Custom Data (Text, Image, Voice, files…) over SIP

Question

I am new to this board and I am also somewhat new to Androids. I am currently working with a research project for developing communities and we need to figure out a way to send custom data over SIP.

Right now I am using an application called Sipdroid to make VoIP calls, and it works great. I have two nodes in my lab, and the thing is, that we have made custom servers (I am not using the pbxes.org, each node instead has its own SIP server that redirects the calls).

So now, we want to know how to send text messages or photos over the network. Sipdroid doesn't allow me to do it (I researched it). I did some research, and found that people have been trying to send Text and other things across SIP already...I am just somewhat new to Androids and I am not understanding what is going on in the following links.

http://groups.google.com/group/sipdroid-users/browse_thread/thread/5dea390ec6379537

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/network/sip.html

Clearly, it is indicated in the last link that instant messaging should be something possible through SIP. So, is there an application or way out there to simplify things and send custom data with SIP networks? Sipdroid is working great, so that is a sign of success so far. I just wish I could send other types of data and not just VoIP data packets. I found this app called IMSDroid, and it seems like it would fit like a charm, except it can only be configured for pre-existing SIP servers (like pbxes), whereas we are working with our own SIP servers.

Sorry for my non-technicality and lack of detail, I am a physics student and I am just doing this for fun, so I have no real programming or computer science background.

Thank you all for your help.

DS

Answer 1

SIP is a generic protocol to iniate and terminate a session. SIP isn't involved in data transmission itself, this is the job of other protocols like RTP or MSRP. SIPDroid is a combination of SIP, RTP and a few other protocols.

IMSDroid seems like a good bet for doing instant messaging and other data transmission. SipDroid is a softphone, which have telephony as it's primary feature. An IMS client, like IMSDroid, will give you voice, video, presence, various data sharing and other features.

As I understand here, you can specify the server you want. The pre-existing configurations you saw seems to be only for convenience.

Answer 2

There are protocols for sending text messages over SIP (aka SIMPLE), see RFC3428 "Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Extension for Instant Messaging", and also as pboy alluded to MSRP in RFC4975"The Message Session Relay Protocol (MSRP)" which isn't SIP specific but can be used with SIP.

Even though the protocols exist, and note SIMPLE has been in existence since 2002, they aren't widely supported in SIP user agents such as softphones. IMHO part of the reason for that is that there are better approaches to SIP for instant messaging, file sharing, media sessions etc. with the prime candidate being XMPP and extensions to it such as Jingle. And there are softphones, such as Counterpath's series, that support SIP & XMPP implicitly in acknowledgement that both protocols are better at certain things.

Answer 3

i already use this customise API ims for Android working perfectly just you will find some trouble with first installation with ubuntu : http://code.google.com/p/the-ims-open-source-project-for-android/