$Id$


                 SIP Router (sip-router)
                http://www.sip-router.org/
                ==========================

I.   About SIP Router (sip-router)
II.  Feature List
III. Getting started
IV.  About the project
V.   Obtaining Help
VI.  More Information


SIP Router (sip-router) is an industrial-strength, free VoIP server based 
on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP RFC3261). 
It is engineered to power IP telephony and presence infrastructures up to large 
scale. The server keeps track of users, sets up VoIP sessions, relays instant 
messages and creates space for new plug-in applications. Its proven interoperability 
guarantees seamless integration with components from other vendors, eliminating the 
risk of a single-vendor trap. It has successfully participated in various 
interoperability tests in which it worked with the products 
of other leading SIP vendors.

The SIP Router enables a flexible plug-in model for new applications: Third parties 
can easily link their plug-ins with the server code and provide thereby advanced and
customized services.  

Its performance and robustness allows it to serve millions of users and accommodate needs
of very large operators. With a $3000 dual-CPU, the SIP Express Router is able to power 
IP telephony services in an area as large as the Bay Area during peak hours.

The SIP Router is extremely configurable to allow the creation of various routing and 
admission policies as well as setting up new and customized services. Its configurability 
allows it to serve many roles: network security barrier, presence server, application server, 
or PSTN gateway guard (Session Border Controller) for example.


II. Feature List
================

See http://www.sip-router.org/ for an updated feature list.
Note that as features easily are added as modules, changes can occur quickly.

Most of SIP-router's features are implemented as plug-in modules. See 
our web site for a current list.

III. Getting started
====================

The INSTALL document will guide you through the installation of sip-router. 
SIP-router is composed of a core and additional modules. For each module
there is a README with documentation on how to configure and use the 
module. These are available in each modules source code directory as well
as on the sip-router.org web site.

We recommend that you continue with reading README-MODULES and then the
document named INSTALL.

IV. About sip-router.org
========================

The SIP Router project was started during the fall of 2008 by developers from
the OpenSER project, recently renamed to Kamailio.org and SIP Express Router (SER)
from iptel.org. SIP Router is the result of a merge of the code base and years
of experience from both developer teams.

See http://www.sip-router.org/ for the story of SER, OpenSER/Kamailio and sip-router.org.

V. Obtaining Help
=================

We offer best-effort free support for sip-router. "best-effort" means 
that we try to solve your problems via email as soon as we can, 
subject to available manpower. 

To receive feedback to your inquiries, we recommend you to subscribe 
to the sr-users mailing list and post your queries there. This mailing 
list is set up for mutual help by the community of ser users and developers. 
To participate in the mailing list, subscribe at the following web address: 
         http://lists.sip-router.org/mailman/listinfo/sr-users

VI. More Information
====================

Most up-to-date information is always available at our website,
                 http://www.sip-router.org/

Particularly, it includes:
- administrator's guide
- configuration cookbook
- module documentation
- installation guidelines (INSTALL)
- download links
- etc.