Transcript Document

International Telecommunication Union
ENUM: Convergence of Technology
and Organizational Perspectives
Swedish Administration Workshop on ENUM
Stockholm, March 7, 2002
Robert Shaw
<[email protected]>
ITU Internet Strategy and Policy Advisor
International Telecommunication Union
The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the
opinions of the ITU or its membership.
International Telecommunication Union
What is the ITU?
• UN specialised agency, concerned with the
development of telecommunication
networks and services worldwide
• Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland
with regional offices
• 137 years old
• 190 Member States, 600 Private Sector
members
• ~700 staff / ~70 nationalities
• Website: http://www.itu.int
• Secretary-General: Yoshio Utsumi (Japan)
International Telecommunication Union
But what does the ITU do?
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International telecoms standardization
Global spectrum allocation and registration
Co-ordination of national spectrum planning
Stewardship of geostationary satellite orbit
Collaboration in international tariff-setting
Co-operation in development assistance
Measures for ensuring safety of life
(Maritime, aeronautical)
• Policy and regulatory activities
• Not an “international regulator”
International Telecommunication Union
Interoperability
• Interoperability of
networks has always
been a challenge and
opportunity.
• You probably don’t
remember when
people use to have
multiple phones on
their desk?
International Telecommunication Union
Interoperability was what these people wanted…
Founders of the International Telegraph Union: 1865
International Telecommunication Union
Examples of ITU Standards and the Internet
• ITU standards widely deployed at many levels of
the Internet environment, especially at backbone
(e.g., ATM, FR) and user access network (e.g.,
modems, DSL)
• Tens of millions of computers are connected to the
Internet via the Public Switched Telephone
Network (PSTN)
• PSTN provides most of the transport facilities over
which the Internet Protocol and related application
services (e.g., WWW) are carried
• PSTN provides dial-up access to millions of
Internet users
International Telecommunication Union
IP Telephony: What is it?
• Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony is a generic term
describing voice or fax carried over IP-based
networks, such as the Internet.
• IP Telephony is important:
– In the short-term, because it cuts the cost of calls,
especially if routed over the public Internet
– In the longer-term, because telecoms carriers are
migrating their separate voice and data networks to
converged IP-based networks
• Examples of IP Telephony Service Providers
include Net2Phone, Dialpad.com, iBasis etc.
International Telecommunication Union
IP Telephony Flavours
• Often treated differently from policy or
regulatory perspective
– Carried solely across the public Internet?
– IP as underlying transport or signalling
technology for PSTN services (e.g., using
SS7)?
– IP telephony on full end-to-end “private” IP
networks (e.g. using “softswitch” technology)?
– Combinations of the above with gateways
between Internet or private IP-based networks
and the PSTN?
International Telecommunication Union
Why is IP Telephony important?
IP Telephony traffic, in million minutes
7'000
6'000
5'000
5.5%
As percentage of int'l
outgoing traffic
4'000
3.2%
3'000
1.6%
2'000
1'000
0.0%
0.2%
1997
1998
0
1999
2000
Source: ITU Internet Reports, adapted from TeleGeography Inc.
2001
International Telecommunication Union
ENUM: Technical Convergence
• Problems of addressing calls that pass
from one network service to another:
– Now widely possible to originate calls from IP
address-based networks to other networks
– But uncommon to terminate calls from other
networks to IP address-based networks
– To access a subscriber on an IP address-based
network, some sort of global addressing
scheme across PSTN and IP address-based
networks needed
• ENUM seen as “glue” solution…
– e.g., roundabout way to assign E.164 resources
to SIP terminals
International Telecommunication Union
What is E.164?
• ITU-T Recommendation E.164: “The
international public telecommunication
numbering plan”
– Tied to treaty obligations (specific roles and
obligations defined for ITU Member States and
TSB Director)
– Defines number structure and functionality for
four principal categories of numbers:
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Geographic Areas
Global Services
Networks
Groups of Countries (“GoCs”)
International Telecommunication Union
Examples of E.164 Resources
• Geographic areas
– ITU Member States, including integrated
numbering plan involving more than one (e.g., +1)
• Global Services
– e.g., Universal International Freephone Numbers
(+800)
• Networks
– Global Mobile Systems (+881 + 1 digit IC)
– Shared code for Networks (+ 882 + 2 digit IC)
• Groups of Countries
– e.g., ETNS
International Telecommunication Union
What’s this really about?
• To address something is to assign it a unique
value from a bounded range of values.
Uniqueness is critical to functionality.
• To ensure that addresses are unique, each
assignment must be coordinated with all
other assignments.
• The existence of this coordination problem
usually means that names and numbers are
administered by some form of collective
action. That is, by groups rather than by
individuals or a firm.
International Telecommunication Union
What’s this really about?
• Most interesting and difficult policy
problems are created by the need for
collective action among businesses and
organizations that might otherwise be rivals
or autonomous.
• The institutional agent for the exercise of
collective choice and the processes used
are always the difficult part.
• In the case of ENUM, the historically
different treatment of E.164 TNs and the
DNS makes this very difficult
International Telecommunication Union
Many public policy issues…
• INTUG View: ENUM may have effects on:
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integrity of national numbering schemes
competition between service providers
telecommunications network security
number portability
carrier selection
emergency services calls (including passing of
location information)
– privacy
– control over personal records
– control of slamming
International Telecommunication Union
Roles and Responsibilities
• Most ENUM service and administrative
decisions are national issues under
purview of ITU Member States, since most
E.164 resources are utilized nationally
• ITU will need to ensure that Member State
has specifically authorized inclusion of
geographic country code in the DNS
• In integrated numbering plan, each ITU
Member State within plan may administer
their portion of E.164 resources mapped
into DNS as they see fit
International Telecommunication Union
National Consideration Issues
• Consultation process with interested
communities
• National deployment Issues
– How do you authenticate the identity of the
subscriber for ENUM services?
– Who are ENUM Registrars and what are they
responsible for?
– How do you validate ENUM data for potential
users ( Add - Modify – Delete) NAPTR list of
services and preferences?
– How is data provisioned in the country code
name servers?
– Privacy?
International Telecommunication Union
ITU Responsibilities
• Define and implement administrative
procedures that coordinate delegations of
E.164 numbering resources into the agreed
DNS name servers
– Draft Recommendation E.A-ENUM is being
prepared by ITU-T Study Group 2 for
presentation to the May 2002 SG2 meeting
International Telecommunication Union
ITU Future Activities
• Wide circulation of tutorial material
• Cooperate with IAB/IETF to make final
choice of TLD, registry, requirements for
registry operations
• Interim administration
• “Determine” ENUM Supplement in May
2002
• “Determine” E.A-ENUM, May 2002?
International Telecommunication Union
Thank You
• Some references and resources
– http://www.itu.int/infocom/enum/