A protocol for wide-area secure networked appliance communication

This article describes problems associated with remotely accessing networke d appliances (e.g., from the Internet). Networked appliances are widely vie wed 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 requirem ents based on the IETF Session Initiation Protocol. In addition, we discuss the rationale for our approach and reasons other approaches were not adopt ed. An example of the use of SIP in this domain is presented to illustrate how the solution can be used. We conclude with outstanding challenges and r eiterate advantages of this approach.