1. IMS and Media Control James Rafferty, Cantata Technology August 10, 2007

2. IMS and Media Control

3. Relationship to Overall IMS Media Resource Function –Prior Art –Relationship to Application Servers –MRFC –MRFD MRF Interfaces Putting the MRF to Work Application Examples

4. The IMS Architecture IMS focus for Media control: MRF

5. Media Resource Function 3GPP has borrowed the MRF concept from several sources Basic idea of MRF or Media Server is to service the media needs of applications –Collect Digits, Process tones, voice play/record, video play/record, …

6. MRF Prior Art MRF concepts derived from several predecessors –Concept of Decomposed architecture came from Softswitch Movement (ISC, ITU, IETF) –Concept of SIP for Media Server control begun by Snowshore and validated by IPCC Reference Architecture –Several companies have been working with SIP plus XML based markup languages for Media Control over last few years Several variants including Netann (RFC 4240), VoiceXML, MSCML, MSML/MOML

7. Timeline for Media Server Protocols MGCP 19992000 SIP/netann SIP/MSCML 2001200220032004 H.248 H.248.1 SIP/MOML- MSML Time Utility for Media Server Media Server Afterthought; Not IETF Standard Fixed MGCP Problems; Focus on Gateways; IETF Standard Multifunction Media Server Interface; SIP Paradigm Conference-Control Optimized Interface for SIP Environment RFC Editor Queue Added Basic Media Services for Device Control Applications; No known applications “All the Features of MGCP, But With SIP Transport” SIP/MSML Attempt to Address Intellectual Integrity Issues

8. MRF Architecture Components App Server ISC S - CSCF MRFP MRFC Mr (SIP) Mp (H.248) Lots of discussion on best way to handle in 3GPP / IETF Some implementers will combine MRFC/MRFP (MRF)

9. MRFC MRFC = Multimedia Resource Function Controller Definition: –MRFC can accept SIP Invites requesting tones and announcements, ad-hoc conferences and transcoding –Works with MRFP on carrying out media operations if not a combined MRFC/MRFP

10. MRFP MRFP = Multimedia Resource Function Controller Definition: – Provides resources to be controlled by the MRFC – Mixes incoming media streams (e.g. for multiple parties). – Sources media streams (for multimedia announcements). – Processes media streams (e.g. media analysis).

11. Related Interfaces Mr (S-CSCF – MRFC) interface –Based on SIP Active work item in 3GPP; related work in IETF Mp (MRFC - MRFP) interface –Based on H.248 (Megaco) Active work item in 3GPP; related work in ITU- T

12. The Controversy Most robust media servers are controlled via SIP 3GPP specified media interfaces only at high level up until now –SIP for Mr (to control MRFC) –H.248 for Mp (to control MRFP) Many leading MS vendors strongly support a SIP-only MRF –However, 3GPP is moving ahead with H.248 as the protocol for the Mp interface

13. Issues with MRFC/MRFP Decomposition With no Media Processing Experience –Belief Was MRFC:MGC::MRFP:MG –Lots of Media Resources Controlled By Controller Separates Media Control (“Control Plane”) From Media Processing (“Media Plane”) MGC MRFP MRFC

14. What Is Today ’ s Reality? MRFC Capacity –600 Sessions/Box (VoiceXML) –1000 Sessions/Box (Trivial IVR, Basic Conferencing) MRFP Capacity –Early Media Servers: 20,000 Sessions/Box –Ratio MRFC:MRFP in deployment is at Least 20:1 MRFP MRFC

15. Another Possible Approach Network Function Required –MRFC Capability Discovery –MRFC Allocation & Load Balancing –Consolidated CDR, OAM, Provisioning Media Resource Function Broker (MRFB) MRFC MRFP MRFC MRFB

16. Potential MRFB Interfaces Clearly, MRFB Uses Mr (SIP) to S-CSCF –Do Not Change S-CSCF Should MRFB use H.248 or SIP to MRFC? –H.248 Would Change MRFC –Creates many Technical Issues Raised Above MRFB Makes Collection of MRFC/MRFP (MRF) Look Like Single Media Resource

17. Putting the MRF to Work NFS HTTP FTP Network Storage Web Content mp3 Win Media Text Video Ringback Video Conferencing Gaming Sponsored Calling SIP MSCML ConferencingVideo MailAnnouncements RTP Pre-PaidVoice Mail SIP (MRFC/MRFP) IP MSCMGWCMTS SIP SIP SIP w/ VoiceXML SIP w/ MSCML Unified Messaging SIP SIP VoiceXML MPEG-4 IMG SIP Routing Cloud 3G 2.5G PSTN Cable IP Phones S-CSCF / SCIM MRF

18. Example: IMS Network Gaming Demo Developed with IBM and partners –Qualphone client on mobile handset –Uses “presence” for user availability –MRF provides conferencing (“trash talk”) and IVR –Terraplay “Lock n’ Load” Multi-player game

19. IMS Gaming Service Delivery PLMN Outbound T1 PRI CDMA Mobile Calls CDMA Mobile Call Qualphone Client WiFi Gaming Data Cantata MRF Terraplay Game IBM Presence Ubiquity SIP AS BayPackets Prepaid BayPacket Prepaid NexTone CSCF MGW-IMG

20. Example: Sponsored Call Service Developed by ARGELA Technologies “Sponsored Call” –3G subscriber views a video commercial from a “sponsor” –Subscriber receives a discount on service Rapid development –4 weeks from development to trial Benefits of Sponsored Call Service to… SubscribersSponsorsProviders Saves $$ Useful promotions Multimedia channel of advertisements Interactive promotions, campaigns and surveys Select the customer segments New revenue stream from the sponsors Increased air time and revenue

21. Case Study: Video Messaging Deployment Developed by OpenWave Service Features 3G VideoMail –Greeting –Message drop-off –Subscriber retrieval VoiceMail Converged Application Access From PC Over Broadband As Well As Wireless Provider: TMN – With more than five million subscribers in Portugal and a total of 25 million accounts worldwide, TMN is Portugal’s largest mobile operator. New video service deployed for European Soccer Championship Games in Portugal 2004

22. Other Likely IMS Applications FMC – Fixed Mobile Convergence IP Centrex Hosting for Businesses Audio and Video combined with other services –For example, conferencing, push-to-communicate, Multimedia over Broadband, Multimedia IM Legacy Migration –Voice mail, conferencing, SMS, Prepaid Services

23. Workshop Questions 1.What are some examples of media within an MRF? 2. What are examples of “prior art” that are influencing the MRF? 3.Which protocols are proposed to control the following IMS elements? MRFC MRFP

24. Summary MRF is the Media Resource Function in the IMS Strongly influenced by prior art in control of Media Servers 3GPP is working on standards for MRF control, with IETF and ITU –Still much debate in standards bodies about details Pre-IMS solutions using SIP and XML markup are being deployed today