Re: [GnomeMeeting-list] Connection to servers

[Damien Sandras <dsandras seconix com>]

Le mar 09/12/2003 à 15:15, Malcolm Caldwell a écrit :
> > I fully agree that ILS is bad, and I already have thought replacing it a
> > lot of time, but I see some problems with the Gatekeeper approach :
> > 1) Basing the list of users on the html output of opengk is not better
> > than ILS because we replace one broken standard by something
> > non-standard and specific to one type of gatekeeper and to gnomemeeting
> 
> In a half sort of way anyway.  (The half being that all h323 clients can
> register to a gatekeeper, and any pc based client can view the webpage).
> 
> I agree it is still a hack.
> 

indeed

> > 2) GnomeMeeting currently is based on H.323, but SIP is planned in the
> > future. Gatekeepers are H.323-only while ILS is neutral and could have
> > all types of users registered and callable (H.323 only, SIP only, H.323
> > and SIP)
> 
> I did not realise that ILS is used with SIP.
> 

s/is used/can be used

> > If we want to replace ILS, the best imho is to migrate to pure LDAP for
> > the online directory. 
> 
> If we define the problem we can perhaps get a better idea
> This 'directory' should
>      1. Allow registrations
>      2. Allow lookups for callto or h323://
>      3. Allow searching for a user named fred etc.
>      4. Let a user know if someone is online etc
>      5. Work with sip and h323
> 
> For h323 I believe 1, 2 & 4 are best done with a gatekeeper.
> Ldap is probably a good protocol for 3.
> I don't know sip that well but I believe a sip proxy or registrar will
> also allow for 1, 2 & 4.
> 

Indeed

> I think that a good approach is an ldap backend into a h323 gatekeeper
> or sip proxy.  For h323 we have opengk.  For sip I think ser from
> http://www.iptel.org/ should be able to be made work.
> 

That would mean that :
- users registering through the gatekeeper would only be reachable by
people who registered through the gatekeeper
- users registering through the SIP proxy would only be reachable by
people who registered through the SIP proxy
OR 
- that we have a common backend and that people registering to the SIP
proxy would be reachable through the gatekeeper even if they don't use
H.323 (!)

>From a protocol point of view, I don't see how it could work.

> As well as the ldap backend there can be an ils backend, a http backend
> etc.  This is all fairly easy to code and would allow maximum
> compatibility:  Any client can be made to work with any other client -
> if it does ils then let it do ils lookups.  If it does ldap lookups let
> it do ldap lookups.  If it does not do either, let the user use the
> web.  Let any user call any user who is registered with the gatekeeper
> via simply calling them by name or e.164 number.
> 
> Limitations
>      1. You can't specify as many things about yourself via h323
>         registrations.  (eg location, willingness to speak etc)
>      2. Limited to using specific gatekeepers or sip proxies
> 
> But how much of a limitiation is 2?  At the moment, for a netmeeting
> user to call a gnomemeeting user they must both be using
> ils.secondix.org OR the gnomemeeting must be hacked.
> 
> (1 could be hacked upon in a few ways)
> 
> Also, all the open gk could be given an ldap backend.  Also, other
> commercial gatekeepers can worked into this using a wrapper.
> 

"could be given". That's the main problem. I'm hacking on gnomemeeting,
I don't have much time to code on SIP proxies and Gatekeepers to make
them compatible with GnomeMeeting.

> Even if, for compatibility, it is decided that ils support is needed in
> gnomemeeting, I still believe the preferred method of doing this stuff
> should be as I have outlined.

I think the best method would be to use an LDAP server because it is
neutral to the protocol. Moreover, nothing prevents you to register to
an LDAP server and then also register to one gatekeeper, and then
register to another SIP proxy.

Your previous method doesn't permit it.
-- 
 _      Damien Sandras
(o-     
//\     It-Optics s.a.
v_/_    GnomeMeeting: http://www.gnomemeeting.org/
        FOSDEM 2004:  http://www.fosdem.org
        H.323 phone:  callto:ils.seconix.com/dsandras seconix com