proliferation of voicesystems
It's really great that there are all these voice transmission/encryption programs out there, the problem is, none of them will talk to each other. If I have a unix box, I have to use product X, if I have a PC, product Y, and a Mac, product Z, and X,Y, and Z all speak different protocols. The issue is more frustrating with web clients. I like to use Netscape, but if I want to view RealAudio, I have to switch to Windows, etc. Rather than have one "successful" product set a defacto standard and lock the rest of the market into one algorithm, cypherpunks who are working on voice products should collaborate to product an open standard, which specifies base level functionality, and drop in algorithm improvements. Perhaps even video should be considered as that too will eventually be a reality. Sooner or later, there must be a shakeout and a "standard" (defacto) will emerge. The question is, do you want this to be an extensible open standard that can cope with changing hardware and network capability, or do you want, say, InternetPhone, to win and set the standard by shear market share like Netscape is doing now and like Microsoft has been doing? Just something to consider. -Ray
It's really great that there are all these voice transmission/encryption programs out there, the problem is, none of them will talk to each other.
Maybe someone could start writing an internet draft about "encrypted voice transmission on the internet". It should address several issues: - compression methods, sampling rate differencies, encoding methods - encryption methods used for bulk data: at least IDEA, 3DES, DES (3DES and DES required, IDEA optional but recommended (for patent reasons)) - key exchange and authentication methods. One good model could be that used in Photuris (see the internet draft draft-ietf-ipsec-photuris-02.txt at e.g. www.ietf.cnri.reston.va.us). Photuris is essentially Diffie-Hellman followed by authenticating the other party via signing the exchange. (Authentication is important to avoid man-in-the-middle attacks). - specification of the protocol for modem-to-modem connections Provided that the compression method is patent-free, all of the related crypto patents expire within about two years (assuming something other than RSA can be used for the signatures - see the Photurs draft). (IDEA should be optional because its patent will not expire in near future). I think it would be a good idea to set up a mailing list for this. Tatu Ylonen <ylo@cs.hut.fi>
Tatu Ylonen writes:
It's really great that there are all these voice transmission/encryption programs out there, the problem is, none of them will talk to each other.
Maybe someone could start writing an internet draft about "encrypted voice transmission on the internet".
Well, we already have standards for how to send audio in general over the internet (the RTP standards that are used in the MBONE among other places.) Presumably if you take IPSEC and cross it with RTP... The real issue to me is setting such things up so that they work nicely even on point to point modem connections without too much protocol overhead.
I think it would be a good idea to set up a mailing list for this.
Probably... Perry
On Sun, 27 Aug 1995, Tatu Ylonen wrote:
Maybe someone could start writing an internet draft about "encrypted voice transmission on the internet". It should address several issues: - compression methods, sampling rate differencies, encoding methods
BTW - does anyone actually know what the voice compression is in PGPfone? -Thomas
Note that most of the MBone tools already has encrypted sessions built in them, and have had that for at least a year, and that the MICE project in Europe has tried to put encryption into the last ones. There is also a lot of standardization efforts going on within the IETF community, for example within the MMUSIC group, chaired by Mark Handley from UCL, London <M.Handley@cs.ucl.ac.uk>. They are standardizing the session control protocol, for example, using one called CCCP. They are also concerned about security, thats for sure. /Christian
participants (5)
-
Christian Wettergren -
Perry E. Metzger -
Ray Cromwell -
Tatu Ylonen -
Thomas Grant Edwards