Making Strides in SIP Interoperability
Author: Tim Sipsey
I’ve been working with standards-based technologies and session initiation protocol (SIP) platforms for years, and I’m grateful to the luminaries for letting me share my experience at the SIPit conference for my first blog post!
Aspect Software was one of about 50 companies that attended SIPit 22 on 14-18 April 2008. The event was held at the New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire. The purpose of the SIPit event is to allow organizations to test product or device interoperability for SIP implementations, determine the source of incompatibilities, and if the SIP specification is at fault, prepare a “fix” for the draft revision. Overall, it was a great success. And when I say success, I don’t just mean we made successful SIP calls, but we were able to verify interoperability of newly added features such as transmission control protocol (TCP) capability and other SIP-related Request for Comments (RFCs) that will provide better support for SIP enterprise environments. While the SIPit event is sometimes perceived as being an ad-hoc type of event, in fact it’s very well organized. Basically, a week before the event, participants begin making contacts with other participants to propose scheduling hour time slots to perform testing.
Aspect arrived with our schedule completely booked. Our testing varied depending on the type of SIP implementation, such as a SIP endpoint or another SIP Proxy or B2BUA. This was a great opportunity to have an environment to perform real-world testing on implementations, get a gauge of how well our products are meeting standards, and pinpoint what areas need improvement. The show helps enhance the SIP standard because it uncovers any ambiguities in the standard as written and helps SIP to become a more globally interoperable protocol. Attending the SIPit event is one of the many steps Aspect Software has taken to demonstrate SIP interoperability and educate the industry on the benefits of SIP in the contact center, such as lowered costs, improved flexibility, and increased interoperability. In addition, this participation at SIPit helps validate our commitment to the SIP Power Through Choice program , which issued a challenge to the contact center industry to adopt SIP interoperability policies.
Aspect Software has attended previous SIPit events, but it is very important to see how well the products are interoperating with our peers based on the current SIP Standard RFC 3261, and to demonstrate to our customers and prospects that we are continuing to enhance the SIP capabilities of our solutions.
One of the perks of attending the SIPit event is the social portion, where we can get to know some of our peers in the telephony industry. This year it was at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium where we were treated to a buffet and a show that took us on a journey through space 100,000 light years from planet Earth. The next SIPit 23 won’t be so quite far away. It is scheduled for 13-17 Oct 2008 in Lannion, France.
More companies are seeing the value of standards and SIP telephony in general. I’d like to hear about the steps your company is taking to ensure your products are SIP compliant and services-based.
