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What is Wongi?
Wongi is a royalty free, open communications system for digital voice. It differs from H323 and SIP in that it is targeted at many-to-many communications over a local area network, rather than one-to-one communications over the Internet. It started out as a what if discussion in the ##australia Freenode IRC channel, resulting in the original wiki site. The Wongi Protocol standard defines a number of Physical Layer specifications including a QRP-optimised layer for low-speed DX communications, a SSB-based layer for moderate/high speed HF, a faster FM-based layer for high-speed data/voice in the higher bands, and pseudo layers that allow Wongi frames to be encapsulated and transmitted over other systems such as AX.25, D-Star and TCP/IP. Higher level layers also allow encapsulation of other systems, extending the coverage and capacity of existing AX.25 and D-Star radio networks.
It gets its name from the aboriginal word wongi, a verb meaning to talk.[1]
Why?
None of the existing VoIP solutions, to my knowledge, offer many-to-many discussions, without the use of some intermediate server. Other systems and software packages I'm aware of:
- Skype -- One-to-one communications, Proprietary
- Ekiga -- One-to-one communications, SIP and H323, Open-Source
- Microsoft NetMeeting -- One-to-one communications, H323, Proprietary
- TeamSpeak -- Many-to-Many communications, Client-Server based, Proprietary
- Mumble -- Many-to-Many communications, Client-Server based, Open-source
Many of these are intended to work over the Internet. This is fine, but suppose you're organising a big LAN. You haven't got all your network infrastructure together, but you've got a load of PDAs, and a wireless router/AP. Wongi allows you to load software on each of these PDAs, connect them to the wireless network, and effectively turn them into two-way radios for efficient communications.
The same infrastructure can also be used during the LAN -- rather than setting up one box to host a TeamSpeak server, having to tell everyone the IP address, and having that box get inundated with the volume of traffic, instead separate Wongi nets for each game are constructed, with traffic being exchanged between those participating stations using multicast UDP.
In the amateur radio world, sure the concept of D-Star is great... but there are a couple of problems:
- D-Star is not completely open -- some parts of the specification are hidden from public view.
- The AMBE codec used is a proprietary codec which cannot be implemented on a computer due to licensing reasons. This effectively means you cannot implement D-Star as a sound-card based mode.
- It is only available on 2m, 70cm and 23cm. It is not possible to use it on 20m for instance.
- D-Star only offers high speed in microwave bands... using 4.8kbps on 2m/70cm. Given the popularity of 9.6kbps AX.25 packet, we feel that amateur radio can, and should do better.
How?
The Wongi Protocol is in its early stages of development. The plan is to implement a full system stack (based on the 7-layer OSI model) that can be applied to internet communications, and should give us the scope for repeater linking and other features.
Who do I contact?
At the moment, this is my pet project. My contact details are on my website. I can also be found in the ##australia IRC channel on irc.freenode.net (web-based IRC client here).
References
- ↑ The Macquarie Dictionary, Third Edition, ISBN 0949757896 page 2442
