Sqrfrk | # 1 | 2010-03-28, 09:14 | Report

I've been going the complete VoIP route with the N900 and I'm mostly satisfied with the performance. I just had a question that doesn't seem to be fully answered through the topics I've searched through in the Talk section.

I have an account through both Skype and SIPGate. I've had the assumption that the battery drain while using an always-on 3G connection and SIP+TOR would be less than 3G+Skype+TOR (no other apps, fresh flash), but it seems quite the opposite. I've went through the entire battery in about eight to nine hours using SIP vs. 12-13 hours using Skype. Is this what I should be expecting? I've searched through some other threads on the topic and read about performance reaching 20hrs with SIP always on. On the other hand, I've also read topics that mention SIP draining the battery (no specifics).

Using 3.2010.02-8.

christer_a | # 2 | 2010-03-28, 09:41 | Report

I haven't tried Voip out with my N900 (yet...), but I did use to run my home phone through SIP on a Nokia E51 over wireless network (3G was not possible due to absurd latency), one thing I noticed was that that battery drain got a lot better after the SIP provider changed settings for SIP re-registration (think the change was something from 30 seconds to 120 seconds), battery life improved from charging daily to once every two or three days. (Details are sketchy though as this is about two years ago)

(The way I used to determine this was by putting my computer between the wireless access point and the internet gateway, while using wireshark to look at the actual traffic...).

shadowjk | # 3 | 2010-03-28, 09:50 | Report

It depends on the sip provider. Mine sends keepalives/pings everyo 10 secs or so, and would be unusable on N900 due to the enormous amount of power it'd use.

Sqrfrk | # 4 | 2010-03-28, 09:57 | Report

Is keep-alive determined strictly by the provider? What would happen if I were to change the keep-alive in the SIP settings from Auto to 120 seconds, like christer_a has suggested?

...or 60 minutes?

Fargus | # 5 | 2010-03-28, 09:57 | Report

This was quite an interest to me as I also use SipGate and Skype!

Have you checked the advanced settings on your Sip account preferences? Are you using the SipGate STUN server or your gateway ALG? There is a keep alive mechanism and timing setting that might help. Unfortunately mine are both on Auto and I must admit I haven't noticed a huge drain on the battery but I haven't done such detailed testing to be honest.

Sqrfrk | # 6 | 2010-03-28, 10:09 | Report

The STUN auto-detect is on, so would I be correct in assuming that the device is looking for and using SipGate's STUN server? I'm not too familiar with how traffic traverses out of T-Mobile's pipe, so I wouldn't know if there's any SIP ALG enabled or not.

Both keep-alive timing and type are set to auto on my end, so I'm not exactly sure where the battery drain is coming from top/htop doesn't show anything out of the ordinary either. And is having SIP taking more of the battery than Skype normal?

EDIT: I went looking for manual setup settings for the US SipGate and came across this:
http://www.sipgate.com/faq/article/3...my_VoIP_device
I guess I'll try doing another full day run and see what happens.

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Last edited by Sqrfrk; 2010-03-28 at 10:13.

Sqrfrk | # 7 | 2010-03-29, 09:04 | Report

I went through a full day using 15 minute polling and ended up with the same amount of battery life. I think I'll turn on SmartReflex and see what happens for another full day.

On another note, did anyone look at this:
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8609

It dropped off the search results, but I'd be interested to know if SipGate is using Speex as a supported codec. 2.5G is barely tolerable for VoIP with some randomly peppered garbled voice reaching the other caller (I don't think this particular issue is related to the "choppy voice after 20-30 minute" bug). I've been meaning to set my network back to Dual rather than exclusively 3G and checking to see if that has any noticable impact on the battery.

gorgezilla | # 8 | 2011-02-09, 08:53 | Report

hello there,

to the above users of voip and sip...did you came to a conclusion on how it is best for using SIP and VOIP services in relation to the battery drainage?

mikegioia | # 9 | 2015-03-21, 19:51 | Report

I know this is a very old thread, but I just wanted to comment that I successfully have SIP running through Voip.ms on a 2-minute registration interval and have not noticed any battery drain. In fact I've had it running for 2 days so far and it just now went to 10% battery.

I can help if anyone is interested in the details of this rig. Right now I'm going Twilio -> Voip.ms -> n900 on a data-only SIM and it's pretty cool!