The SIP Forum announces that it has ratified Version 1.1 of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation, with the unanimous approval of the SIP Forum Board of Directors. The new version of the recommendation, developed by the SIP Forum’s SIPconnect Task Group, is a follow-on to Version 1.0 ratified in 2008, and provides a more definitive and standardized set of guidelines for seamless, end-to-end interoperability between SIP-enabled IP-PBXs and service provider networks.

The SIPconnect Technical Recommendation, which represents the consensus of a broad cross section of the global telecom community, is one of the most important initiatives of the SIP Forum, aimed at providing an up-to-date, international framework for direct IP peering between SIP-enabled enterprises and service provider networks, ensuring the interoperability of network elements across the IP environment and providing a level playing field for vendors and service providers as they develop new equipment and IP applications for deployment.

The SIPconnect 1.1 Technical Recommendation features an array of enhancements from Version 1.0 such as more comprehensive guidelines about security and SIP end-point and media endpoint functionality. Highlights include:

• Standards-based support for both Static (DNS-based) and Registration (SIP REGISTER-based) modes of operation incorporating the newly approved RFC 6140
• Description of SIP endpoint functionality required for interworking, with detailed discussion of various error conditions and appropriate responses to those errors
• Description of media endpoint functionality required for interworking
• Focus on Phone number (i.e., E-164) based SIP Address of Record
• Additional voice services using SIP techniques
• A detailed description of transaction layer security usage
• A roadmap on what implementers can expect in subsequent SIPconnect revisions (IPv6, emergency services, etc.)

SIPconnect puts forth a technical profile based on IETF standards aimed at putting all networks and service providers on the same playing field. The formal adoption by the SIP Forum Board of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation Version 1.1 is based on recognition that the document has been through comprehensive peer review by known technical experts, including broad membership and significant community review, that it is stable and is well-understood, and that it is believed to have resolved known design choices.

SIPconnect 1.1 contributing companies included Acme Packet, AT&T, Avaya, Bandwidth.com, Boeing, Broadsoft, CableLabs, Cablevision, Cbeyond, Cisco, Columbia University, Comcast Cable, Cox Communications, Digium, Encore Software, GENBAND, Global Crossing, Huawei, Ingate Systems, MetaSwitch, Microsoft, NeuStar, Nokia, Nortel, PAETEC, Panasonic, Pbxnsip, Polycom, Radvision, Samsung, Siemens Enterprise Communications, Sonus Networks, Tekelec, Tele2 Nederland, Voxeo, and XO Communications.