Consider SIP Protocol for Voice Communications
SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is the communications protocol for person-to-person voice data over the Internet. Its defining 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 combined with video and instant messaging. Future enhancements will allow SIP applications such as video conference calls, application sharing, home monitoring, and interactive gaming for businesses in Lakeland.
SIP is typically associated with a way to emulate the operation of standard telephony over an IP network. It is replacing the older, less adaptable protocols used in the past such as H.323 and MGCP. These older protocols worked at a very low level to connect IP phones to the public telephone system. SIP, however, provides an elegant and straightforward way to network the enterprise. For example, SIP uses email addresses as the SIP address instead of a telephone number over the standard telephone network.
Prior to implementing a SIP plan in your company, you should think about the appropriate settings of your corporate firewall to support SIP. Many of the common firewalls currently deployed in business offices are not developed to allow the SIP protocol. First, SIP media streams are transmitted over dynamically assigned UDP ports that are usually closed on firewalls. Second, SIP clients inside a firewall can not be reached 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 Ethernet fiber provider is able to support the SIP protocol from your internal network to the outside world. Your IT administrator will need to ascertain how to appropriately support SIP to overcome these technical problems. By adding a SIP proxy and registrar for managing the firewall, it is possible to handle complicated SIP situations for secure and confidential communications.
