Subject: [SIP] Keep it simple

From: Samir Chatterjee <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2000 20:48:18 -0400

The SIP and World Domination has been an interesting thread. Yes, SIP is
great for signaling (aka finding, connecting and terminating) and then
handing over to the appropriate session protocol. Can SIP do more? Sure,
extensions are a way and changing semantics and definitions (which leads
to problems later), it can do more. But the real question is Should SIP
do more? I am not sure. When we bash our circuit friends and their
H.323, the first argument we say is that it is an overkill for IP
telephony? Guess who will have the last laugh?
Keep it simple. Elegant protocols survive the long run. Complexity is
easy to add, but difficult to live with.

The other argument about one infrastructure solves all problems?
Hmm..didn't we have different data, voice, and video networks before? It
worked. And then came convergence with IP and when that happened, we are
struggling to differentiate? Gosh, the DiffServ groups or class-based
QOS groups would have no problems, had their been separate networks to
begin with? After studying the QOS approaches in depth, I am more
inclined to say, "Just add more bandwidth stupid?" and if new
applications emerge and consume, try finding more lambdas and then
gammas within the optical path (are you guys watching the optical stocks
lately?). The management complexity headache is not worth what we
actually achieve via incremental performance gains.

And aren't there so many other camps that think they can dominate the
world? I believe there is some project going on at MIT called Oxygen
that solves all the worlds problems. And then there is Bluetooth which
connects all the devices and appliances at home. WAP believes it has
conquered the world. Wait until bio-tech reaches a point where I can put
a UAC and a UAS inside my embedded heart chip that will talk to my lung
chip (SIP I guess??). Aha, a day of BAN (Body Area Networks). I wonder
where the proxy will reside? In my stomach perhaps.

There is nothing more beautiful than a simple elegant protocol design
that does a few things, but does it damn well. I sensed from the list
that there is some kind of victory being announced for SIP. Isn't this
really premature?
Anyway, my 2 cents...

Samir Chatterjee
Georgia State University &
VoiceCore Technologies Inc.

_______________________________________________
SIP mailing list
[email-masked]
http://lists.bell-labs.com/mailman/listinfo/sip