RTCP problem causing dropped calls

Asterisk Asterisk Support
#1

We have two asterisk servers running 1.6.2.14. Users have been experiencing intermittent dropped calls when using the eyebeam 1.5 softphone client. The calls are typically dropped about 40 seconds into the call. Several wireshark traces were performed, and the output sent to counterpath (vendor for eyebeam). They pointed out that Asterisk stopped sending the rtcp SR packets on a failed call. Comparing a successful call with a failed call shows that the Asterisk switched from sending rtcp SR packets to rtcp RR packets on the ones that failed. In other words, the rtcp packets are still sent at 5 second intervals but they are the wrong type.

Here’s a filtered wireshark trace showing the rtcp packets being sent by the asterisk server. Two calls are displayed, with the entry with the 435 time delta showing the start of the second call. Note the switch to the Receiver Report entries.

No.     Time        Source                Destination           Protocol Info
    571 0.000000    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Sender Report   
   1082 5.000206    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Sender Report   
   1585 4.998812    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Sender Report   
   2091 5.000006    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Sender Report   
   2622 4.999806    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Sender Report   
   3126 5.000020    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Receiver Report   
   4232 435.388249  192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Sender Report   
   4742 4.999792    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Sender Report   
   5249 5.000014    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Sender Report   
   5766 4.999026    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Sender Report   
   6268 4.999991    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Receiver Report   
   6773 4.999811    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Receiver Report   
   7282 5.000022    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Receiver Report   
   7784 4.999057    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Receiver Report   
   8295 4.999745    192.168.20.185        192.168.20.20         RTCP     Receiver Report

First off, is this an Asterisk problem or something the softphone is causing?

Also, counterpath suggested doing the following to temporarily bypass the problem for the eyebeam softphone client:

Using the eyebeam client Dial ***7469 (SEND)
Filter for rtcp
double click on the must have rtcp line and set the value to 0 Save and restart.

Thanks for any information about this problem,
Don