SIP Forum to Have Strong Presence at ITEXPO in Miami

Miami, FL, January 20, 2010 --(PR.com)-- The SIP Forum (www.sipforum.org) has announced a full schedule of activities at the upcoming ITEXPO in Miami, showcasing the technology’s broad adoption in IP communications, as well as its growth in new sectors such as Smart Grid for the utility market. The ITEXPO is being held at the Miami Beach Convention Center from January 20-22, 2010.

While representatives of the SIP Forum will be participating in several sessions, panels and tutorials, they will also be on hand throughout the event to inform and educate attendees about the current and future opportunities for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

As part of the proceedings at the ITEXPO, recently elected SIP Forum Chairman of the Board Richard Shockey will address attendees of the co-located Smart Grid Summit and Machine to Machine (M2M) Evolution Conference about the opportunities for SIP in the convergence of utility and communications networks and the development of the worldwide communications network of machines.

“While SIP is well-established in the world of IP Communications, new network paradigms such as the smart grid and data communications amongst machines in various markets can reap similar benefits from the adoption of SIP,” said Shockey. “We want to make sure our constituency is up to date and well-versed in the latest details of SIP so that they can take full advantage of it.”

The SIP Forum will participate in the three-day SIP Trunk Summit, co-sponsored by Ingate Systems. To kick off the summit, Richard Shockey and SIP Forum President and Managing Director Marc Robins will present an overview of SIP Trunking and best practices focusing on the SIP Forum’s SIPconnect and SIPconnect Compliant Program at 9:00am. The SIP Forum’s SIPconnect task group has been the leading independent organization helping to develop a “best practices” specification for accomplishing trouble-free SIP trunking between SIP-enabled IP-PBXs and SIP-enabled VoIP service providers.

At the Smart Grid Summit, the SIP Forum will be participating in two sessions. The first will feature Shockey and several industry luminaries discussing the emerging smart grid technology’s path as part of the Industry Standards and Interoperability Review panel at 8:30am on Thursday, January 21.

The SIP Forum sees the emerging smart grid – which aims to migrate utility networks to two-way data communications networks – as an emerging opportunity for SIP-based technologies. Last fall, the SIP Forum formed its own Smart Grid Special Interest Group (SIG) with the focus of evaluating the use of SIP as a protocol for a number of smart grid areas, including the home area network (HAN), utilities' operational network, and plug-in vehicle (PEV) deployments.

Later on Thursday, the SIP Forum’s Smart Grid SIG will be collocating its first “Birds of a Feather” (BoF) meeting with the Summit. The BoF is open to all conference participants interested in learning more about how SIP technologies can benefit a smart grid.

SIP Forum Activities at ITEXPO

· What: SIP Trunk Summit
When: January 20-22
Co-sponsor: Ingate Systems
* Attendees to all seminars will earn a SIP Trunking Professional Certificate
Where: Miami Beach Convention Center

· What: M2M Conference
Session: The Case for SIP in M2M
When: Wednesday, January 20, 2:45-3:30 pm
Speakers: SIP Forum Chairman Richard Shockey (SIP Forum), Henry Sinnreich (Adobe Systems)
Where: M2M Evolution Conference, Miami Beach Convention Center

· What: Smart Grid Summit Panel
Session: Industry Standards/Interoperability Review
When: Thursday, January 21, 8:30 – 9:15 am
Speakers: Shidan Gouran (Moderator), Co-Founder, Intelligent Communications Partners and member of the SIP Forum Smart Grid SIG
Richard Shockey, Chairman of the Board, SIP Forum
Bill Moroney, President & CEO, UTC
Joe Di Adamo, Chief Technologist, Smart Grid Solutions, Siemens Enterprise Communications and member of the SIP Forum Smart Grid SIG
Brian Huey, Manager, Strategic Planning, Sprint/Nextel
Where: Smart Grid Summit, Miami Beach Convention Center

· What: SIP Forum Smart Grid SIG Birds of a Feather meeting
When: Thursday, January 21, 5:30 pm
Moderators: SIP Forum SIG co-Chairs Richard Shockey and Arjun Roychowdhury
Where: Smart Grid Summit, Miami Beach Convention Center

About The SIP Forum
The SIP Forum is an IP communications industry association that engages in numerous activities that promote and advance SIP-based technology, such as the development of industry recommendations, the SIPit interoperability and testing events, special interoperability workshops, educational seminars, special interest groups, and general promotion of SIP in the industry. One of the Forum's notable technical activities is the development of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation -- a standards-based recommendation that provides detailed guidelines for direct IP peering and interoperability between IP PBXs and VoIP service provider networks. The SIPconnect Compliant Certification Program is an associated program through which eligible companies can gain SIPconnect validation and the right to license the use of the SIP Forum's 'SIPconnect Compliant' certification mark -- the official brand of the leading standard for SIP Trunking products and services. Other important Forum initiatives include work in Fax-over-IP interoperability, User Agent Configuration, and the opportunities for SIP in Smart Grid deployments. For more information, please visit: http://www.sipforum.org.

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