International Telecommunication Union Plenary Session on ITU-T Standards 15th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Total Conversation through ITU-T Standards: Sign, Type, and Speak – You Decide Paul E. Jones Cisco Systems, Inc.

In the beginning, communication devices for the deaf opened a whole new world for the users of those devices. But times change… Friends and family were able to carry on conversations over long distances, helping to maintain and even strengthen those relationships. They enabled people to communicate in ways that were never possible before. Without question, the introduction of the telecommunication devices for the deaf enriched everyone's lives.

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA And so do the modes of communication!

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Its All About Total Conversation o The ITU-T is working on standards that bring about the convergence of Voice telephony Video telephony Text telephony o These standards aim to enable what it calls Total Conversation

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Defining the Multimedia Service o The ITU-T defined a series of service specifications and included text and video as components of the multimedia services (F.700 and F.703)

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Popular Multimedia Systems o H.323 – Multimedia communication over packet-switched networks (Internet) o SIP – Session Initiation Protocol (Internet) (IETF) o H Multimedia communication over ISDN o H.324 – Multimedia communication over low bit-rate links (phone lines and mobile phones)

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Problems with These Systems Identified o Multimedia systems had largely focused only on voice and video o There was a lack of support for text (or at least acceptable text) o Video support often did not take into consideration the needs of the deaf

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA More Standards o H Series Supplement 1 – Raised awareness about sign language and lip reading as it relates to video quality o T.140 – Standard to allow Unicode for textual conversation IETF RFC 2793 defines the transport of T.140 over IP networks Used by both H.323 and SIP systems

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Integration o During the 1997 – 2000 timeframe, the ITU-T worked to add support for real- time text communication to the popular multimedia systems o Acceptable video support was more of an educational exercise… and the ITU-T has made an effort to educate!

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA …But Still Segregated o The video conferencing systems in use today are: Largely used between two parties who have the same equipment Not tied into the larger public communications networks o Further integration is required

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA The VoIP Revolution o Since the late 1990s, the communications industry has been heavily focused on voice over IP or VoIP o The basic idea is to simply use the Internet Protocol (IP) to carry voice, video, and data communications (sounds simple enough, huh?)

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA The VoIP Revolution (cont) o VoIP is still in its infancy, as compared to the mature public switched telephone network (PSTN) o Even so, a large number of telephone calls are carried over IP networks today o Unfortunately, multimedia communication services (the video and textual components) have been slower to take off

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Bridging Two PSTN Networks over an IP Network Service Provider IP Core Network H.323 PSTN Gateways GK Directory Gatekeepers GK H.248 PSTN Gateways MGC GK Text over IP – V.toip Scheduled for approval in January 2004

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA ToIP Objectives o Allow for character-by-character text communication o Allow for simultaneous two-way conversation, along with voice and video (inherent limitations of the PSTN an obstacle) o Standardize on an international character set (Unicode) o Support all standard TTY device types defined in ITU-T V.18 o Enable different device types to communicate through each other by using the gateways as interworking devices (see next slide)

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Interworking TTY Types through the use of T.140 Baudot Device V.21 Device IP Network T.140 bridges the gap

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Building Bridges to the Enterprise and Residence Service Provider IP Core Network GK Residence Enterprise GK H.323 PSTN Gateways GK Directory Gatekeepers GK H.248 PSTN Gateways MGC Audio and Video Terminals and TTYs GK

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Ultimate Goals o To allow any device to support the transmission of video and/or text signals o To allow a user on a PC connected to an IP network to chat with a user on a legacy PSTN TTY device o To improve communications with the widespread adoption of video o To allow a user with a wireless PDA to communicate with anybody in the world o To not require special tools for communications

ITU-T July th Biennial TDI International Conference – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA ITU-T Standards… Enable Video, Text, and Voice Communications. So you can Sign, Type, or Speak. You Decide!