Programmability for SIP-based Services
Standard interfaces and interoperability are cornerstones   (continued)

This vision of the web services environment as the model for SIP programmability is based on four corner-stones:  industry standard interfaces, 3rd party interoperability, contract service development, and the power and flexibility of a web services environment.  

• Standards-based Interfaces, borrowed from the Internet, such as JAIN, SALT, VXML, and SOAP, allow service providers to leverage existing developer skill sets, application development tools, and third-party service execution environments.
• 3^rd Party Interoperability makes it possible for service providers to utilize off the shelf third-party products and services, such as unified messaging, voicemail and pre-paid calling, in the deployment of new services.
• Custom Development Service permits service providers to engage trained service developers to facilitate the development and deployment of new services customized to meet their specific needs.
• Web Services Environment enables the abstraction of service logic to Web Application or J2EE Application Servers

Standards-based Interfaces

Many of the SIP-based solutions providing multimedia services today support “vertical” services, where the service logic is developed and deployed on individual solution components.  For example, the service logic for an enhanced call routing service may reside on the SIP application server, where as the service logic for a unified messaging service may reside on a media server.  None of the individual components support the interfaces (APIs) necessary to allow other service developers to access their service elements or resources.

To enhance the programmability of the individual solution components, or “building blocks”, requires the addition of industry-standard APIs, such as XML, CPL, and SOAP, on the individual solution components.  The addition of standards-based APIs permits the service logic that resides on external execution environments to access the service elements/resources that reside on the solution components.

In addition to the support for industry standard APIs, the availability of software development kits (SDKs) permits the development of customized services on the solution components.  Software development toolkits provide a platform designed for the development of services leveraging SIP-based call control, call routing, and presence applications.  Many of the SDKs come with built-in, ready-to-deploy service elements, including Prefix Matching, Presence, Instant Messaging, Logging, IVR Interfaces, and Conferencing Interfaces. 

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