By Phil Hochmuth
Network World, 12/24/01
[ Back to Take a SIP ]

The basics are completed on the IETF's Session Initiation Protocol, so now come the enhancements. SIP crafters are focusing on two areas - security and wireless.

They have agreed on a standard way for SIP to traverse firewalls, says Henry Sinnreich, IETF member and a distinguished member of engineering with WorldCom. Vendor support is expected by early next year, he says. "Everyone in the firewall business will want to be compliant with SIP, especially now that it's been adopted by Microsoft [in Windows XP]," he says.

The working group also is developing SIP for 3G wireless applications such as packet voice and videoconferencing.

One serendipitous development in SIP/3G wireless is the fact that the shapers of 3G technology chose SIP from the start as the choice multimedia protocol for the new high-bandwidth wireless service, Sinnreich says. "That proved in hindsight to be a good idea. We didn't know at the time that the wireless [device] world would go with SIP," he says.

One 3G/SIP product that has already emerged is the Nokia Communicator, a PDA/cell phone hybrid that is capable of SIP-based instant text messaging. And Microsoft has promised that Windows CE devices such as the PocketPC will be SIP-enabled in 2002.