Subject: SIP Terminals

From: "Tom-PT Taylor" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 19:33:41 -0500

This is a question with more than one answer.  I suspect that people
participating in this list have in their minds some model of a SIP terminal,
and this is influencing their views on the capabilities required in the
protocol.  So I will toss this question out as a matter of curiousity and
perhaps a means to clarify debate: if you think of a SIP terminal, what do
you have in mind in physical terms?  What is the human interface?  What are
the capabilities for running applications other than SIP?  What sort of
access bandwidth are you hoping for?  Anything else you can think of?  

Tom Taylor
Advisor -- IPConnect Standards
E-mail: [email-masked] (internally, Tom-PT Taylor)
Phone and FAX: +1 613 736 0961

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From: Henry Sinnreich <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:09:10 -0600

SIP TerminalsTom,

We have seen several SIP phones at the VON Fall'99 (including one at the
demo at the plenary) and understand several vendors are developing SIP
phones. PC-phones and various portable (palmtop) devices may be next.
Suggest to look at the proposed TIA standard for SIP phones.

I have a problem with name "terminal" probably taken from the H.323
vocabulary. Since SIP endpoints are Internet hosts - quite intelligent
devices, calling them SIP gateways, phones, palmtops, PC clients may be a
more accurate description.

Henry
  -----Original Message-----
  From: [email-masked]
[mailto:[email-masked]]On Behalf Of Tom-PT Taylor
  Sent: Monday, November 29, 1999 6:34 PM
  To: sip
  Subject: SIP Terminals

  Tom Taylor

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From: "David R. Oran" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 10:09:38 -0500

SIP TerminalsThere's no such thing as a "SIP terminal". All SIP defines is a
UAC/UAS. It says nothing about what you embed it in. Could be part of
Quake4.Exe, a Palm21, a refrigerator, or even (perish the thought) a
telephone.
  -----Original Message-----
  From: [email-masked]
[mailto:[email-masked]]On Behalf Of Tom-PT Taylor
  Sent: Monday, November 29, 1999 7:34 PM
  To: sip
  Subject: SIP Terminals

protocol.

  Not really. I think what most influences my thoughts about what belongs in
the protocol is to NOT think about terminals, particular devices, certain
UIs, and instread think logically about the functions and services a session
rtenvedvous protocol has to have in order to serve the widest range of
applications possible while still being efficient and able to do simple
applications simply.

  That said, SIP definitely does imply a device with a reasonable amount of
local state and intelligence, which does the bidding of the user rather than
the network (i.e. the network doesn't necessarily trust it and it doesn't
necessarily trust the network).

   So I will toss this question out as a matter of curiousity and perhaps a
means to clarify debate: if you think of a SIP terminal, what do you have in
mind in physical terms?  What is the human interface?  What are the
capabilities for running applications other than SIP?  What sort of access
bandwidth are you hoping for?  Anything else you can think of?

  Start Trek communicators, Dick tracy wrist watches, Room-size wall
displays with ASR, 3D audio, and composed virtual-environment video
composition.

  Oh, yes. Telephones too.

  Tom Taylor