Subject: [ipcdn] Re: Signaling MIB - Draft 3 - Last Call - Country Code (Issue 5)

From: "David De Reu" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 17:39:19 +0100

Dear all,

There are a lot of country-dependent MIB objects in the current signaling
MIB definitions, e.g. the pktcSigDevToneTable. When an operator wants to
define the standard tones for his country, he has to add *a lot* of objects
to the config file. This is necessary, because there is no default value for
all these tones. And such a default value can not easily be defined, because
most values are actually country-dependent. Therefore, it would be useful to
have one single MIB object to tell the MTA to use a given set of default
values: the pktcCountryCode object.

The semantics of this object could be that an MTA "has to implement the
country-specific values" for the different tables and objects that are
country-dependent (which ones exactly can be designated later on). The MTA
would implement a default country code and, optionally, extra country codes.
The MIB definition would not impose any country codes that the MTA MUST
implement. However, for the purpose of certification testing, the exact
country codes and the exact definition of the values associated with these
codes, would be communicated to the MTA vendors participating in the
certification program.

For example, an MTA could implement the US country code as a default (with
US dial tone etc). A European operator wanting to deploy this MTA e.g. in
Belgium, would require the MTA to support the BE country code (thus using
the Belgian dial tone for example), which would probably be tested during
certification.

A proposed country code MIB object definition has been the following:

pktcCountryCode OBJECT-TYPE
     SYNTAX     OCTET STRING (SIZE (1..2))
     MAX-ACCESS read-write
     STATUS     current
     DESCRIPTION
         "This object identifies the telephony configuration
          parameters specific to a particular country used to set
          default values for the following tables: TBD."
        ::= { pktc xxx }

The MAX-ACCESS can of course be changed so that the object can only be set
in the config file, and is read-only from then on - I see no problem with
that.

For the country *codes* themselves, the ISO 3166-1 list of country codes
(see
http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/index.html) seems a
useful source. This list defines an internationally agreed upon and widely
used two-letter abbreviation for each country. I believe this provides the
exact granularity needed in the context of this object.

Thanks,

Kind regards,

David

_____________________________________________________
David De Reu
tComLabs
Stapelplein 70/004 – 9000 Ghent – Belgium
Tel: +32 9 269 22 91 – Fax: +32 9 329 31 74
www.tComLabs.com
_____________________________________________________

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From: "David De Reu" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 17:22:45 +0100

Dear all,

There has been some feedback and debate on the proposed country code
object. Although most people seem to agree on the fact that it is a
useful object, there is no final conclusion yet. I believe the
intermediate conclusion is the following:

Considering that

(1) There is no agreement yet on the exact requirements for this object
    (and not even about the fact whether the object itself should be
    required or optional);

(2) Implementing this object, regardless of the exact requirements, is a
    non-trivial development effort with a non-trivial impact on the
    MTA's design;

(3) We want to avoid quick-and-dirty work which may lead to an object
    that is indeed defined but does not serve its initial purpose well,

the idea is currently to develop this object on the long term, which
means that the RFC will probably be finalized first. A country code
object can always be added later; the most important thing is that, if
this object is defined, it is well-defined and useful.

Thanks,

David

_____________________________________________________
David De Reu
tComLabs
Stapelplein 70/004 - 9000 Ghent - Belgium
Tel: +32 9 269 22 91 - Fax: +32 9 329 31 74
www.tComLabs.com
_____________________________________________________