Network Working Group D. Meyer Internet-Draft October 21, 2005 Expires: April 24, 2006 Terminology for Describing VoIP Peering and Interconnect draft-meyer-voipeer-terminology-01.txt Status of this Memo By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on April 24, 2006. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005). Abstract This document defines the terminology that is to be used by the Voice Over IP Peering and Interconnect Working Group (voipeer), and has as its primary objective to focus the VOIPEER Working Group during its discussions, and when writing requirements, gap analysis and other solutions oriented documents. Meyer Expires April 24, 2006 [Page 1] Internet-Draft Terminology for Describing VoIP Peering October 2005 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. General Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.1. Call Routing Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.2. Call Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3.3. PSTN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.4. Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.5. VoIP Service Provider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.6. Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.7. Peering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3.7.1. Layer 3 Peering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.7.2. Layer 5 Peering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.8. VoIP Peering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4. ENUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.1. Carrier of Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.2. Public ENUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4.3. Private ENUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4.4. Carrier ENUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 5. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 6. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 8. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 11 Meyer Expires April 24, 2006 [Page 2] Internet-Draft Terminology for Describing VoIP Peering October 2005 1. Introduction The term "VoIP Peering" has historically been used to describe a wide variety of aspects pertaining to the interconnection of service provider networks and to the delivery of SIP call termination over those interconnections. The discussion of these interconnections has at times been confused by the fact that the term "peering" is used in various contexts to relate to interconnection at different levels in a protocol stack. VoIP peering focuses on how to identify and route calls at the application layer, and it does not (necessarily) involve the exchange of packet routing data or media sessions. In particular, "layer 5 network" is used here to refer to the interconnection between SIP servers, as opposed to interconnection at the IP layer ("layer 3"). Finally, the terms "peering" and "interconnect" are used interchangeably throughout this document. This document introduces standard terminology for use in characterizing VoIP interconnection. Note however, that while this document is primarily targeted at the VoIP interconnect case, the terminology described here is applicable to those cases in which service providers interconnect using SIP signaling for real-time or quasi-real-time communications. The remainder of this document is organized as follows: Section 2 provides the general context for the VOIPEER Working Group, and Section 3 provides the general definitions for real-time SIP based communication, with focus on the VoIP interconnect case. Section 4 briefly touches on terms from the ENUM Working Group. Finally, Section 5 provides comments on usage. 2. Context Figure 1 depicts the general VoIP interconnect context. In this case, the caller uses an E.164 number [ITU.E164.1991] as the "name" of the called user. Note that this E.164 number is not an address, since at this point we do not have information about where the named endpoint is located. In the case shown here, an E.164 number is used as a key to retrieve a NAPTR recored [RFC3404] from the DNS, which in turn resolved into a SIP URI. Call routing is based on this SIP URI. The call routing step does not depend on the presence of an E.164 number; the SIP URI can be advertised in various other ways, such as on a web page. Finally, note that the subsequent lookup steps, namely, lookup of SRV, A, and AAAA records (as well as any routing steps below that) are outside the scope of VOIPEER. Meyer Expires April 24, 2006 [Page 3] Internet-Draft Terminology for Describing VoIP Peering October 2005 E.164 number <--- Peer Discovery | | <--- ENUM lookup of NAPTR in DNS | | | ENUM Working Group Scope =====+======================================= | VOIPEER Working Group Scope | | SIP URI <--- Call Routing Data (CRD) | | <--- Service Location (Lookup of SRV in DNS) | | Hostname <--- VoIP addressing and session establishment | | <---- Lookup of A and AAAA in DNS | Ip address | | <---- Routing protocols, ARP etc | Mac-address Figure 1: VoIP Interconnect Context The ENUM Working Group is primarily concerned with the acquisition of Call Routing Data, or CRD (i.e., above the double line in Figure 1), while the VOIPEER Working Group is focused on the use of such CRD. Importantly, the CRD can be derived from ENUM (i.e., an E.164 DNS entry), or via any other mechanism available to the user. 3. General Definitions 3.1. Call Routing Data Call Routing Data, or CRD, is a SIP URI used to route a call (real- time, voice or other type) to the called domain's ingress point. A domain's ingress point can be thought of as the location pointed to by the SRV record that resulted from the resolution of the CRD (i.e., a SIP URI). 3.2. Call Routing Call routing is the set of processes, rules, and CRD used to route a VoIP call to its proper (SIP) destination. More generally, call Meyer Expires April 24, 2006 [Page 4] Internet-Draft Terminology for Describing VoIP Peering October 2005 routing can be thought of as the set of processes, rules and CRD which are used to route a real-time session to its termination (ingress) point. 3.3. PSTN The term "PSTN" refers to the Public Switched Telephone Network. In particular, the PSTN refers to the collection of interconnected circuit-switched voice-oriented public telephone networks, both commercial and government-owned. In general, PSTN terminals are addressed using E.164 numbers, noting that various dial-plans (such as emergency services dial-plans) may not directly use E.164 numbers. 3.4. Network For purposes of this document and the VOIPEER and ENUM Working Groups, a network is defined to be the set of SIP servers and end- users (customers) that are controlled by a single administrative domain. The network may also contain end-users who are located on the PSTN. 3.5. VoIP Service Provider A VoIP service provider is an entity that provides transport of SIP signaling (and possibly media streams) to its customers. Such a service provider may additionally be interconnected with other service providers; that is, it may "peer" with other service providers. A VoIP service provider may also interconnect with the PSTN. Note that as soon as a ingress point is advertised via a SRV record, anyone can find that ingress point and hence can send calls there. This is very similar to sending mail to a SMTP server based on the existence of a MX record. 3.6. Carrier A carrier is defined to be a service provider who is authorized to offer telephony services to the public. Note that the provision of such services is usually coupled with the authority to issue E.164 numbers [ITU.E164.1991] under the authority of a National Regulatory Authority (NRA). 3.7. Peering While the precise definition of the term "peering" is the subject of some debate, peering in general refers to the negotiation of reciprocal interconnection arrangements, settlement-free or Meyer Expires April 24, 2006 [Page 5] Internet-Draft Terminology for Describing VoIP Peering October 2005 otherwise, between operationally independent service providers. This document distinguishes two types of peering, Layer 3 Peering and Layer 5 peering, which are described below. 3.7.1. Layer 3 Peering Layer 3 peering refers to interconnection of two service providers for the purposes of exchanging IP packets which destined for one (or both) of the peer's networks. Layer 3 peering is generally agnostic to the IP payload, and is frequently achieved using a routing protocol such as BGP [RFC1771] to exchange the required routing information. An alternate, perhaps more operational definition of layer 3 peering is that two peers exchange only customer routes, and hence any traffic between peers terminates on one of the peer's network. 3.7.2. Layer 5 Peering Layer 5 peering refers to interconnection of two service providers for the purposes of SIP signaling. Note that in the layer 5 peering case, there is no intervening network. That is, for purposes of this discussion, there is no such thing as a "Layer 5 Transit Network". 3.8. VoIP Peering VoIP peering is defined to be a layer 5 peering between two VoIP providers for purposes of routing real-time (or quasi-real time) call signaling between their respective customers. Media streams associated with this signaling (if any) are not constrained to follow the same set of paths. 4. ENUM ENUM [RFC3761] defines how the Domain Name System (DNS) can be used for identifying available services connected to one E.164 number. 4.1. Carrier of Record For purposes of this document, "Carrier of Record", or COR, refers to the entity that provides PSTN service for an E.164 number [I-D.lind- infrastructure-enum-reqs]. The exact definition of who and what is a COR is ultimately the responsibility of the relevant NRA. Meyer Expires April 24, 2006 [Page 6] Internet-Draft Terminology for Describing VoIP Peering October 2005 4.2. Public ENUM Public ENUM is generally defined as the set administrative policies and procedures surrounding the use of the e164.arpa domain for Telephone Number to URI resolution [RFC3761]. Policies and procedures for the registration of telephone numbers within all branches of the e164.arpa tree are Nation State issues by agreement with the IAB and ITU. National Regulatory Authorities have generally defined Public ENUM Registrants as the E.164 number holder as opposed to the COR that issued the phone number. 4.3. Private ENUM Private ENUM is generally regarded as one or more technologies (including DNS and SIP Redirect) that service providers or enterprises may use to exchange phone number to URI mappings in a private secure manner. Private ENUM may be used in any mutually agreed upon domain. Records in Private ENUM may be globally visible but in most cases are not visible to the global Internet and are protected using a variety of security technologies such as split-DNS, VPN's or various forms or authentication and authorization. Technical comments on issues surrounding split-DNS can be found in [RFC2826]. 4.4. Carrier ENUM Carrier ENUM is generally regarded as the use of a separate branch the e164.arpa tree, such as 4.4.c.e164.arpa to permit service providers to exchange phone number to URI data in order to find points of interconnection. The current theory of Carrier ENUM is that only the COR for a particular E.164 number is permitted to provision data for that E.164 within that portion of the e164.arpa tree. In carrier ENUM case, only the COR may enter data in the corresponding domain. The COR may also enter CRD (i.e., a SIP URI) to allow other VoIP Service Providers to route calls to its network. Finally, note that ENUM is not constrained to carry only data (CDR) as defined by VOIPEER. In particular, an an important class of CRD, the tel URIs [RFC3966] may be carried in ENUM. Such tel URIs are most frequently used to interconnect with the PSTN directly, and are out of scope for VOIPEER. On the other hand, PSTN endpoints served by a COR and reachable via CDR and networks as defined in Section 3.1 and Section 3.4 are in scope for VOIPEER. 5. Conclusions Meyer Expires April 24, 2006 [Page 7] Internet-Draft Terminology for Describing VoIP Peering October 2005 6. Acknowledgments Many of the definitions were gleaned from detailed discussions on the VOIPEER, ENUM, and SIPPING mailing lists. Scott Brim, Mike Hammer, Jean-Francois Mule, Richard Shocky, and Richard Stastny made valuable contributions to early revisions of this document. Patrik Faltstrom also made many insightful comments to early versions of this draft, and contributed the basis of Figure 1. 7. Security Considerations This document itself introduces no new security considerations. However, it is important to note that VoIP interconnect has a wide variety of security issues that should be considered in documents addressing both protocol and use case analyzes. 8. IANA Considerations This document creates no new requirements on IANA namespaces [RFC2434]. 9. References 9.1. Normative References [RFC3404] Mealling, M., "Dynamic Delegation Discovery System (DDDS) Part Four: The Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI)", RFC 3404, October 2002. [RFC3761] Faltstrom, P. and M. Mealling, "The E.164 to Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) Dynamic Delegation Discovery System (DDDS) Application (ENUM)", RFC 3761, April 2004. [ITU.E164.1991] International Telecommunications Union, "The International Public Telecommunication Numbering Plan", ITU- T Recommendation E.164, 1991. [RFC3966] Schulzrinne, H., "The tel URI for Telephone Numbers", RFC 3966, December 2004. 9.2. Informative References [RFC1771] Rekhter, Y. and T. Li, "A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4)", RFC 1771, March 1995. Meyer Expires April 24, 2006 [Page 8] Internet-Draft Terminology for Describing VoIP Peering October 2005 [RFC2434] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 2434, October 1998. [RFC2826] Internet Architecture Board, "IAB Technical Comment on the Unique DNS Root", RFC 2826, May 2000. [I-D.lind-infrastructure-enum-reqs] Lind, S., "Infrastructure ENUM Requirements", draft-lind-infrastructure-enum-reqs-00 (work in progress), July 2005. Meyer Expires April 24, 2006 [Page 9] Internet-Draft Terminology for Describing VoIP Peering October 2005 Author's Address David Meyer Email: dmm@1-4-5.net Meyer Expires April 24, 2006 [Page 10] Internet-Draft Terminology for Describing VoIP Peering October 2005 Intellectual Property Statement The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. 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Disclaimer of Validity This document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Copyright Statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005). This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. Acknowledgment Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. Meyer Expires April 24, 2006 [Page 11]