++ language.

We upgraded MSS V23 and cloud-MSS to replace python-smtplib with this new SMTP library.

Hope you can enjoy latest versions.

By the way, since MSS V23 has been released for several months and we got very better result, we think it is time to release new LTS version which is V24  and new stable version which is V25 in the end of this year or in the beginning of next year.