Genesys SIP Stack

[Pawel75]

Hey Everyone,

I have been working with the Genesys platform for a few years now but just began to investigate moving from a traditional CTI architecture to SIP.  Looking at the underlying architecture, we noticed that Microsoft RTC is being used.  Does anyone know if Genesys is looking to move away from that?  Our Microsoft rep tells us that there is no new development going on for RTC because of the new MS Office Communication APIs that have come out.

Pawel

[victor]

Pawel,

I do not know about Genesys using RTC, but we have developed SIP softphone for use with Genesys SIP Server using RTC 1.3 and believe me when I tell you - there is NO support for this thing from Microsoft. There is a microsoft group on UseNet (is it how it is still called), but that's it!

I do not even know how Genesys gets their support if they are using RTC.

Best regards,
Vic

[Pawel75]

Thanks so much Vic!

A tech support person at Genesys mentioned that Genesys is offering a Genesys SIP stack for connecting to a SIP softphone instead of RTC...but I cannot find any information or documentation about such a thing!! Has anyone seen a Genesys SIP stack? All I can tell is that they still use T-Lib behind a Microsoft RTC interface to whatever SIP softphone in use.

Thanks!!
Pawel

[victor]

I would do some extensive testing first before jumping on the band wagon, since SIP Server is a rather new animal for Genesys. What exactly did they offer when they said "stack"? A set of libraries to build upon? IS it part of SDK? What licensing if any would they require for it? Has anyone been using it?

[Pawel75]

Thanks Vic,

  I saw a Genesys presentation that showed the SIP architecture as being T-Lib using Microsoft RTC as the SIP Interface to the SIP softphone at the desktop.  Microsoft RTC was the way Genesys T-Lib got events and was able to function. (I believe it is the Stream Manager that does this).  It looked to me like Microsoft RTC was critical in being able to allow the Genesys framework to communicate with the SIP softphone.  Our concern is if Microsoft moves away from RTC to the MS OCS APIs, we will be basically using Microsoft technology and Genesys will simply be a voice channel. (Microsoft OCS has most of the contact capabilities of Genesys other than voice) Genesys claims that they took RTC out of the picture but I cannot find anyone to confirm this.

Pawel

[LeszekM]

Hello, Pawel

I see that in a little bit different way.
Microsoft RTC is used only when you use Genesys SIP Endpoint which is a SIP endpoint (phone) made by Genesys. This Genesys product is shipped with Genesys Agent Desktop. Or you can build your own SIP phone based on MS RTC. Anyway you don't have to use this.

IMO, Microsoft RTC has nothing to do with the Stream Manager and with the T-lib.
The T-lib communicates with a TServer (SIP Server in this case) only using T-lib's protocol. It is SIP Server that communicates with SIP endpoints using a different protocol - SIP. RTC deals only with SIP protocol.

I think, you can use any softphone you like (or better - which is supported by Genesys SIP Server or you have tested that is working) not only softphone based on MS RTC.

Regards,
Leszek

[victor]

Yes, I was talking about endpoint here, like in CTI toolbar plus VoIP softphone wrapped into one neat application.

Here is what I know from developing SIP phone with Genesys CTI:

ActiveX (SDK, T-Lib): Genesys command/events like RequestMakeCall and EventDialing. Exactly the same thing you had with DesktopToolkit Phone sample.
MS RTC: SIP-related signaling like INVITE and BYE; voice-channel control - physical voice channel between you and the end part by using codecs as well interfacing it with your audio card so you can actually hear and talk.

I had real big problem getting TMonitor to work with StreamManager so I had to improvise and come up with my own way of streaming. Also, I could not get TInitTransfer and Complete to work using Genesys CTI, so I had to rely on REFER to get me through the day. And last, but definitely, one of the biggest problems I had was the annoying VAD - voice activity detection - if you do not talk, RTC does not send any packets to the other party, and there is no way to turn it off. CNG (comfort noise generation) is supposedly a way to fix that, but neither Genesys or RTC offers a way to easily control it. Oh, and do not forget PortMapping! God forbid your sip phone is behind a firewall...

So, why am I telling you this? Because if Genesys REALLY developed their whole stuff on top of RTC 1.3 then we are all for a very rude awakening during the next year, since RTC as it is right now is not only in shambles, but lacks Microsoft support and is lacking some of the basic features you would need in a call center.

I loved developing with RTC - it was simple to get the things rolling, but once you actually go beyond call/hangup requirements, RTC is way under-equipped and ill-fitted . If Genesys really used RTC as fundamentals of their SIP framework, we might as well just forget about ever using Genesys SIP Server and move to Microsft or even Call Manager

Vic



If there is a SIP Softphone sample from Genesys with CTI functionality built-in I would love to know about it since I want to see how exactly Genesys expected us to use SIP Server with their SDK.

[Pawel75]

Vic...Thanks so much for the information...You should post your code, it would help us out a lot 

Well.. got a bit if insight from Genesys on this topic.  The SIP TServer (SIP Server) communicates via a back to back user agent to the Genesys SIP Softphone (SIP Endpoint Application Block).  The packaged Genesys SIP Endpoint Application Block is based on Microsoft RTC, but the Server components are not.  This makes sense since from what I can tell, on the other side of the back to back user agent the Genesys framework is really the same as it has always been.  They just created a SIP T-Server to handle this new type of media.  They mentioned that the SIP Server can have other SIP Endpoint Stacks (i.e. Counterpath) "plugged" into it but Genesys only offers a endpoint based on RTC.

Pawel