Subject: MGCP/MEGACO for broadband services

From: Arik Klein <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 08:09:51 +0200

As I understand, the current MGCP/MEGACO protocol is mostly VOICE services
oriented.
Could anyone say if, and from which version, the MGCP protocol inteds to
support DATA services,
such as:   IPoA, MPLS, IP-VPN, video delivery services and other broadband
services ?
What are the main shortcomings in the protocol regarding those issues ?

Could you also help me understand the differences (if any) between the MGCP
and the MEGACO work, and what
is currently available ?

Best Regards,
Arik Klein

---

From: Henry Sinnreich <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 07:26:19 -0500

Arik,

What you are really asking for is provided by the Internet architecture and
is the object of many other WG's and published RFC's. IMHO, MEGACO as is, is
really designed for voice services as they exist on the PSTN to be hauled
across the Internet or private IP networks. It may also use frame relay or
ATM network instead of IP networks, but I believe to a lesser extent.  It is
a job well done, but does this only and no more. The main merit of MEGACO is
the tremendous telephony complexity it is dealing with, as I believe never
to have been the case in standards bodies before. Funny, to find in the IETF
the most thorough and consistent approach to telephony signaling interfaces,
packaged in one document...

Think of MEGACO as the internal bus of a gateway that has one port group on
the PSTN and another on the IP network. That's all.

Beware the flame throwers :-)... Would deserve it for this simplified view.

Henry

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Media Gateway Control (megaco)
> [mailto:[email-masked]]On Behalf Of Arik Klein
> Sent: Thursday, September 23, 1999 1:10 AM
> To: [email-masked]
> Subject: MGCP/MEGACO for broadband services
>
>