One document matched: draft-vaudreuil-enum-e164dir-00.txt


Telephone Number Mapping                                       A. Brown
Internet Draft                                          Nortel Networks
Document: <draft-vaudreuil-enum-e164dir-00.txt>          Greg Vaudreuil
                                                    Lucent Technologies
                                                          March 7, 2000


                 Telephone Number Based Directory Service


Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026 [1].

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of
   six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other
   documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet- Drafts
   as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in
   progress."

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt
   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

1. Abstract

   This document outlines the principles for the operation of a
   telephone number directory service.  This service provides for the
   resolution of telephone numbers into Internet domain name addresses
   and service specific directory discovery.

   Table of Contents

   1. Abstract........................................................1
   2. Introduction....................................................2
   3. Scope...........................................................2

   4. Overview........................................................2
   4.1 First Level: ENUM Service......................................2
   4.2 Second Level: Service-Specific Repository Discovery............4
   4.3 Third Level: Service-Specific..................................4
   5 System Description...............................................4
   5.1 Telephone Number to Domain Name Mapping........................6
   5.1.1 Example: Simple Service Requiring Only First Level Query.....7
   5.2 Service Specific Repository Discovery..........................8

   5.2.1 Example: Hypothetical Reachme Service........................8
   5.2.2 Example: Hypothetical Voicemail Service......................9
   5.2.3 Example: SIP Call Setup Service Request.....................10
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000

   6. Security Considerations........................................11
   7. References.....................................................12
   9. Acknowledgments................................................12

   10. Author's Addresses............................................13
   11. Appendix 1: ENUM in the North American Numbering Plan.........14


2. Introduction

   This document outlines the principles for the operation of a
   telephone number directory service.  This service provides for the
   resolution of telephone numbers into Internet domain name addresses
   and service specific directory discovery.

   This is the first of a document set describing a converged proposal
   merging the directory work led by Anne Brown through the VPIM
   initiative within the Electronic Messaging Association (EMA) and the
   directory work initiated by Greg Vaudreuil within the TeleMessaging
   Industry Association (TMIA).

   Please send comments on this document to the ENUM working group.

3. Scope

   This document defines the architecture and mechanics necessary to
   implement a telephone number based Internet directory system.  This
   solution enables an extensible set of services to be provided for a
   given telephone number. Example services may include IP telephony,
   Internet Fax, VPIM voice messaging, Internet paging, geographic
   phone location, and others.  Each service is to be separately
   defined and identified using a unique, registered service
   identifier.

   This document does not specify the particulars of any telephone
   number based service.  In particular, it does not describe how phone
   calls are placed, routed, or terminated or how voice messages are
   routed.

4. Overview

   This phone number based directory system implements a three level
   architecture, the first two of which are the ENUM service itself.
   This model is based on analysis of pre-existing administrative
   structures, generalized service requirements, and candidate protocol
   capabilities.

4.1 First Level: ENUM Service

   The first level is the mapping of an E.164 formatted international
   telecommunication number into an Internet domain name identifier.
   This may or may not involve more than one referal in DNS.  From the
   clients perspective, this will appear as one query.  The resulting
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000

   domain identifier indicates either the authority to which the phone
   number has been delegated, a sub-delegated authority (e.g., a
   private enterprise), an individual to which a telephone number has
   been assigned, or a service provider acting on behalf of one of the
   above.  The domain name that is returned in an ENUM query will
   depend on existing and evolving business and regulatory agreements.
   This ENUM architecture supports a number of different possible
   arrangements which may occur.

   The delegation of telephone numbers from the root authority (the
   ITU) down to individuals is a well-established system that can be
   utilized. These telephone number registrars have a trusted
   relationship with their delegated carriers or subsidiary registrars;
   a valuable asset to ensure protection against various attacks.  Note
   that in this model, the delegation of telephone number blocks or
   individual numbers to a corporation or to an individual can be
   administratively and technically modeled as a sub-delegation to
   another carrier.  With that additional information publically
   registered, the mapping between telephone number and these domain
   names can be provided by any neutral entity. The delegated
   authority, sub-delegated authority, or individual may arrange to
   have a third-party (e.g., a service provider) list their
   information.  In this case the service provider's domain would be
   returned in the ENUM query.

        This approach differs from Patrik's [FALTSTROM] proposal in
        that it assumes that service information and per-resource based
        information (e.g. individual email addresses, sip addresses,
        etc.) will be held privately and not in the ENUM top level
        service.

        This approach also differs from Patrik's in that it recognizes
        that other protocols besides DNS may be used in satisfying
        service-specific queries for information on a particular
        telephone number.  DNS is often not appropriate for maintaining
        information (such as email addresses) on a per resource basis
        [URN-DNS-01].  It is understood that each service type (and its
        related protocols) can define its own methods (including DNS,
        if deemed effective) for accessing information on resources
        related to that particular service.

   The telephone number delegation information changes infrequently.
   However, when a change to this data is made, the information must be
   rapidly propogated through the directory system.  Inconsistencies
   between the authorative data and cached data may result in loss of
   service, mis-routing of communications, and/or service loops.  An
   effective ENUM service requires that DNS time-to-live fields be set
   to an appropriate value consistent with the telephone number
   reassignment policies if the delegating authority.  For example,
   ported telephone numbers may be reassigned from one carrier to
   another, a change that must be made quickly to avoid routing loops.
   Records supporting that service require a TTL of Zero  and secondary
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000

   DNS servers that use rapid replication techniques to ensure the data
   is consistent.

4.2 Second Level: Service-Specific Repository Discovery

   The second level uses SRV RRs to discover the identity of the
   appropriate service-specific directory such as an LDAP directory
   server, H.323 gatekeeper, or other service-specific repository type.

   In this proposal, the second-level service registrar is responsible
   for ensuring that multiple services may be provided on behalf of a
   single telephone number, potentially by different service providers.
   This function includes an arbiter function to ensure that there is
   exactly one instance of any given service assigned to a single
   telephone number.  The service-specific directory locator function
   is a new service modeled upon existing telco service provisioning
   models. Long-distance carrier selection within the United States is
   one current instance of a service-specific registration requiring an
   arbiter function within the current network.

   The rate of change for the second level, service location function
   may range from static through dynamic under the control of the
   entity to which the phone number has been delegated.  A registrar in
   the public network may wish to make this information relatively
   static to take advantage of DNS query caching, while a corporation
   may be willing to accept a higher query load to provide a dynamic
   service such as time-of-day inbound service provider selection.  It
   is important that the costs of providing a dynamic service at this
   level are limited to the second-level directory service provider and
   do not impose a burden on clients.

4.3 Third Level: Service-Specific

   The third level is the query of the service-specific directory for
   service-specific information.  This third level is specific to the
   service and is to be described in service specific documents.  The
   service specific directory is expected to be dynamic.  It is
   important that as little coordination as possible be required
   between the directories of innovative and potentially competing
   service-specific providers.

5 System Description

   The Internet Domain Name System provides an ideal technology for
   this high-level directory due to its hierarchical structure, fast
   connectionless queries, and distributed administrative model.
   Earlier experimentation with the TPC.INT remote printing experiment
   has shown how the hierarchical assignment of telephone numbers can
   be mapped directly to the hierarchy of domains within the DNS.  The
   ENUM directory uses that approach to map any arbitrary telephone
   number into a single domain name.
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000

   ITU standard E.164 defines the structure of the public telephone
   number as follows country code, followed by nationally significant
   part, followed by sub-address.  The country code may be from one to
   three digits, and the total length may be up to 15 digits.  The
   nationally significant portion may be arbitraily divided on any
   number boundary.  In many countries numbering plans, the divisions
   are not uniform, that is, the "Area codes" or "City codes" may be of
   varying lengths within a single country and the total number of
   digits may be variable.  Where supported by the relevant service, an
   optional sub-address of up to four digits may be utilized to
   designate an extension telephone number. Note that while sub-
   addressing is not well supported in GSTN calling, it is more widely
   supported for voice messaging.  It is important to note that the
   national long-distance access or international dialing prefix
   sequence is not part of the cannonical E.164 number.

   Within this delegation flexiblity, it is always the case that the
   delegation of authority is always done left-to-right. With this
   assumption, a numbering tree can be built on a digit-by-digit basis
   that can represent any arbitrary hierarchical structure.  DNS
   permits the delegation of authority on arbitary boundaries such that
   a delegation to country code "1", "44", and "972" can all coexist
   under a single numbering plan root.  The same applies for "service
   selectors", "area codes", "city codes", "Line number", or "sub-
   address extensions" within numbering plans.

   The first tier ENUM service makes available the telephone number
   hierarchy into the domain name system.  This is performed by
   splitting the full telephone number into single-digit units and
   treating each digit as a DNS domain-label.  The result is prefixed
   to the "e164.int" domain lable. The DNS is thus queried by
   converting the dialed telephone number into a domain name and using
   that domain name to query for a record from DNS.

   The the single-digit separation of E.164 digits for lookup purposes
   was chosen for the following reasons:

   1. Implementable by both DNS and LDAP and other repositories (at the
   same time, with partitioning depending on service and application
   requirements)
   2. Allows lookups -vs- searching (both DNS and LDAP). A record or
   entry can be pin-pointed without white-pages type searching.
   3. Supports distribution of E.164 resolution data by both blocks of
   numbers and by individual numbers. The strategy allows this
   distribution to be changed, when required, to reflect current
   realities.
   4. Alleviates clients from having to know or be able to derive
   numbering plan structures and lengths (What a user types or dials is
   out of the problem scope)
   5. Isolation from changes to numbering plan structures and lengths
   6. Supports use of telephone number extensions, if required
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000

        Implementation Note: A dropped UDP packet containing a DNS
        request or response and the subsequent retransmission of the
        query may result in higher than acceptable latency. Two
        stategies may help manage problem.  The first is to set
        agressive time-out and retransmission parameters, potentially
        as littls as 500ms. Where high packet loss is expected, the
        client may send duplicate DNS requests to maximize the odds
        that one will suceed within the required timeframe.

5.1 Telephone Number to Domain Name Mapping

   For the purposes of discussion and example, this document assumes
   the e164.int domain as the root for the telephone numbering
   hierarchy.  In operation, it can be something else to be determined
   later.

   The telephone number data to populate the highest level entries in
   ENUM is publicly available.  The ITU maintains a list of country
   codes and the respective authorities that manage the sub-structure
   under countries.  (Note that country code 1 is shared by several
   countries in what is referred to as "numbering plan area 1".)

   Within a given country, authority for telephone numbers may be
   further sub-assigned to individual service providers, corporatate,
   institutional, or individual customers, either in telephone number
   blocks or number-by-number.  This delegation is typically private
   information maintained at each level of the delegation tree.
   Successful deployment of multiple services requires that service
   providers and number registrars make this information available via
   the ENUM directory service.  The specifics of this sub-delegation
   are beyond the scope of this memo, but any such administrative
   solution is expected to work within this technical framework.

   There is a set of local number portability, personal number, and
   freephone solutions in use worldwide.  While these particular
   solutions rely upon various mechanisms and may use various
   intermediate identifiers such as routing numbers or carrier codes,
   the result of any such address mapping can directly identifty the
   authority to which a particular number has been delegated.  The ENUM
   service should meet the requirements of these services.

   The address resolution service makes available the telephone number
   hierarchy through the domain name system.  This is performed by
   splitting the full telephone number into single-digit units and then
   treating each digit as a DNS domain-label.  The DNS is thus queried
   by converting the dialed telephone number into a domain name and
   using that domain name to query for a record from DNS.

   The query simply requests the responsible domain for a given
   telephone number.  This can be most simply provided by using the
   widely deployed DNS PTR resource record and applying it to this
   role.  With the PTR, a query by a telephone number converted into a
   domain name form can return the domain name associated with it.
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000


   Example:

   1.e164.int
      1.1.1.1.3.3.7.2.7.9 PTR ServiceProvider.net ; for +1 972 733 1111
      1.1.1.1.3.2.8.4.1.2 PTR ServiceProvider.net ; for +1 214 823 1111

5.1.1 Example: Simple Service Requiring Only First Level Query

   For some services, the ENUM service may be sufficient to initiate an
   instance of service and the second and/or third level of the
   directory may be optional.  In those cases, the service-specific
   directory locator may provide adequate information for the client to
   initiate successful communication. One example is a hypothetical
   service that uses SMTP for the transport mechanism and well
   understood rules for the construction of an SMTP address.  For
   example, using a telephone number in the local-part and using the
   domain name from the first level query in the domain-part (e.g.,
   service-abc=14161234567@bigco.com. The separate Mail Exchange (MX)
   service record provides adequate information to route the message
   once the email address has been constructed.  This scenario would be
   useful in services such as the above, if additional information and
   capabilities were not required in order to send a message.

   An SMTP email address can be constructed by converting the dialed
   telephone number into its international form and concatenating it
   with the domain name returned in the PTR record from the DNS query.
   It is important to note that the national long-distance access or
   international escape sequence is not part of the canonical number.
   The "1" in the following example is the country code for the North
   American dialing plan.  It is not the long distance access prefix
   commonly dialed in North America.

   Sample configuration file PTR RRs for the NANP node in the DNS tree:

        *.3.3.7.2.7.9    PTR ServiceProvider.net ;for 972 733
        *.3.2.8.4.1.2    PTR ServiceProvider.net  ;for 214 823

   DNS query and response using telephone number +1 972 733 2722:

        Query:  2.2.7.2.3.3.7.2.7.9.1.e164.int for PTR
        Result:  PTR = ServiceProvider.net

   Per the service definition for the abc service, the sender could
   subsequently send an email using the mechanically constructed
   address:

                  svc-abc=19727332722@Serviceprovider.net

   In this example abc service assumes that serviceprovider.net is also
   capable of forwarding email addressed to it, a reasonable assumption
   for some classes of services.
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000

   Note that this type of blind messaging scenario will not work if the
   domain that is returned in the ENUM query is not the actual domain
   name that is used in the smtp address of the intended recipient.

5.2 Service Specific Repository Discovery

   The second tier of the telephone mapping service identifies the
   appropriate service-specific directory server of the recipient
   domain.  For this, the DNS provides an extension record called the
   service location resource record or [SRV].  This record acts like
   the heavily used MX record in providing a list of servers offering a
   given service to provide redundancy.

   Strictly speaking, this is not a new service, but a usage of the
   otherwise defined service location (SRV) extensions in the domain
   name system. The mechanics for locating services for well-known
   domain names is defined in [SRV]. This discussion is included as
   part of the document as an illustration of how it can be used to
   provide a multi-service directory system for telephone numbers.

   The service specific directory server is found by querying DNS with
   the domain name found in the address resolution step for SRV records
   and also using the telephone number and service type in the query.
   There may be one or more SRV records for one or more servers for
   redundancy and load sharing. These entries are expected to point to
   functionally equivalent services, not to indicate different service
   providers. It is the responsibility of the querying client to
   determine when to query an alternate server in the event that the
   preferred server is out-of-service based on the user interface
   latency requirements.

   Note that there can be only a single instance of a service for each
   telephone number.

5.2.1 Example: Hypothetical Reachme Service

   The following service enables an end-user to discover the various
   means by which she can reach a recipient represented by their
   corporate telephone number +1 613-555-1212 using the hypothetical
   "reachme" service.  This service is hosted by directly by the
   recipient's corporation.

   The telephone number is transformed into a domain name form to be
   used in a DNS query.

   Sample configuration file for the top level delegations from ITU:

        1.e164.int.      IN NS ns.NANP.phone.net. ;for NANP
        3.3.e164.int.    IN NS  ns.FR.phone.net. ; for France
        2.7.9.e164.int.  IN NS  ns.il.phone.net.  ; for Israel

   Sample configuration file for numbers delegated from the NANP node
   in the DNS tree:
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000


        5.5.5.3.1.6.1.e164.int.  IN NS ns.ServiceProviderA.net.
                                                   ;for 613 555 XXXX

   Sample configuration for numbers sub-delegated from
   ServiceProviderA.net:

        *.2.1.5.5.5.3.1.6.1.e164.int.    PTR Zcorporation.com.
                                                   ;for 613 555 12XX

   First tier DNS query and response using telephone number +1 613 555
   1212:

        Query:  2.1.2.1.5.5.5.3.1.6.1.e164.int. for PTR
        Result:  PTR = Zcorporation.com

   The answer to this query would be authoritatively supplied by
   ns.ServiceProviderA.net

   The service-specific directory is then found by querying DNS for the
   SRV record associated with the service-specific directory locator
   domain name.

   Sample service-specific queries and responses:

        Query:   _reachme._tcp. 2.1.2.1.5.5.5.3.1.6.1.Zcorporation.com
        Response: SRV=ldap.Zcorporation.net weight=10
                preference=10  port=389

   The client can then use LDAP with the reachme schema to determine
   the set of communications technologies available for +1 613 555
   1212.

5.2.2 Example: Hypothetical Voicemail Service

   A hypothetical service, voicemail, using SMTP as its transport
   mechanism, which requires retrieval of the intended recipient's
   capabilities and spoken name before sending a message, would use all
   three tiers of the address resolution service to initiate a
   communication session. The phone number has been delegated to
   ServiceProvider.net but the voicemail service is provided by
   spa.com.  Again, the transformed international form of the dialed
   telephone number is used in a DNS query for the PTR RR containing
   the domain name to which the number has been delegated.

   Sample configuration file PTR RRs for the NANP node in the DNS tree:

        *.3.3.7.2.7.9.1.e164.int.    PTR ServiceProvider.net.
                                          ;for 1-972 733
        *.3.2.8.4.1.2.1.e164.int.    PTR ServiceProvider.net.
                                          ;for 1-214 823

   Query and response using telephone number +1 972 733 2722:
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000


        Query:  2.2.7.2.3.3.7.2.7.9.1.e164.int for PTR
        Result:  PTR = ServiceProvider.net

   The service-specific directory is then found by querying DNS for the
   SRV record associated with the service-specific directory locator
   for the domain name.

   Sample service-specific queries and responses:

        Query:_voicemail._tcp.2.2.7.2.3.3.7.2.7.9.1.ServiceProvider.net
        Response: SRV=ldap1.spa.net.  weight=1
                         preference =10 port = 389
                  SRV=ldap2.spa.net.  weight=1
                         preference = 20 port=389

   From this response, the client can make a voicemail specific LDAP
   query to ldap1.spa.net to retrieve the recipient capabilities and
   spoken name necessary to confirm the correct address entry before
   submitting the message for delivery.

   In this example, high availability is provided by deploying the LDAP
   servers in redundant sets.  As per the SRV specification, these
   servers should be listed in the SRV records with various preferences
   The querying system should attempt a connection to the service-
   specific directory server with the lowest numbered preference.  If
   it is down, the server with the next lowest preference should be
   contacted.

5.2.3 Example: SIP Call Setup Service Request

   This example provides resolution of a telephone number to the
   identifier for the SIP gatekeeper designated to support real-time
   calling (Sipphonecall) to 972 555 1313.  The telephone number is
   part of a block of ported telephone numbers that have been ported
   out of the donor carriers block to another carrier.

   The telephone number is transformed into a domain name form to be
   used in a DNS query.

   Sample configuration file for the top level delegations from ITU:

        1.e164.int.     IN NS  ns.NANP.phone.net.  ;for NANP
        3.3.e164.int.   IN NS  ns.FR.phone.net.  ; for France
        2.7.9.e164.int. IN NS  ns.il.phone.net. ; for Israel

   Sample DNS configuration file for the ported number block serviced
   by the 972 555 number portability authority delegated from the NANP
   node in the DNS tree:

        5.5.5.2.7.9.1.e164.int.  IN NS ns.972555Port.NANP.phone.net.
                                                ;for 972 555
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000

   Therefore, the 1-972-555-xxx numbers have been delegated to the
   namserver operated by the authoritative body that owns
   972555Port.NANP.phone.net.

   Logical DNS configuration for ported numbers sub-delegated to the
   nameserver for 972555port.NANP.phone.net:

        3.1.3.1.5.5.5.2.7.9.1.e164.int.    PTR ServiceProviderB.net.
                                                ;for 972 555 1313

   First Tier DNS Query and response using telephone number +1 613 555
   1212:

        Query:  3.1.3.1.5.5.5.2.7.9.1.e164.int for PTR
        Result:  PTR = ServiceProviderB.net

   The SIP gatekeeper is then found by querying DNS for the SIP SRV
   record associated with the service-specific directory locator domain
   name.

   SIPphonecall service-specific queries and responses:

        Query:

        _sipphonecall._tcp.3.1.3.1.5.5.5.2.7.9.1.ServiceProviderB.net
        Response:    SRV=sipgw1.ServiceProviderB.net weight=1
                              preference=10  port=100

   The client can now use the SIP protocols to contact the SIP gateway
   to initiate a phone call.

6. Security Considerations

   The following are known security issues taken into consideration in
   the definition of this directory service.

   7. Service provider customer information is very sensitive,
      especially in this time of local phone competition.  Service
      providers require the maximum flexibility to protect this data.

   2) Registration of a domain name for the telephone numbers delegated
   to another carrier may result in messages being mis-directed to the
   wrong carrier.  As sub-delegations are implemented, the risk that
   phone numbers delegated to one enterprise may be mis-pointed at
   another will increase.

   3) Service providers operate in a regulated environment where
   certian information about a subscribers must not be disclosed.
   Telephony services and Voice Messaging are subject to caller-ID
   blocking restrictions, restrictions normally enforced in the
   telephony network.  No such protection is available on the Internet.
   The protection of this data is essential, but is up to the
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000

   individual service providers to not disclose this information
   outside of their control.

7. References

   [DNS1] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
   specification", RFC1035, Nov 1987.

   [DNS2] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - concepts and facilities",
   RFC 1034, Nov 1987.

   [SRV] Arnt Gulbrandsen, Paul Vixie, Levon Esibov, "A DNS RR for
   specifying the location of services (DNS SRV)", Work in Progress

   [E164] ITU, "CCITT Recommendation E.164 (1991), Telephone Network
   and ISDN Operation, Numbering, Routing and  Mobile Service -
   Numbering Plan for the ISDN Era."

   [TPC1] Malamud, Carl, Rose, Marshall, "Principles of Operation for
   the TPC.INT Subdomain: Remote Printing -- Technical Procedures", RFC
   1530, October 1993.

   [VPIM2] Vaudreuil, Greg, Parsons, Glen, "Voice Profile for Internet
   Mail, Version 2", RFC 2421, September 1998.

   [SRV] Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P., "A DNS RR for specifying the
   location of services (DNS SRV)", RFC 2052, October 1996.

   [Brown] Brown, Anne, "ENUM Requirements", work-in-progress, November
   1999

   [Faltstrom] Faltstrom, Patrick, " E.164 number and DNS", work in
   progress, January 2000

9. Acknowledgments

   This experimental directory builds upon the earlier work of:

   Carl Malamud and Marshall Rose in their TPC.INT remote printing
   experiment.

   Bernhard Elliot working with the TMIA has provided much of the
   organizational impetus to get this project moving, a substantial
   task given the sometimes slow and bureaucratic nature in the
   telephony business and regulatory environment.

   Dave Dudley and the Messaging Alliance (TMA) for their early work in
   pioneering a shared directory service for voice messaging and their
   continuing efforts to apply those learnings to this effort.

   Jeff Sherer and Mike Dimitroff of Lucent Technologies provided
   invaluable insight and review based on a prototype implementation of
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000

   this service using actual data for the North American Numbering Plan
   numbering region.



10. Author's Addresses

   Anne R. Brown
   Nortel Networks
   P.O. Box 3511, Station C
   Ottawa, ON  K1Y 4H7
   Canada
   Phone: +1-613-765-5274
   Fax: +1-613-763-2697
   Email: ARBrown@NortelNetworks.com                                                                      

   Gregory M. Vaudreuil
   Lucent Technologies,
   Communications Application Group
   17080 Dallas Parkway
   Dallas, TX  75248-1905
   United States
   Phone/Fax: +1-972-733-2722
   Email: GregV@IEEE.org
              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000


11. Appendix 1: ENUM in the North American Numbering Plan

   This section discusses the North American component of the ENUM
   service.  Generalized discussion for other countries and areas needs
   to be provided.  Within North America (Numbering plan area 1), the
   delegation of phone numbers to the NPA/NXX level is managed by the
   "Traffic Routing Administration" a cooperative agreement with
   Telecordia (http://www.trainfo.com).  The delegations are made
   available in a quarterly publication called the Local Exchange
   Routing Guide (LERG).  The LERG is available publicly for a nominal
   fee.

   The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) local routing information
   in the LERG database maps a telephone number prefix to an Operating
   Company Number (OCN).  The OCN is the unique identifier of the local
   exchange operator that has received the telephone number delegation.
   This delegation does not change with LNP.Local number portability
   (LNP), as implemented in North America, sub-delegates numbers
   nominally assigned via number blocks to "donor" carriers. The LNP
   sub-delegation of phone numbers to carriers is managed by the Number
   Portability Administrative Center (NPAC) managed under contract by
   NeuStar (http://www.nanpa.com).  While this data is also publicly
   available, it does require an agreement to receive real-time
   replication from the master database.  This information can be
   represented in DNS form, although it may best be implemented by a
   DNS front-end to the LNP database rather than the normal DNS
   servers.

   The primary name server for the NANP can provide domain name
   services for the NANP based on a mapping between OCN and the domain
   name chosen by the operating company.  The NANP DNS authority will
   maintain the registration of the domain name to OCN mapping.



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              Telephone Number Based Directory Services     March 2000


PAFTECH AB 2003-20262026-04-23 16:22:42