Hugo

OpalVoIP is a generalist stack that covers H.323, SIP and IAX. H323plus is a specialist stack only covering H.323.

There are dozens of very popular open source stacks like asterisk and Yate that rely on openH323 for their H.323 support. With the migration to Opal this support is hampered as openH323 was seen as a component where as OpalVoIP may be viewed a little differently. My greatest fear is that H.323 support in these projects would stagnate or be dropped entirely which would be a major loss. Hence the maintaining of that support in H323plus.

H323plus has a completely different focus to that of OpalVoIP and is designed to undertake advanced H.323 development (hence the plus) and unleach the full potential of what H.323 is capable of where are OpalVoIP is more of a generalist which to date has focused a lot of their attention (of late) on SIP. Now saying that, it does not mean the work in H323plus cannot be ported across to OpalVoIP or visa versa. Case in point the Video Plugins from Opal (which Robert did a lot of work on) and the plan to port the app sharing H.239 to Opal (which I authored). The H323plus stack is built off ptlib and uses the same audio/video plugins which I still actively assist in maintaining.

The real question is not which is better but which better suits your needs. If you are starting a new project and need to support SIP with quality H.323 support then use OpalVoIP. If you have an existing project or don't require SIP but need advanced H.323 features such as app sharing, HD Video, conference controls, LDAP, SNMP then you should consider H323plus.

I think Craig and Robert have done a fantastic job in very trying times and I have always been a strong supporter of them and a major code developer on the project for a number of years now. The decision to move to OpalVoIP I believe was the right decision for them to make under the circumstances and I certainly wish them all the best. However the move does have its downside as projects such as GnuGk, YATE, Asterisk are forced to migrate their H.323 support or let it stagnate (which is my greatest fear) which was the prime motivating force for h323plus.

Simon

-----Original Message----- From: openh323-devel-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net [mailto:openh323-devel-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net]On Behalf Of Hugo Pereira Sent: Sunday, 28 October 2007 5:02 AM To: h323plus@lists.packetizer.com; Opalvoip-devel@lists.sourceforge.net; Discussion on enhancements and development issues with the OpenH323 library Subject: Re: [Openh323-devel] opalvoip vs h323plus

Greetings,

I have just read the history post about OPAL. I was already very impressed about the work of Craig and Robert. now i am even more! :)

Spite In that text OPAL seens to be the successor of openh323, now this last has reemerged in the form of h323plus.

Does this new and enhanced protocol stack is is better? What are the advantages/disadvantages of using one or another? Are now these projects competing with each other?

These are a few questions that question the existence of both projects simultaneously.