http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/sip-charter.html

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Session Initiation Protocol (sip)

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In addition to this official charter maintained by the IETF Secretariat, there is additional information about this working group on the Web at:

       Additional SIP Page

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Last Modified: 2005-01-31

Chair(s):

Dean Willis <dean.willis@softarmor.com>
Rohan Mahy < rohan@ekabal.com>

Transport Area Director(s):

Allison Mankin <mankin@psg.com>
Jon Peterson <jon.peterson@neustar.biz>

Transport Area Advisor:

Allison Mankin <mankin@psg.com>

Technical Advisor(s):

Dan Romascanu <dromasca@avaya.com>

Mailing Lists:

General Discussion: sip@ietf.org
To Subscribe: sip-request@ietf.org
In Body: subscribe
Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/sip/index.html

Description of Working Group:

Note: There is another SIP email list for general information and
implementations:

Discussion of existing sip: sip-implementors@cs.columbia.edu
To Subscribe: sip-implementors-request@cs.columbia.edu
In Body: subscribe Archive:
http://lists.cs.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/sip-implementors
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The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) working group is chartered to
continue the development of SIP, currently specified as proposed
standard RFC 2543.  SIP is a text-based protocol, similar to HTTP and
SMTP, for initiating interactive communication sessions between users.
Such sessions include voice, video, chat, interactive games, and
virtual reality. The main work of the group involves bringing SIP from
proposed to draft standard, in addition to specifying and developing
proposed extensions that arise out of strong requirements. The SIP
working group will concentrate on the specification of SIP and its
extensions, and will not explore the  use of SIP for specific
environments or applications. It will, however respond to
general-purpose requirements for changes to SIP provided by other
working groups, including the SIPPING working group, when those
requirements are within the scope and charter of SIP.

Throughout its work, the group will strive to maintain the basic model
and architecture defined by SIP. In particular:

1. Services and features are provided end-to-end whenever possible.

2. Extensions and new features must be generally applicable, and not
  applicable only to a specific set of session types.

3. Simplicity is key.

4. Reuse of existing IP protocols and architectures, and integrating
  with other IP applications, is crucial.

SIP was first developed within the Multiparty Multimedia Session
Control (MMUSIC) working group, and the SIP working group will continue
to maintain active communications with MMUSIC. This is particularly
important since the main MIME type carried in SIP messages, the Session
Description Protocol (SDP), specified in RFC 2327, is developed by
MMUSIC and because MMUSIC is developing a successor to SDP which SIP
will also use.

The group will work very closely with the (proposed) SIPPING WG, which
is expected to analyze the requirements for application of SIP to
several different tasks, and with the SIMPLE WG, which is using SIP for
messaging and presence.

The group will also maintain open dialogues with the IP telephony
(IPTEL) WG, whose Call Processing Language (CPL) relates to many
features of SIP; will continue to consider the requirements and
specifications previously established by the PSTN and Internet
Internetworking (PINT) working group;: and will consider input from the
Distributed Call Signaling (DCS) Group of the PacketCable Consortium
for distributed telephony services, and from 3GPP, 3GPP2, and MWIF for
third-generation wireless network requirements.

The specific deliverables of the group are:

1. bis: A draft standard version of SIP.

2. callcontrol: Completion of the SIP call control specifications,
  which enables multiparty services, such as transfer and bridged
  sessions.

3. callerpref: Completion of the SIP caller preferences extensions,
  which enables intelligent call routing services.

4. mib: Define a MIB for SIP nodes.

5. precon: Completion of the SIP 
  extensions needed to assure satisfaction of external preconditions
  such as QoS establishment.

6. state: Completion of the SIP extensions needed to manage state
  within signaling, aka SIP "cookies".

7. priv: Completion of SIP extensions for security and privacy.

8. security: Assuring generally adequate security  and privacy
  mechanisms within SIP.

9. provrel: Completion of the SIP extensions needed for reliability of
  provisional messages.

10. servfeat: Completion of the SIP extensions needed for negotiation
    ofserver features.

11. sesstimer: Completion of the SIP Session Timer extension.

12. events: Completion of the SIP Events extensions (Subscribe/Notify).

13. security: Requirements for Privacy and Security.

14. compression: SIP mechanisms for negotiating and guidelines for
using
    signaling compression as defined in ROHC.

15. content indirection: a Proposed Standard Mechanism to reference
    SIP content indirectly (by reference, f