Rad-Info, Inc.

from Nortel Networks white paper, SIP and the new network communications model

SIP is a Web paradigm protocol standardized by the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF). It’s similar to the two major Internet protocols—HTTP (World Wide
Web) and SMTP (e-mail)—in that it uses symbolic addresses to represent people who
wish to communicate.

SIP enables converged voice and multimedia services such as voice-enriched eCommerce, Web page click-to-dial, instant messaging with buddy lists, and much more. SIP session management is the key to enabling IP-based natural communications between people, not devices. By using SIP, users may locate and contact one another—regardless of media content or number of participants—using disparate computers, phones, televisions, and hand-held devices.

SIP was developed to serve as a mechanism to establish a wide variety of sessions. Therefore SIP does not dictate the details within a session but instead negotiates interaction based on the capabilities of participants. This simplicity means that SIP is scalable, extensible, and fits comfortably into different architectures and deployment scenarios.

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