Can I use SDP to establish a text environment?

Question

I have a very basic question. I have read that, sdp is used to describe the media streamed in a SIP based voice over IP call being audio or video or both. The SDP basically tell the participants about the media details such as transport address, transport protocol, codec, ports and other session description metadata.

I want to know, say , if I want to establish a sip connection which only involves text, without any media such as audio or video, can I still use this SDP?In short, do I leave out media description from the SDP,i want to involve only texts messages. Also ,I know that use of sdp helps in authenticating the participants.so, a proper use of sdp would help in the establishing a secure connection. Please express your views.thanks

Answer 1

Take a look at rfc4103 for text in SDP. IIRC there are also other RFCs related to text transmission.

Also ,I know that use of sdp helps in authenticating the participants.so, a proper use of sdp would help in the establishing a secure connection. Please express your views.thanks

Your question is very vague. You mention both authentication as well as establishing a secure connection (for media, signaling?).

Take a look at rfc4568 which discusses security descriptions for media streams in SDP, rfc5763 covers establishing SRTP over DTLS, SIP can also be transported over TLS.

Just as an aside, it seems fairly complex to use SIP for the purpose of exchanging text.