Cbeyond has attained SIPconnect Compliance Certification that is given by the SIP Forum.
The SIPconnect specification is a SIP Forum industry initiative that provides a standards-based approach to direct IP peering between SIP-enabled IP PBXs and VoIP service providers like Cbeyond (also known as SIP Trunking).
Compliance with the SIPconnect specification helps to reduce the time and resources required to achieve interoperability between an IP PBX manufacturer and a service provider. Furthermore, it helps minimize the time and effort required for an IP PBX reseller to install and maintain the solution.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the body responsible for administering and developing the mechanisms that comprise the Internet. It defined Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). It intentionally made it very extensible to support many different applications.
In 2003 and 2004, Cbeyond realized that SIP-enabled IP PBXs were going to quickly replace legacy, analog PBXs. Consequently, it no longer made sense to have a TDM gateway to connect the customer premise to a VoIP service provider since they both used SIP. The challenge was that there were many different ways using SIP for an IP PBX to directly IP peer with a VoIP service provider. Consequently, it was not scalable for each service provider and each PBX manufacturer to attempt to interoperate via different ways. A higher-level specification was needed.
Cbeyond drove the creation of the specification by authoring the first version with the assistance of BroadSoft, Cisco, Avaya, Mitel, and Talkswitch. In order to get broad industry acceptance, the specification was introduced to the SIP Forum and a working group was formed. With the participation of over forty companies, this working group created what is today’s SIPconnect specification.
Cbeyond has been working on interoperability with IP PBXs since 2004 and installed its first BeyondVoice with SIPconnect customer in January 2005. Thanks to the SIPconnect specification, it is much easier to achieve interoperability today with an IP PBX manufacturer than it used to be.
