Aim

This course will give both practical and general knowledge concerning Voice over IP. The emphasis will be on the underlying protocols.

Learning Outcomes

Following this course a student should be able to:

• Understand the relevant protocols (particularly SIP, SDP, RTP, and SRTP): what they are, how they can be used, and how they can be extended.
• Enable you to utilize SIP in Presence and event-based communications
• Understand how SIP can provide application-level mobility along with other forms of mobility
• Understand how SIP can be used to facilitate communications access for users with disabilities (for example using real-time text, text-to-speech, and speech-to-text) and to know what the basic requirements are to provide such services
• Understand SIP can be used as part of Internet-based emergency services and to know what the basic requirements are to provide such services
• Contrast "peer-to-peer" voice over IP systems (i.e., how they differ, how they might scale, what are the peers, ...)
• Know the relevant standards and specifications - both of the protocols and of the requirements (for example, concerning legal interception)
• Understand the key issues regarding quality-of-service and security
• Evaluate existing voice over IP and other related services (including presence, mobile presence, location-aware, context-aware, and other service)
• Design and evaluate new SIP based services
• Read the current literature at the level of conference papers in this area.

While you may not be able to understand all of the papers in journals, magazines, and conferences in this area - you should be able to read 90% or more of them and have good comprehension. In this area it is especially important that develop a habit of reading the journals, trade papers, etc. In addition, you should also be aware of both standardization activities, new products/services, and public policy in the area.

• Demonstrate knowledge of this area both orally and in writing.

By writing a paper suitable for submission to conferences and journals in the area.

This course should prepare you for starting a thesis project in this area (for undergraduate students) or beginning a thesis or dissertation (for graduate students).