So what is SIP? Only the greatest communications protocol in the world! Go wiki SIP for a technical overview but I’d like to discuss the benefits of SIP by using a simple example. Consultants and sales people don’t necessarily need to know how specifically SIP works but they should really understand what it could do for their clients. I find that people are less aware of SIP simply because carriers are slow to roll out their own solid SIP services since doing so can cannibalize some of their own business.

There are two primary methods for delivering SIP to a customer. The first is via the Internet and the other is via a dedicated circuit from the phone company. For a mid sized business I always recommend dedicated circuits because it’s the only way I can offer an SLA backed quality guarantee since there are far too many factors out of my control to guarantee voice quality over the Internet. This SIP example is a perfect demonstration of how SIP and MPLS can help dramatically improve the communications of a mid-sized organization with 3 locations.

I have a little medical center that operates 3 equally sized offices with approx. 50 employees at each site. Before we came into the picture, each site had its own independent legacy Avaya system connected to its own dedicated voice T1. Each site also had a dedicated data T1. Because the EMR system was located at the HQ site, each medical center was additionally connected to the main HQ via a point-to-point for application sharing. So in total this medical center was paying for 3 voice T1’s, 3 data T1’s, 2 point-to-points, and supporting 3 disparate analog Avaya systems. This setup is absolutely absurd from today’s standards but 8 years ago it would have been completely normal.

What was the solution? Simple as this: Replace all 3 Avaya systems with a single Asterisk system at HQ, deliver a 10meg MetroE to each of the 3 sites thus replacing all T1’s and point-to-points….and that’s it! By using SIP, we can route all voice traffic from the 2 sites through HQ then out to the PSTN. Data was dramatically increased from 1.5meg to 10meg and now all three sites can call one another for free while being able to transfer calls between sites, all the while having a fully meshed data network for their application sharing (made possible by MPLS). This is a HUGE improvement from the old setup… the best part being a projected savings of ~$4K/month which pays for the new phone system in 2.5 years.

Talk about a perfect client needing a complete communications overhaul. The encouraging part is that there are still thousands of businesses out there with the same horrible setup… we just have to find them and whip them into shape!

I recommend that you check out the SIP Forum to learn more about SIP and see what else other telecom professionals are doing.