Cisco Systems IP phone 7960 manual Product Overview, What is Session Initiation Protocol?

C H A P T E R 1

Product Overview

This chapter contains the following information about the Cisco SIP IP phone:

•What is Session Initiation Protocol?, page 1-1

•What is the Cisco SIP IP Phone 7960?, page 1-5

•Prerequisites, page 1-12

•Cisco SIP IP Phone Connections, page 1-13

•The Cisco SIP IP Phone with a Catalyst Switch, page 1-16

What is Session Initiation Protocol?

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is the Internet Engineering Task Force’s (IETF’s) standard for multimedia conferencing over IP. SIP is an ASCII-based, application-layer control protocol (defined in RFC 2543) that can be used to establish, maintain, and terminate calls between two or more end points.

Like other VoIP protocols, SIP is designed to address the functions of signaling and session management within a packet telephony network. Signaling allows call information to be carried across network boundaries. Session management provides the ability to control the attributes of an end-to-end call.

	Cisco SIP IP Phone 7960 Administrator Guide
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