PRODUCT HANDBOOK IP EXCHANGE. An IP Clearinghouse Solution from BT Wholesale

PRODUCT HANDBOOK IP EXCHANGE An IP Clearinghouse Solution from BT Wholesale Version No: 2 Page 1 of 14

1 OUTLINE OF THE SERVICE... 3 2 SCOPE... 3 3 KEY FEATURES AND AVAILABILITY... 4 3.1 FEATURES OVERVIEW... 4 3.2 FUNCTIONALITY AND USAGE SCENARIO... 4 3.3 3G TO IP VIDEO GATEWAY... 6 3.4 WHAT IS THE 3G TO IP GATEWAY?... 6 3.5 HOW DOES THE 3G TO IP VIDEO GATEWAY WORK?... 6 4 SERVICE EXCEPTIONS... 6 5 ACCESS OPTIONS... 7 6 QUALITY OF SERVICE... 8 7 PRICING... 9 8 BILLING... 10 8.1 CREDIT VETTING... 10 8.2 BT BILLING REPORTS... 10 9 ORDERING PROCESS AND PROVISION... 10 9.1 COMPATIBILITY TESTING... 11 9.2 SERVICE ESTABLISHMENT... 11 9.3 PORT CAPACITY AMENDMENT... 11 9.4 NUMBER MANAGEMENT ENUM UPDATES... 12 9.5 NUMBER MANAGEMENT CUSTOMER NUMBER RANGE HOSTING... 12 9.6 NUMBER MANAGEMENT PORTABILITY... 12 9.7 NUMBER MANAGEMENT SUB-ALLOCATION OF BT NUMBER RANGES... 12 10 FAULT HANDLING AND REPAIR... 13 11 SERVICE CESSATION... 13 12 COMPLAINTS HANDLING... 13 13 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION... 13 14 GLOSSARY OF TERMS... 14 Version No: 2 Page 2 of 14

1 OUTLINE OF THE SERVICE IP Exchange is a new product from BT Wholesale positioned to meet the requirement of the emerging IP communications market for a clearing house which connects together disparate IP islands, supporting VoIP to VoIP calling, calls to and from the PSTN, and calls between Video CPE, PC s & 3G Mobiles. IP Exchange offers competitive market rates to deliver calls originating from an IP communications providers network and will pay a settlement fee for calls terminating on that network, depending on commercial agreements. IP Exchange will Support:- VoIP Gateway - Break Out - from a customer s IP network to BT and other UK fixed PSTNs, Mobile and International Networks. Break In from BT and other UK fixed PSTN, Mobile and International networks to a customer s IP network. Clearing House - VoIP to VoIP calls between IP Exchange Customers IP networks including BT Retail s own services. Video Gateway IP - 3G Video video calling between PCs or video enabled CPE and 3G Mobile handsets. 3G - IP Video video calling between 3G Mobile handsets and PCs or video enabled CPE. 2 SCOPE With the growth of VoIP calling, nationally and internationally, the requirement and opportunity for VoIP interconnect services becomes significant. BT Wholesale has outlined a market opportunity for a clearing house service for VoIP that provides a transcoding capability between the SIP servers of VoIP Service Providers. For service providers this reduces the need and unnecessary overhead of commercial and technical bilateral peering agreements and at the same time widens the community of interest for VoIP users. For BT, a VoIP clearing house service stimulates interconnect based on ENUM and conveyance revenues where VoIP bypass is a realistic risk, and in doing so load the 21C Network, thereby spreading the risk of investment. The usage of VoIP worldwide has already exploded due largely to players such as Vonage and Skype. Skype particularly has been a phenomenon. Offering free calls between Skype users, its software or PC client has been downloaded by 164m users worldwide, of which 50m are reportedly active users. However, with more service providers entering the market, the monetisation of VoIP traffic is increasingly at the forefront of providers strategies. Most current VoIP offerings are closed communities whereby the ability to both make and receive VoIP calls is either not possible (unless an associated PSTN numbering range is given) or confined to on-net calling within a single ISPs community. Already, however, new entrants such as XConnect, InfiniRoute and Interoute are beginning to provide VoIP peering and clearinghouse services to enable the expansion of VoIP communities. The emergence of ENUM, as a registry database, will facilitate this further. The IP EXCHANGE solution is incremental to that proposed within 21CN. However, BTW has the opportunity to recreate the interconnect community in IP that exists for PSTN. The option for VoIP calling communities will therefore be available for BT and it s interconnect partners. Version No: 2 Page 3 of 14

3 KEY FEATURES AND AVAILABILITY 3.1 Features Overview The underpinning requirement related to a clearinghouse service is a widening of on-net VoIP calling attributes to users not provisioned by the same service provider. Instead of operating in a closed community, many ISPs want to offer VoIP calling whereby their users will be able to make and receive VoIP based calls with users from other ISPs. This has a commercial as well as a technical implication. The basic premise of the clearinghouse is that it will reduce the overhead of each ISP or service provider negotiating bilateral agreements for interconnecting VoIP gateways, including end user address discovery, e.g. Carrier Registration User ENUM (CRUE). There is not one standard for VoIP, with users making VoIP calls through different and incompatible PC clients (e.g. Communicator and Skype), routers/modems (e.g. Vonage and Voyager) and access methods (e.g. IPStream, LLU, cable and potentially 3G mobile). However, from a user perspective this should not be a barrier. Provided that the VoIP service is based on SIP albeit SIP deployments are not standard VoIP service providers will be able to stretch their on-net privileges for users to users managed by other service providers. High Level Architecture Billing Routing Provision Mgt BT Clearinghouse ITSPs PSTN Enterprises Mobile Network Operators IP Carriers 3.2 Functionality and Usage Scenario To enable VoIP on-net communities to be expanded to include other service providers, the basic construct of a BT VoIP clearinghouse will require interconnect capability between BTs SIP server and those of other service providers. In many cases, however, the VoIP service of a given Service Provider will be based on a different SIP variant to that of BT, which will entail the BT clearinghouse having a transcoding capability to translate and convert VoIP call routing information. Version No: 2 Page 4 of 14

BTW will register and maintain an operator s numbers on the ENUM (CRUE) directory. Incoming calls from the internet to a VoIP operator s number will be pointed to the BT SIP gateway. This places the call on to BT s IP network, with a full range of security and value-add functions (e.g. financial settlements, transcoding, authentication, anti-spam, identity fraud protection, user-defined filters etc). Key clearing house functions include: Gateway/clearing house for transporting VoIP bytes ENUM Address Discovery Logging of call routing information: origination, termination and transit points Logging of call type information: packet-size, call period Transcoding of SIP information Metering engine for bill creation and settlement between service providers A VoIP clearinghouse is more than just a termination point. It is a service provider for other service providers, offering a mixed portfolio of termination, financial services, and enhanced applications. Many clearinghouses perform the following functions: a single point of contact for termination of telephony minutes worldwide a source for termination rates to specific destinations financial accounts management settlement of accounts between carriers credit risk assessment between carriers receivable processing between carriers (financial settlements) quality of service (QoS) monitoring and provisioning bandwidth and IP access provisioning Currently PSTN operators charge each other for transport and termination of telephone calls with a guaranteed quality of connection. If we assume the business model for NGN is similar to PSTN then operators of NGN VoIP networks will need to agree commercial and technical SLAs based on ITU recommendations for security and performance as high voice quality is an end to end function. VoIP is susceptible to network congestion, denial of service attacks and viruses, due to the shared IP network resources employed and hence management by a reliable supplier will be essential, particularly for business applications. Version No: 2 Page 5 of 14

THE NEW WORLD OF IP EXCHANGE Call Manager Number translation Billing & Charging Management information CP BBV network IP BT Communications clearing house IP CP BBV network SS7 PSTN network SS7 / IP Mobile network Connects any-to-any 3.3 3G to IP Video Gateway The BT Wholesale 3G to IP Video Gateway is a networked interconnect service that allows our customers to offer two way real-time video calls between 3G handsets and IP devices. The Gateway is part of the Clearinghouse Portfolio of products which offer a range of IP based interconnect and value added services. 3.4 What is the 3G to IP Gateway? The Gateway is a service offered to Mobile Network Operators, Videophone Service Providers and Internet Service Providers. It forms a networked bridge between the 3G network and IP enabled devices increasing potential for call origination and completion. The Gateway is delivered using a number of 21CN capabilities and extends our traditional interconnect services into the IP world. As part of the service BT Wholesale act as the trusted third party offering our customers a one to many interface and managing the distribution of revenue between the parties in the most efficient way. 3.5 How does the 3G to IP Video Gateway work? The Gateway is embedded in the BT Wholesale Network and allows calls to be translated between differing video standards in real time. When video calls are made on 3G networks they use H.324M and when video calls are made on IP networks they use H.323 without the 3G to IP Video Gateway they can t connect. 4 SERVICE EXCEPTIONS The service does not support:- Version No: 2 Page 6 of 14

Fax outside codec G.711 (T.38 and up-speed to G.711 to be supported from early 2008) Call forwarding Short Message Service and Text Messaging Break Out Calls to: (i) 1XX, 1XXX and 1XXXX codes (excluding Directory Enquiry services on the following numbers 118500, 118405 and 118505 and Calls to 123 (Speaking Clock); (ii) 070 Personal Numbering Services, (Only by commercial agreement). (iii) Dial up Internet 5 ACCESS OPTIONS Access to IP Exchange A range of options for connection to IP Exchange are available either with or without resilience. These include: Access Method Connection Type Resilience Options Option 1 - World Wide Web Virtual Connection using existing Connection to more than one IP (Public Internet) or additional bandwidth over the Exchange POP. Option 1 - BT s IP Colossus Network Internet BT NetFlex (Clear Bandwidth) at over 100 PoPs in the UK Via Separate BT NetFlex circuits or Via the Internet Option 2 - Neutral Access Points (NAP) or Direct Access (includes optional WWW fall back routing in failure mode) 10Mb, 100Mb or 1Gb Fibre or Metallic I/F at Telehouse North, London. Telecity Manchester. Requires Customer to purchase Tie or Bandwidth circuits to meet at the NAP. Via alternative NAP at another site, or Via Separate BT NetFlex circuits or Via the Internet Version No: 2 Page 7 of 14

Option 3 - Direct Connection (includes optional WWW fall back routing in failure mode) Bandwidth connection to the IP Exchange PoPs in Birmingham and/or Kingston (London) Via alternative DC connection to other IP Ex PoP, or Via alternative NAP at another site, or Via Separate BT NetFlex circuits or Via the Internet * Notes: a. Access circuits are not included as part of the BT IP Exchange service but can be ordered separately please contact your Account Team.. b. To ensure an acceptable customer experience for voice and video calls the customer s service to their end user must provide sufficient capacity at all times. c. The product will use the SIP Protocol based on supporting a range of codecs including G.711 and G.729. d. For the NAPs at Telehouse North (London) and Telecity (Manchester), full resiliency of the backend circuits (fibres) is provided. e. All connectivity between Telehouses at same location and within building connectivity is the responsibility of the customer. 6 QUALITY OF SERVICE The IP Exchange service is designed to deliver a reliable and resilient customer experience through the use of tried and tested components, sourced from our strategic partners in industry. MOS (Mean Opinion Score) Probes - It is planned to add voice quality probes to monitor voice quality across the platform in 2008. Version No: 2 Page 8 of 14

QoS MIS reports a range of Management Information System reports will be developed in consultation with early adopter Customer requirements. Platform Resilience provided for all customers - access session border controllers are deployed in resilient pairs within the same location. Geographic Resilience additionally Customer can elect to match their own call server resilience through a second proxy accessing a second platform resilient pair of session border controllers deployed in another geographic separate BT site. Signalling Monitoring The signalling interfaces within or connecting to the service will be monitored on a continual basis. This will ensure adherence to standards and agreed or contracted service responsibilities. Bandwidth and Call Control - It is the CP s responsibility to keep within subscribed bandwidth and the maximum number of concurrent calls allowed (this will include bandwidth consumed for ingress and egress calls). In the case that CP delivers more traffic to a BT POP, BT s network will return the SIP Response 503. The only exception to this rule will be for emergency calls, which will be allowed regardless of subscribed limits. The method of access to the service and the service quality of the customer s own IP network will also influence the end-to-end quality of the IP Exchange service. 7 PRICING The following charges will be applicable for the service. Current prices will be provided upon request: Pre-Ordering Compatibility testing charge this charge will only be applicable where a customer s call server equipment is not recognised as being compatible with the BT service and hence interoperability testing is required. This will be done prior to service establishment. Service Establishment Provision Charge a non-reoccurring, cost orientated provision charge to cover all initial provisioning activities and service establishment. Port Management Charge covers the bandwidth capacity, method of access, resilience level and management of customer capacity e.g. capacity changes, ENUM number management, data build etc. Port charges are invoiced monthly in advance and are available in the following access types:- Public Internet (WWW) access site resilient Public Internet (WWW) access Geo site resilient (customer traffic is load shared across two geographically separate sites. Direct Access via a NAP (Neutral Access Point) site resilient only. Direct Access to POP (Point of Presence) site site resilient only. Customers can elect to take any combination of the above port types to provide the level of resilience they require. The initial Port requirement carries a 12 month contractual term. Minimum order quantity of any Port type at any site is 30 Ports. Customers must maintain a minimum Port quantity of 30 Ports (of a single access type at a single site). Call conveyance calls will be invoiced monthly in arrears on a pence per minute basis measured by the second and rounded up to the next second. Call rates are available as:- UK Geographic calls a blended rate, variable by time of day to all fixed and IP Networks. Version No: 2 Page 9 of 14

BT Only fixed and IP networks variable by time of day (where the customer has the ability to segregate BT traffic from other network traffics), Mobile variable by terminating network and time of day. International variable by terminating network/destination country. Call termination commercial settlement will be paid for calls terminating a customer s IP Network. IP - 3G Video Calls will be priced according to the rates charged by the terminating 3G Mobile Network operator plus IP Exchange Video Gateway charges on a pence per minute basis. 3G IP Video Calls prices and commercial settlements will be rated at a fixed price regardless of the originating 3G Mobile Network. Number Sub-Allocation there is a one off (none reoccurring) set up charge per number sub-allocated to cover BT s internal costs of breaking out, re-routing and sub-allocating numbers. 8 BILLING 8.1 Credit Vetting All customers will be credit vetted using the standard BTWM credit vetting process. Credit Vet 1 is a high level check of the trading entity and its directors. Customers will be asked to provide traffic profiles as part of the initial CRF information gathering process. Customers will also be asked to select a Barring Profile which limits the customer s fraud liability by electing not to pass certain high value call types e.g. fixed fee NTS and/or all PRS calls. The customer s traffic patterns will be loaded into and monitored by the BTW anti fraud system Rapier. Credit Vet 2 is based on the customer s forecast traffic profile and call barring option selected. Depending upon the outcome of the second credit vet Customers may be asked to provide financial surety as set out in the BTWM Credit Vetting Process. In some cases Customers may be placed on a billing periodicity less than the standard 30 days (see blelow). Direct Debit is the preferred method of payment. 8.2 BT Billing Reports Billing will be handled via the standard BTW Interconnect Billing process and normally invoiced on a monthly basis. Customers will normally have 30 days in which to pay the previous period s invoice (this may vary subject to credit vetting results). Invoices are backed up by an aggregated CDR (Call Data Record) feed which shows the volume, time of day and value of calls aggregated by call type and terminating network. The back up feed is intended to aid invoice verification and does not include details of the originating end user number. It is assumed that the Customer has the ability to generate their own CDRs for billing their end users. Customers will be expected to invoice BT for calls terminating on their network containing the same granularity of information as outlined above. For clarity; BT will not be providing this information to Customers. 9 ORDERING PROCESS AND PROVISION Your Account Manager (or Sales Specialist) will be able to assist you in the ordering process in the first instance and will have the necessary Contractual documentation, and Customer Requirements Form (CRF) to gather your requirements. Version No: 2 Page 10 of 14

A Technical Account Manager (TAM) and Commercial Manager (CM) will be appointed to support the Customer through contract signature and where necessary any Compatibility Testing and associated provision activity. 9.1 Compatibility Testing To ensure that the Customers equipment and software version are fully compatible with the BT IP Exchange platform, some degree of interoperability testing will be necessary. The length of the testing cycle is dependant upon a number of factors including availability of Customer test engineers etc. Once a signed contract has been received by the Commercial Manager the TAM will book the next available test slot and communicate this time window to the Customer. The TAM may also ask for a retesting questionnaire to be completed, which usually helps to reduce the number and complexity of tests required. The TAM will also manage the customer s numbering requirements as specified on the initial CRF. Any data build work in the PSTN must follow a regulated DMA (Data Management Amendment) process and takes not less than 30 working days to complete. Should a Customer s numbering requirements be complex a Complex DMA may be required which has a longer lead time of not less than 75 working days. The TAM will advise which type of DMA will be required. The TAM will also manage any 999 service establishment aspects of a Customer requirement and advise on processes to update a Customer s end user details onto the BT ESDB (Emergency services Data Base). Once a Customer has successfully completed Compatibility Testing, the TAM (Technical Account Manager) will hand over the CRF to the IP Exchange Customer service Centre Team in Wolverhampton who will manage Service Establishment. The TAM will advise the Customer of the likely timescale for Service Establishment and the live SIP address that should be loaded onto the Customers equipment. 9.2 Service Establishment The IP Exchange Customer Service Team in Wolverhampton can be contacted on 0800 077 8247. The Customer Service Team will manage all remaining aspects of Service Establishment, Port capacity provision, loading data on ENUM and the live platform and open billing accounts. The Customer will be contacted by our engineers once Service Establishment work has been completed and asked to send some test calls to confirm settings on both the BT IP Exchange Platform and the Customers equipment have been provisioned correctly and calls can be passed. On completion of Service Establishment the Customer Service Team will advise the Customer by email and receive a Welcome Letter, Customer Service Plan and Product Handbook. 9.3 Port Capacity Amendment Amendment to a Customer s Port Capacity is achieved by submitting an Additional ports CRF (Customer requirements Form) clearly stating the additional Port type and capacity required. The minimum order increment or decrement capacity is 30 Ports but any number above this minimum is acceptable i.e 35 Ports. In addition BT will provide a buffer of 10% additional Port capacity free of charge to facilitate seamless growth. The CRF should be emailed to the Customer Service Centre who will arrange provisioning / cessation activity and liaise with the Customer s TAM as necessary. Version No: 2 Page 11 of 14

9.4 Number Management ENUM Updates As a Customer either obtains new telephone numbers through, Ofcom allocation (see 9.5), BT Sub- Allocation (see 9.7) or Number Import (see 9.6) they will need to update the IP Exchange ENUM routing data base. The Customer should submit a Modify Data CRF completing the spreadsheet in section 5 and entering instructions in section 6. The CRF should be emailed to the Customer Service Centre who will arrange provisioning / cessation activity and liaise with the Customer s TAM as necessary. It is the Customer s responsibility to ensure that the BT IP Exchange Customer Service Centre are provided with timely updates of Numbering changes (additions and losses) to ensure service levels are maintained. 9.5 Number Management Customer Number Range Hosting BT IP Exchange can host numbers allocated to Customers and any new number blocks obtained from Ofcom should be notified to the BT Commercial Manager for inclusion in contract and built into ENUM as described above in section 9.4. 9.6 Number Management Portability A more detailed process will be added as soon as available. What can IP Exchange currently support? Unfortunately we have to make significant system changes to internal systems before we are able to support IP Exchange CP Customers with any volume imports. These changes are currently underway and should be delivered and tested by March 2008. In the interim we have negotiated a low volume manual process with our colleagues in Openreach supporting around 10 orders per week for imports off the BT PSTN only. We hope to extend this to other networks once the manual process has bedded down. Once we have automated Openreach processes we should be in a position to support customers with volume imports / exports from the BT and third party PSTNs. NB. Any number imported by BT on behalf of an IP Exchange Customer will deemed to be re-exportable to another fixed or IP network. What can I do in the interim to import numbers from BT and/or Third party PSTNs? IP Exchange Customers who have requirements for volume imports from the BT PSTN (only) can elect to service establish independently with BT. The customer s TAM (Technical Account Manager) can support on this process. There are charges involved in this course of action as the CP Customer will be entering into an independent commercial arrangement. To import numbers from third party PSTN CP Customers will need to first service establish themselves with the Network from which they wish to import numbers. This is a negotiated process and commercial terms would need to be negotiated with each network. 9.7 Number Management Sub-Allocation of BT Number ranges BT has geographic numbers allocated to IP Exchange for sub-allocation to Customers to support their service. Customers should contact their TAM (Technical Account Manager) who will arrange for the numbers to be sub-allocated. There is a one off set up charge per number (see section 7) which will be billed to the customer periodically. Version No: 2 Page 12 of 14

10 FAULT HANDLING AND REPAIR Customers can report faults 24/7 throughout the year to the IP Exchange Customer Service Team on 0800 077 8247. The repair service desk will ensure that the customer has proven the fault away from their network before accepting the fault and then allocate a unique service identifier. Repair handling teams will check IRAMS for known platform problems, record the fault instance on SPACER-R and inform operations of the problems and request a resolution, SPACE-R will be updated and the customer notified of the service restoration on completion. 11 SERVICE CESSATION Customers can cease their entire service with IP Exchange by submitting a cessation CRF reducing their port capacity to zero. Customers need to give a minimum of 30 working days notice to facilitate re-routing activity in the PSTN etc. 12 COMPLAINTS HANDLING Any complaint regarding the IP Exchange service should in the first instance be directed to the helpdesk for resolution on 0800 077 8247. Should a customer remain dissatisfied they should follow the escalation procedure detailed in the CSP (Customer Service Plan). 13 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IP Exchange is not a PSTN emulation services and customers should be aware that some PSTN features that are supported by ISUP signalling are not available with this product e.g. Ring Back when Free, Malicious Call Trace etc. The following documentation is available from your BT Account team:- Product Description Technical Service Description Customer Service Plan (CSP) Customer Requirements Form Contract Version No: 2 Page 13 of 14

14 GLOSSARY OF TERMS 21CN AMR BTWM CM CNG CP CRUE DMA DNS DSL DTMF ENUM GSM IETF ilbc IMS IP IPSec ITU LLU NGN POLO POP PSTN QoS RFC RTP SIP SIP-I SCTP SLA SRV TAM TCP TDM TLS TNO UDP URI VoIP 21 st Century Network Adaptive Multi-Rate speech encoding BT Wholesale Markets Commercial Manager Comfort Noise Generator Communications Provider Carrier Registrations in User ENUM Data Management Amendment Domain Name Server Digital Subscriber Line Dual Tones Multi Frequency E-164 Number Mapping Global System for Mobile Internet Engineering Task Force internet Low Bit-rate Codec Internet & Multimedia Services Internet Protocol IP Security protocol International Telecommunications Union Local Loop Unbundling Next Generation Network Payment to Other Licensed Operator Point Of Presence Public Switched Telephone Network Quality of Service Request for Comment Real Time Protocol Session Initiation Protocol Session Initiation Protocol - Interconnect Stream Control Transmission Protocol Service Level Agreement Service Record Value Technical Account Manager Transmission Control Protocol Time Division Multiplexing Transport Layer Security Telecommunications Network Operator User Datagram Protocol Universal Resource Indicator Voice over the Internet Protocol Version No: 2 Page 14 of 14