openvocs is opensource

We are happy to annouce we have opensourced the @openvocs project at github https://github.com/openvocs/openvocs .

It has been a long journey with a lot of ups and downs. We trashed our implementation several times and restarted from scratch. The idea for openvocs initiated in 2014 10 years ago. We had the intention to build a Webbased Mission Control Room ready communications system from scratch, using only opensource code. Guess what, we ended up building the opensource code for Voice Communication Systems on our own. It was a heavy task involving a lot of conflicts and overcomming a lot of barriers. Nonetheless we are operational now at the German Space Operations Center, as well as the Mobile Rocket Base of DLR. So we do have some actual operational verification for out release.

If you test and play around with openvocs please give us some feedback about your progress, potential issues or topics we haven’t covered yet within the repository or on our webpage. This will help a lot to improve the overall project and smoothen the experience for other users.

openvocs services

Openvocs uses systemd for service operations. The main service is called ov_mc.target, which stands for openvocs Multicast target. This is the root service of openvocs. If you restart this service anything required for openvocs operations will be restarted. Please note, some services, which are not core services, need to have a dedicated restart cycle

ov_mc.target

ov_mc.target is the main service. It contains all subservices to load and may be used to restart / start or stop the openvocs services.

ov_mc_vocs.service

ov_mc_vocs.service is the main service of openvocs. It includes the build in webserver and all authentication and authorization functionality. In addition it manages the subservices e.g. ov_mc_ice_proxy or ov_mc_mixer.

ov_mc_ice_proxy.service

The ice proxy service is used to connect Webpages with the system. It establishes the media connection and forwards media to mixer instances. Another feature of the ice proxy is the media path encryption using SRTP based media streams. A mixed stream of all selected conferences will be send back to the clients.

ov_mc_mixer.target

This service is a parent service target for all mixer instances. Mixer instances will be startet as defined within the mixer.target. By default 50 mixer instances will be started. If you need more instances, for example to support more users, you may configure additional instances within the ov_mc_mixer.target

ov_mc_mixer@service

The mixer service is responsible to start one mixer instance to be available within the system. All mixer instances use the same configuration and will be reconfigured by ov_mc_vocs.service, based on the use of the mixer.

openvocs website development

We are preparing to opensource our codebase and implement a supporting website.

This Website shall inform about ongoing developments, updates to the codebase and other stuff like new tutorials and so on.