A protocol for wide area secure networked appliance communication

This article describes problems associated with remotely accessing networked appliances (e.g., from the Internet). Networked appliances are widely viewed as the "next wave" of devices on the Internet. We discuss some possible uses for networked appliances and the requirements for communicating with them. We present details of a solution to meet these communication requirements based on the IETF Session Initiation Protocol. In addition, we discuss the rationale for our approach and reasons other approaches were not adopted. An example of the use of the SIP in this domain is presented to illustrate how the solution can be used. We conclude with outstanding challenges and reiterate advantages of this approach.