Consider SIP Protocol for Voice Over IP
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is the transport technology for person-to-person voice data over the Web. Its technical specifications come from the SIP working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force. SIP provides access to the public switched telephone network for voice data at 3 kHz bandwidth and common number dialing using Voice over IP (VoIP). It can also be expanded to deal with IP telephony combined with video and instant messaging. Future improvements will allow SIP applications like video conference calls, application sharing, home monitoring, and interactive gaming for businesses in Fort George.
Suppliers of SIP hardware are quickly creating new hardware and software to get the upper hand in this new Internet communications scheme. SIP telephones, PC client applications, SIP servers, routers, and firewalls are now obtainable from companies such as Ingate Systems and Cisco.
Before installing a SIP plan in your business, you should think about the appropriate settings of your corporate firewall to accept SIP. Many of the common firewalls currently installed in business offices are not designed to support the SIP protocol. First, SIP media streams are transferred over dynamically assigned UDP ports that are usually closed on firewalls. Second, SIP clients within a firewall can not be accessed using IP addresses since these addresses are local and private to the LAN. Third, you need to ensure that either your T1 line broadband carrier or Metro fiber provider is able to handle the SIP protocol from your internal network to the outside world. Your IT manager will need to evaluate how to correctly support SIP to get around these technical difficulties. By adding a SIP proxy and registrar for controlling the firewall, it is feasible to deal with complex SIP scenarios for reliable and confidential communications.
