Is SIP dead?

Is SIP dead?


Well some people say so, the future is pure IP, HTTP, REST, AJAX, Web, etc. There is no room in that picture for a protocol related to session control. People will find other ways of accomplishing that using existing common web protocols.


Yet other people look at SIP from the call control point-of-view and think of it as a failed protocol since the vast majority of all calls are still placed through legacy call-control protocols in the SS7 family. They look around and see no SIP anywhere.


Are these two views true or false? Well, neither I would like to say. User Generated Content and User Generated Applications are to a large extent one of the key driving forces for many operators. How can they use these to generate new revenue? Exposing REST based call control interfaces does not help in actually setting up the call itself. On the other hand, having several media resources involved in the delivery of a service is quite daunting using traditional SS7 if at all possible. Especially if the delivery involves new and legacy terminals across domains outside of the operator.




Let me take a few examples that I'm aware of where SIP have actually helped in increasing the service level and also generated increased revenue.


Network Norway is a Norwegian service provider focused on enterprises. They had the challenge on how to deliver their services across IP and SS7 domains with the same service level, functionality and cross domain calls. They chose to use BEA's partner Gintel to deliver a SIP based solution connected with both SS7 and SIP networks. Thus they can seamlessly deliver the same service across all domains without any service interruption. More info here about the solution: Gintel References.


SCIM is a very good example of the value that SIP provides. Service Capability Interaction Manager, SCIM, allows an operator to flexibly and without any reprogramming create new service combinations from existing service assets. The major differentiator is the mechanism in SIP that allows the message to traverse from service to service each making its own changes to the SIP message and then marking the SIP message for any future participation in the session. Thus a SIP message can visit many different services while being set-up. By introducing a SCIM an operator can easily enable fast service combinations to meet short term opportunities. A capable SCIM should also be able to connect to legacy SS7 networks and involve many different kinds of services in the session setup without affecting each service.


Second Life is a great virtual world. While many people use it to play a different life than what they are doing in this world, it wouldn't be too bad to communicate IRL (In Real Life). Telecom Italia's Alice island has a way to communicate between the first and second life. You can use a gadget called First Life Communicator in order to call between avatars anonymously. The call is placed through ItalTel's Telecom Service Box, TSB, which can be invoked through Web Services and connect to different kinds of network elements. By using SIP and SIP Servlets TSB can seamlessly connect to differnt networks. Through the Web Services exposed it is easy to create mash-ups such as the one with Second Life. I would call this a very elegant way of combining Web 2.0 User Generated Applications with seamless network access. For those of you who wants to read more on the subject, here's your salvation: http://www.italtel.com/allegati/events/the_service_box.pdf




One might think that these examples are just small and irrelevant. Well, in one way they are, in another way they are the sign of real change within the telco industry. Smaller players are innovating and creating new services that are similar to the existing, but when using new types of technology they can create some astonishing results. Like a tidal wave I believe it will hit the industry and change it from the bottom up.


What is the major driver for this? I believe this is the death to stove pipe solutions and the emergence of SOA and convergence among all kinds of services. I want my services to be able to participate in the same session regardless of when they were created and which access they use. With ad funded services and personalized advertisements the advertizing industry will not accept anything else than cross-service behavioral. SIP is an excellent technology for reaching that goal. In combination with a SCIM it gets too good to be true.