SIPconnect and the Rationale for Widespread Adoption of SIP Trunking: Page 3 of 3

SIP AND ITS DISCONTENTS

SIP is a text-based protocol designed to start, modify and end interactive communication sessions using voice, video, messaging or other multimedia applications. Its standards are overseen by an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) working group. SIP covers signaling, location and registration, allowing support for other features through separate protocols, making it "lighter" and more efficient than its early rival H.323, and one decentralized within the network--pushing intelligence to phones and other end devices. While H.323 was widely deployed as a protocol in the early days of IP telephony, SIP has largely replaced it in this decade.

While SIP is now almost universally considered the preferred means for routing IP traffic, its own gaps have been widely noted. The protocol defines multiple methods for interconnecting, which complicates interoperability. SIP fails to inherently resolve issues beyond signaling. And it has problems in managing hierarchical logical identities, a requirement for effective peering.

Thus, additional consensus on accomplishing interconnection with SIP is required--most significantly, a specification that chooses when multiple options are available. The SIP Forum has taken, as its primary work, definition and refinement of a peering architecture to link IP PBXs to service providers. The SIP Forum has also created a "SIPconnect Compliant Program" allowing hardware and software vendors as well as service providers to demonstrate their compliance with the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation and gain certification.

BENEFITS OF DIRECT IP PEERING

Virtually all major IP PBX players support SIP. But many vendors don't appear to have yet given full attention to the benefits of direct IP peering. Support by a product of an industry-accepted standard that successfully addresses quality and security issues reduces equipment and transport costs, expands availability of features and functionality, and eliminates time and cost needed to set up proprietary interfaces, offering a significant competitive edge.

Such peering meanwhile helps service providers offer higher-quality services with advanced features specifically tailored to IP PBX users. The ability to develop relationships with IP PBX vendors based on this interconnectivity can also help win customers and establish new relationships in various distribution channels, including interconnects, VARs and system integrators.

Business customers, the ultimate beneficiaries of IP peering, seek feature-rich yet affordable communication systems. Many have hesitated to deploy VoIP because of quality issues and other concerns with the emerging technology.

Many advanced features meanwhile enabled by IP-based systems--presence, video conferencing, one-click dialing--may not be enough to persuade customers to give up their old systems. Typically more urgent reasons are needed to make customers change.
Direct peering can make the transition to IP more of a "slam dunk."

Businesses peering directly with providers obviate their need for costly TDM gateways and increase the efficiency with which they use local access lines. Another easily overlooked feature enabled through VoIP-based systems is the ability to provide Direct Inward Dialing (DID) capabilities for less cost. While many small businesses can't afford the full T1 or PRI line typically used for DID, direct IP peering lets VoIP providers offer many direct phone numbers on a single connection.

This means a small customer can use multiple "numbers" without paying recurring charges for separate analog lines or costly digital circuits. The ability to offer discrete “DID” numbers to individual employees within a small business--in preference to extensions off a main number--is a major benefit taken for granted by larger businesses.

Presence-based applications and other enhanced features remain an added bonus of direct IP peering, enabling carriage of end-user information intact to other VoIP-enabled destinations across networks.

IP peering meanwhile also benefits distributors and other channel partners. In response to quality of service problems arising from VoIP to TDM conversions, these players often need to perform costly, complex custom configurations for individual customers. Direct peering offers relief from these burdens, making gateways unnecessary and eliminating much time-consuming configuration and troubleshooting. Direct IP peering also allows security-related functions to be "off-loaded" to the VoIP provider network.

SIPconnect offers, in sum: