Another Cool Thing from the Trenches

http://blog.tekelec.com/blog/bid/9839/Another-Cool-Thing-from-the-Trenches

Two weeks ago was the 75th meeting of the IETF – the standards body that is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the SIP protocol. While most of the discussions there tend to be a bit academic and forward looking, there is the occasional “wow, that’s really cool” moment when you bump into an implementor doing something new and useful with the technologies we’ve developed.

In-between working group sessions, I ran into a colleague who runs a company that develops turnkey SIP solutions for cable operators and other ISPs. He showed me a prototype of the next version of their desktop SIP client, which (in addition to voice) uses MSRP for instant messaging and file transfer. One of the major use cases his customers have for the client is the ability to provide remote assistance for computer issues.

To address this need, he has added the ability to use the MSRP channel to transport VNC data in both directions, providing remote access from one party’s computer to the other’s. (VNC is a technology, similar to Windows’ “Remote Desktop” feature, that allows users to remotely control a computer.) Using SIP and MSRP to do this is really very clever – it creates an association between the voice/IM session and the VNC session, providing appropriate limits on the time scope of the remote access. Plus, it leverages MSRP’s inherent NAT and Firewall traversal mechanisms to allow a VNC connection, even when both parties are behind firewalls (something that wouldn’t otherwise be possible).

What I find most exciting about this is not the technology he’s used (although I do find the solution pretty clever). What I find the most exciting is that this feature is being added in response to an actual customer request. This means that we’re seeing real businesses out there starting to see the potential to use SIP for more than just a PSTN replacement technology.