1. A method, comprising: sending, by a first SIP network element, a first message to a second SIP network element, the first message including a request to establish a first communication session using binary SIP messages and further including negotiation information including byte-ordering negotiation information; receiving, at the first SIP network element, a response to the first message from the second SIP network element; determining, by the first SIP network element, whether to communicate with the second SIP network element using at least one binary SIP message, the at least one binary SIP message including a self-relative pointer that points from a fixed portion of the at least one binary SIP message to a variable portion of the at least one binary SIP message, wherein the first message comprises a SIP message and wherein the self-relative pointer comprises a scalar value in the fixed portion that identifies a distance from the fixed portion to a corresponding object in the variable portion, and wherein the corresponding object comprises information used to route the at least one binary SIP message across the communication network to the second SIP network element.