Microsoft and Cisco Support Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) for VoIP

Microsoft and Cisco Systems announced their support for the emerging Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) methodology, which is a means to establish secure media connections across network address translators (NATs). The ICE methodology promises to make it easier to secure VoIP and media-rich communications between enterprises.


"Finding a way for VoIP to work better across NATs and firewalls is a problem that is faced across the industry," said Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president for the Office Real-Time Collaboration Group at Microsoft. "Microsoft and Cisco are encouraging our industry partners to utilize the ICE methodology to ensure more consistent, reliable experiences for our customers, and to improve Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based VoIP interoperability across networks."


"With service providers increasingly deploying converged voice-and-data services based on SIP, Microsoft's and Cisco's endorsement of ICE standards bodes well for our mutual customers," said Don Proctor, senior vice president of the Voice Technology Group at Cisco.
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