Project Description
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)RFC3261 is one of the popular protocols used for the exchange of text, voice and video on Internet Protocol (IP) or next generation networks which happens in a client-server environment. The servers are used to provide centralised control of the entire network environment. While there are advantages for client-server environment, the servers create a single point of failure. This it not ideal for resource limited settings, such as in environments with limited Internet connectivity and infrastructure.
To avoid the use of centralised servers, the SIP community via the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), has been working on decentralising SIP by creating a Peer-to-Peer version of SIP called P2PSIP. In this thesis, we investigated the progress of this work. We also tested some of the implemented P2PSIP systems with the view of comparing how these systems have addressed various issues that need to be resolved before P2PSIP is declared a standard for decentralised SIP communication. We then went further to compare tested implementations using some of the designs decisions made in the P2PSIP working group. These comparisons helped us to choose two implementations, 39 Peers and SIP2P that can be used for research purpose, in particular within the Rhodes University Convergence research group.
P2PSIP IETF working group
The P2PSIP working group is the group in charge of the standardisation of the decentralised
SIP architecture. The group main task is to define a P2P based VoIP communication
that uses SIP. Moreover, it addresses issues such as security and privacy in a P2P
communications network. In short, the mandate of the group is to incorporate P2P into
the client-server based SIP and form P2PSIP that is not tied to only one organisation like
Skype. (Essentially, P2PSIP is an open standard's answer to Skype.)
