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SIP Happened

Or did it? The Session Initiation Protocol (▲SIP) is quickly becoming a source of frustration even before it truly gets market adoption. SIP has had the mindshare in the industry for years, largely thanks to a lot of marketing dollars. Even so, the protocol most widely deployed throughout the world is ▲H.323, which was created at the same time as SIP. More importantly, has SIP enhanced our lives? Are you better able to communicate with others? In the opinions of many, SIP merely replaces a phone with a phone.

Look at the technologies that are shaping our lives. One could easily argue that Skype and the many instant messaging products and social networking sites have changed our lives much more significantly. By and large, SIP has proven to be nothing more than a ▲PSTN replacement—and it does not do that very well.

Technology is now changing, even before SIP has taken root. People are now using multiple devices and want to utilize multiple modes of communication, including voice, video, text, application sharing, whiteboarding, file transfer, and so on. We need a way to seamlessly move between devices and applications as we move around the home, office, or down the street. All of this is the subject of a new effort called the ▲Advanced Multimedia System, which intends to take full advantage of the capabilities of the ▲IP network and enable a multiplicity of devices to communicate in concert for a richer communication experience.

On these pages, you will also find some of the truths that highlight the fact that SIP is not quite what it was advertised to be. More importantly, SIP is not the right technology for the long-term. It's time we start looking forward.