International Telecommunication Union ENUM: Convergence of Technology and Organizational...

International Telecommunication Union

ENUM: Convergence of Technology and Organizational Perspectives

Swedish Administration Workshop on ENUMStockholm, March 7, 2002

Robert Shaw<[email protected]>

ITU Internet Strategy and Policy AdvisorInternational 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.


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)


But what does the ITU do?

• 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”


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?


Interoperability was what these people wanted…

Founders of the International Telegraph Union: 1865


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


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.


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?


Why is IP Telephony important?IP Telephony traffic, in million minutes

0.0% 0.2%

1.6%

5.5%

3.2%

0

1'000

2'000

3'000

4'000

5'000

6'000

7'000

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

As percentage of int'l outgoing traffic

Source: ITU Internet Reports, adapted from TeleGeography Inc.


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


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:

• Geographic Areas• Global Services• Networks• Groups of Countries (“GoCs”)


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


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.


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


Many public policy issues…

• INTUG View: ENUM may have effects on: – 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


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


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?


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


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?


Thank You

• Some references and resources – http://www.itu.int/infocom/enum/

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