KPhone

Infobox_Software
name = KPhone


developer = Team (See web-site)
latest_release_version = Kphone SI 1.1
latest_release_date = October, 4th 2007
operating_system = Linux
genre = SIP User Agent
license = GPL
website = [http://sourceforge.net/projects/kphone KPhone's home page]

KPhone is a SIP User Agent for Linux. It implements the functionallity of a VoIP Softphone but is not restricted to this. Licensed under the GNU General Public License, KPhone is free software. KPhone is written in C++ and uses Qt.

Application

KPhone establishes Sessions via the Internet and so enables communication between the endpoints. Audio is the "session type" used most frequently, but others are possible (see below). The main features:
* Multiple parallel sessions (in the case of audio, one may be active, the others are held).
* Own ring tones or "ring music"
* NAT-traversal and STUN support
* Supported sound systems: ALSA and OSS
* SRTP encryption for voice
*Presence information
* Call Hold
* Call transfer
* Call forwarding
* Auto Answer

The following media types for sessions are supported:
*audio
*video (with the external application vic)
*application (used to triggerExternal Applications)
*instant messaging

KPhone uses the media type application to launch communicating applications on both ends of the call. The user manual discusses the supported formats and how to install such an external application. A good example is KPhoneIM, a simple point-to-point IM application, other examples are the MICE Tools [ [http://www-mice.cs.ucl.ac.uk/multimedia/software/ MICE Tools] ] of the project MBONE such as vic and wbd (whiteboard).

KPhone itself supports STUN for NAT traversal. It may be used for the buildin audio solution and for KPhoneIM immediately, other external applications may need some adaption to make use of it. (See the user manual of KPhoneSI and of KphoneIM for more). The MICE Tools do not support symmetric signalling,so NAT-Traversal is not possible with these tools.

History

KPhone was originally developed by Billy Biggs (then student at the University of Waterloo). KPhone was presented to the public at the 2nd SIP bakeoff (1999) at pulver. [ [http://ss7.ca/kphone KPhone's first home] ]

Further KPhone development was done at Wirlab (Seinäjoki, Finland) from 2001 to 2005. Wirlab's first Kphone release was published March, 13th 2002.

Since autumn 2005 KPhone is located in the Sourceforge.

References

External links

* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/kphone KPhone's home page]
* [http://sourceforge.net/docman/?group_id=47742 A short introduction to KPhoneSI]