Subject: WG ACTION: Telephone Number Mapping (enum)

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 06:55:13 -0400

A new working group has been formed in the Transport Area of the IETF.
For additional information, contact the Area Directors
or the WG Chair.

Telephone Number Mapping (enum)
-------------------------------

 Current Status: Proposed Working Group
 
 Chair(s):
     Scott Petrack <[email-masked]>
 
 Transport Area Director(s): 
     Scott Bradner  <[email-masked]>
     Vern Paxson  <[email-masked]>
 
 Transport Area Advisor: 
     Vern Paxson  <[email-masked]>
 
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Description of Working Group:
 
This working group will define a DNS-based architecture and protocols 
for mapping a telephone number to a set of attributes (e.g. URLs) which 
can be used to contact a resource associated with that number.

Background:

Telephone numbers now identify many different types of end terminals,
supporting many different services and protocols. Telephone numbers
are used to identify ordinary phones, fax machines, pagers, data
modems, email clients, text terminals for the hearing impaired, etc.

A prospective caller may wish to discover which services and
protocols are supported by the terminal named by a given telephone
number. The caller may also require more information than just the
telephone number to communicate with the terminal.

As an example, certain telephones can receive short email messages.
The telephone number is not enough information to be able to send
email; the sender must have more information (equivalent to the
information in a mailto: URL).

From the callee's perspective, the owner of the telephone number
or device may wish to control the information which prospective
callers may receive.

The architecture must allow for different service providers competing
openly to furnish the directory information required by clients to
reach the desired telephone numbers.

Working Group Goals and Scope:

The working group will specify a DNS-based architecture and protocols 
which fulfill at least the following requirements:

1. The system must enable resolving input telephone numbers into a set
   of URLs which represent different ways to start communication with a
   device associated to the input phone number.

2. The system must scale to handle quantities of telephone numbers and
   queries comparable to current PSTN usage. It is highly desireable
   that the system respond to queries with speed comparable to current
   PSTN queries, including in the case of a query failure.

3. The system must have some means to insert the information needed
   to answer queries into the servers via the Internet. The source of
   this information may be individual owners of telephone numbers (or
   the devices associated to the number), or it may be service providers
   which own servers that can answer service-specific queries. The
   system shall not preclude the insertion of information by competing
   service providers (in such a way which allows for the source of the
   information to be authenticated).

4. The system shall enable the authorization of requests and of updates.

5. The Working Group will carefully consider and document the security
   and performance requirements for the proposed system and its use.

6. The Working Group will understand the impact of developments in the
   area of local number portability on the proposed system.

The Working Group will take into consideration how number resolution
using the ENUM system is affected by the PSTN infrastructure for
telephone numbering plans, such as the ITU-T E.164 standard.

The area directors will consider chartering an additional working group 
to pursue a non-DNS-based approach, if there's a constituency for the 
approach and a viable charter.

Non-goals:

1. ENUM shall not develop any protocols or system for routing calls of a
   specific service or for locating gateways to a specific service.  One
   example of such a service is mobile telephony, and one example of
   such gateways is IP telephony gateways.

2. ENUM shall not develop protocols for the "intelligent" resolution of
   these queries. That is, the updates to the ENUM data are limited to
   the insertion, update, and removal of URL information, and will not
   include inserting "logic" into the servers (to be used to respond to
   queries in an "intelligent" manner).  (Of course, servers are free to
   support such intelligent services, but the insertion of such logic is
   not the object of ENUM standardization).

Document deliverables:

1. Telephone Number to IP Mapping Service Requirements (Informational)

2. Telephone Number to IP Mapping Service Architecture and
   Protocols (Standards Track)

   These documents will specify the architecture and protocols
   (query, update) of the ENUM system.

3. A MIB for managing the service

4. The Working Group may decide to deliver a document which describes 
   the relation between ENUM and E.164 or other PSTN telephone number
   infrastructure.
 
 Goals and Milestones: 
 
   Nov 99       Initial draft of Service ENUM Requirements                     

   Jan 00       Initial draft of ENUM Protocol                                 

   Mar 00       Revised draft of ENUM Service Requirements                     

   Mar 00       Revised draft of ENUM Protocol                                 

   Mar 00       Possible draft on relation between ENUM and E.164 or other PSTN
                infrastructure                                                 

   May 00       Initial draft of ENUM protocol MIB.                            

   Jul 00       Submit ENUM Requirements document to IESG for publication as 
                Informational                                                  

   Jul 00       Submit ENUM Protocol document to IESG for publication as 
                Proposed                                                       

   Jul 00       Possibly submit ENUM relation with E.164 / other PSTN document 

   Sep 00       Submit MIB document to IESG for publication as Proposed