Signalling and Control In IP Networks - H.248, H.

323 and SIP

Signaling Standards

Media Gateway Control Signalling

H.248/Megaco

Call Signalling

SIP and SIP-T H.323

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Network View
SIP-T SG MGC SIP SIP User Agent PSTN H.248 Megaco H.323 call signalling PSTN H.248 Megaco MGC SG

H.323 Endpoint MG Call signalling Media gateway control signalling Media flows
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MG

H.248/MEGACO Overview
MEdia GAteway Control Protocol [RFC3015] H.248 is ITU-T reference for the same protocol Protocol for controlling telephony gateway and
terminals (IP Phones)

Basis for Vendor Independent Network

deployment

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H.248/Megaco evolution
IPDC
MGCP proposal by merging IPDC and SGCP (Telcordia & Level 3)

SGCP

MGCP

I-RFC 2705

MGCP released as Informational RFC (Oct 99)

Lucent submits MDCP to ITU-T SG16 (Nov 1999)

MDCP
(proposal) Consensus between IETF and ITU on Megaco Protocol (March 99)

Megaco/H.248

IETF RFC 3015

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Megaco connection model

Based on 3 concepts:
Termination
Identifies an end point for media flows Implements Signals, and generates Events Can appear in at most one context. Permanent (provisioned) terminations can exist outside a context I1

MG
Cn
Tb
O2=I1+I3 I2 O3=I1+I2 I3

Context
Defines communication between Terminations, O1=I2+I3 acts as a mixing bridge Contains 1 or more Terminations Supports multiple streams

Ta
Tc

Stream
A context can have multiple streams, each typically for a medium, e.g. audio, video, etc The MGC specifies which streams a given termination supports

Td

Simple, powerful connection/resource model

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Megaco/H.248: Commands
Provides control for manipulating terminations and contexts. Current Command Set:
Command
Add Modify Move Subtract AuditValue AuditCapabilities Notify ServiceChange

Initiator
MGC MGC MGC MGC MGC MGC MG MGC MG

Description
Adds a termination to a context. Modifies a terminations properties, events, and signals. Moves a termination from one context to another. Removes a termination from its context. Returns current state of properties, events, signals, and statistics. Returns all possible values for termination properties, events, and signals allowed by an MG. Informs MGC of event occurrence(s). Takes or places a termination(s) out of or in service. For registration and restart; notifies MGC termination(s) will be taken out of or returned to service.

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Packages and profiles

Packages:
Extension mechanism to define new termination and MG behavior Adds detailed application semantics to the protocol, e.g. a package can define the events for DTMF signaling

Profiles:

Define particular applications of Megaco/H.248 Created by industry organizations, e.g. TIA Specifies which packages are to be supported and other protocol options

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Megaco/H.248 Standards Status

Standardization of Base Protocol DONE Decided as ITU-T Recommendation H.248 in June 2000 Published as IETF Megaco RFC 3015, in Nov 2000 Continued work on bug fixes for the base protocol First issue of H.248 Implementors Guide approved, Nov 2000 Package definition Rapid Progression
Starter Kit (Annex E) defined in base protocol Additional packages defined as Annexes F, G, J and K to H.248 in Nov 2000 More ongoing in both IETF and ITU

Megaco/H.248 Interoperability Second Event Just Completed!

First multi-vendor interoperability event was great success (Aug 2000)

18 participants including MGCs, MGs, and Test equipment Ad-hoc group formed to test Megaco/H.248 implementations and collect feedback on specification issues Line to Line and Line to Trunk calls with and without digit collection completed with bearer path

Second event just occurred last week (Feb 2001)

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SIP overview
SIP (Session Initiation Protocol IETF RFC 2543) Application-layer signaling protocol for creating,
modifying and terminating sessions with one or more participants

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SIP overview
Light-weight generic signaling protocol

Used to initiate sessions and invite members to a

session

Text-based protocol (good for prototyping)

Syntax is textual and based on HTTP

There have been several bake-offs with different
vendors demonstrating interoperability of basic calls

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SIP Architectural Model

Public IP Network

Proxy Server

SIP Agent UAC UAS

Registrar
Private IP Network

Redirect Server

Location Server

SIP Agent UAC UAS

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SIP messages
Message consists of initial line, headers and body There are two types of SIP message

Request Response

Requests are always initiated by a UAC function

First line contains the method being invoked, e.g. INVITE RFC 2543 methods include INVITE, ACK, BYE, REGISTER, CANCEL, OPTIONS First line contains the response code

Responses are generated by servers

Headers provide information needed to process or route the message Body contains Session Description Protocol (SDP) describing media
flows or other materials such as encapsulated ISUP messages.

New methods and header types can be added at any time without
changing the protocol
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SIP status
Base protocol is RFC2543
Presently being revised RFC2543bis is under discussion

Standardized in the IETF as RFC 2543 in March 99

(now being further refined in the SIP working group).
RFC 2543 just covers basic functionality. There are several related internet drafts covering services.

Has rapidly growing industry momentum

Intense efforts underway to develop service-specific extensions

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SIP-T
SIP-T = Session Initiation Protocol Telephony
previously referred to as SIP+ or SIP BCP-T a collection of internet drafts that extend SIP to support inter-Media Gateway Controller (MGC) communications. SIP-T is an interface agreement on a collection of standards as opposed to a separate protocol

SIP-T describes how to interwork SIP and ISUP SIP-T directly negotiates a media connection between
gateways. Endpoint information is carried in SDP (Session Description Protocol) which can describe both IP and ATM endpoints.

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SIP-T purpose
Proxy

PSTN bridging (PSTN - IP PSTN)

PSTN Signaling is carried transparently over the IP network
MGC 1

SIP enabled network

MGC 2

IP network
SS7 network
Proxy

Proxy

SS7 network

PSTN to IP interworking
MGC

SIP enabled network

SIP agent

IP network
SS7 network
Proxy

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SIP-T Technical Approaches

SIP-T uses two approaches:
1. Map ISUP message contents to fields in the SIP header for interworking with pure SIP agents 2. Encapsulate ISUP message within SIP message body for PSTN bridging

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SIP-T Implementation
Three major extensions required:
INFO method extension to the base protocol in addition to others

Session initiation and teardown is not enough

Mid-Call events More complex services enabled Standard method of encapsulating legacy signaling Simplifies Inter-working: - Local variant - Interconnect variant (LCD)

MIME Type addition

ISUP to SIP Mapping

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SIPT status
Work on SIP-T was initiated by the International
SoftSwitch Consortium (ISC) in early 1999.

SIP-T is still a work in progress. The ISC is continuing

to develop profiles for SIP and telephony interworking.

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H.323 Overview
Packet-based multi-media communications system It includes several protocols

H.225.0 RAS (registration, admission, status ) H.225.0 Call Signalling H.245 Logical channel signalling and media control RFC 1889 RTP/RTCP for media transport H.450.x Supplementary services H.225.0 Annex G Inter-domain registration and billing information exchange

The original VoIP protocol suite Whole System Architecture

Provides Interoperability Transport independence Platform and application independence Multipoint support

Primarily used in corporate networks

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H.323 overview continued

Comprised of several protocols:
Audio Video Data System Control User Interface

G.711 G.722 G.723 G.728 G.729

H.261 H.263

T.120

Control

H.225 H.245 Call RAS Control

RTP/RTCP AAL5 UDP

ATM

UDP or TCP IP Lower Layers Vary

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H.323 elements and entities

Terminals
PCs, IP phones, settop boxes Audio Video (optional) Data (optional)
Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper
address translation (IP, telephone) admission control cannot generate or terminate calls

Endpoints
MCU
Gateway

can make or receive calls Realized by terminals and logically present in Gateways

Gateway Multipoint Control Unit (MCU)

Support for multipoint conferences Always contains a MC Optionally contains an MP Interworking with other multimedia terminals GSTN

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H.323 current status

H.323 version 4 Includes many major changes A significant number of contributions from Nortel
Networks Approved in November 2000

H.245 and H.225.0 also updated Currently working on version 5. No release date
specified.

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H.323/SIP comparison summary

H.323
Stds Body Properties
ITU-T SG-16 Complex, monolithic design Difficult to extend & update Based on H.320 conferencing and ISDN Q.931 legacy (Bell headed) Limited potential beyond telephony Some QoS built in CODEC types specified Higher degree of interoperability H.450.x series provides minimal feature set only, pure peer approach Adding ( mixed peer/stimulus approach soon poor architecture) Slow moving Established now, primarily system level Few if any H.323-base telephones End-user primarily driven by Siemens, Microsoft (NetMeeting), Intel

SIP
IETF SIP, MMusic, ... Modular, simplistic design Easily extended & updated Based on Web principals (Internetfriendly) Readily extensible beyond telephony

Status w.r.t. end device Industry acceptance

No real end-device features std, yet Many options for advanced telephony features (need to make specific choices) Astounding progress, velocity Rapidly growing industry momentum, at system and device level Growing interest in SIP-Phones and soft clients, products appearing

SIP is anticipated long-term winner, but H.323 networks will remain for some time, and are a source of revenue in the international market
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For More Information

IETF:
IETF home page

Internet-draft search engine RFC search engine Megaco WG charter

http://www.ietf.org/

http://search.ietf.org/search/brokers/internet-drafts/query.html http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfcsearch.html http://ietf.org/html.charters/megaco-charter.html ftp://standards.nortelnetworks.com/megaco/ ftp://standards.nortelnetworks.com/megaco/docs/latest/

Megaco documents repository

ITU:

ITU home page

SG-16 document repository (H.323, H.248)

ftp://standard.pictel.com/avc-site

http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/index.html

Most Megaco/H.248 related documents should also be available through Megaco WG, above

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Thank You!

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