Mobicents Media Server: January 2010

We are proud to announce the release of Mobicents Media Server (MMS) v2.0.0.BETA3

The major focus of this release has been making MMS

Video capable
RTSP Enabled
SS7 Support

Video

To make Video possible, MMS has its own parser to parse ISO Based Media files. Any request for playing ISO Based Media files is first parsed and then depending on the Tracks (audio/video or both) supported, the Player streams the individual tracks separately. Bellow diagram shows abstract of how MMS takes care of video internally.

RTSP

RTSP is a separate Controller module in MMS 2.0.0.BETA3. Now MMS can either be controlled using the MGCP or RTSP Requests. While both have different requirements and may not be needed in same MMS instance at same time. With modular structure of MMS its very easy to remove either of controller modules from MMS by deleting /deploy/mgcp-conf.xml or /deploy/rtsp-conf.xml depending on needs. By default RTSP starts at port 554. Linux users either have to start as root or change this port as in Linux, and other UNIX-like systems, you have to be root (have superuser privileges) in order to listen to TCP or UDP ports below 1024 (the well-known ports). The default media directory is /media and every RTSP request to play a media file searches for file in this directoey. By default it comes with sample_50kbit.3gp, sample_100kbit.mov and sample_100kbit.mp4 ISO based media files. As of now there are known issues with parsing for sample_100kbit.mov. Nevertheless you can stream the media to your favriote player by opening the url rtsp://:554/sample_100kbit.mp4. Add your own media files here and stream them on the fly - no need to restart the server.

The bellow diagram shows how components fit in RTSP.

SS7

This is one of the biggest achievement of MMS. With SS7 support the Mobicents truly becomes Telco solution provider ranging from legacy protocols like SS7 to next generation networks like SIP used extensively in IMS. The SS7 support in MMS is provided by using the SS7 cards available in market and hence for the first time MMS uses the external hardware. These SS7 cards must be Zaptel compatible (Digum / Sangoma cards). For SS7 support, the MMS only takes care of lower layers MTP2/MTP3 for signalling. MMS is also responsible for circuit media. The higher protocols like ISUP, SCCP etc is external to MMS. We are developing the higher layer (layer 4 and above of SS7) as individual stacks (for example ISUP Stack, SCCP stack etc). These higher layer stacks can be used by respective Resource Adaptor in Mobicents JAIN SLEE Server or can be consumed by Sip Servlets and hence make Sip Servlets SS7 capable! While the MTP2/MTP3 is ready in MMS 2.0.0.BETA3, considerable efforts are spent in developing higher layers stacks. Look at MMS SS7 Roadmap for further details. The public page also explains how Dialogic cards can be directly used with native Dialogic drivers taking care of lower SS7 layers.

Bellow diagram shows how components fit in MMS - SS7 Architecture