Signaling Protocols for VoIP

By:
Dr. Ahmed A. Khalifa
 Agenda
• H.323 Protocol
• Introduction
• System Components
– Terminals
– Gateway
– Gatekeeper
– Multipoint Control Unit (MCU)

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 H.323
ITU-T RECOMMENDATION FOR PACKET-BASED MULTIMEDIA
COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS

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 Introduction to H.323
• Basic problem addressed by the ITU-T in H.323 recommendation is the
conversion of the signaling used on a traditional telecommunications
network to Internet Protocol (IP) based techniques

• H.323 uses many protocols and standards associated with the PSTN
encapsulated in protocols such as TCP (transmission control protocol),
UDP (user datagram protocol), and IP

• This recommendation was the standard for videoconferencing, which

includes voice, video, and data

• H.323 addresses call control and management for point-to-point and

multipoint conferences, gateway administration of media traffic, bandwidth
parameters, and user participation
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H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 Introduction to H.323 (Cont.)

• Large number of vendors still deploy the H.323

suite because its operation is well understood

• H.323 is actually part of the later H.3XX series of

recommendations from the ITU-T and constitutes a
collection of sub-protocols that can be seen in packet
captures

• A VoIP deployment of this kind will use the Real-Time

Transport Protocol (RTP) to carry the voice and video
data between endpoints

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H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 H.323 Recommendation Description

• H.323 describes terminals and other entities that

provide multimedia communications services over
Packet-Based Networks (PBN) which may not
provide a guaranteed Quality of Service

• Components that comprise an H.323 system

including:
• Terminals
• Gateways
• Gatekeepers
• Multipoint controllers
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H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 Elements of H.323 Networking

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H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 H.323
SYSTEM COMPONENTS

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 Terminals
• H.323 terminals must have:
• System control unit
• Media transmission
• Audio codec
• Packet-based network interface

• Optional requirements
include:
• Video codec
• User data applications

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H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 Functions and capabilities within the
H.323 terminal
• System Control Unit: Provides
H.225 and H.245 call control,
capability exchange, messaging,
and signaling of commands for
proper operation of the terminal

• Media Transmission:
• Formats the transmitted audio,
video, data, control streams, and
messages onto network interface.
Media transmission
• Receives the audio, video, data,
control streams, and messages
from the network interface

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H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 Functions and capabilities within the
H.323 terminal
• Audio Codec:
• Encodes the signal from the
audio equipment for
transmission and decodes the
incoming audio code
• Required functions: encoding
and decoding G.711 speech (a-
law and μ-law)
• Optionally, G.722, G.723.1,
G.728, and G.729 encoding and
decoding can be supported

Data Channel: Supports applications

• Video Codec: Optional, but if
such as database access, file transfer, and
provided, must be capable of
audiographics conferencing (the capability
encoding and decoding video
to modify a common image over multiple
according to H.261 Quarter
users' computers simultaneously), as
Comment Intermediate Format
specified in Recommendation T.120
11(QCIF)
H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 Terminals (Cont.)

• Softphone

H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 Gateway

• Handles the communication and

translation between the H.323 terminal
on an IP network and a switched-circuit
network (e.g., PSTNet)

• It handles call setup, termination, and

possibly translation between codecs via
H.225

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H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 Gateway (Cont.)

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H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 Gatekeeper

• An optional function

• Gatekeeper provides pre-call and call-level control

services to H.323 endpoints

• Gatekeepers are logically separated from the other

network elements in H.323 environments

• If more than one gatekeeper is implemented, inter-

communication is accomplished in an unspecified
manner
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H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 Gatekeeper
• If a gatekeeper is present in an H.323 system, it must
perform the following:
• Address Translation: Provides endpoint IP addresses
from H.323 aliases (such as pc1@cisco.com) or E.164
addresses (standard phone numbers)
• Admissions Control: Provides authorized access to
H.323 using the Admission Request/Admission
Confirm/Admission Reject (ARQ/ACF/ARJ) messages
• Bandwidth Control: Consists of managing endpoint
bandwidth requirements using Bandwidth
Request/Bandwidth Confirm/Bandwidth Reject
(BRQ/BCF/BRJ) messages
• Zone Management: Provided for registered terminals,
gateways, and MCUs
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 Gatekeeper

• Optionally, the gatekeeper can provide the

following functionality:
• Call Control Signaling: Uses the Gatekeeper Routed Call
Signaling (GKRCS) model
• Call Authorization: Enables the gatekeeper to restrict
access to certain terminals and gateways or to restrict
access based on time-of-day policies
• Bandwidth Management: Enables the gatekeeper to reject
admission if the required bandwidth is not available
• Call Management: Services include maintaining an active
call list that you can use to indicate that an endpoint is busy

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H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 Multipoint Control Unit (MCU)
• An MCU is an H.323-specific device that has a single purpose: conferencing
multiple H.323 media channels. The multipoint controller (MC) supports
conferences between three or more endpoints in a multipoint conference

• An MCU can be a dedicated server, or MCUs can be built into H.323 terminals

• The MCU consists of:

• a mandatory Multipoint Controller (MC)
and
• optional Multipoint Processors (MP)

• The MC determines the common capabilities of the terminals by using H.245

but it does not perform the multiplexing of audio, video and data

• MCs transmit the capability set to each endpoint in the multipoint conference
and can revise capabilities during the conference
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 Multipoint Control Unit (MCU)

• The MC function can be resident in a terminal, gateway, gatekeeper, or MCU

• The multipoint processor (MP) receives audio, video, and/or data streams and
distributes them to endpoints participating in a multipoint conference

• The multiplexing of media streams is handled by the MP under the control of

the MC

• If it supports centralized multipoint conferences, a typical MCU consists of an

MC and an audio, video, and data MP

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 Modes of Multipoint Conferencing

• Two Basic modes of operation:

• Centralized:
• All H.323 devices communicate in a point-to-point
fashion directly with MCU
• MCU manages the conference

• Decentralized:
• H.323 device communicates using multicast with
the conference participants and bypasses MCU

H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 MCU

H.323 Intro. H.323 Components H.323 Subprotocols H.323 Operation SIP MGCP
 References

1) Lingfen Sun, Is-Haka Mkwawa, Emmanuel Jammeh, Emmanuel

Ifeachor, “Guide to Voice and Video over IP: For Fixed and Mobile
Networks”, 2013

2) Pramode K. Verma, Ling Wang, “Voice over IP Networks: Quality

of Service, Pricing and Security”, Volume 71, 2011

3) Bruce Hartpence, “Packet Guide to Voice over IP”, First Edition,

2013

4) Jonathan Davidson, James Peters, Brian Gracely, “Voice over IP

Fundamentals”, Cisco Press, 2000

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 Thank you!

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 Questions

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