What is SIP?

SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is the IETF signaling protocol for presence, messaging, VoIP, audio/video conferencing and events notification that is becoming for IP-based communications what HTTP is for the Web. SIP manages call setup, routing, authentication and other feature messages between endpoints within an IP domain. Most importantly, the SIP protocol allows for users of different service providers to communicate with each other. Using SIP, IP telephony becomes as easy to use as any other Web application and integrates easily into other Internet services.

SIP has been widely adopted by a number of the industry’s leading providers, including Microsoft®, AOL and WorldCom. Other providers, including AT&T, MSN, Odigo, Phone.com, Prodigy, and Yahoo! have formed IMUnified, a coalition created to provide functional interoperability enabling its members' Internet users to communicate freely with each other. IMUnified has pledged to implement open standards-based interoperability for instant messaging as these protocols emerge from the IETF standardization process. Industry analysts predict that SIP will become the standard protocol no later than 2004.

SIP is coming, and bringing with it the ability for users of instant messaging, presence, conferencing, and other realtime communications functions to find and communicate with users of any SIP-based provider around the world.

Read white papers on SIP and Ingate’s SIP-capable firewalls and SIParators.

Read about Ingate's successful SIP demonstration at VON and view details of the scenarios successfully completed by Ingate at the VON SIPop!

The IETF

The Internet Engineering Task Force is the main standards organization for the Internet. The IETF is a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet.