Do you fire up your Gmail client to send an email to another Gmail user? And would that email fail to arrive if you used Outlook instead? Of course not and it's all down to the standard email protocol called SMTP. Every email client supports it so you don't have to worry what the other person is using. Likewise, HTTP delivers web content regardless of the browser being used.
This has always been the promise of SIP (the Session Initiation Protocol). Designed to establish, manage and 'tear down' communication channels between any media device, anywhere. Sound good?
SIP in Unified Communications
I'm not going to give you a definition of Unified Communications (UC) here, just hit Google and wade through all the interpretations that pop up. I do however, want to talk about how SIP 'underpins' UC.
It does this by ensuring that all elements of a business UC solution can establish connections to work together. It also allows for 'mid session' information to be passed between these elements to enhance the communications experience. A good example of this is starting up a whiteboard application with a colleague to give your existing conversation another dimension.
SIP/SIMPLE
Now UC isn't just about Instant Messaging, but I need to start somewhere.
The IETF SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions) working group focuses on the application of SIP to Instant messaging (IM) and Presence services. Invariably their work will affect any UC solution.
Now you may not know this, but when you use IM you become a 'Presentity'. That is, you are an 'entity' with a presence state i.e. Continue Reading...
