Here's a reader question that I don't feel I have a substantial answer for. VCC is outside my scope of knowledge. I'll be doing some reading and see what I can figure out, but would be interest in thoughts from any readers here.

Dear Ken

I was wondering whether you know something about VCC. I was trying to figure out whether implementing VCC can affect the SIP stacks and how the proper implementation is? Oh and the other handset apps

Thank you

The only VCC acronym that comes to mind is Voice Call Continuity that's tied into IMS and fixed mobile convergence. I see it mentioned in conjunction with Symbian phones quite a bit. I've seen at least one mention of it as a competitive approach to UMA. I hear bits and pieces about VCC as an emerging standard for SIP-based handoff of calls from a WiFi/IP network to circuit-switched cell network in support of FMC.

I found quote attributed to a major network vendor -  "VCC is way to costly and complicated, and will never happen".

What little I know if VCC is that it purports to solve the problem f seamless handover between WLAN and 2G/3G systems. I think UMA provides the same, but adds other benfits like in handoff to GSM, operator controls, and integration with billing or wiretap (CALEA) systems.

I've seen lots of comments about lack of transparency in VCC, even to the point of it being referred to as a downgrade from UMA. I think there's a superficial argument that VCC is all IP, but that UMA may not be. I think that argument's a bit of a fabrication. The truth is nobody cares about all IP vs. micing technologies. What people want are solutions that work.

I think VCC is still viewed as a "future" that's somewhere out in the unknown, at least that's how I read things

I did see mention of BridgePort Networks in conjunction with VCC, so I think I'll need to talk to my friends there, and do a little more digging to come up with a real opinion. I don't think I'm close enough to VCC to have a good handle on it. Since it integrates tightly with the SIP stack on a handheld that can operate across environments, I'm sure there are some impacts. I'm just not sure what they are beyond memory and resources on the handset device.

I'm cross-posting this to the blog as well in case anyone reading there has some thoughts to add.


Technorati Tags: VoIP, SIP, VCC, Voice Call Continuity. fixed mobile convergence, FMC