[December 11, 2003] SIP Test Event Advances Presence And Instant Messaging The SIP Forum announces that the recent SIMPLEt interoperability event, an industry effort to advance the use of presence information in Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) communication services, tested innovative new business and consumer applications based on presence, as well as important work on presence security and compatibility with IPv6. The Second SIMPLEt sessions established the interoperability of 13 different presence and availability implementations from nine companies. The event, held Dec. 3-5 at the Fairmont Banff Springs Resort in Banff, Alb., Canada, was hosted by Jasomi Networks Inc., a leading provider of session controllers, products that enable secure and controlled exchange of traffic between IP networks. Among the implementations tested was the use of SIMPLE over transport layer security (TLS), a key Web technology for security of information. The testing verified that presence information and instant-message content can be encrypted and protected against tampering as they cross the network. Security will continue to be a concern in future SIMPLEt events, particularly to establish that applications can run and maintain security as data traverses networks with different policies and capabilities. Another important aspect of the session was testing that the implementations could run on IPv6 networks. IPv6 is an advancement to the Internet that has been widely adopted by Asian IP service providers and in mobile networks. There were also presence applications for business based on open-source software, including GAIM, an open-source messenger client. What Is SIMPLE? SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions) is a new extension to the SIP protocol that is the basis of a broad range of exciting new services in IP communication. SIMPLE enables the secure use of presence and availability information. This basic concept makes it possible to offer communication services that know whether or not you are available to receive communications, and what kind of communication you can receive, such as phone calls, emails, instant messages or even video. SIMPLE applications let you control who sees information about your presence and availability, and who does not, and gives the ability to change your status at any time. The impact of SIMPLE will be even more powerful than the changes brought on by mobile phone. "Presence will take those things to the next level," says Robert Sparks, chairman of the SIMPLE Working Group in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and a principal engineer for dynamicsoft. "Presence will carry information that people can use to make decisions about communication. It can be as simple as your current availability, and as complex as where you are and what you are doing at the moment." [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]