Digital telecom convergence has advanced a big step today with the announcement of the first “standardized IP-based network-to-network interconnection (NNI) with consensus spanning North American carriers.” Listed as one of the major objectives of the U.S. National Broadband Plan, the accomplishment was announced July 21, by ATIS and the SIP Forum.
Two documents published by the ATIS/SIP Forum Joint Task Force lay out a detailed, protocol-level IP-NNI specification for voice service. The Interconnection Profile describes a reference architecture and the specifications for the protocol and media as it appears at interconnect points. The IP Interconnection Routing Report documents mechanisms that identify the preferred IP interconnection point for a given phone number, ATIS and the SIP Forum explain.
“By simplifying IP interconnection for voice and making it easier to set up IP services, the groundwork is in place for delivering ubiquitous advanced real-time communications,” said ATIS President and CEO Susan Miller. “The opportunities are virtually limitless, but examples of new services envisioned on the horizon are high-definition voice, point-to-point video calling and multimedia text across wireless, wireline and cable providers. ATIS is excited about the value our collaboration with the SIP Forum is delivering the industry.”
Beyond IP Voice Interconnection
The ATIS/SIP Forum Joint Task Force is moving ahead with development of Phase 2 IP-NNI standards that address inter-carrier video calling, enhanced calling name delivery (CNAM) and an implementation profile for secure caller-ID based on the IETF STIR (Secure Telephone Identity Revisited) Working Group. These capabilities aim to protect consumers and businesses from Caller ID Spoofing and Robocalls.
Phase 2 of ATIS/SIP Forum’s IP-NNI standards development work is to specify requirements for interoperability testing and carry out a detailed assessment of VoIP security requirements.
“We are jointly committed to fulfilling the promise of the ‘any-to-any’ model of real-time communications over an all-IP infrastructure,¨ SIP Forum chairman Richard Shockey was quoted as saying. “In addition, we will fully integrate our SIPconnect Specification for seamless IP-PBX or Cloud- based services into the NNI effort. Once that is achieved, we will have fulfilled the promise of ubiquitous multimedia Enterprise Unified Communications.”
Both the new specifications are available free of charge online on ATIS’s White Paper Center.
