Managing feature interactions between distributed SIP call control services

• Published in: Computer networks (Amsterdam, Netherlands : 1999) Vol. 51; no. 2; pp. 536 - 557
• Main Authors: Kolberg, Mario, Magill, Evan H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 07.02.2007; Elsevier Sequoia S.A
• Subjects: Feature interaction; Internet; Internet Protocol; Internet telephony; Runtime approach; Session initiation protocol; SIP; Studies; Telecommunications industry; Telecommunications services; Telephony; Voice over Internet Protocol; Voice over IP; Telecommunications services; Voice over IP; SIP; Session initiation protocol; Runtime approach; Feature interaction
• ISSN: 1389-1286; 1872-7069
• DOI: 10.1016/j.comnet.2006.08.006

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is widely used as a call control protocol for Voice over IP (VoIP), and indeed commercial implementations are readily available off-the-shelf. SIP supports flexible service provisioning not only through third parties, but also end-users. Laboratory experience shows that as these services are interworking they are subject to the feature interaction problem. Feature interactions may considerably delay service deployment and hence are a threat to rapid service provisioning. This paper investigates the feature interaction problem in SIP-based services and investigates the application of a pragmatic approach. This runtime approach does not require any detailed information about the services and hence can be applied in a competitive market. Furthermore, the technique is particularly strong in handling interactions between distributed services – a key characteristic of SIP-based services. Moreover, the approach is fully distributed without any centralised components, and includes detection and resolution of feature interactions.