In an interview following our recent newsletter on the progress of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) interoperability, we spoke earlier this week with executives from IntelePeer including Charles Studt, VP of product management, and Margaret Norton, general manager for enterprise and applications. As a cloud communications service provider for enterprises and carriers, the company’s all-IP platform connects customers’ telecommunications networks — carrying 20 billion minutes annually.
Starting the discussion about SIP trunking services for voice, Studt pointed out that SIP has been used successfully as a trunking protocol since 2003, noting that current interoperability for this service was “the least troublesome, with interoperability issues far and few between.”
PRIMER: SIP trunking
The discussion next turned to using SIP between multiple vendors for the full range of voice calling features found in an IP-PBX, and Norton observed there was “still an opportunity for more evolution.” Both experts agreed that multi-vendor interoperability for this category was in early stages.
When we asked when the enterprise would see full-scale SIP interoperability between different vendors’ platforms without need for a gateway (or the PSTN acting as a gateway), Studt observed that the question is not so much when it will happen but what needs to happen first. He pointed out, for example, that different vendors use different internal addressing schemes and directories — suggesting that a common approach to these two basic components of session control must be among the first issues solved.
We all agreed that full SIP interoperability to control unified communications and collaboration features across multiple vendor systems is even more distant than voice-only features. Norton noted that until business customers begin to demand SIP-based collaboration between enterprises, developers will be slow to create momentum for these initiatives.
We closed our discussion with observations on the progress with interoperability for videoconferencing and telepresence systems between vendors, agreeing that we have seen some forward movement both between vendors directly, and with service providers offering video gateway services to connect video calls between enterprises that have different video conferencing suppliers.
Our thanks to Norton and Studt for sharing their expertise and views on this important issue.
