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IP fax solutions provider Sagem (News - Alert)-Interstar has announced that it is now a participating member of the SIP Forum FoIP Working Task Group, which is currently working on fine-tuning the T.38 FoIP specification so that true “out-of the box” interoperability among IP fax solutions can be achieved.

The SIP Forum (News - Alert) is an industry association with members from leading IP companies. Its mission is to advance the adoption of SIP, a signaling protocol widely used to set up and tear down multimedia communication sessions such as voice, video, and fax calls over Internet Protocol (IP).

 

Many enterprises use T.38 for fax transmission. However, different interpretations of the T.38 specification have led to various interoperability challenges among vendors.

The SIP Forum FoIP Task Group is charged with investigating ongoing issues with the deployment of fax services, specifically ITU T.38, in SIP networks.

More specifically, the task group is chartered to:

--Fully document what the current issues are surrounding ITU T.38 in SIP networks, including what interoperability testing procedures currently exist; what the common factors are in T.38 failure, such as page length or lack of ECM support in carrier gateways and ATAs; and network packet loss considerations.

--Determine what solutions are currently available to address the problem.

--Determine if the problem can be solved within the scope of existing IETF SIP and ITU T.38 Recommendations.

--If the problems can be solved using existing standards by tightening requirements, document the procedures vendors and carriers need to implement in an appropriate SIP Forum Technical Recommendation.

--If, in the judgment of the SIP Forum FoIP WG, existing IETF and or ITU standards need to be modified, develop a strongly worded recommendation to the appropriate Standards Development Organization (SDO) on what the SIP Forum FoIP WG has discovered and recommend appropriate action by the SDO to remedy the issue.

 

Based on its technical expertise and field experiences gained through customer deployments, Sagem-Interstar (News - Alert) continues to actively contribute in defining the Problem Statement document. In addition, the company has committed to participating in future focus groups to find resolutions to previously defined problems.

Sagem-Interstar made news yesterday when it announced that its XMediusFAX fax server software is now certified interoperable with Global Crossing’s SIP trunking services. That follows on the company’s announcement in May that its IP fax solutions are now certified interoperable with Avaya Communication Manager 5.1 and Avaya Media Gateways.