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Better Networking with SCTP
5-0 writes to tell us that IBM DeveloperWorks has an interesting look at the key features of SCTP in the Linux 2.6 kernel and the ability to deliver multi-streaming. "SCTP is a reliable, general-purpose transport layer protocol for use on IP networks. While the protocol was originally designed for telephony signaling, SCTP provided an added bonus -- it solved some of the limitations of TCP while borrowing beneficial features of UDP. SCTP provides features for high availability, increased reliability, and improved security for socket initiation."
Nope. I worked on SCTP implementation in year 2000.... Nortel had it in 1999.
New as in it is just making it into some kernels. And it most of us have never seen an application use it. And it may be years before we do. However, as stated it exists in a niche telco market.
Nortel (used to work there) and the industry still has the "central office" mentality. Nortel had one thing right, VoIP is the future. What the telco business as a whole has wrong is how this will be done.
In the future there will no need for a central office, all calls will NOT route through central servers and thus negate a heavy need for sctp altogether! sctp is like a T1-T2-Txxx to sockets, allowing n channels of calls through one IP connection. If VoIP (not strictly defined) goes point to point direct there is no need for a central office. End user devices only need 1 to 4 channels. (Audio/Video/Control/MP3 Movies).
What will happen is someone like Linksys (or a Chinese company) will get enough momentum to produce a $99 device you hook to your internet, some LDAP server out there will be your directory and call routing will go direct device to device over TCP/IP. The MOBILE protocol has a better chance of surpasing SCTP as being in common use. You might even run call conferencing right off your own device.
Central office technology has seen it's peek hayday. SS7, BSSMAP, ISDN, SONET and others are far too complex, expensive, patented and cumbersome - and will be religated to legacy wireline only. SCTP might be used in this niche area to concentrator like a RLCM to wireline services. Hardly end user equipment.
The Internet is slowly eatting the telco business alive. As the traditional telco business market is evaporating.
Wireline needs to quite the bickering, quite tripping on DCLEC cables and get decent inexpensive DSL services or they can say good-bye to their business. DSL is the only hope for the wireline side of the telco business and most are screwing it up big time.
Cisco, if they keep innovation going high are going to put Nortel out of business. Central offices are being replaced with Network Access Point (NAP) and Cisco is king. Nortel might be best to spend their efforts on making the biggest, fastest, cheapest internet router possible. A DMS10000, 10000 as it can take 10000 IP based fibers.
BTW, I loved working for Nortel, but left as I was a grossly underpaid Canadian and could see Stern was going to wreck the company.