Rheid Communications

We wanted to deploy something new, something to raise the standard of the service that represents the essence of the human evolution, speech. We wanted to deliver a cost-effective service to companies, to increase the quality of voice communication, and to give extra options to customers.

There are many free phone services today.

Indeed, for the hobbyist there is a multitude of choices on the market. Most of the instant messenger companies introduced a form of voice communication. Some of them have gateways to contact traditional phones. They are not free, but they work. However, such services cannot readily be used by companies and most of them do not use open protocols. This means that they cannot interconnect with other operators. Quality of service is not guaranteed and they do not offer advanced functions.

Hardware IP based PBX

Hardware IP based PBX systems are expensive and proprietary. Most of them are out of question for ISP and HSP (Hosting Server Providers). Small and medium companies that want to enable VoIP in their offices do not have many choices either. Smaller PBX systems exist, but they are not scalable. They cannot be easily upgraded, which means that:

• New standards will be most likely not supported.
• You cannot expect new features.

Hardware PBX offers very limited customization possibilities to the customer. In many cases, from the client’s perspective the interaction with the PBX system is limited to the phone interface.

All hardware based PBX systems run specialized processors and implement standard industry algorithms. Today CPUs are very fast, so the idea to build a software based PBX able to run on x86 computers was natural.

Software based PBX

Currently there are multiple software PBX implementations, the best-known being Asterisk. Asterisk is an Open Source project, with a strong development team and a promising future. The project is sustained by Digium, a company that produces hardware interfaces to traditional PSTN networks.

There are many reasons why we chose Asterisk as the PBX engine for YakYak VoIP, but the most important are:

• Asterisk is Open Source; it can be customized and does not involve any additional expenses for the customer.
• Asterisk is a solid product with an excellent development history. Current leaders have a strong desire to improve the project.
• Asterisk has a layered architecture.

Technology

YakYak VoIP was designed based on the latest technology available. Open Source is the core of the system. The new MySQL 5 version is used in order to implement advanced database techniques like stored procedures, functions, views or triggers. The interface is programmed entirely in PHP 5.1, while the low level system is programmed in C. The layered system design increases robustness and scalability.

The telephony functions are based on Asterisk, the leading Open Source software PBX available. YakYak VoIP uses the Asterisk 1.2 branch, the latest stable version available. This, together with SIP and the G.729a codec allows us to provide the absolute best call quality at the lowest possible bandwidth.

Session Initiation Protocol, commonly referred to as SIP, is an application-layer control (signaling) protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants. These sessions include Internet telephone calls, multimedia distribution, and multimedia conferences.

Why YakYak VoIP?

Our VoIP solution offers SIP extensions to the masses! YakYak Voip makes it possible to use your current broadband internet connection to make much cheaper telephone calls. Calls can be made to traditional land-lines, cellphones or any other number you can currently dial from your old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) phone. Calls between YakYak extensions are always 100% free, regardless of their geographic location or length of the call. Companies with branches all over the country can completely erase their inter-branch telephony costs and friends from different continents can yak for hours and hours, all for free!

IP telephones and software telephones can be used with your YakYak extension to make calls over the internet. IP telephones are just like your normal telephone at home, the difference is that they plug into your home or office network and allow you to make telephone calls over your existing internet connection. Software telephones can be installed on any Windows PC and allow you to use the computers speakers and microphone or headset to make telephone calls over the internet.

YakYak extensions are, by nature, portable and allows you to take your extension with you, wherever you go. You can use it at home over your broadband internet connection to save on overseas calls or you can work from home as if you were at your desk at the office.