In many of today's call centers, the session initiation protocol (SIP) allows customers and call center agents to connect through various forms of multimedia communications. We've gathered these terms and definitions to help you better understand SIP in the call center.
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Table of Contents
SIP in the call center: Top 10 buzzwords
1.
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Session Initiation Protocol
2. IETF
3. User session
4. Unicast session
5. Multicast session
6. Anycast session
7. SIP trunking
8. SIMPLE
9. Presence
10. Session border controller
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SIP in the call center: Top 10
buzzwords
Session
initiation protocol (SIP) is a standard protocol used to initiate an interactive user
session. SIP determines the end system to be used for the session, the communication media and
media parameters, and the called party's desire to engage in the communication. Once these are set,
SIP establishes call parameters at either end of the communication, and handles call transfer and
termination. Call centers use SIP to handle and facilitate various types of multimedia
communications.
- Get a SIP
tutorial.
IETF, which stands for the Internet Engineering Task Force, is the body which defines standard Internet operating protocols such as SIP.
A user session is the presence of a user with a specific IP address within a certain period of time. In the call center, SIP is used to initiate a user session that may consist of one or more media streams (i.e., voice, video, instant messaging).
A unicast session is created when a single sender and a single receiver communicate over a network. For example, if a customer on a company website opts to communicate via instant message with a call center agent, SIP creates a unicast session to enable this communication.
A multicast session is created when a single sender connects with multiple users over a network. For example, a multicast session is created when an organization sends an email newsletter to many of its customers.
An anycast session is the communication between a single sender and the nearest or "best" of several receivers in a group. In the call center, an anycast session would be set up when a customer contacts the center and is connected with the next available call center agent.
SIP trunking is the use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to facilitate the connection of a private branch exchange (PBX) to the Internet. Since SIP trunking combines data, voice and video in a single trunk (or line), call centers with a PBX system often find that SIP trunking reduces costs and improves the reliability of their multimedia services.
- Learn why SIP
trunks are a "no-brainer" for VoIP rollouts.
SIMPLE, which stands for SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions, is an add-on to SIP that many industry experts believe will be the basis for a new Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol.
Presence technology is a type of application that makes it possible to locate a computing device, regardless of its location, when the user connects to the network. An example of presence technology is an instant messaging application. SIP is used to connect presence technology with voice and other multimedia communications in the call center.
A session border controller is a device or application that oversees the manner in which sessions are initiated, conducted and terminated in a VoIP network.
- Test your knowledge on VoIP and SIP.
Buzzword definitions provided by WhatIs.com
This was first published in November 2008