A Survey of Open Source Products for Building a SIP Communication Platform

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a multimedia signalling protocol that has evolved into a widely adopted communication standard. The integration of SIP into existing IP networks has fostered IP networks becoming a convergence platform for both realtime and non-real-time multimedia communications. This converged platform integrates data, voice, video, presence, messaging, and conference services into a single network that offers new communication experiences for users. The open source community has contributed to SIP adoption through the development of open source software for both SIP clients and servers. In this paper, we provide a survey on open SIP systems that can be built using publically available software. We identify SIP features for service development and programming, services and applications of a SIP-converged platform, and the most important technologies supporting SIP functionalities. We propose an advanced converged IP communication platform that uses SIP for service delivery. The platform supports audio and video calls, along with media services such as audio conferences, voicemail, presence, and instant messaging. Using SIP Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the platform allows the deployment of advanced integrated services. The platform is implemented with open source software. Architecture components run on standardized hardware with no need for special purpose investments.