Sip Trunking

SIP Trunk

Converged Networks with Lab

SIP Trunk

In this paper, my purpose is to educate the reader and by the end of this paper, you will be more informed on these following concepts; what a SIP Trunk is?, why you would use a SIP Trunk?, the equipment required for its use, and any RFC’s that discuss SIP Trunking. This paper will briefly tour the history behind these concepts and show how they are affecting our usage of the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol and is a signaling communications protocol. It is greatly implemented in voice and video calls over Internet Protocol networks. According to Microsoft, “A SIP trunk is a direct connection between your organization and an Internet telephony service provider (ITSP). It enables you to extend voice over IP (VoIP) telephony beyond your organization’s firewall without the need for an IP-PSTN gateway. This simpler configuration is easier and less expensive to design, operate, maintain, and upgrade. And because ITSPs deliver services (notably long distance) at substantial savings, your investment in SIP trunking can give a quick and substantial return on investment”(Rez). Of course Microsoft is selling the protocol but with the features included, it’s definitely good for a work environment with long distance communication as well as cost savings included, which allows less management cost and less maintenance. It also allows instant messaging, updates, conferencing, and real time services.

There are different scenarios where you can use the SIP trunking model. With the connection being dedicated with no other traffic, it becomes most reliable, more secure, has the highest call-carrying capacity, and a VPN is not required to set it up. The draw back of this scenario is that it is the most expensive implementation. Another scenario is that you may use a dedicated line that shares other IP traffic which allows for more security in communications and a VPN is not...