XMPP Jingle - The Next Generation VoIP

ouvid.us - Twilio Experiment

2011-08-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

Last Monday I had an idea for an useful web based service that could be built using Twilio. A purely web based call center service, with queue management, alerts, easy to install on a website.
On my spare time at night this week, I manage to build an early version of the product hacking some PHP and jQuery. It turns out to be very productive and straight forward. (I hit some bumps, but Twilio Support and Documentation was very helpful)

ouvid.us is already live and although limited amount of features, it is fully functional!
You can create an account for free, create queues, add other users to attend to your queues, add a Call link to your website/blog etc...

The problem this project solves is: Small and Medium business would have high costs on maintaining a Call Center system. ouvid.us solves the problem, by enabling a pure web based Call Center Service.
Please try it out and let me know what do you think.

Twilio Evaluation:

Pros:

I'm a fan of simplicity, and Twilio got it right
Easy to setup, debug and release
Great Documentation and Examples
Good Support

Cons:

Lack of support for SIP, XMPP and Jingle
Sometimes the FlashPlugin Crashes and needs to be killed manually
No Paypal support

Internet 10 Commandments

2011-07-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

The thing is, on Internet...

you don't choose your users. The users chooses you.
you can't sell fake for long. The Collective intelligence prevents that.
the success of the company is proportional to the talent of the people that works on it.
your product needs to be good, regardless if it is free. Actually, it needs to be good specially if it is free. As more people will talk about it.
what you call user base is nothing but a bucket of thin air. Email address doesn't mean anything. You have active users or you are fading away.
companies must know that good ideas and feedbacks can and will came from all levels of the company. You ignore it, you miss the point.
user expectation is an everyday task. You miss it, they migrate. Yes, your competitor is only one click away.
to succeed you need to know how to "count cards". There is no meaning-less statistics.
developers are artists. They need inspiration, motivation and freedom.
this post might be totally WRONG! Or not...

Skype Client XMPP Support for Facebook

2011-06-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

Skype released a beta version for Windows with support for Facebook Chat. They are doing it through XMPP directly from Skype BETA Client.

Packet Trace with the proof that Skype Client now connects to Facebook using XMPP.

Once again XMPP moves forward in becoming the universal bus for 'realtime' communications.
Companies that are not understanding the importance of being 'realtime' will soon realize that their time is gone.

Hopefully in the future we also have support for other open alternatives for Audio/Video Communications on Skype like Jingle and Jingle Nodes. Like Google did adopting the Standard Jingle.

Standard Jingle on Google

2011-06-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

After many year after its creation and early adoption, Google finally announced the switch from their own Jingle variant to the Standard Jingle Version created, approved and maintained by XMPP Foundation.
This comes in the right moment after the previously GIPS Media Company now owned by Google itself, announced the OpenSource WebRTC Project. Which intends to provide multimedia and realtime communication capabilities to Browser like Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc...

Google intend to bring rich communication also to their other browser products like Orkut, iGoogle and even adSense with Ads that could place direct calls to the announcers.

This will enabled direct compatibility to the already know Jingle Clients Jitsi, OneTeam, Pidgin and others. The amplifier of this announcement is that soon we may be seeing native Jingle Support on Android OS, which will make a great and powerful opposition to Skype Mobile Market.

Nimbuzz was the very first Mobile Company to runs their entirely Voice Services over Jingle since 2007. They would have immediate benefit if they were allowing XMPP Federation, which currently is blocked. For now they support GTalk Calls but requires the user to have a Google account registered (which is not a big problem, but not as handy as it could be).

Hopefully Jingle Nodes will also be adopted soon as the default mechanism for Relay Sharing Discovering for Jingle. Stay tuned for more good news.

XMPP Server SRV Record Tutorial

2011-05-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

With the new Openfire Version (3.7.0) released in March. I noticed a change in the S2S (federation) integration and would like to share the tips to help the setup to be done by other XMPP System Admins.

To prevent connection issue among the Servers it is required the registration of the SRV records according to the example:

In the case of the domain minhaempresa.com.br and the jabber domain to be xmpp.minhaempresa.com.br the following records are required:

_jabber._tcp.xmpp.minhaempresa.com.br
_jabber._tcp.minhaempresa.com.br
_xmpp-server._tcp.xmpp.minhaempresa.com.br
_xmpp-server._tcp.minhaempresa.com.br

All the registration must point to your jabber domain, as noticed below:

marcelo@hellboy:~$ dig srv _xmpp-server._tcp.minhaempresa.com.br

; <<>> DiG 9.7.3 <<>> srv _xmpp-server._tcp.minhaempresa.com.br
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 11368
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;_xmpp-server._tcp.minhaempresa.com.br. IN SRV

;; ANSWER SECTION:
_xmpp-server._tcp.minhaempresa.com.br. 86297 IN SRV 0 1 5269 xmpp.minhaempresa.com.br.

;; Query time: 16 msec
;; SERVER: 200.175.5.139#53(200.175.5.139)
;; WHEN: Sun May 15 00:24:00 2011
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 89

I've have faced this situation when migrating a customer server that was upgraded a from a previous version of Openfire. If you don't register the domain fixing SRV record, S2S functionallity will not work.

* This is an authorized translation from the Blog Mundo OpenSource written by Marcelo Terres. Especial thanks for the great and simple guide for setting up DNS SRV records required for an XMPP server.

Open Discussion Day - 19th May

2011-05-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

On May 19^th is celebrated Open Discussion Day, a promotion day dedicated for open communication systems and protocols.
Communication is a natural necessity and should be open and available for everyone.
If you care about your own freedom of choice on how you IM and Call your friends, like you currently have with your email, from which you can send and receive emails from every server. Consider using an XMPP solution for such.

XMPP is free to use, and they don't restrict you to one provider or one client or even server.

Related Posts:

XBox Skype 3D Video Call Support

2011-05-12T00:03:00.000-07:00

Right after Skype acquisition by Microsoft, I already have sources talking about Skype native support on XBox 360. That will be great as it is quite handy, well positioned camera in millions of living rooms around the world.
Besides the comfort of having Video Calls sitting in your couch, you also need to expand the possibilities of the experience, as XBox Kinect Camera has much more than just lens. It is equipped with:

Multi-Array Mic
Dynamic Motorized Tilt
3D Depth Sensors

Put it all together and the result will be an awesome:

Video Call with 3D support

If Microsoft is smart enough to foresee all those possibilities, they have a great and vast ground to explore with Skype.

Skype acquired by Microsoft

2011-05-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

Mourning post about Skype future...
Although it have the policy to be closed and stuff. It was nice to have it at least providing the platform choice for their users. I hope that at least in that aspect Microsoft doesn't come to screw up.

In other aspects it may help the World to get rid of MSN Live Network, which has being the biggest technical / protocol failure all time for Instant Messaging and Communications. Including yearly Protocol Hacks and Updates, with fallback servers and periodical outage.
It would be a superb evolution for Microsoft to get rid of the technical garbage pile of MSN Live Network and applications, replacing it by Skype.

Phone Numbers and Telecoms will be affected and we are getting closer and closer to a phone number extinction. This acquisition not only confirms it, but also will speed it up. In that sense it is a positive move.

If you want to see yourself free of those monopoly battles use:

Jitsi.org - Open Source Fully Featured Jingle and SIP Video Client

Used in combination with fastvoip.com you get a very cheap (sometimes free) solution for calling international phone numbers

OneTeam.im - Open Source Jingle Client with Native Jingle Nodes Support

Android Video Call over Jingle

2011-04-29T00:31:00.000-07:00

Finally! Google released what they already had. Video Call on Android!
As we know Google Talk already offers Video Calls even on gmail web client, now they extended the support also for Android 2.3.4.
The technology behind it, is the same behind gmail Video Call, XMPP and Jingle.

As GTalk also support XMPP Federation, Jingle is one step ahead towards World domination!

ISP and Operators Take Another Hit on VoIP Blocking

2011-04-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

"In view of those characteristics, Advocate General Cruz Villalón considers that the installation of that filtering and blocking system is a restriction on the right to respect for the privacy of communications and the right to protection of personal data, both of which are rights protected under the Charter of Fundamental Rights. By the same token, the deployment of such a system would restrict freedom of information, which is also protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights."

The text above was extracted from the public document: http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2011-04/cp110037en.pdf

This also mean that VoIP filtering applied by Vodafone and other operators in Europe, is illegal.

The more stupid Operators blocks VoIP more the market drives to an IM based communication, which they cannot block. They are the responsible for sinking their own business due their greed and incapacity of adapting to a new communication era. Innovate or fade.

Operators that blocks, filter or censor rich communication like VoIP and Streaming, they have a much shorter lifespan than you might think.

Promissing Alternative for XMPP API

2011-03-09T00:15:00.000-08:00

Recently I got a comment in the blog about hXMPP which is an alternative for multi-platform code.
I spend some time checking their Jingle Code and also how easy is to use the examples. The result is that the developer should be proud. It is a very nice accomplished work.

Specially in Browsers with WebSocket support, that may be the way to go. For now thay have good BOSH Support.

Check the project and examples at: http://hxmpp.disktree.net/

Give it a try!

2011 OpenSource Stuff

2011-03-02T14:06:00.000-08:00

A lot of things going on at the same time, and also a lot of work to be done. So brief post with updates I consider important for OpenSource, XMPP and VoIP.

Some announcements worth mentioning:

Jingle Nodes in Campus Party Brazil

2011-01-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

Jingle Nodes Project will be presented in Campus Party Brasil in a very special way. Besides the keynote, there will be also 3 Educational workshops where the protocol and current solutions will be discussed in practice:

Installing an OpenSource IM Server with support for Audio and Video.
How to customize and adapt a VoIP Client to suit your personal or company needs.
How to build your own VoIP Client using OpenSource APIs.

When in Campus Party Brazil make sure you check out the talk about Jingle Nodes and how you can get independence in your daily communication, therefore protected against "digital dictatorship" blocks like the Skype Block in China and Nimbuzz Block in Syria.

Skype Down, the Closed P2P Issue

2010-12-22T13:48:00.000-08:00

You may be wondering why Skype is Down if it is a P2P network. That is not hard to answer, it is a closed P2P Network which the Fallback Servers and Main Nodes are entirely dependent on Skype itself. So if something goes wrong with them, there is no real fallback like you would have in a distributed regular P2P network like BitTorrent, UseNet or Jingle Nodes.
The main issue is that only Users from within Skype can share the Routes, but not users on different Networks and Domains like you can do with Jingle Nodes.
Skype official response was that they were creating "mega-super-nodes"? I don't know what does that mean, but I'm sure it still have same single point of failure of the current system. Until Skype don't come up with a Federated System, where providers, services and users can share Routes, they will always suffer from outages. And of course the most affected are the users and business that depends directly on them. Nearly 20 Million Users are suffering from the outage.

Open Standard Free alternatives that can provide reliability and superior quality:

Clients with Jingle Nodes Support:
* Nimbuzz (Mobile and Desktop)
* SIP Communicator (Jitsi) (Desktop)
* OneTeam (Desktop)

Services with Jingle Nodes Support:
* Nimbuzz (Free)
* Talkr.im (Free)

Don't wait for Skype to come up with "hyper-ultra-mega-super-nodes" to migrate to reliable software.

Jingle Nodes Updates

2010-11-14T09:09:00.000-08:00

Jingle Nodes will complete 9 months of official Specification published. As suggested by @luissoeiro, I will summit what happened so far.

Erlang Relay based on exmpp fully compatible with ejabberd and Tigase

jn_erl_0.1.0.tar.gz

Openfire Plugin, it is a simple and plug and play Plugin for Openfire

jingleNodes.jar

OneTeam client from process-one with full support for Jingle Nodes

http://oneteam.im/

Talkr.im a public XMPP Server from process-one with full support for Jingle Nodes

http://talkr.im/

Professional Logo contributed by Fernando Lins

Jingle Nodes Selo.png

Jingle Nodes Presented in 3 key events and confirmed other

SIP Communicator announced Jingle Nodes Support is being added to main Version

http://sip-communicator.org/

Special thanks to NLNet that sponsored contributions and ignited the project

http://www.nlnet.nl/

How to contribute to Jingle Nodes:

Writing Code and Discuss the Specification - All fixes, patches and suggestions are always welcome (Jingle Nodes Group)
Talk about the project - Talk about Jingle Nodes simplicity and how it's easier than other alternatives
Propaganda - Add a Jingle Nodes Image to your Blog or Website (Jingle Nodes Selo.png)
Write a Tutorial - Describe how you are making use of Jingle Nodes
Testing and giving feedback - Your opinion matters!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2010-10-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

Skype have closed one more third-party this week. Nimbuzz announced that, like Fring, they were forced by Skype to stop supporting it in their Clients.
It is even more evident now, that the good signs about Skype Openness we saw beginning last year are completely flushed now, probably due their eagerness of pursuing an IPO and new management.
Although, what they did not count is the bad impact in their own user base and public image effects of such blocks. It proves once more that companies should not rely on Skype as something solid to build product features. Not only that, according to Skype, third-party MUST not build product features based on their services.
Skype also claim they have an API. Really? Not exactly, they have a Client SDK/API. And why it matters, is that if a client or device want to make use of it, they need to have exclusive granted privileges for a black box piece of software to be embedded and shipped within your product. Yes, if you want to support Skype, you need to build your product on top of that, and also make sure the product is exclusively Skype friendly. If that wasn't enough they also say that they do not guarantee for how long the piece of software will be valid.
Skype wants to do what AOL did, trying to force their users to install their Software and only use their own Browser/Client to access Internet.
The Bad.

SIP is widely adopted worldwide specially among technical people, geeks and behind the curtains, even used as base landlines telephony like in Netherlands.

The interoperability is something achievable theoretically, meaning that several different SIP Clients can talk to each other
SIP release the Telecom from the "Dark Ages" to the "Modern Times", showing that Telephony could be done using IP and good software
Vast majority of Communication equipments and platforms have support for it.
It enabled the possibility to create huge portfolios of Value aggregated Services based on Legacy Telecom Centrals
It is responsible for the cheap VoIP as we know it
Most terminations that Skype buys, are provided via SIP
Estimated numbers of SIP Providers worldwide is bigger than 50.000
SIP Providers can sell termination minutes not only to end users, but also to other Providers

Although there are some not pretty facts about SIP:

SIP Protocol is not as practical and simple as it should be by 2010
SIP is not extensible, the current attempt of extending it (3GPP) is failing badly, taking more than 10 years of pure specifications, without any success to reach mass market. The current result is a HUGE stack of workarounds badly described and full of contradictions
SIP Calling is great and almost straight-forward, but Messaging, Presence, Contacts and Extended Services are way too complex for current Market Status
SIP is always backed by big corporations that tries to mystify it, trying as much as possible to postpone the life-cycle of the protocol.
The current Market needs and demands extra features than only Calling. There is no such thing as a mass market SIP based service with extensive features like: Presence, Contacts, Whiteboard, Video, File Sharing etc.
Apple Facetime is a frustrated attempt to use SIP for extended Video Call service ( Why frustrated? A service that works based on "trial-error" and does not have interoperability support in 2010, is a failure by default ). Apple end up implementing a half-SIP, half-XMPP, half-STUN solution. Which is completely closed for interoperability. It claims to implement it ALL, and supports NONE.
The complexity of the protocol makes it hard and restricted to highly specialized developers, which have their jobs lifetime guaranteed, but decreases the potential mass adoption of the protocol. The Ugly.

Jingle in the other hand is based on an extensive protocol XMPP, which has incredibly easy to read and implement specifications. Besides having default support for Contact List, Presence, Messaging, Gateways and all sorts of extensions: http://xmpp.org/extensions/
Google Talk, Facebook, Nimbuzz and thousands of companies worldwide have their Messaging and Presence services based on XMPP.
Jingle is heavily discussed in this blog, so no need to go in depth:

It is extensible, huge evolution Potential
It is simple, easy to implement
It is portable for Mobile Devices
It is probably what soon Facebook will use for their Calling Services
Has standard support for distributed Nodes: Jingle Nodes

The Good.

Facetime and Video Call Matrix

2010-10-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

Today Apple released Facetime for Mac OS, making it possible to have easy and H264 quality Video Calls between IPhones, IPods and Mac Desktops/Laptops.
besides the lack of Device Capability Discovery, meaning that you need to know who has support for it based on Trial and Error. Hard to believe for a 2010 Technology.
The moment also calls for attention of the extremely fragmented market of Video Call Clients Interoperability.

Current Status, October 2010:

Oct 2010

Prediction, January 2011:


Jan 2011

All the Buzz aside, Facetime still pretty limited, due:

Strange Username/Device setup
Confusion about device/contact support
Lack of simple start/stop Video buttons
3G support
Interoperability

I still hope a XMPP Jingle Based Messiah to come and solve the fragmentation and interoperability matters.

Jingle and Gaming

2010-10-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

I've being discussing too much about VoIP on Jingle and we are almost forgetting that Jingle is also very suitable for Realtime Games, that requires very low Latency.
Having Multi-Player games using Jingle doesn't mean all the commands, events and actions will be sent in XMPP Format through IQs.
Jingle can also be used to negotiate direct TCP or UDP ByteStreams which is the most suited for low latency Games like Shooting Games for instance:

So if you are looking forward to build Multiplayer Games, you may consider ejabberd or Openfire a ready to use platform for such.
This is an insight post, so please fell free to send question and ideas as comments.

Gravity

2010-09-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

Imagine that in the beginning was only a small ball with hyper mass and for some reason this mass expanded extremely fast, but so fast that it cause the three-dimensional space to echo infinitely creating the dimensional effect we call "time". Time is the dimension that contains all infinity spaces.
Gravity is the "inertia" of the timeline that we are situated. Basically it tries to pull back the matter to the earliest state as possible in a state-less way.
From a Macro Cosmo perspective there was only one incident and everything currently tries to converge back to the previous state, which is all the mass in a single point of space and time.
Gravity like most of the other effects we see in regular physics, does not keep state of each previous state, except for the most relevant one.
For instance no matter how many rocks diverged the flow of the water in a river, from a higher perspective, the river will always follow its course like no rock, had changed the movement and the water form at previous points of the river course.
Gravity keeps the original shape, course and intensity as most as possible. Mitigating the essence of this energy. Which is one of the most basic ones in the universe.
The energy can be defined and resolved as a recursive movement of energy always trying to go back together to the original state, usually perceived by the nearest and easiest bigger mass around.

Meaning that to stop gravity you will need to stop time as we know it.

Jingle Nodes Proxy and EU Surveillance

2010-09-11T01:37:00.000-07:00

"The German Pirate Party has disclosed some secret documents on how the EU is planning to monitor citizens. The so called INDECT Documents describe how a seamless surveillance could (or should) be implemented across Europe. The use of CCTV cameras, the internet (social networks) and even the use of UAVs are mentioned as data sources. Two of the nine documents can be downloaded from the German Pirate Party's website (PDFs in English)."

When I read this news on Slashdot.org, as an enthusiast of civil freedom, I immediately downloaded both documents available in the Link. But what I found was more interesting for me than the news itself. In the "The communications framework architecture" section, the document contains the following diagram:

They not only use XMPP and Jingle, but also Jingle based RTP Server/Proxy which is the essence of Jingle Nodes Specification. Specially if we refer to the very beginning back on the Jingle RTP Proxy in Openfire (2006):

2006 - Diagram for Openfire RTP Proxy

It is very cool to see how new technology is overwhelmed for a while, before the real life adoption starts.

In regard of the EU Surveillance, I hope they don't manage to use it for Surveillance but to provide Free and Open Communication alternative for Citizens. Because that is actually what the Architecture in the document and Jingle Nodes are about.

European population cannot accept what Egypt did and now India is trying to do with all Internet Communications system, install a dictatorial, monitored and censored Internet communication. This don't only harm Citizens Freedom but also basic rights of privacy.

For those people who believes these are anti-terrorist measures, stop acting like an ignorant blind animal, and remember that is way easier and anonymous for a terrorist to buy a pre-paid SIM card place one single call and then throw it away, to actually use Internet Communications. The main interest is "Command-and-Control" the ability to control Prices and Profits through a basic human necessity: Communication.

STOP

~~Surveillance~~

and

START

Open Communication!

Facebook VoIP Architecture and the Death of Phone Numbers

2010-09-04T01:43:00.000-07:00

As we know Facebook supports XMPP for Chat, meaning you can use your preferred XMPP Client to use Facebook for Chat. But do you really think Facebook rolled out XMPP support only for Chat?
If so, you are indeed wrong.
Facebook wants to expend their communication profile. Like others like Google, MSN, Yahoo, Skype, etc, they also want realtime interaction meaning Voice and Video communications.

Reasons:

Facebook users have more Facebook Friends than contacts in their phonebook.
People change phone numbers and your are not automatically updated.
Phone Numbers belongs to Operators/Countries, your Facebook account is much more personal.
You can control who can call you. On regular phone you are often victim of unwanted calls.
Phone Calls and SMS are more expensive them IM and VoIP in most cases.
Facebook average number of Contacts per user is way bigger than Skype.
Skype is too limited and close to create the same loyalty that Facebook always had.
If they also open this for XMPP Federation, it would indeed speed up the death of "phone numbers" as we know.

Technology:

As Facebook already have support for XMPP Chat, certainly they will use XMPP Jingle.
For Media Relay and Distribution Points? For sure Jingle Nodes will be the simplest, fastest and most reliable way to delivery Multimedia for their gigantic number of users at once.
How would it look like for browser users? They will use new advanced browser features to have Jingle Clients running on it. Like GMail already have for a long while.
They already have the PERFECT routing and presence in place, XMPP for Chat, same exact route can be used for Jingle if Facebook enable support for IQ routing in their XMPP network.

Overall Picture:

This post is a proposition of how Facebook will do their Voice/Video support in near future. The use of Jingle and Jingle Nodes is not confirmed at all. But sure will be an extremely bad idea of Facebook to do not do it like described above! I challenge them to do it better and more open than this.

Yet about Google Call

2010-08-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

Due the amount of comments and emails received, I will reply to them in a post.

How does the Authentication works?

That is one key reason for using their established XMPP channel for placing the calls. The user is already authenticated in GMail and Google Talk. So the request is sent through the authenticated XMPP network to their XMPP Component responsible to offer SIP Gateway. From that moment one the component will convert the Jingle Signaling from the Google Talk to SIP and use your Google credentials to authenticate in their SIP Services.

Which Codec is being used?

G711 is the only one that I could trace, although the Plug-In indeed support iLBC and others. The reason behind it, is that G711 is a supported codec in most all PSTN, Media Gateway or other interconnection with Legacy Telecom. Alternatives would be transcode, which is out of the question due CPU load, drop of quality etc... Or use proprietary G729 which requires the payment of extremely high royalties per client/channel.

Will they succeed in making money?

Google "Cows" may produce some "milk", but I doubt Google consider that as an important income resource. The feature is much more related with PR and positioning about THE REALTIME company, than anything else. Having most of what Skype does in their closed client, in a browser and using open technologies is a direct confront to Skype's model. IMHO, Phone Numbers are dead, and will be ripped out of the market in less than 5 years from now.

Are the API for Audio/Video Streaming available for third-party usage?

That I could not figure out. Tried document or formal info from Google without success. May someone could assist us on that matter with some Javascript reverse engineering, or a Google guy, that wanna share that with us. Please let us know :)

Is there any client supporting it already?

No, it is not yet available in any client that I'm aware. But I bet that as soon Google appears with a formal specification and documentation, that will happen very very fast.

Thanks for all the questions, I hope I have answered most of it.

Google Call over Jingle with a SIP Gateway on their XMPP Server

2010-08-27T00:54:00.000-07:00

I just confirmed in my Wireshark that Google Call on Gmail uses exactly what I recommended in a previous post back in 2009 when they acquired Gizmo5. And YES, it's Jingle!
Their wise choice of having a portable and extensive protocol(XMPP) as the bus and having specialized technologies like SIP, will grant them a flexibility never seen before on platform and device portability.
Their master plan is to be able to delivery mass market a cheap and alternative method for calling the old fashioned telephone numbers. And sure they have the right platform and tools in their hands:

Android

Almost all Android phones have with GTalk application pre-installed, which already runs a nice XMPP Client, besides other great alternatives like Nimbuzz.

Now imagine what Google can bring to the market without much effort due their choice of using Jingle extension of XMPP for their service? Google Call support on Android phones. That is the key and reason behind this service.

Overview Diagram:

Google Call on GMail

2010-08-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

Google Call, as I mentioned before in a previous post, was added as a Calling feature direct to the browser.
I hope this take down Skype monopoly built on top of a closed and proprietary fuzzyware.

Google now has the most powerful position on VoIP world and soon will take down Skype eagerness for a proprietary/closed network.

Google's solution is built on top of a plugin, which is embedded on new Chrome and also easy to install on other browsers. They are using Standard XMPP and Jingle at Client Level with SIP in the backend, Streaming RTP with Standard Codecs directly from the browser. ( NO CRAP FLASH TRANSCODE USED! )

Google Call offer several advantages:

Browser Based
Open, so they can make use of third-party clients for it ( Do you need more reasons??? )

VoIP everywhere, browser or in your favorite Client. Solid Model.

Hope Nimbuzz adds support for it soon!

You can try it here: http://www.google.com/chat/voice/

As you asked how it works:
Google is making use of recent acquired GIPS Company Technology to add native RTP streaming directly to the browser.
For PSTN Termination, Google is using Gizmo5, together with previous Google Voice partners.
I promise to post deeper technical information like protocol details and Codec later on.

Jingle Nodes at FISL 11

2010-07-20T15:49:00.000-07:00

New Jingle Nodes Specifications will be presented at FISL 11. Besides the regular updates about the specifications, it will also be discussed Jingle Nodes adoption plan and current implementations.

FISL takes place in Porto Alegre and it is the biggest OpenSource and OpenStandards event of Latin America.

Other XMPP topics like Openfire and ejabberd deployments (presented by the current Openfire maintainer Guus der Kinderen), and also clients like OneTeam/SIP Communicator Jingle Nodes Demo etc.

Especial Thanks to:

NLnet Foundation who sponsored the development of the prototype APIs for Server and Client. And the whole campaign of the specification publish.
Fernando Lins for the awesome and professional new Jingle Nodes Logo.