Yusuke Aoyama
IPv6Style
With the global expansion of the SIP market, the issue of interconnectivity is drawing people's attention. SIP is widespread as a core protocol for IP telephones and it has been decided that it will be used for NGN as well. However, as is often the case with new technologies, there has not been enough interconnectivity testing performed at various levels, e.g. between devices, manufacturers, ISPs, etc.
In order to improve this situation, there is an event for testing interconnectivity, hosted by the SIP Forum, called "SIPit". The first SIPit was held in April of this year in Akihabara, Tokyo; SIP device vendors from Japan as well as overseas got together and performed interconnectivity tests.
Interconnectivity among SIP devices becomes very important to Japanese network equipment manufacturers from now on. At SIPit, Prof. Hiroshi Esaki, University of Tokyo, who is a trustee of the Japan Network Information Center (JPNIC), said, "Although the Japanese SIP/VoIP market has been growing, apart from the testing within Japan, we can't say that interoperability testing is done thoroughly at the global level. It is important to be able to connect Japanese devices when they go out into the world, or conversely, to be able to connect devices from around the world when in Japan. Also, [it is important] to be able to resolve issues when troubles occur."
Also, it is possible that SIP and IP telephones will cause major change in the area of international calling. Currently, in most cases, each service provider runs their own IP phone services and the services in each country are separate from one another. However, just like the increasing demands for international roaming on cell phones, it is very possible that IP telephones may require interoperability between different countries in the future.
So, several East Asian countries, Japan, China, South Korea and Thailand, got together and decided to found an interoperability testbed. With the leadership of Prof. Esaki, CERNET and China Netcom from China, KT from South Korea, and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) from Thailand are currently in agreement and preparing to found the testbed; in addition to those countries, they are also asking Taiwan and Singapore to participate.
As for the Japanese government, they have been promoting the "Asia Broadband Program", which aims to make Asia as a whole a global information hub by working together with other Asian countries to improve the broadband environment. According to Prof. Esaki, SIPit would like to add Asia's SIP interoperability testbed to this program.
SIP is a technology that enables devices to communicate one-on-one over a network; not just for IP telephones, it can be used in various ways. By connecting not only within Japan, but also globally, new usages can be discovered, and we can expect new business opportunities to appear.
