A Conference Mechanism for the Simultaneous Transmission of Voice and Medical Information using SIP

New services based on session initiation protocol (SIP) signaling, such as videoconferencing and presence-based applications, are emerging. New services mean new sets of requirements which, in turn, mean that existing architectures or protocols are not always adequate. A concrete example of such a new service is a system enabling an ambulance attendant to communicate with a number of physicians at the same time. In addition to regular voice transmission, the conference thus established would allow participants to study a patient´s biometric data and share annotations directly. After formalizing the new set of requirements this service calls for, we turned to the most common mechanisms available and found that there are none perfectly suited to this new application. We therefore considered a less well-known mechanism, which is based on SIP and the implementation of a full mesh topology. This solution provides strong reliability, easy integration in future SIP user agents, powerful security capabilities and other essential features. ecgML, an innovative open XML-based format developed for the storage and transmission of electrocardiograms (ECGs), was analyzed and integrated into the proposed solution for the transmission of the patient´s biometric data