ENUM: What does it mean?What does it matter? TMDentonVancouver, BCMay 4, 2004

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 2 Introduction Why is ENUM? What is ENUM? What it is not The politics of ENUM Getting a delegation in North America Privacy concerns

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 3 Telephones and computers There are about 2 billion telephones in the world, fixed and mobile, 1 billion landline and 946 million mobile (March 2003) 157 million computers hosts 588 million personal computers Source ITU Statistics at a glance Every computer has an address; because we remember names better, domain names translate into IP addresses Telephone numbers connect telephones.

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 4 Connecting keyboards to dial pads ENUM is but one way of connecting two vast installed bases of equipment Another way is to replace all existing phones with qwerty keyboards, e.g. Trio 270 VOIP is the coming wave of change ENUM allows the directory system to catch up with the rest of the changes in signal transmission. The older SS7-based look-up system is by- passed.

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 5 What is ENUM? ENUM is a standard of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) which turns telephone numbers into a domain name, for example And allows inquires through the Domain Name System… where a record, called the Naming Authority Pointer record, is kept. The Naming Authority Pointer (NAPTR) record defines what services a person wants out of the system.

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 6 The core problem How do you find a service on the Internet if all you have is a Telephone Number ?

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 7 ENUM The ENUM system allows the domain name system to transform (map) telephone numbers into domain names. Telephone numbers are referred to as E164 numbers, after the ITU standard which specifies them. The resulting name is looked up in the DNS (domain name system). The look-up returns a set of records referred to as Naming Authority Pointer (NAPTR) records. The NAPTR records define the services the person has entered into the record.

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 8 The Domain Name System The Domain Name System, or DNS, is designed to ensure that each Internet address is globally unique and corresponds to a distinct numeric value. The system resolves a domain name, such as into a unique "IP address" -- a numerical name containing four blocks of up to three digits each (such as ), which points to a single location on the Internet. The DNS was designed primarily as a mnemonic device to help people remember the addresses of Web pages more easily.

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 9 The Domain Name System 2 The DNS system consists of three components: DNS data (called resource records), servers (called name servers), and Internet protocols for fetching data from the servers The billions of resource records in the DNS are split into millions of files called zones. Zones are kept on authoritative servers distributed all over the Internet. The creation and management of domain names is worked out in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 10 What ENUM is and is not ENUM is not A directory, or a change in telephone numbering A search service A transport service A telephony service or a voice encoding protocol ENUM is A partial mapping of e.164 numbers to domain names, whose record defines a set of services. ENUMs goal is that one party should be able to look up information in the DNS, which another party has stored in the DNS.

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 11 ENUMs potential ENUM offers Internet-based users to select from a range of services available for communicating with another person when all he knows is a telephone number. Spans both the legacy telephone and new VOIP networks Telephone number becomes the only thing to remember Supports all dialling plans simplifies call routing and number portability for phone companies One number for life?

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 12 What is the problem to be solved? ENUM Solves the problem of cross domain or Inter-Enterprise call- capture. 80% or more of Enterprise calls can go all IP. Toll Calls are a $110 Billion revenue stream. $987 per Business line per year in toll charges (source FCC)

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 13 The Politics of ENUM The Internet Engineering Task Force developed ENUM as a standard (formerly RFC 2916, now RFC 3761) The ITU has control over the use of telephone numbers, and this control is delegated to national administrations. Using telephone numbers requires their permission. The IETF is a volunteer organization with no membership, open to participation by all, and works by mailing lists. The ITU is a treaty-based organization dating back to the foundation of telegraphy.

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 14 Authority to include telephone numbers in the system The ITU-T wants to be sure that national governments have authorized their countrys telephone numbers to be placed in the official E164.arpa root. Problem: North America and the Caribbean belong to Country Code 1 (17 countries). Normally this would mean unanimous agreement among 17 countries Smaller countries suspicions of the implications Lack of interest or awareness What are our alternatives?

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 15 The ENUM Delegation Tiers In order to get the official E164 delegation from the ITU, a country must apply for it.

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 16 A hierarchy of Tiers If E164.arpa is to be the ultimate root of authority over ENUM, then the ITU wants ultimate authority over Tier 0, the root. Below Tier 0 lies the Tier 1 which is under national administration That is the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) for CC1. How do we assure national policy is followed when country code 1 is international? This has already been worked out in telephone numbering The DNS structure for Canada and the US is different: dot ca and dot us

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 17 ITU and IAB decide… The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) selected a Dutch non-profit registry, RIPE NCC to operate the Tier 0 registry. Requests for delegation are checked by the ITU ITU determines what is and is not a country And what is or is not a valid country code And whether a country has asked for delegation Rule of unanimity for country code 1 Delegations proceed only if ITU says so ITU has control of the contents of E164.arpa

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 18 A structure for ENUM in CC1 The US is developing an ENUM LLC (limited liability company) to receive delegation and manage a competition for a national US registry Canada has to figure out a) how to get national policy respected and b) sort out who will be the national registry for Canada c) How the national industry will work Enter Skinny Tier 1: a recipient of delegation from the ITU which hands off the registry work to national administrations in North America.

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 19 Progress so far In Canada we have established a working group under the CRTC to develop ENUM policy - Participants (telcos, cable, CIRA, registrars) support immediate delegation of 1.e164.arpa on an interim basis to CC1 the right of individual NANP nations to decide whether or not they opt into the use of ENUM regulatory requirements of each nation and the operational requirements of ENUM service providers in each nation should be satisfied

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 20 Many issues remain Will the system conform to how the DNS works now? Or will it reflect how the numbering system works? Breaking the NAPTR records between Tier 1 and Tier 2 Moving whole record over to the registry, when? How will we choose a Canadian provider? Use the US registry? Develop a new Canadian registry? Use CIRA? Is ENUM a consumer product or a system improvement that will be largely invisible to the consumer?

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 21 Privacy No one wants their personal information on a database that anyone in the whole world can look up. ICANN has had large problems with the Whois registry for this reason. Canada will almost certainly adopt the called party control model where the publicly accessible record shows the minimum of information to allow the system to work, e.g.a SIP address.

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 22 ENUM resources In Canada: In the USA: ENUM Basics – Internet Protocol Journal ENUM core protocol ENUM charter IETF-ITU liaison statement ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc3026.txt Other ENUM Web Sites: International telecommunications union CyberTelecom

ENUM: What does it mean? tmdenton.com 23 Thank you