Consider SIP Protocol for Voice Over IP
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is the communications technology for person-to-person voice traffic 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 in conjunction with video and instant messaging. Forthcoming improvements will allow SIP applications such as video conference calls, application sharing, home monitoring, and interactive gaming for companies in Ocean View.
Suppliers of SIP components are quickly designing innovative hardware and software to get the upper hand in this new Internet communications method. SIP telephones, PC client software, SIP servers, routers, and firewalls are now available from companies such as Ingate Systems and Cisco.
Before installing a SIP plan in your organization, you should consider the proper configuration of your corporate firewall to accept SIP. Many of the typical firewalls already installed in business offices are not designed to allow the SIP protocol. First, SIP media streams are transmitted over dynamically allocated UDP ports that are usually blocked on firewalls. Second, SIP clients inside a firewall can not be accessed using IP addresses because these addresses are local and unique to the LAN. Third, you need to ensure that either your T1 line broadband carrier or Metro fiber service is able to support the SIP protocol from your internal network to the outside world. Your IT administrator will need to ascertain how to properly support SIP to get around these technical issues. By including a SIP proxy and registrar for controlling the firewall, it is feasible to deal with complicated SIP scenarios for secure and private communications.
