RE: IETF NCS Sig MIB draft 6 -> Issue withEpackagerequirements

> How about we change the objects mentioned specifically as being required
> for 'L Package only'?
>
> David?

I think this is different from the original intention.


Background
==========

The intention, to my belief, was to define these objects because they are
needed for MTA's for the "international market" only (i.e. Europe in
practice). These MTA's would have to be able to comply with the relevant
ETSI specs. The MIB objects define different timing values regarding CID
(Caller ID transmission) and VMWI (Visual Message Waiting Indicator) as
defined in the ETSI specs. The timing values can be different per country or
operator in Europe, but apparently don't apply to North America.

Of course both CID and VMWI exist in North America as well. CID and VMWI are
triggered by elements of the "L package" (which is always implemented by all
MTA's). The only difference is that MTA's for the "international market"
would have to take the MIB objects into account as well, whereas the "North
American" MTA's would not.

The "E package" is something that only applies to ETSI systems, but is in
practice not always implemented (as opposed to the L package). Therefore, in
practice the terms "ETSI systems" and "E package" are NOT equivalent. I am
aware that one or some of my e-mails in the thread "Signaling MIB - Draft
3 - Last Call - Clarification US/intl. requirements" may have suggested
otherwise, but these are the practical limitations we have to consider.
By the way, the E package has nothing to do with the MIB objects at hand.


Additional question
===================

Are there no timers at all with respect to CID and VMWI in North Amercia? Or
are the timers in North America standardized, and can they be expressed in
terms of the MIB objects under discussion?


Suggestion
==========

(1) assuming that the MIB objects indeed do not make sense in North America:

Referencing the L package as in "L package only" (with or without the "only"
part) would make the MIB objects mandatory to implement for North American
(i.e. pure PacketCable) MTA's as well, which apparently doesn't make sense
since they do not apply there (remember, they are translations to the MIB of
timers defined in the ETSI specs).

The discussion is a bit analoguous to the recent pktcSigPowerRingFrequency
issue raised (where you want a different default for North America vs.
Europe). In other words, you would have to find some wording that makes this
clear, without referencing either the L package or E package. If
"international" is not good enough, maybe we can revert to  the term "ETSI
systems" as was once used? Alternatively, we can distinguish between
PacketCable and Euro-PacketCable  instead of North American and
International, like e.g. in the IPCDN docsIfMib where there is a distinction
between DOCSIS and Euro-DOCSIS (spelled "EuroDOCSIS", in
ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-ipcdn-docs-rfmibv2-11.txt).

An MTA would be an "ETSI system" or not, depending on its intended usage,
i.e. the market it is meant for.

(2) assuming that the North American timer values can be expressed in terms
of the ETSI MIB objects:

In this case it may make sense to make the MIB objects mandatory for all
MTA's, which solves the problem very easily: no extra reference to L
package, E package or ETSI systems would be necessary anymore.



Hope this helps a bit,

Regards,

David

_____________________________________________________
David De Reu
tComLabs
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www.tComLabs.com
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