Customer Reviews

SIP: Understanding the Session Initiation Protocol, Second Edition

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a working developer that recently became engaged in a J2EE project where needed to design and build a SIP server for a call center requiring all manner of specialized behaviors. Needless to say I needed to learn all about the ins and outs of SIP as this system would be SIP VoIP based.

I started out trying to use the various RFCs related to the SIP and SDP protocols. Well, I could spend an entire review about how miserable it is to trudge through typical RFC documentation. Online hyperlinked documentation is indeed in some respects a miracle of our modern cyber information age. Yet it's not exactly perfect. In many respects I maintain that the traditional book remains solidly the highest technological invention that mankind has yet conceived - especially now that I can compare book form information vs. its online hyperlinked and searchable alternative.

When it comes to learning and having ready access to the relevant information I'd take a book, such as "SIP: Understanding the Session Initiation Protocol" hands down vs the RFCs. I was making slow and painful progress yet once I had this book in hand, I could quickly whip around in it and cross reference the material presented in it by flipping pages, look for things via by scanning the table of contents, or dereferencing the index. Finally I started to rapidly accelerate my endeavor.

Besides the mechanics of accessing the relevant information, this book was also solidly presented by the author. He indeed has a authoritative command of the subject matter. Many of the scenarios he presents of how SIP is deployed and used were directly relevant to my particular project. It was particularly important to see the full dialog of SIP/SDP protocol exchange and the diagrams that accompanied this were very helpful. Nice visual diagrams of this manner are not to be found in the bland RFC material.

I came to amazon.com and read up on all the reviews posted for this title. Several of them gave the book a low rating. I sensed that what these people were after was a more digestible higher level presentation of the subject matter. There is an O'Reilly title on VoIP that I think might serve some of these folks better in that regard. However, this book on SIP also does a fair job of presenting SIP in light of some of the other VoIP related standards, etc. It's just that the main thrust of this book is to convey the technical understanding of SIP so that one can program systems based on it.

So if one is a software developer and needs to learn the technical ins and outs of SIP then this books is definitely the one to get. It beats using the RFCs by themselves by many leagues.

Not a how to guide, but definitly a complete review of the SIP specification. It gives a complete description of the protocol to the point where you can actually implement the protocol.

This is reference book to keep (as opposed to some computer books that you can trash after a few years because they are no longer relevant).

This book will teach you enough about the SIP protocol so you will know how to position the protocol in your architecture, and start implementing!

I'm not an engineer, but I've got a lot of telecom experience. The second edition of "SIP: Understanding the Session Initiation Protocol," delivers on the title. Engineers and programmers can look to the text as a good starting point, but will want to go the IETF for more serious stuff. Still, the text provides sample SIP messages and deconstructs SIP message flows. The non-technical reader can still understand the protocol and its uses, and make more informed business decisions (strategy, marketing, product management, finance or M&A). I evaluated all the other titles available from Amazon.com before purchasing and reading this one, and I am convinced this was the best selection available.

This book is very complet to understand SIP protocol. I found an answer for all my questions.