Managing ClientInitiated Connections

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) allows proxy servers to initiate TCP connections or to send asynchronous UDP datagrams to User Agents in order to deliver requests. However, in a large number of real deployments, many practical considerations, such as the existence of firewalls and Network Address Translators (NATs) or the use of TLS with server-provided certificates, prevent servers from connecting to User Agents in this way. This specification defines behaviors for User Agents, registrars, and proxy servers that allow requests to be delivered on existing connections established by the User Agent. It also defines keep-alive behaviors needed to keep NAT bindings open and specifies the usage of multiple connections from the User Agent to its registrar. Status of This Memo This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards " (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as th

Standardization of network interfaces : a framework for collaborative development and go-to-market strategy

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2006."June 2006."Includes bibliographical references.Over the last decade technological innovation in computers and communications industries has resulted in higher penetration of technology intensive products in businesses and homes. In communications industry, the true value of converged networks will be exploited only if the products and services provided end-to-end quality, reliability and consistency of features and functionalities that are offered. However, for this to happen, the products, systems and networks need to be interoperable. Interoperability can be accomplished most effectively and efficiently by use of common standards; but at the same time use of common standards potentially and arguably leads to commoditization of products, and constrains ability of product differentiation. Processes for setting standards, are not only messy but are prolonged, and quite often lead to battles for platform leadership. As incumbent telecommunications service providers transition from the public switched telephone networks to the IP-based data networks, customer expectations are high, challenges are many and failures are costly.(cont.) Verizon Interoperability Forum has taken on this challenge by attempting to develop standards for interfaces for network elements that are used on Verizon's own network. It is proposed that network interfaces' standards exhibit characteristics of network effects and possess a great potential for becoming a de facto standard.by Uday Hardikar.S.M

Multimedia-Streaming in Benutzergruppen

At the time being, multimedia services using IP technology like IPTV or video on-demand are a hot topic. Technically, they can be classified under the notion of streaming. A server sends media data in a continuous fashion to one or several clients, which consume and display data portions as soon as they arrive. Using a feedback channel customers may influence the play-back, watching programs time-shifted or pausing the program. An enhancement of such streaming services is to watch those movies with a group of people on several devices in parallel. Similar approaches have been developed using IP multicast. However, users cannot control the presentation: pausing or skipping of more unimportant parts is impossible. Moreover, members cannot be added to the session directly within the application. The costream architecture developed in this works offers a collaborative streaming service without these limitations: People may join others watching a movie or invite others to such a collaborative streaming session. Dependent on the desired course of the session the participants' control operations are executed for all users, or the group is split into subgroups to let watchers follow their own time-lines. A group management controls this by means of user roles. Separate from the group management, the so-called association service provides for streaming session control and synchronization among participants. This separation of duties is advantageous in the sense that standard components can be used: For group management, SIP conferencing servers are suitable, whereas session control can best be handled using RTSP proxies as already used for caching of media data. Eventually, the evaluation of this architecture shows that such a service offers both low latency for clients and an acceptable synchronization of media streams to different client devices. Moreover, the communication overhead compared to usual conferencing or streaming systems is very low.Mit Hilfe der IP-Technologie erbrachte Multimedia-Dienste wie IPTV oder Video-on-Demand sind zur Zeit ein gefragtes Thema. Technisch werden solche Dienste unter dem Begriff "Streaming" eingeordnet. Ein Server sendet Mediendaten kontinuierlich an Empfänger, welche die Daten sofort weiterverarbeiten und anzeigen. Über einen Rückkanal hat der Kunde die Möglichkeit der Einflussnahme auf die Wiedergabe. Eine Weiterentwicklung dieser Streaming-Dienste ist die Möglichkeit, gemeinsam mit anderen denselben Film auf mehreren Geräten anzusehen. Ähnliche Ansätze gibt es im Internet bereits durch IP-Multicast. Allerdings können Benutzer hierbei keinen Einfluss auf die Übertragung nehmen - das Überspringen von Teilen ist zum Beispiel nicht möglich. Andere Benutzer können nicht direkt zur Streaming-Sitzung eingeladen werden. Collaborative Streaming ohne solche Einschränkungen bietet die in dieser Arbeit entwickelte costream-Architektur: Sie erlaubt es, andere zum gemeinsamen Betrachten eines Filmes einzuladen oder sich selbst in eine Benutzergruppe einzuklinken. Abhängig vom gewünschten Ablauf der Sitzung wird die Steuerung für alle Teilnehmer durchgeführt oder die Gruppe aufgeteilt. Eine Gruppenverwaltung regelt dies mit Hilfe von Rollenzuweisungen. Davon getrennt sorgt eine weitere Komponente für die Steuerung der Streaming-Sitzungen und die Synchronisation zwischen Teilnehmern. Diese Aufteilung hat den Vorteil, dass von der IETF entwickelte Standardprotokolle eingesetzt werden können. Für die Gruppenverwaltung sind SIP-Konferenzsysteme geeignet, während für die Sitzungssteuerung ein RTSP-Zwischensystem benutzt wurde. Die Evaluierung dieser Architektur zeigt schließlich, dass ein solcher Dienst nicht nur geringe Wartezeiten aufweist, sondern eine akzeptable Synchronisation der Datenströme auf die verschiedenen Ausgabegeräte der Benutzer erreicht wird. Zudem ist der Zusatzaufwand verglichen mit üblichen Konferenz- oder Streaming-Systemen sehr gering

Implementation of Caller Preferences in Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) arises as a new standard of establishing and releasing connections for vast variety of multimedia applications. The protocol may be used for voice calls, video calls, video conferencing, gaming and many more. The 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) suggests SIP as the signalling solution for 3rd generation telephony. Thereby, this purely IP-centric protocol appears as a promising alternative to older signalling systems such as H.323, SS7 or analog signals in PSTN. In contrast to them, SIP does not focus on communication with PSTN network. It is more similar to HTTP than to any of the mentioned protocols. The main standardisation body behind Session Initiation Protocol is The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The most recent paper published on SIP is RFC 3261 [5]. Moreover, there are working groups within IETF that publish suggestions and extensions to the main standard. One of those extensions is “Caller Preferences for the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)” [1]. This document describes a set of new rules that allow a caller to express preferences about request handling in servers. They give ability to select which Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) a request gets routed to, and to specify certain request handling directives in proxies and redirect servers. It does so by defining three new request header fields, Accept-Contact, Reject-Contact, and Request-Disposition, which specify the caller preferences. [1]. The aim of this project is to extend the existing software with caller preferences and evaluate the new functionality