Open-source Apps for IMS based Service Development
by Hui Wang
This is the last month of my part-time job. Since last August, I’ve investigated a lot in IMS based service development. As a brief final report, here is a list of open-source apps that we’ve used. In the same time, I attach some personal opinions on their pros and cons. Above all, these tools especially the kind community behind them have been always of great help.
Client
UCT IMS Client http://uctimsclient.berlios.de/
- pros: working perfectly with openIMScore, source codes modifiable according to special needs.
- cons: known problems with VLC when playing videos, few support resources
Monster http://www.monster-the-client.org/
- pros: user-friendly graphic interface, working very well with openIMScore and sds4.2, xcap supported
- cons: source codes unavailable, limited features
IMS core
OpenIMSCore, http://www.openimscore.org/
- pros: widely used, both support teams and end users are very active. discussions in its mailing list are very impressive.
- cons: hard to install and configure, lots of dependencies such as dns and MySQL, resources-consuming on run time, not very debugging friendly
SIP server
Mobicents: http://www.mobicents.org/
- pros: well documented, lots of examples, very active support forum http://groups.google.com/group/mobicents-public?pli=1, direct contacts with its core developers in its google group
- cons: a little complex to integrate with OpenIMS core
Sailfin https://sailfin.dev.java.net/
- pros: based on well known glassfish app servers, most widely used, lots of documents and examples
- cons: support forum not very active
Test tool
SIPp http://sipp.sourceforge.net/doc/reference.html
- pros: very useful for working flow test, programmable, direct operations on detailed sip message
- cons: lots of manual works when writing test code, need for a very good understanding of sip syntax and working mechanism
Integrated studio
SDS 4.2 http://www.ericsson.com/developer/sds/
- pros: all-in-one solution for sip service development, ims core, iptv client and server, presence server, sip test tools all included
- cons: only available under window, few documents, not well supported
Broadly speaking, the success of an open-source application depends on how active its support team is because user’s development environment and skills could be different from one to another. Real-time reaction is an important point in their development.
As usual, Hope you find this list helpful and easy to understand. Any comments or remarks are welcomed.
Comments
Recently,my company want me to build a PBX server with OpenIMSCore for production testing.And now,I have installed the OpenIMSCore in Ubuntu10.04 LTS,and can be connected at local.But this is not all I need,I need to realize some functions such as “Call transfer”,”Call hold” and so on.I searching for many informations about this,but can not find any guiding articals,because I am a newbie in this field,and I never heard of them before. I hope you would like to do me a favor,give me some advice about how to realize these functions,thanks a lot!
Hi Norz, thanks for your message. Can you precise what you mean by saying Call transfer and Call hold ?
If this is a scenario like the call from Bob to Alice will be transfered to Lily. You may need to develop a sip servlet on Mobicents or Sailfin which can offer this kind of service.
Good luck.
Hi Hui Wang,Thanks for your advice.
You’re right,the “Call transfer” is like that. I have been searhing for the Mobicents and Sailfin.
And as you said in the artical “http://www.hui-wang.info/2009/09/openimscore-troubleshooting/”,I had downloaded the Ericsson SDS,but I find it may be difficult to me, and might useless to me.
^_^Thanks for your help.
What a tragedy! Google.com can not be visited in China…I have to choose Sailfin.
And the “Call hold” is like this,there is a call from Alice to Bob,then Alice apply for holding,and call Lily,and the moment,Bob will listen something like music,and then Alice release the call with Lily,and resume the call with Bob.
I agree with you. It’s a pity that you can’t get connected with google group of mobicents. But don’t be worried, there are also lots of examples for Sailfin.
More over, I recommand you having a look at SDS Ercisson 4.2. You will have less pain in DNS and database configuration.
Regards,
Er,do you means that the Ericsson SDS also can built a PBX or a similar thing without openimscore? I need a testing platform, but openIMSCore is under unix and SDS is under Windows…