Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Telephony SIP Telephony is your guide to the technologhy behind Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) based telephone communications. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a new and exciting advance in telephone technology which is becoming increasingly popular due to its enhanced functionality and inherent benefits compared with other telephone communication technologies currently in use. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a protocol developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Multiparty Multimedia Session Control (MMUSIC) Working Group. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is an international community of network designers, operators, suppliers and researchers who maintain an interest in and help advise on improving and developing the way the Internet works. The IETF established the Multiparty Multimedia Session Control (MMUSIC) Working Group to develop SIP. SIP is a text-based protocol, similar to HTTP and SMTP and is used for initiating interactive communication sessions between users. Examples of the uses of SIP include managing communication sessions that include video, speech, gaming or virtual reality applications and it is used to create, manage and terminate these sessions in IP based networks. A SIP telephone uses the internet to make a call. All SIP enabled devices can communicate with one another. SIP telephones convert the speech into data packets that are compressed and transferred over the internet to the recipient of the data who decodes the data before hearing what whas said. SIP telephones can be used in business and domestic applications. However, with this type of data heavy communications, SIP technology is not compatable with dial up internet connections and SIP communications requires broadband technology to function.