TringMe Conversations (Phweet, Aircell & TringMe Traffic Patterns)

Since the launch of Aircell’s inflight WiFi service, one thing that’s getting discussed most is the ability to do VoIP when flying in the clouds (GigaOM, SkypeJournal, Andy, etc). Aircell had stated that it will not allow VoIP and that was good enough a reason for folks to see one could get around it. As Andy and others have noted, they were able to use Phweet to make a call. Phweet is a mashup that’s built on TringMe’s flash technology and it was TringMe’s widget that got past the Aircell’s in-flight service . 

Same discussion was carried out earlier today during a Alec’s squawkbox. Dan York wrote a lengthy post analyzing TringMe’s traffic pattern.  While all VoIP gurus have already provided a good information on traffic patterns of TringMe,  here is the insight directly from TringMe designers for the benefit of  the community:

TringMe uses TCP and it was a conscious decision. We developed a sophisticated congestion control and packet handling algorithms which allowed us to achieve the advantage of UDP over a reliable TCP connection at good extent. As Dan and others would have noticed, we send traffic in varying small and larger blocks depending on network conditions which is way different from a typical VoIP traffic patterns.  This kind of pattern was not meant to break any VoIP blockages,  however the goal was to get the best quality even on slower or congested links & we were able to meet the design goal successfully.

While we understand that TCP has its own overheads, a right algorithm can get the most juice out of it (sliding window is an example). We cater to Worldwide users calling from different networks and speed, using different technology (PPP, DSL, satellite etc), different MTU etc. TCP is better suited for such varied condition than UDP despite of its overhead. On today’s faster links - overhead can be ignored easily. On slower links, TCP stands out due to reliability and less retransmission and hence relatively better clarity.

As Andy Abrahamson pointed out in Alec’s Squawkbox call, TringMe’s quality was even better than Vonage which further validates our decision and algorithms. As you may already know, we are not alone in using TCP as there are companies like Yahoo which uses VoIP over TCP.

There are other reasons for using TCP like security (TLS) but we will share more details on it in future once we have released new updates which leverage those capabilities.

NAT is another reason where TCP has edge. As mentioned, this was a design goal of TringMe and our users or developers do not have to worry about NAT traversal or firewall when using TringMe Flash Client or API. TringMe’s design takes care of it beautifully. TringMe is NAT free.

In passing, please note that TringMe supports SIP and can interact with IAX2. As a matter of fact, we interconnect to various protocol including SIP, IAX2, Jingle, Skype (in lab) etc.

What TringMe offers to developers?

Phweet is a brilliant example of how a disruptive application was created using TringMe. Given TringMe’s platform capabilities, various innovative apps, mashups can be built. Whether you want to build a Web 2.0 application or a mashup that integrates voice or telephony from a PC or a phone, online or offline, TringMe can support all of that and more.

Whether you are a VoIP expert and need a specific codec or all you care about is a high quality voice, TringMe supports it all. Whether you have a billing backend or you want to not deal with it, TringMe can be used in either modes.

TringMe brings Voice 2.0 to you - All that matters now is the way you can use it.

TringMe’s MobileVoIP API - Build your own MobileVoIP solution

Are you a VoIP provider or a VoIP/SIP Service Provider who wants to offer MobileVoIP solution to the customers but do not have sufficient technology or investment to guarantee a ROI?

Now that we have released our MobileVoIP solution publicly, we wanted to share how a VoIP provider or a VoIP/SIP Service Provider - basically the key players across the spectrum - can benefit from it using our API.

TringMe has always been a big proponent of the next generation of voice communication - being able to initiate and terminate calls from one suitable device to another, be it be on the Web, PSTN or Mobile. We really see that there is a lot of opportunity and innovation that can happen in this area and we want to actively contribute to it.

VoIP providers, you can quickly deploy a completely customized MobileVoIP solution using our API including creating and managing users, billing, configuring your VoIP backend and even the look and feel (branding) of the solution. There are several benefits of doing so:

VoIP/SIP Service Providers can use TringMe APIs (available at http://tringme.com/developer.php with sample source code) to configure it in such a way that TringMe’s MobileVoIP solution can route calls via their infrastructure. In other words, TringMe’s MobileVoIP application becomes “their own MobileVoIP solution” which can route calls through the VoIP/SIP Service Provider with just a few lines of code or changes to configuration. As you can see, this opens up the VoIP/SIP Service Provider’s service to all the users of TringMe including via TringMe’s MobileVoIP solution!! So, go ahead and deploy “your own MobileVoIP” solution and let us know if you need any help or extra functionality. We continue to add new features and your inputs will certainly help us.

We really believe that technology needs to enable creative solutions and hope that this will spur the same in the MobileVoIP area. We look forward to hearing from you to see how we can make our solutions even better or easier for you to integrate and deploy.