Contents

Introduction

Getting Started

DNS

Proxies

Gateways

User Agents

Directory Considerations

Security Considerations

Deployments

Glossary

Contacts

Related Links

Introduction

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), is a signaling protocol used for establishing voice, video, and instant messaging communications over the Internet. SIP has been widely adopted by telecommunications carriers and computer software vendors as a means to support next generation communications services. SIP standards are being developed within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) SIP working group.

The goals of the Internet2 SIP.edu project are to:

• Increase the number of SIP-reachable users within Internet2;
• Promote the convergence of voice and email identities;
• Build a community of Internet2 schools that is experimenting with offering enterprise SIP services.

By becoming "SIP.edu-enabled", a school makes all of its telephones (and users) reachable via SIP. For instance, although Bob at BigU may know nothing about SIP and may have a five year old PBX phone on his desk, SIP.edu allows Alice to call Bob using Bob's email address (e.g. bob@bigu.edu). The initial SIP.edu architecture works by integrating the legacy campus PBX and person directory with two new components: a SIP proxy server and a SIP-PRI gateway.

Once a school has deployed the initial SIP.edu architecture, it can begin to explore and implement other SIP-related services. While SIP.edu focuses primarily in voice communications, SIP is media-agnostic and can support video, text, and other media.

Using the Cookbook

This cookbook is intended for schools that are interested in implementing SIP.edu on their campuses.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide a one-size-fits-all SIP.edu "recipe". There is great variety among the PBXs, person directories, and DNS architectures deployed throughout Internet2.

Despite differences among deploying campuses, this cookbook identifies a number of common problems and some common solutions, particularly with respect to the configuration of the new components. Security and directory best practices are also discussed.

"Getting Started" provides a high-level overview of the architecture and surveys some of the components you will need.

"DNS" provides detailed technical information about SIP service location and DNS configuration for SIP.edu.

"Proxies" surveys SIP proxies that have been used successfully in SIP.edu deployments and provides configuration guides for each.

"Gateways" surveys SIP gateways that have been used successfully in SIP.edu deployments and provides configuration guides for each.

"Directory Considerations" discusses issues relating to the mapping of SIP address to phone extensions.

"Security Considerations" discusses some of the security implications of deploying SIP services.

"User Agents" surveys SIP user agents (UAs), the tradeoffs between hard phones and soft phones, and the requirements for use with SIP.edu.

"Deployments" lists some example SIP.edu deployments and includes deployment notes from the implementers.

As you progress with your implementation, please contact us and let us know how you're doing.