Why You Need SIP Protocol for Voice Over IP
SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is the communications protocol for person-to-person voice traffic over the Internet. Its technical specifications come from the SIP working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force. SIP gives 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 extended to handle IP telephony in conjunction with video and instant messaging. Forthcoming improvements will allow SIP applications like video conference calls, application sharing, home monitoring, and interactive gaming for companies in Ruidoso.
SIP is typically associated with a way to implement the functionality of typical telephony over an IP network. It is replacing the older, less versatile protocols used in the old days such as H.323 and MGCP. These older protocols performed at a very low level to link IP phones to the public telephone system. SIP, on the other hand, provides an elegant and well-defined way to network the enterprise. For instance, SIP uses email addresses as the SIP address in place of a telephone number over the standard telephone network.
Prior to implementing a SIP plan in your organization, you should consider the proper configuration of your corporate firewall to accept SIP. Many of the typical firewalls currently deployed in business offices are not developed to support the SIP protocol. First, SIP media streams are transferred over dynamically assigned UDP ports that are often blocked on firewalls. Second, SIP clients inside a firewall can not be reached using IP addresses because these addresses are local and private to the LAN. Third, you need to ensure that either your T1 line broadband provider or Metro fiber service is able to support the SIP protocol from your internal network to the outside world. Your IT manager will need to ascertain how to correctly support SIP to get around these technical challenges. By including a SIP proxy and registrar for controlling the firewall, it is feasible to handle complex SIP situations for reliable and confidential communications.
