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

For APRICOT, Feb 27, 2001 - 2

Network View

SIP-T
SG MGC MGC SG

SIP
SIP
User Agent

H.323 call PSTN

PSTN
signalling H.248
H.248
Megaco
Megaco

H.323
Endpoint
MG
MG

Call signalling
Media gateway control signalling
Media flows
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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
MGCP proposal by
merging IPDC and
IPDC
SGCP
(Telcordia & Level 3)
MGCP released as
Informational RFC
SGCP MGCP I-RFC 2705 (Oct 99)

Lucent submits MDCP

to ITU-T SG16
MDCP
(proposal)
(Nov 1999)

Consensus between IETF and

ITU on Megaco Protocol
(March 99)

IETF
Megaco/H.248 RFC 3015

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Megaco connection model
Based on 3 concepts:
Termination
– Identifies an end point for media flows MG
– Implements Signals, and generates Events
– Can appear in at most one context. Cn O2=I1+I3
– Permanent (provisioned) terminations can exist Tb
outside a context I1 I2
Ta
Context
– Defines communication between Terminations, O3=I1+I2
O1=I2+I3 Tc
acts as a mixing bridge
I3
– Contains 1 or more Terminations
– Supports multiple streams

Stream Td
– 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

Simple, powerful connection/resource model

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Megaco/H.248: Commands
• Provides control for manipulating terminations and contexts.
• Current Command Set:
Command Initiator Description
Add MGC Adds a termination to a context.
Modify MGC Modifies a termination’s properties, events, and
signals.
Move MGC Moves a termination from one context to another.
Subtract MGC Removes a termination from its context.
AuditValue MGC Returns current state of properties, events, signals,
and statistics.
AuditCapabilities MGC Returns all possible values for termination
properties, events, and signals allowed by an MG.
Notify MG Informs MGC of event occurrence(s).
ServiceChange MGC Takes or places a termination(s) out of or in service.
MG 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 Implementor’s 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

Proxy
Public IP
Network
Server
Registrar
SIP
Agent
Private IP
UAC Network
Redirect SIP
UAS Server
Location Agent
Server
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
• Responses are generated by servers
– First line contains the response code
• 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 - SIP enabled

PSTN) network
PSTN Signaling is carried transparently MGC 1 MGC 2
over the IP network
IP network
Proxy
SS7
network SS7
network
Proxy

SIP enabled
PSTN to IP interworking network SIP
MGC agent

IP network
Proxy
SS7
network

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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
— MIME Type addition
• Standard method of encapsulating legacy signaling
• Simplifies Inter-working:
- Local variant
- Interconnect variant (LCD)
— ISUP to SIP Mapping

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SIP–T 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 H.261 T.120 H.225 H.245

G.722 H.263
G.723
Call RAS Control
Control
G.728
G.729
RTP/RTCP
AAL5 UDP UDP or TCP
ATM
IP
Lower Layers Vary

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H.323 elements and entities
Terminals Gatekeeper
• PCs, IP phones, set- • address translation (IP, telephone)
Gatekeeper
top boxes
• admission control
• Audio
• cannot generate or terminate calls
• Video (optional)
• Data (optional)

Endpoints
• can make or receive calls
MCU Gateway • Realized by terminals and logically
present in Gateways

Gateway
Multipoint Control Unit (MCU) • Interworking with
• other multimedia terminals
• Support for multipoint conferences
• GSTN
• Always contains a MC
• Optionally contains an MP

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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.

For APRICOT, Feb 27, 2001 - 24

H.323/SIP comparison summary
H.323
Stds Body • ITU-T SG-16
Properties • 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
Status • H.450.x series provides minimal feature
set only, pure peer approach
w.r.t. end • Adding ( mixed peer/stimulus approach
device soon poor architecture)
• Slow moving
Industry • Established now, primarily system level
• Few if any H.323-base telephones
acceptance
• End-user primarily driven by Siemens,
Microsoft (NetMeeting), Intel
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
SIP
•IETF SIP, MMusic, ...
• Modular, simplistic design
• Easily extended & updated
• Based on Web principals (“Internet-
friendly”)
• Readily extensible beyond telephony
• 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
For APRICOT, Feb 27, 2001 - 25
For More Information

IETF:
– IETF home page
http://www.ietf.org/
– Internet-draft search engine
http://search.ietf.org/search/brokers/internet-drafts/query.html
– RFC search engine
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfcsearch.html
– Megaco WG charter
http://ietf.org/html.charters/megaco-charter.html
– Megaco documents repository
ftp://standards.nortelnetworks.com/megaco/
ftp://standards.nortelnetworks.com/megaco/docs/latest/

ITU:
– ITU home page
http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/index.html
– SG-16 document repository (H.323, H.248)
ftp://standard.pictel.com/avc-site
– Most Megaco/H.248 related documents should also be available through
Megaco WG, above

For APRICOT, Feb 27, 2001 - 26

Thank You!

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