CIPHER provides network service integration between, wireless, wireline and IP networks. It consists of the Eclipse-based toolkit "COMPOSE" that is used to build service applications and a carrier-grade network adaptor "CONNECT" that is deployed in the network between the triggering entity (MSC, SSP, CSSF) and the services (CSP, gsmSCF, SIP AS).

CIPHER can be described as a high speed messaging bus that runs beneath the Application Layer to execute protocol transformation from any protocol to any protocol, such as IN to IN, SIP to IN, and IN to SIP.