UA Configuration Task Group

 

USER AGENT CONFIGURATION PROFILE DATA TASK GROUP CHARTER

 

Mailing list:

 

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Co-Chairs:

 

 Mary Barnes - mary.barnes "at" polycom.com (Polycom)
David Hanes - dhanes "at" cisco.com (Cisco)
Participants:
Sumanth Channabasappa
Martin Dolly - mdolly "at" att.com (AT&T)
Keith Drage
Marek Dutkiewicz - marek.dutkiewicz "at" polycom.com (Polycom)
Volker Hilt
Christer Holmberg
Andrew Hutton - andrew.hutton "at" siemens-enterprise.com (Siemens)
Markus Isomäki - markus.isomaki "at" nokia.com (Nokia)
Alan Johnston - abjohnston "at" avaya.com (Avaya)
Hadriel Kaplan - hkaplan "at" acmepacket.com (Acme Packet)
Krisztian Kiss - krisztian.kiss "at" nokia.com (Nokia)
Michael Procter - michael "at" voip.co.uk (VoIP.co.uk)
Henning Schulzrinne - hgs "at" cs.columbia.edu (Columbia University)
Asher Shiranski
Robert Sparks - rjsparks "at" nostrum.com (Tekelec)
Dean Willis
Meetings:

 

 Meetings take place ad-hoc. You can keep informed about upcoming meetings by subscribing to the UA-Config Task Group email list.

 

 

TASK GROUP HISTORY

The initial "Phase One" charter of the UA Configuration Task Group was to prepare a Recommendation that specifies a means by which at most the user must enter a username, password, and domain identifier to obtain the UA configuration. This work concluded with the publication of a User Agent Configuration Recommendation for the locating, retrieving and maintaining of SIP User Agents -- a document that has been ratified and published as RFC 6011 by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Now published as RFC 6011 by the IETF’s Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) after a public review process by the IETF community, the User Agent Configuration Recommendation (UA Config) sets a standard procedure for how a SIP User Agent locates, retrieves and maintains current configuration information for a given SIP Service Provider. It requires that each User Agent, the configuration agent at the service provider and network infrastructure meet such requirements to ensure communication.

To view the full text of the announcement, please click HERE.

To view the published text of RFC 6011, please visit http://tools.ietf.org/search/rfc6011.

 

CURRENT PROBLEM STATEMENT

While RFC 6011 provides a defined and standardized mechanism for a SIP User Agent (UA) to connect to the network in order to discover a configuration server, there is no common set of data with which a SIP UA is configured. Within the context of this charter, a UA refers to any SIP aware device such as voice and video hard sets and software based clients.

Today most vendors have well defined methods such that system administrators can auto-provision a given vendor’s devices within their network. However, these methods tend to be vendor specific, thus a specific vendor’s device may not necessarily be configurable in a network comprised of other vendor’s equipment.

The configuration data for the UA is comprised of two main categories: initial configuration data and updates/additions to the configuration data.

 

CHARTER

The "Phase Two" objective is this task group is to define a common profile for configuration data for SIP UAs. The primary focus of this profile is to define the common data to enable initial configuration of any SIP UA compliant with this profile in any vendor’s network which supports this profile. In addition, the task group will identify the data elements which may be updated after initial configuration. The group may consider defining optional data elements which may be added to a profile. The task group should also consider ongoing work (e.g., Video Relay Service TG in SIP Forum), which may introduce requirements for additional data elements. The task group will consider the related work done in the following groups in order to determine the details of the profile being specified by this task group:

  • SIP Forum: User Agent Configuration Profile (RFC 6011) identifies some initial data that may be appropriate
  • IETF: While the SIP Configuration Framework (RFC 6080) defines a more complex mechanism for server discovery than RFC 6011, there are related (individual, expired) documents that include proposals for some common data elements that might be applicable.
  • Broadband Forum: TR069 method with TR104 and TR111 extensions for VoIP devices may be of interest since some service providers already manage broadband devices such as ADSL modems using TR069.
  • OMA: OMA Device Management (OMA DM) is a standard for device configuration for mobile handsets and smart phones. This may be of some relevance, as mobile operators are familiar with this technology, and it is already embedded in many mobile devices. However, the OMA DM framework lacks features needed for full lifecycle management, thus vendors have proprietary extensions beyond OMA DM.

 

DELIVERABLES AND MILESTONES

  • February 2013: Completion of evaluation of related work. Baseline for profile agreed.
  • September, 2013: User Agent Configuration Common Data Profile Completed within TG
  • October, 2013: User Agent Configuration Common Data Profile submitted by TWG chair to SIP Forum BoD for Approval

 

TASK GROUP MATERIALS AND DOCUMENTATION

A repository of UA Configuration Task Group documents and presentations has been created HERE.

 

UA-CONFIG TASK GROUP MEETING MINUTES

The minutes of the various conference call meetings have been posted HERE.