Internet - Draft SIP Spam February 2005

Spam, defined as the transmission of bulk unsolicited messages, has plagued Internet email. Unfortunately, spam is not limited to email. It can affect any system that enables user to user communications. The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) defines a system for user to user multimedia communications. Therefore, it is susceptible to Rosenberg, et al. Expires August 14, 2005 [Page 1] Internet-Draft SIP Spam February 2005 spam, just as email is. In this document, we analyze the problem of spam in SIP. We first identify the ways in which the problem is the same and the ways in which it is different from email. We then examine the various possible solutions that have been discussed for email and consider their applicability to SIP. Discussions on this draft should be directed at [email protected].