NGN-VoIP Interop Event: Testing Interoperability of VoIP Solutions

1. The first NGN-VoIP Interop event • 29 november to 3 december 2004, ETSI, France

2. What is ETSI? ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute) is a non profit organization whose mission is to produce the telecommunications standards that will be used for decades to come  throughout Europe and beyond. Based in Sophia Antipolis, south of France,ETSI unites 786 members from 56 countries inside and outside Europe, and represents administrations, network operators, manufacturers, service providers, research bodies and users. ETSI's activities are maintained in close alignment with the market needs expressed by its members. ETSI plays a major role in developing a wide range of standards and other technical documentation as Europe's contribution to world-wide standardization in telecommunications ETSI is officially recognized by the European Commission and the EFTA secretariat

3. The ETSI interoperability service: a new permanent service since end 2000. • Experiment in the period ’99 – 2000 the interest to complement the standardisation works using regular meetings by the organisation of « bake-offs » where participants bring implementations/products; • Confirm at the GA 35, nov. 2000, the interest of such service and create a permanent one: the ETSI Interoperability Service; • July 2001: change the name « bake-off » , a trade-mark of Pillsbury by « Plugtests » • Begining 2004, 600 companies sent about 2000 engineers to 40 interoperability events

4. The events have solid technical and quality objectives while saving time and money • focus on key « interoperability » features considered important in the technical area • test plans defined • test facilities and expertise organized • High capacity network facilities, WiFi • PABX, servers, … • technical feedback organized • interaction developpers/standardisers • Close interaction between ETSI’s Conformance and interoperabilty testing activities (e.g. PTCC &Plugtests)

5. Pragmatic and low cost service • 2-5 days event can be organized in 2-3 months • Setting up a pragmatic, QUICK and LOW COST initiative (e.g. <1000 € per participant !) • Organized in the neutral environment of ETSI (we care about companies’ confidentiality !) • Meet several actors of the same technology at the same time in one location. • Results of satisfaction surveys on past events show a high customers’ satisfaction.

6. The successful and growing ETSI Interoperability Service : a technical and non-technical tool for ETSI committees and industry fora • 40 interoperability events organised • 3 in 1999, 5 in 2000, 7 in 2001, 12 in 2002, 12 in 2003 • average satisfaction rate 4.4 out of 5 • About 2000 engineers, 600 companies • Active involvement in the IP world (IPv6, SCTP, MPLS, SIGTRAN, SIP) • Involvement in non traditional “ETSI” areas ( J2ME – Java , IP, Bluetooth) • Growing involvement in telecom areas (Hiperlan2, DSL, SMS,…) • Synergy Conformance & Interoperability service in close cooperation with Committees and PTCC • Valorised ETSI experience in testing matters : Test specifications, methodologies, input to certification/logo programmes (e.g. IPv6, SIP, H323)

7. History of events 2003: • Powerline • XDSL – Voice over DSL • XML – electronic signature • J2ME • Smartcard • IPv6 • SIGTRAN • Fix - SMS • Remote IPv6 • 1st OSA Parlay • Multivendor MPLS • Hiperlan2

8. Calender of events - 2004 • Osa-Parlay (ETSI) 26-30 January • SiPiT 14 (Sofitel Mandelieu - France) 9 - 13 February  • ENUM Workshop (ETSI) 24-25 February • 3rd Speech Quality test event (ETSI) 19-23 April • Security (XadES, PKI, ...) (ETSI) 24-28 May • ebXML (ETSI) 21-25 June • Remote IPv6 16-20 August • SIGTRAN (ETSI) 6-10 September • DSL (Saarbrücken) 20-24 Septembre • Location Based Service (ETSI) 20-24 September • SCTP (ETSI) 4-8 October • IPv6 (ETSI) 18-22 October • F-MMS (ETSI) 25-29 October • J2ME (ETSI) 2-5 November • Powerline (ETSI) 15-19 November • SmartCard (ETSI) 22-26 November • NGN-VoIP (ETSI) 29 Novembre-3 Decembre • WLan-WMan (ETSI) 13-17 December

9. Introduction • Starting from the TIPHON project and since the NGN Starter Group report during the GA38, ETSI wants to play a major role in the standardization of the VoIP technologies. • This first VoIP Access and Speech quality Interop is a good opportunity for ETSI to increase its presence in the NGN standardization process. • The idea of the event is to invite different actors of VoIP at ETSI, to test interoperability of solutions and interworking between different protocols and networks. • During the Interop event, ETSI will provide the participants with rooms, Ethernet and Wireless networks, PSTN Accesses, as well as its usual Interop support, like Scheduling and specific expertise on VoIP. • Furthermore, the availability of test tools provider, with their test solutions will help manufacturer in finding and resolving technical issues, as well as performing conformance test cases and Speech quality measurements.

10. Goals of the Event • Check the interoperability of equipments from different vendors, • Ensure backward compatibility as applicable, • Promotion of the VoIP Technology and its Specifications, • Evaluate Speech quality standards and compare with other non-standardized methods as available, • Event is further proof of the maturity of VoIP and NGN as a technology, • Strong signal to the market that VoIP vendors are serious about interoperability and that VoIP has achieved stability and backwards compatibility, • Such events give confidence that VoIP technology can be invested in. • Use and evaluate the Conformance Test specifications as drafted by standard bodies and as available according to the offer of test tool providers,

11. Benefits for the participants • exchange their views on these technologies, • Bring Competitors together to progress on specification development and implementation, • Test the Speech quality using the test tool provided at the event by test tool manufacturers, • Opportunity to quickly discover errors in your implementation with fast turn-around testing, • discover the available features and enhance knowledge on the test tool offer, • Use and evaluate the Conformance Test specifications as drafted by standard bodies and as available according to the offer of test tool providers, • Test and evaluate Voice Quality, benefit from consulting services offered by test labs for Speech quality improvement • Access to test platforms and simulation tools at the event, • Check the interworking between different protocols

12. Packet Network Test bed architecture Gatekeeper SIP Server Registrar H.323 PSTN / PLMN Circuit switched Gateway GW SIP GW SIP SIP H.323 SIP Signaling Gateway SIP UAs Media in RTP / RTCP SIGTRAN MEGACO / MGCP MEGACO / MGCP SIGTRAN controls MEGACO / MGCP controls controls Residential Gateway Media Gateway Controller SIP-T Trunking Gateway Etc … Media Gateway Controller

13. Protocols • Call control protocols for IP Telephony, • H.323 protocol family: ITU H.225, H.245 • SIP standards (IETF: rfc3261 and rfc2543) • Media Gateway Control Protocols • MEGACO, ITU H.248 from and IETF rfc3525 or 3015, • MGCP from IETF • Signalling Gateway Control Protocols • ISUP and ISDN over SIGTRAN (M3UA IETF rfc3332 and IUA). • Call Control Protocol between Media Gateway Controller • SIP-T, BICC.

14. Interoperability issues • between equipments of the same protocol family. • H.323: Terminals, Gateways, Gatekeeper • SIP: UAs, Registars, Proxy and Redirecting servers • MGCP or MEGACO: SG, TG, RG and MGC • RTP / RTCP: Terminals, Gateways, servers • Introperabilty checked locally or remotely: • Interoperabitlity between equipments connected to the same Gatekeeper / Registrar • And Interoperanbility between equipments connected on 2 different Gatekeeper / Registrar

15. Interworking issues • Focuses on testing Interworking between the different Call Control and Media Gatewy Control protocols • H.323 – SIP • H.323 – Analog / ISDN / ISUP • SIP – Analog / ISDN / ISUP • MGCP/MEGACO – SIGTRAN – SIP-T • SIGTRAN – Analog / ISDN / ISUP • MGCP or MEGACO – Analog / ISDN / ISUP

16. Speech Quality Testing • The speech quality tests are restricted in number and are applied only between two acoustical interfaces (mouth to ear testing). • All tests are conducted using artificial heads (HATS according to ITU-T Recommendation P.58) on both sides of the connection. • The following tests (based on the descriptions found in TS 192 251) are provided : • Loudness Ratings and frequency response tests, • Listening speech quality tests using TOSQA 2001, • Switching characteristics, and double talk tests, • Background noise and echo canceller performance, • Recording of speech signal

17. Voice Quality testing • Different methods are available to test Voice Quality: • PESQ : as per ITU P.862, • Monitoring of delay and Jitter, • Calculation of R Factor • MOS • Test tools can also provide proper functionalities to evaluate Voice Quality: • Graphical comparison of Voice templates, • Direct playing of RTP flows, • Evaluation of voice quality with different Jitter Buffer sizes, • ...

18. Conformance Test Specifications • Conformance test suites can help to discover implementation errors and thus to improve interoperability and interworking. • Following test specifications are currently available from ETSI: • H.225 TS 101 804-1, -2 and –3, • H.245 TS 101 890-1, -2 and –3, • H.248 TS 101 889-1, -2 and –3, • SIP, rfc3261 TS 102 027-1 and –2, • Interworking SIP-H.323 TS 102 237-1, -2 and –3, • SIGTRAN, • MGCP

19. Test tools • Test tools are very important to ensure the success of this first VoIP interop. • The test tools will enable participant to increase the efficientcy of this interop by: • Monitoring and decoding signalling links to detect errors or inconsistencies and to analyze the traffic; • Simulating equipments in order to reproduce specific scenarios, • verifing equipments using Conformance test suites as available, • proceeding with Speech Quality and Voice Quality testing.

20. Preliminary test plan • Basic connectivity • Ip connectivity. • Connectivity with Circuit Switched Network, • Ip addressing, Security, Bandwith, • Registration • H.323 Gatekeeper Registration, Admission • SIP Registration • Location • Gatekeeper location, • SIP Location server. • Call establishment – release • Media control – RTP and RTCP • Speech Quality – Voice Quality

21. Sponsoring opportunities • Note that ETSI Plugtests is a self-financed service and is not receiving money from ETSI board. • Income are coming from (little fees), EU funds for some interops and sponsors • Due to this special situation, ETSI Plugtests has develop a sponsoring programme which is the only one within ETSI, which would allow commercial company to promote their brand into the ETSI activities. See more atwww.etsi.org/plugtests/sponsor

22. ETSI Plugtests Sponsorship : your value • Boost your image: show that your company is dynamic, pro-active and innovative! • Create an image of positive association between your company and Interoperability (as supported by ETSI and its activities) • Promote your brand by associating it with the key organization active in a key technology • Target the active audience in your specific domain • Create new business opportunities for your company • Benefit from the stronger support and the political & industrial recognition given to Plugtests events • Get high-visibility and promotion through : • High-traffic website (4000 visits/day), • ETSI worldwide press and news services

23. THANK YOU • See you at the NGN-VoIP Interoperability event on 29 December 2004 • Contacts: • Philippe COUSIN : philippe.cousin@etsi.org • Francois FISCHER : francois.fischer@etsi.org • Visit us at www.etsi.org/plugtests • Use the SPONSORSHIP opportunities