The SIP Forum has ratified Version 2.0 of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation, with the unanimous approval of the SIP Forum board of directors.
The new version of the recommendation, developed by the SIP Forum’s SIPconnect Task Group, is a follow-on to Version 1.1 ratified in 2011, and provides a more extensive and standardised set of guidelines for seamless, end-to-end interoperability between SIP-enabled IP-PBXs and service provider networks.
SIPconnect 2.0 effectively extends SIPconnect 1.1. Where SIPconnect 1.0, and 1.1, focused primarily on basic network registration, identity/privacy management, call originations, call terminations, and advanced services, this version adds additional guidance on Security, Emergency Calling Location, Early Media, and IPv6.
Where appropriate, recommendations from SIPconnect 1.1 have been left unchanged, although some modifications to prior recommendations have been made based on experience and feedback gathered through adoption of SIPconnect 1.1 in the industry.
Richard Shockey, chairman of the Board of the SIP Forum and principal at Shockey Consulting, said, “The SIP Forum has been working continuously for more than 10 years to enhance the interoperability of SIP and in so doing shorten the time-to-market for new products and services and ease the pains of commercial deployment.
SIPconnect 2.0 represents the fruits of our ongoing efforts. In addition, we continue to maintain an open invitation to all members of the SIP community as well as to users of the SIP protocol, to participate in the work going forward.”
“Because of the SIP Forum’s consensus-oriented approach to developing technical specifications, this updated SIPconnect recommendation drew a wide swath of participation from leading companies in the IP communications industry, In addition, the effort greatly benefitted from the involvement of International participants.” said Marc Robins, president and managing director of the SIP Forum.
“These participants have been very active in the SIPconnect 2.0 Task Group effort, and submitted comments, suggested edits and other useful information as the work progressed. The SIP Forum also owes a debt of gratitude for the work and commitment to the project from Spencer Dawkins, who served as the SIPconnect 2.0 Task Group chair and as SIP Forum Technical director, and to Andrew Hutton, Unify and to Gonzalo Salgueiro, Cisco Systems, for serving as the primary document editors.”
According to Spencer Dawkins, president at Wonder Hamster Internetworking LLC, SIP Forum technical director and chair of the SIPconnect 2.0 Task Group, “SIPconnect 2.0 reflects implementation and deployment experience beyond SIPconnect 1.1, and provides a solid basis for SIP trunking that removes the last technical reasons to delay TDM replacement.”
The SIPconnect Technical Recommendation, which represents the consensus of a broad cross section of the global telecom community, is one of the most important initiatives of the SIP Forum, aimed at providing an up-to-date, international framework for direct IP peering between SIP-enabled enterprises and service provider networks, ensuring the interoperability of network elements across the IP environment and providing a level playing field for vendors and service providers as they develop new equipment and IP applications for deployment.
Andrew Hutton, head of Standardisation at Unify, a SIP Forum director and co-editor of SIPconnect 2.0, said, “SIPconnect is the only Open Standards-based SIP Trunking specification in use internationally. Its continued evolution is an important part of the digital transformation of both enterprise and voice service providers as we retire the legacy PSTN infrastructure and transition to All-IP.”
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