Subject: CTI and CSTA Feature Sets

From: "Pete Cordell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 12:04:56 -0000

Dear All,

Following on the comments about which services are supported by SIP, I feel
that one area that might need more attention is that of CTI (Computer
Telephony Integration)  which is often used in call centres.  This often
uses centralised call management (so that it is easier to control what the
call logic is rather than trying to distribute it over the end systems).
This means that the call flow is controlled by a device that is not an end
system which places different burdens on the call signalling.

So:

- Is this currently fully addressed and I have just missed it (if so please
let me know where), or

- Has it not been addressed so far, but we can use the existing features of
SIP to implement what's required, or

- Do we need to address this more formally.

Thanks,

Pete

=============================================
Pete Cordell
[email-masked]
=============================================

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From: Jean-Hugues ROBERT <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 16:30:47 +0100

Hi,

I agree with Pete. CTI is becoming very important, not a
big call center technology anymore. We are implementing a
CSTA/VERSIT/JTAPI CTI enabled VoIP PBX and we use SIP.

One requirement of CTI is "third party control". It is
the ability to monitor and control calls & devices that
are "remote" (versus "first party control" over a locally
attached hardware resource).

On solution I can imagine with SIP as it is today is to
behave as an application proxy that receive/modify/transmit
all the signaling (and part of the media, for DTMFs...).

This may be OK for call control, not for device control
(common devices are phones, announcement, servers, mixers...).

Any advice is welcome.

Jean-Hugues ROBERT
Engineering Manager

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From: Jonathan Rosenberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 14:05:14 -0500

> (common devices are phones, announcement, servers, mixers...).

SIP doesn't do device control, it does call control. I agree there
needs to be a means by which the call center can control announcement
servers, mixers, and tone generators. As we have discussed, megaco or
RTSP might be starting points for such a protocol. For communicating
with phones, one can use SIP or megaco, depending on whether the phone
is modeled as a dumb device to be controlled (megaco), or a call state
aware device to be communicated with (sip).

-Jonathan R.
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