All Contents © 2006 Burton Group. All rights reserved.

VoiceCon Spring 2006:SIP And Today’s IP-Telephone Market8 March, 2006Irwin Lazar

Senior Analyst

Ilazar@burtongroup.com

SIP: 1-747-606-4120

http://www.burtongroup.com/

2Agenda

• SIP Today• Communications Convergence• SIP-Based Services• Enterprise Recommendations

3The Future Is SIP…But what about the present?

Consumer Reality:

• SIP is widely used by almost every vendor of IP telephony services

• Vonage, CallVantage, Lingo, etc. are all SIP-based services• Direct peering among providers is increasing, bypassing the PSTN

• Free SIP-based telephony services emerging (Earthlink, Gizmo Project)

• Peering among these services is creating a growing fabric of interconnected SIP-based user agents

• CableLabs Distributed Call Signaling (DOCSIS) standard based on SIP

• SIP is basis for signaling in all future 3G IP wireless networks (IMS)

4The Future Is SIP…But what about the present?

Enterprise Reality:

• Hosted services almost always based on SIP• Leading platforms from Broadsoft and others are based on SIP

• Enterprise IP telephony vendors have a SIP story• But capabilities differ

• Most only support SIP for system interconnection, not for end-device signaling on their core platforms

• H.323 or its variants (Cisco “Skinny”, Siemens “CorNet”, Mitel “MiNet”, Nortel “UniStim”) still dominate

• Why?• Lack of agreement for SIP feature implementation• A desire to protect phone system revenues??? ;-)

• Enterprise impact• Lack of end-point choice - proprietary solutions

5Arguments Against SIP

It isn’t mature

• SIP is over six years old, core standards are matureIt doesn’t support traditional telephony features

• SIP primitives and feature packs support widely used telephony features in a standardized manner

• Implementations still vary, often proprietary extensions are usedIt isn’t secure

• SIP supports per-hop and end-to-end security models including encryption and user authentication

• But - several tests have discovered implementation-specific vulnerabilitiesIt doesn’t work over NAT

• Numerous NAT mitigation techniques have been well defined and widely deployed

6SIP IP-PBXs

You can buy a SIP-based IP-PBX today!

• Commercial Examples:• 3Com VCX 7000• Siemens HiPath 8000• Broadsoft Broadworks• Mitel 3300

• Open Source Examples:• Pingtel SIPxchange• SIPfoundry sipX• Asterisk

• SIP-base converged communications servers• Nortel MCS 5100, Avaya Converged Communications Server

7Agenda

• SIP Today• Communications Convergence• SIP-based Services• Enterprise Recommendations

8

How Do I Contact Someone?

• How can I contact them?• IM, voice, cell, e-mail, video?• Can my system talk to their

system?• Are they available?

• Are they on the phone or in a meeting?

• Are they the right person for the inquiry?

• How do I arrange a conference call?

• What if they don’t dial into the teleconference?

• How do I share information?

The Communications Detective

9The Big Picture

Goal: a single communications infrastructure unifying collaboration, real-time communications, and presence

• Convergence not of voice & data, but rather convergence all forms of real-time communications into a unified application

• Combined with collaboration tools• Integrated into business applications & processes• Extensible beyond organizational boundaries• Delivering measurable business benefit by streamlining and

improving the ability for individuals and groups to communicate• Converge non-real time communications (e-mail)

• Voice but just one component of a converged communications & collaboration infrastructure

10An Example

Converged communications in action:

• April 1st 2005 - new product launch• April 2nd 2005 - 10:00 AM, warehouse reports

inventory shortage• Inventory control application sends an IM to product manager

alerting her of the problem• Product manager calls a teleconference via presence portal• System calls team members preferred devices• Team members collaborate with real-time application information

in current environments• All done via a single click through a unified user interface

11

Digital

PhoneIP Phone

SIP /

SIMPLE

Presence

Services

Soft-phone IM Client PC w/ USBCamera

Converged Presence-

Based Client

Mobile

Phone

Collaborative

Applications

SIP and Presence

SIMPLE extends SIP to create a “glue” for converged communications

12SIP and Collaboration

Vendors are rapidly delivering solutions in this space, but forces are colliding:

In the VoIP Corner:Siemens HiPath OpenScapeNortel Multimedia Communications Server 5100Avaya Converged Communications ServerMitel “Your Assistant”

In the IM Corner:Microsoft Office Live Communication Server 2005 w/ Office Communicator clientIBM Lotus “Hanover” client Public services (e.g. Skype)

Who Owns the Interface????

13SIP and Web Services

SIP will be increasingly extended beyond traditional voice systems

• SIP capabilities in CRM, ERP applications• Example: BEA WebLogic SIP Server for extending SIP applications

via J2EE• Web services capabilities in IP-PBXs (e.g. support for

SOAP/SAML/XML)

Goals

• Enable application-to-application as well as application to person communications

14Agenda

• SIP Today• Communications Convergence• SIP-based Services• Enterprise Recommendations

15Peering and Federation

Instant Messaging, VoIP, and Presence

• SIP/SIMPLE-based federation of real-time applications• Both within and outside of an organization• Example:

• Microsoft Live Communications Server using SIMPLE to interface with Yahoo IM and AIM

• Lotus SameTime interfacing with Jabber among departments or business partners

• “Direct peering” versus “clearinghouse” models

16Federation Example

Clearinghouse

Enterprise BEnterprise C

Enterprise DEnterprise A

Direct Federation Connection

17SIP Trunking Services

Eliminating local loops

• Enterprise sends calls to service provider via SIP• Service provider routes calls to PSTN gateway nearest

destination• End result:

• Reduction in toll charges• Elimination of local loops

Service evolution

• IETF defining common interface standards• SIP Forum defining policy standards• Numerous vendor/carrier certification programs

18SIP Trunking Example

IP-PBX

Enterprise Location

Provider Network

SIPProvider Gateway

NY

New YorkPBX

Customer Location

Los Angeles

SIP

Provider Gateway

LA

PSTN

PRI

PRI

19Agenda

• SIP Today• Communications Convergence• SIP-based Services• Enterprise Recommendations

20Enterprise Recommendations

Pressure your vendors

• Improved SIP support broadens your choices of endpoints & systems

• Require SIP network interfaces on all communications products & services

• Open-standards based systems imply greater interoperability

• With each other, as well as emerging SIP trunking services• Follow standards development

• Much work still being done in IETF SIP, SIPPING, SIMPLE WGs and SIP Forum

21More Enterprise Recommendations

Determine an “owner” for collaboration & communications

• Typically a cross-functional group from voice, messaging, instant messaging groups

• Prepare for network management challengesDetermine business case benefits

• Can you establish a tangible benefit to converged communications?

Make converged communications part of your long-term plans

• Improved communications = lower costs and greater efficiency

• May lead to easier regulatory compliance