[Asterisk-Dev] RFCs about SIP call-flows; SIP Resources; IETF, ENUM, & (?) E2U IAX/IAX2 svc types?

[Sean Champ]

Hello,

I've recently become interested about SIP. Asterisk, it being the mainstay 
VoIP/PSTN/... suite, as also got my attenton fixed, on it.

I found some *major* SIP-related resources, today, which I thought I might 
mentione to the list.


[I.] Call Flows

There are two RFCs, in particular, which I thought that I'd mention to the 
list, hoping that these might be of interest to anyone:


* RFC 3665 - Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Basic Call Flow Examples
=> Available in HTML: http://rfc.sunsite.dk/rfc/rfc3665.html

* RFC 3666 - Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Public Switched Telephone 
Network (PSTN) Call Flows
=> Ditto: http://rfc.sunsite.dk/rfc/rfc3666.html

I realize, "call flows" may sound like some pretty general topics. 

I suppose, the topic of "call flows" might be more/also fit for the -doc list 
-- e.g., some call-flow diagrams could really drive the point through.

I won't be "so brazen" as to cross-post it, there; pardon. (I'm not *yet* 
ready to commit about contributing for th documentaiton for Asterisk; it 
looks like there's a good body of docs, to wholly absorb, already -- and 
gosh, oh, golly, there is a lot to VoIP/IPTel/.... SIP, RTP, H.323, ENUM, 
being just three big names in the lot, with the fourth seeming somehow 
significant, there, also. So many nice little RFCs ... . Thankfully, Asterisk 
serves to wrap it all into on applicable package, no joke.)



[II.] IETF 'sipping' WG

I'm not sure if anyone's noticed this, as yet, but there is a SIP-related 
working group at the IETF, their name;  Session Initiation Proposal 
Investigation (sipping) 
The WG's charter: http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/sipping-charter.html


[III.] More SIP resources

I found the above after I'd happened onto the IETF-activity web page of 
Jonathan Rosden, Cicso.

http://www.jdrosen.net/rfcseries.html



[IV.] "The IETF's Is Not Just SIPing the web"

The IETF also has an IP Telephony WG, their charter:
http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/iptel-charter.html


[V]. Far away from subject: IETF, IANA ENUM service-type registry ,and 
IAX/IAX2 ENUM service types?

The IETF was on the topic board, here; I thought that I'd toss this out, to 
see how it would sound: 

Background: ENUM is described in RFC 3761; it's based on DDDS, which is 
defined in RFCs 3401-3405 ("yes, all four")

ENUM incororates something about "service types" -- for which, the IANA 
maintains a registry [ http://www.iana.org/assignments/enum-services ], 
according to those that have been formally defined via the internet-drafts 
process. e.g. RFC numbers and defined transport-types:
*  RFC 4002 -- E2U+web, E2U+ft
*  RFC 3953 -- E2U+pres ['presence', like for the IETF's IM-system standards]
*  RFC 3762 -- E2U+H323
*  RFC 3764 -- E2U+SIP

Now, I noticed that there are E2U+iax and E2U+iax2 transports, implicitly 
defined as standards, in the software. I didn't find, yet, an RFC defined for 
'em; no sweat, but I thought it might be doable, for whom would be formally 
allied to/of Digium and Asterisk.

An  RFC could be filed, like  as those referencded above, *but* for the formal 
registration of the IAX/IAX2 ENUM service types with the IETF and the IANA.

Needless to say, that might also serve to grab some more attention about 
Digium && Asterisk, from the whole VoIP/... community.

RFC 3761 is the main ENUM RFC. It should define the stuff for how a transport 
format would be speicifed; those other RFCs, mentioned above, might serve as 
examples. 

Of course, membership in the IETF is no slight deal. For one, in what I know 
of it, they have a formal document process -- as  might be evident in RFC 
2026, "The Internet Standards Process" and there are a few other RFCs, 
related to IETF standards-making -- {Instructions 2223}, {Keyword-definition 
2119}, {General advisement 1796}, { RFC Series/Subseries 1150, 1311, 1818}, 
and then, {related about "IP rights" and such RFCs 3978 and 3979 }

I'm not a formal spokesperson for the IETF; I've just been gathering some 
ref's, and they're right in front of me,  so I thought that I might as well 
mention.


[VI.] A Conclusion about SIP


From what I get of it, it looks like SIP could become a pretty big deal. 

Beside the standards work, going on, about/beside SIP, and the agencies of 
whom's going-it-on, there is -- also -- some more FOSS, for working with SIP, 
FYI: 

* sipsak, summarized in the deb package for it "SIP Swiss army knife": 
http://sipsak.berlios.de/

* siproxd, a SIP proxy/redirector/registrar, probably like as somethings in 
Asterisk:  http://www.ries.ch.vu/siproxd/

* sip-tester [command: sipp], summarized in the .deb for it, "a performance 
testing tool for the SIP protocol": http://sourceforge.net/projects/sipp/

and heck, there's even the nice RFC 3351 - User Requirements for the Session 
Initiation Protocol (SIP) in Support of Deaf, Hard of Hearing and 
Speech-impaired Individuals.

Talk about some earnest goodwill, or sign it, and y' might be talking 
something that people will *not* turn away about. 


for/as info, here,


---
Sean Champ