SIP is very prominent in the telephony world, and has long established itself as the VoIP protocol of choice for telephony service providers, IVR vendors and PBX manufacturers. What some people don't realize is that SIP has also moved it's way into other industries as well. Of particular interest is the radio industry.
One of the first consulting projects I did within this industry was a SIP based connection from the digital radio world to the telephony world as an access mechanism to bridge a PBX with 2-way radios. This project was based on vanilla SIP use (using IETF RFC specifications only), and involved the exact same implementation one would do for any standards based SIP/VoIP endpoint. SIP use in the radio industry doesn't stop there though. Radio vendor's need mechanisms to interoperate with each other and third party application vendors, such as console operators.
One of the first consulting projects I did within this industry was a SIP based connection from the digital radio world to the telephony world as an access mechanism to bridge a PBX with 2-way radios. This project was based on vanilla SIP use (using IETF RFC specifications only), and involved the exact same implementation one would do for any standards based SIP/VoIP endpoint. SIP use in the radio industry doesn't stop there though. Radio vendor's need mechanisms to interoperate with each other and third party application vendors, such as console operators.
Radio vendors are designing new TCP/IP based protocols that utilize SIP as the base application level protocol to carry this specialized information. Public protocols such as Project 25 ISSI (a TIA specification) and DMR extend the base SIP capabilities and layer radio functionality on top. On top of these two standards there are also a number of vendor specific proprietary specifications encompassing very similar functionality. This collection of multiple standards may hinder operability in the short-term. However, I expect as SIP use matures more in the radio world we will see more convergence on a single customized use of SIP that will allow it reach the interoperability level we see today in the telecommunications space.
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