SIP as a Universal Communication Bus: A Methodology and an Experimental Study

Abstract

This paper describes a methodology and a programming support that use the SIP protocol as a universal communication bus in pervasive computing environments. In doing so, our work enables homogeneous communications between heterogeneous distributed entities. We present a classification of a wide variety of entities in terms of features, capabilities and network connectors. Based on this classification, a methodology and a programming support are described for connecting entities on the SIP communication bus. This work has been validated by applications using the SIP communication bus to coordinate widely varying entities, including serial-based sensors (RS232, 1-Wire), ZigBee devices, X10 devices, PDA, native SIP entities, and software components.