One document matched: draft-ietf-sip-isup-mime-00.txt


	      MIME media types for ISUP and QSIG Objects
                    
Status of this Memo

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Abstract

This document describes MIME types for application/ISUP and 
application/QSIG objects for use in SIP applications, according to 
the rules defined in RFC 2048 [1].  These types can be used to identify 
ISUP and QSIG objects within a SIP message such as INVITE or INFO, 
as might be implemented when using SIP between legacy systems.

1. Introduction

ISUP (ISDN User part) defined in the ITU-T recommendations 
Q.761-4 is a signaling protocol used between telephony switches. 
There exists a need to transport ISUP-encoded signaling 
information between SIP entities as part of the payload of SIP 
[2] messages, in order to access ISUP-based legacy service 
logic.  For example, this may be implemented when using SIP to 
control sessions between two systems that support legacy 
telephony services or gateway between legacy systems.  

QSIG is the analogous signaling protocol used between private 
branch exchanges to support calls within private telephony 
networks.  There is a similar need to transport QSIG-encoded 
signaling information between SIP entities to support legacy 
services or gateway between legacy systems.

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The following discussion is specific to this usage and would not 
apply to the transportation of ISUP or QSIG messages in other 
applications. These media types are intended for ISUP or QSIG 
application information that is used within the context of a SIP 
session, and not as general purpose transport of SCN signaling.  

The definition of media types for ISUP and QSIG application 
information does not address fully how the entities exchanging 
messages determine  or negotiate compatibility.  It is assumed 
that this is addressed by alternative means such as 
configuration or routing protocols.  

It is assumed in this document that the processing of ISUP and 
QSIG information is in addition to the standard SIP processing, 
and that no interworking of SIP and ISUP or QSIG signaling is 
required.

This is intended to be an IETF approved MIME type, and to be 
defined through an RFC.  NOTE: usage of Q.SIG within SIP is neither
endorsed nor recommended as a result of this MIME registration.

3. Proposed new media types

ISUP and QSIG messages are composed of arbitrary binary data 
that is transparent to SIP processing. The best way to encode 
these is to use binary encoding. This is in conformance with 
the restrictions imposed on the use of binary data
for MIME (RFC 2045 [3]). It should be noted that the rules 
mentioned in the RFC 2045 apply to Internet mail messages and 
not to SIP  messages. Binary has been preferred over Base64 
encoding because the latter would only result in adding bulk to 
the encoded messages and possibly be more costly in terms of 
processing power.

3.1 ISUP Media Type

This media type is defined by the following information:

Media type name: application
Media subtype name: ISUP
Required parameters: none
Optional parameters: version, compatibility, spec
Encoding scheme: binary
Security considerations: See section 5.

Note: It is mandatory for SoftSwitches to specify the 'version' 
of  the ISUP message. Proxies, redirect servers, etc., have no 
need to  process/specify this information.

The use of the 'version' parameter allows differentiation 
between  different base ISUP variants. This enables the 
SoftSwitch (also known as a Media Gateway Controller) to 

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recognize and parse the message correctly,  or (possibly) to 
reject the message if the  particular ISUP variant is not 
supported. The idea here is to allow to specify a preference of  
version, so that the following scenarios are possible: "I only 
like application/isup;version=lcd" or "I accept application/isup 
(but don't really know the details; I just pass them on to some 
other tool that  displays/munges them)".  If not specified, the 
default version is assumed to be ITU-T ISUP.

'compatibility' indicates whether or not the version of ISUP 
supports the forward compatibility mechanism that is defined in 
ITU-T White Book specifications and later issues of ISUP.  If
present, its value is either yes or no.

The 'spec' parameter provides more detailed identification of 
the ISUP specification being sent, if this is available.  This 
may be used, for example, to identify a particular national 
specification.

The following is how a typical header would look:

	Content-Type: application/ISUP; version=etsi; 
            compatibility=yes; spec=uk21
	Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary

Table 1 is a partial list of protocol versions supported by the 
'application/ISUP' media type.


  version           compatibility      protocol

  itu-t                   no          ITU-T Q.761-4 (1988)
  itu-t                   yes         ITU-T Q.761-4 (1992)
  ansi                    no          ANSI T1.113-1988
  etsi                    no          ETSI 300 121
  etsi                    yes         ETSI 300 356
  gr317                   no          BELLCORE GR-317

3.2 QSIG Media Type

The application/QSIG media type is defined by the following information:

Media type name: application
Media subtype name: QSIG
Required parameters: none
Optional parameters: version
Encoding scheme: binary
Security considerations: See section 5.

The use of the 'version' parameter allows identification of different 
QSIG variants. This enables the terminating Connection Server to 

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recognize and parse the message correctly, or (possibly) to reject the 
message if the particular QSIG variant is not supported.  

The following is how a typical header would look:-

        Content-Type: application/QSIG; version=iso
        Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary

Table 2 is a list of protocol versions supported by the 
'application/QSIG' media type.

        version         protocol
        -------         --------
        etsi93          ETSI 1993 version
        iso             ISO/IEC 11572 (equiv. to ETSI 1995)

4. Illustrative examples

4.1 ISUP

SIP message format requires a Request line followed by Header 
lines followed by a CRLF separator followed by the message body. To
illustrate the use of the 'application/ISUP' media type, below 
is an INVITE message which has the originating SDP information and
an encapsulated ISUP IAM.

Note that the two payloads are demarcated by the boundary 
parameter (specified in RFC 2046 [4]) which in the example has 
the value  "unique-boundary-1". This is part of the 
specification of MIME  multipart and is not related to the 
'application/ISUP' media type.

     	INVITE sip:13039263142@Den1.level3.com SIP/2.0
	From: sip:13034513355@den3.level3.com
	To: sip:13039263142@Den1.level3.com
	Call-ID: DEN1231999021712095500999@Den1.level3.com
	Content-Length: 448
	Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=unique-boundary-1
	MIME-Version: 1.0          
	

	--unique-boundary-1
	Content-Type: application/SDP; charset=ISO-10646
           
	v=0
	o=ezimmerer 2890844526 2890842807 IN IP4 126.16.64.4
	s=SDP seminar
   	c=IN IP4 MG122.level3.com
	t= 2873397496	2873404696
	m=audio 9092 RTP/AVP 0 3 4


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	--unique-boundary-1
	Content-type:application/ISUP; version=etsi;
        compatibility=yes; spec=uk21
	Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
	
	e1 f9 28 85 43 1e 05 44 1e 05 00 6e 0a 01 00 
        00 00 00 03 06 0d 03 80 90 a2 07 03 10 03 63 
        53 00 10 0a 07 03 10 27 80 88 03 00 00 89 8b 
        0e 95 1e 1e 1e 06 26 05 0d f5 01 06 10 04 00  
	--unique-boundary-1--

Note:
Since binary encoding is used for the ISUP payload, each byte is 
encoded as a byte, and not as a  two-character hex representation.  
Hex digits were used in the draft because a literal encoding of 
those bytes would have been confusing and unreadable.

4.2 QSIG

To illustrate the use of the 'application/QSIG' media type, below is an 
INVITE message which has the originating SDP information and an 
encapsulated QSIG SETUP message.

Note that the two payloads are demarcated by the boundary parameter  
(specified in RFC 2046 [4]) which in the example has the value "unique- 
boundary-1". This is part of the specification of MIME multipart and is  
not related to the 'application/QSIG' media type.

        INVITE sip:14084955072@sc1.nortelnetworks.com SIP/2.0
        From: sip:14085655675@sc10.nortelnetworks.com
        To: sip:14084955072@sc1.nortelnetworks.com
        Call-ID: 1231999021712095500999@sc12.nortelnetworks.com
        Content-Length: 393
        Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=unique-boundary-1
        MIME-Version: 1.0          

        --unique-boundary-1
        Content-Type: application/SDP; charset=ISO-10646

        v=0
        o=audet 2890844526 2890842807 5 IN IP4 134.177.64.4
        s=SDP seminar
        c=IN IP4 MG141.nortelnetworks.com
        t= 2873397496 2873404696 
        m=audio 9092 RTP/AVP 0 3 4

        --unique-boundary-1
        Content-type:application/QSIG; version=iso
        Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary

        08 02 55 55 05 04 02 90 90 18 03 a1 83 01 
        70 0a 89 31 34 30 38 34 39 35 35 30 37 32


        --unique-boundary-1--

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5. Security considerations

ISUP and QSIG objects may have security considerations due to 
customer-related information contained in the objects.  However,
the security mechanisms described in RFC 2543 (SIP - Session 
Initiation Protocol) are sufficient to support security of the 
encapsulated ISUP or QSIG information. No new security 
considerations are thought necessary.

6. Authors

Eric Zimmerer                     L. Ong
ipVerse, Inc.                     M. Zonoun
1901 Landings Drive               Nortel Networks
Mountain View, CA 94043, USA      Santa Clara, CA 95054
Phone: 650-919-0648               long@nortelnetworks.com
Email: ericz@ipverse.com          mzonoun@nortelnetworks.com

Aparna Vemuri                     M. Watson
Level 3 Communications            Nortel Networks
Louisville, CO, USA               Maidenhead, UK
Phone: 303-926-3768               mwatson@nortelnetworks.com
EMail: aparna.vemuri@level3.com

7. References

[1] Freed, Klensin, Postel, "Multipart Internet Mail Extensions 
(MIME) Part Four: Registration Procedures" RFC 2048, Internet 
Engineering Task Force, November 1996.

[2] Handley, Schulzrinne, Schooler and Rosenberg, "Session 
Initiation Protocol (SIP)" RFC 2543, Internet Engineering Task 
Force, March 1999.

[3] Freed, Borenstein, "Multipart Internet Mail Extensions 
(MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies" RFC 2045, 
Internet Engineering Task Force, November 1996.

[4] Freed, Borenstein, "Multipart Internet Mail Extensions 
(MIME) Part Two: Media Types" RFC 2046, Internet Engineering 
Task Force, November 1996.



            This Internet Draft expires July 2000



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