VoIP and ENUM

Tom Kershaw's presentation on ENUM was critical, but less critical than last time ;-)

Tom started with the two aspects of ENUM:

1. ENUM as a protocol is simple in concept, approved, done and nothingcontroversial left
2. ENUM as political movement is still controversial and under discussion,

with emphasis that there is a strong need to separate theprotocol/implementation issues from public policy issues.

The issue of Private (Carrier) ENUM vs. Public (User) ENUM still causes debates, controversy and confusion - how true - if I consider the recent debates I had within various bodies.

His key points and I can only support this:

• Carrier and User ENUM are different and should have different structures
• Carrier and User ENUM are consistent and can co-exist peacefully

Tom is then raising an interesting question: there is no clear agreement on what ENUM is for:

• The wonderful world of the Internet
• The wonderful world of the PSTN
• The alleged convergence of these two things
• OR….Something totally different

Until recently I thought I had a clear answer to this question:

• User ENUM is for linking residential and corporate end-users together on the Internet
• Carrier or Infrastructure is for linking provider IP-islands togother, either onthe Internet or in "private" networks (whatever a "private" network is).

Following the recent debates it is unclear to me if providers really want to be linked and IF they want, is ENUM the right solution?

The current state of ENUM is:

• Public ENUM is used in trials and some "production" environments with very small volume.
• Private ENUM efforts are lead by cable and mobile operators (and some VoIP providers as we will see in the next presenation).

Hmm - the fixed operators do not seem to get the message yet.

What are the drivers and goals for ENUM:

What is the Goal of ENUM – To Drive IP-to-IP Communications that goes beyond traditional voice. People assume that VoIP operators and users are driving ENUM – but they are not

Again: how true.

ENUM is not relevant for VoIP yet, because the volumes are too small, even in Japan with 10 Mio VoIP endpoints only 5% of calls would be IP-IP.

ENUM matters only when you can drive resolution rates above 25%

• Enterprise Verticals
• Communities of Interest
• Peered Private-Public ENUM structures

IE – we have to drive volume and drive resolution rates up collectively rather than pursuing our own private interests

Conclusion: VoIP operators and users do not care about ENUM at present (some do,but how? - see next presentation)

In the U.S. what is driving ENUM is mobile content:

• 50 Cent makes more money off of ENUM than all the VoIP operators combined
• When a user downloads a ringtone, it is sent to the destination MMSC using SMPP
• SMPP requires a mailto: address
• ENUM is used to discover the mailto: address of the destination
• This application leads to some perverse results
• how to you map the phone number to the correct mailto:
• what if the number is ported?
• what is the number is issued under an MVNO?

VoIP Tier IIs brag about 500K users; Mobile will be in the 50 Millions soon

Very few VoIP platforms support ENUM today:

• Nobody has figured out how to make money from ENUM yet
• Nothing in ENUM you can’t do with SIP
• Huge political issues over data ownership
• Who wants to be the root?
• ENUM solves only a small part of the problem
• Where you are is easy – how to get to you in a secure, reliable matter is another issue
  

Mobile Content application is creating a critical mass in ENUM that is not necessarily consistent with the VoIP application

ENUM Issues to be resolves according to Tom:

• Critical Mass (the Network Problem)
• Application developers
• Public or private directories
• Update rate
• One or many - providers, databases, …
• Regulatory and policy issues
• New identifiers
• Coverage
• PSTN Service Logic

and the conclusion:

• ENUM is currently a mess (especially carrier ENUM, as we will see ;-)
  
• Private, Public, Mobile applications are uncoordinated and there is mass confusion
• Keep the end goal in mind – creating a public IP infrastructure for applications
• (voice, video, IM, gaming, etc)
• Opt-Out of Opt-In
• First to 30 million wins (now this is an important statement)
  
• Anyone doing Private ENUM that is not peering is being short-sighted

Altough I do not agree completely with everything Tom said, the message given is important and should be taken seriously.

The next post on XConnect is coming soon