SIP Forum Forms New SIP over IPv6 Task Group
Goal to Develop Roadmap for Telecommunications Industry’s Smooth Transition to IPv6 for SIP Applications, Services and Devices
NORTH ANDOVER, MA (September 26, 2012) – The SIP Forum announced today the formation of the SIP over IPv6 Task Group (IPv6) to address key deployment and interoperability issues in the telecommunications industry’s migration to SIP over IPv6. The new task group, which will enlist key stakeholders from the service provider, application developer and equipment communities, has developed and ratified a charter with the mandate to identify issues with SIP over IPv6 and assess the impact of transition technologies and dual stack devices on existing SIP networks.
Co-chairs John Berg of CableLabs and Andrew Hutton of Siemens Enterprise Communications will lead the group, working with SIP Forum management, including Technical Working Group Director Spencer Dawkins, Chairman of the Board Richard Shockey and Managing Director and President Marc Robins. In addition, there are currently more than 120 other task group members from across the industry, with new members joining daily.
SIP Forum SIP Over IPv6 Task Group Charter
The task group will focus on the following:
- Evaluating the current status of SIP over IPv6 based on IETF and other industry standardization.
- Assessing current technologies and strategies for IPv4/IPv6 co-existence and identifying impacts of these technologies on SIP-based networks and the user experience.
- Reviewing the work of technical entities, such as the IPv6 Forum, UCIF, CEA IPv6 Working Group and UPnP, to evaluate progress on IPv6 adoption within the industry and develop necessary formal liaisons to coordinate efforts and avoid duplication.
- Functioning as a resource and advisor for SIP Forum members on matters related to SIP over IPv6 and SIP in Dual IP networks, as well as infrastructure issues, such as stateful/stateless address auto configuration, security and others.
- Identifying areas where existing standards for SIP over IPv6 and dual stack are inadequate or non-existent, such as technical documents, network architectures and standards.
- Providing direction and technical leadership in resolving problems related to SIP when using IPv6 or co-existence technologies.
Ultimately, the SIP Over IPv6 Task Group aims to develop technical recommendations based on its research, discoveries and suggested courses of action to remedy deficiencies. If changes are required to existing RFCs or new RFCs are desirable, the Task Group will work through existing standards organizations, such as the IETF and the ITU.
“The SIP Over IPv6 Task Group will play an important role in identifying the challenges facing the telecommunications industry in migrating to SIP over IPv6,” said SIP Forum Managing Director and President Marc Robins. “This is a complex transition, involving issues critical to the foundation of the future Internet. This new task group is charged with developing the strategy and best course of action to guide the IP communications industry toward the smoothest transition to IPv6.”
IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6 ) is a next-generation Internet protocol designed to replace and improve upon IPv4, which serves as the fundamental transportation layer protocol for today’s Internet. IPv6 has a number of enhanced features and functionalities designed to improve the security of IP traffic and provide more support for real-time communications. IPv6 syncs seamlessly with SIP (session initiation protocol) in the application layer, which serves as the signaling protocol for handling VoIP and multimedia communications over IP networks.
The broader telecommunications industry is committed to transitioning as quickly as possible to IPv6 to ensure the Internet can continue to grow and connect billions of people and devices around the world. With IPv6 providing an essentially unlimited supply of addresses, its implementation is imperative to maintaining an open and accessible Internet for current users, as well as the five billion people worldwide not yet connected. The last blocks of IPv4 addresses were assigned to the Regional Internet Registry in 2011, and address space is expected to run out in the U.S. by 2013, and 2014 worldwide. Recognizing the imminent exhaustion of IPv4 addresses and the ever-growing consumer demand for SIP network connectivity, thousands of companies and millions of websites have already permanently enabled IPv6. Many home network manufacturers and Internet Service Providers have already converted, as well, paving the way for deployment across the global Internet.
The SIP Over IPv6 Task Group aims to help SIP-based network providers deliver more reliable service by managing their transition to IPv6 and understanding its co-existence with IPv4. Its overarching goal is to promote and smooth the way for widespread migration through problem-solving and industry-wide standardization.
About the SIP Forum
The SIP Forum is an IP communications industry association that engages in numerous activities that promote and advance SIP-based technology, such as the development of industry recommendations, the SIPit and SIPconnect-IT interoperability and testing events, special workshops, educational seminars, and general promotion of SIP in the industry. The SIP Forum is also the producer of the annual SIPNOC conferences (for SIP Network Operator’s Conference), focused on the technical requirements of the service provider community. One of the Forum’s notable technical activities is the development of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation – a standards-based recommendation that provides detailed guidelines for direct IP peering and interoperability between IP PBXs and VoIP service provider networks. Other important Forum initiatives include work in Fax-over-IP interoperability, User Agent Configuration, VRS interoperability, security, and SIP and IPv6. For more information, please visit: https://www.sipforum.org.
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