SIPconnect Gets Real

By Paula Bernier

The SIP Forum this week at VON is announcing the completion of its recommendation of SIPconnect, the groups SIP implementation for IP PBX to service provider trunking services. SIP Forum Chairman Jay Batson expects to see vendors test SIPconnect at future forum interoperability events, the next of which is planned for October at the University of New Hampshires interoperability test lab.

Batson said that SIP is so broad that there was a need for a specific SIP implementation to address how SIP-based IP PBXs at the enterprise should connect to service provider trunking services. SIPconnect, which has been in the works for a year-and-a-half, is the SIP Forums answer to that need.

As part of that effort, the forum adopted relevant standards from the IETF and ITU and combined that with its own work, which defined what aspects of SIP to implement for this specific application. For example, SIPconnect specifies that DNS SRV records, which are an option in SIP, are required for SIPconnect, said Batson.

The bulk of the benefits of SIPConnect will be realized by business customers, said Batson, for which the implementation eliminates the presence and thus the cost of CPE gateways, allows them to leverage more VoIP services and supports DID numbers even in small systems. Even in a six-user system, you can have DID numbers now, he said.

Those PBX supplies and service providers supporting SIPconnect also may have a leg up on their competitors, said Batson. He said to support SIPconnect, IP PBX vendors can get the implementation details on the forums Web site and typically upgrade their products to support it with just a minor software change.

SIP Forum www.sipforum.org