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Business as usual in the Skype
by Ruben 
Back in April 2009 I wrote about why I did not think that an IPO in 2010 is very likely for Skype.
One of the arguments I used was the issue Skype had with a patent with Joltid. Had is a very good word in this context, as Phil Wolff explain in The Skype's Not Falling.
What Phil, in my opinion, correctly states is that Skype has more than enough time to solve this issue by either license some other company's Peer-2-Peer technology - or - to code up their own.
Phil has been right on more than one occasion - and I doubt that is he is not right this time.
03/08/09 11:17:47 am, 2 comments
Comment from: Tim Panton [Visitor] · http://babyis60.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/the-best-job-ever-build-skype-2-0-in-a-year/
Yep, agreed. One of the more interesting candidates for P2P technology is Digium, their DUNDI protocol would fit the bill.
Given that Skype have an existing relationship with Digium
through the Skype for Asterisk project, I wouldn't be surprised to see this go somewhere.
Given that Skype have an existing relationship with Digium
through the Skype for Asterisk project, I wouldn't be surprised to see this go somewhere.
03/08/09 @ 11:36
Comment from: Ruben [Member]
I am no DUNi™ expert - or will even pretend to say anything sensible about the solution, but as far as I have understood DUNDi™, it is a distributed "locator" service.
In the Skype model (current) there is, as noted by John Todd, a need for a so called "super node" - and that this may also be needed in a model where DUNDi™ is the designated locator service.
What is unclear at the current point in time with regards to the Joltid license, is if it the "peer" part in the P2P also include the locator service - or only the data transfer part.
If we, just for the sake of argument, believe that Skype both needs to replace the locator service and the data transfer service - it could be a quick fix for them to choose IAX2 as the voice transfer protocol. However, IAX2 is not really a P2P protocol per se - so this component is still missing from the equation.
It would of course be pretty cool for Digium if Skype did in fact license some of their technology. Unfortunately Skype have their heads long into the proprietary way of doing things - just take some inventory on how long they have used to get out of beta on Skype for Asterisk and SIP for Skype.
It will be pretty interesting to see what route they are going to choose.
One really interesting thing I will keep a close eye on, is how they are going to migrate all their existing users into a new client version with the "new and improved" protocols in place. There is a lot of old clients out there, not only software clients - but also dedicated hardware clients.
People hate to upgrade, and will not be amused if their old hardware suddenly does not work any more.
\Ruben
In the Skype model (current) there is, as noted by John Todd, a need for a so called "super node" - and that this may also be needed in a model where DUNDi™ is the designated locator service.
What is unclear at the current point in time with regards to the Joltid license, is if it the "peer" part in the P2P also include the locator service - or only the data transfer part.
If we, just for the sake of argument, believe that Skype both needs to replace the locator service and the data transfer service - it could be a quick fix for them to choose IAX2 as the voice transfer protocol. However, IAX2 is not really a P2P protocol per se - so this component is still missing from the equation.
It would of course be pretty cool for Digium if Skype did in fact license some of their technology. Unfortunately Skype have their heads long into the proprietary way of doing things - just take some inventory on how long they have used to get out of beta on Skype for Asterisk and SIP for Skype.
It will be pretty interesting to see what route they are going to choose.
One really interesting thing I will keep a close eye on, is how they are going to migrate all their existing users into a new client version with the "new and improved" protocols in place. There is a lot of old clients out there, not only software clients - but also dedicated hardware clients.
People hate to upgrade, and will not be amused if their old hardware suddenly does not work any more.
\Ruben
03/08/09 @ 20:21