Evaluating SIP Proxy Server Performance

Overview

SIP is a protocol of growing importance, with uses for VoIP, instant messaging, presence, and more. However, its performance is not well-studied or understood. This paper experimentally evaluated SIP proxy server performance using micro-benchmarks meant to capture common SIP proxy server scenarios. The paper uses standard open-source SIP software such as OpenSER and SIPp, running on an IBM BladeCenter with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. The paper shows performance varies greatly depending on how the protocol is used. Depending on the configuration, through-put can vary from hundreds to thousands of operations per second.