A company has launched with the goal of providing commercial support for a telephony stack comprised entirely of free software. Tycho SoftWorks says it supports the GNU Telephony Project's prepackaged stacks as a stable foundation for scalable enterprise, carrier-hosted, and governmental telephony solutions.

Tycho was founded last October by David Sugar, who also founded the GNU Telephony project back in 2000, and who serves as the lead maintainer of the Bayonne telephony application server.

The GNU Telephony stack, around which Tycho offers support, comprises:

• CAPE Framework of GNU Common C++ 2
• GNU RTP Stack (ccRTP) (real-time transport)
• GNU ccAudio
• SIP (session initiation protocol) support using libeXosip2, as supported by antisip.com
• H.323 support through the OpenH323 stack (soon Opal)
• Desktop VOIP clients LinPhone and GNOME Meeting
• PartySIP and Ser SIP call servers
• GNU Gatekeeper H.323 call server
• GNU Bayonne2 Voice Application Server
• Telephony Drivers for Voicetronix and Sangoma computer telephony hardware

Additionally, future releases of the stack will integrate with KEWL (Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning), in order to support collaborative voice and distance learning portals. Other planned features include real-time monitoring services for use by telephone network operation centers, and pre-bundled telephony applications for pre-paid calling, voice messaging, and v-commerce. And, target profiles will be developed for rapidly deploying VOIP telephone systems and “telecenter” sites, according to Sugar.

According to Sugar, Tycho has already had one major corporate customer — it helped the Netherlands Lottery Authority implement a telephony application that lets users buy and check their lottery tickets. Other typical applications might include “push call queues” that let phone support users enter their number for later call-back rather than staying on hold, and accessibility applications that, for example, let blind users navigate and listen to text documents.

Availability

Tycho's support for the GNU Telephony stack is available initially for Red Hat and CentOS Linux, with Debian to follow soon. The company also plans to support the stack on BSD, Mac OS/X, and OpenSolaris, with limited support for some components also available under Microsoft Windows.

 
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