Open Settlement Protocol

Abstract: While many books describe the theory behind Voice over IP, only Practical VoIP Using VOCAL describes how such a phone system was actually built, and how you too can acquire the source code, install it onto a system, connect phones, and make calls.VOCAL (the Vovida Open Communication Application Library) is an open source software project that provides call control, routing, media, policy, billing information and provisioning on a system that can range from a single box in a lab with a few test phones to a large, multi-host carrier grade network supporting hundreds of thousands of users. VOCAL is freely available from the Cisco Systems-sponsored Vovida.org community web site (www.vovida.org).A Silicon Valley start-up called Vovida Networks, Inc (think of VOice, VIdeo, DAta) created VOCAL and invested over one hundred man years into its development. Since Cisco acquired Vovida in 2000, individuals representing every significant telecom company and service provider in the world have downloaded the source code. Today, more and more people are successfully building VOCAL into professional solutions, while contributing fixes and new functionality back to Vovida.org.Because VOCAL is open source, you can look "under the hood" to the base code and protocol stack levels and discover not only how the system works, but also how common problems are being worked out in the development environment. We're hoping that you will be inspired to take this system to another level by implementing a feature or functionality that no one has thought of before.Written by a team from Vovida Networks, Practical VoIP Using VOCAL includes the following topicsInstalling and configuring VOCAL 1.4.0 onto a single host and onto a multi-host network with phones and gatewaysC++, C and Java architecture found within VOCALProvisioning a VoIP systemSIP (Session Initiation Protocol), SDP (Session Description Protocol) and RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) for call control and mediaTRIP (Telephony Routing over IP), DNS SRV and ENUM for routingMGCP (Media Gateway Control Protocol) and H.323 for call control and translation into SIPCOPS (Common Open Policy Service), OSP (Open Settlement Protocol) and RSVP (Reservation Protocol) for policy and Quality of ServiceRADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service) for interfacing with billing serversSNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)If you're interested in VoIP, this is the only book available that focuses on the real issues facing programmers and administrators who need to work with these technologies. :

Abstract: * Chapter 1: Introduction to VoIP * Chapter 2: Achieving VoIP Voice Quality * Chapter 3: VoIP - the Access Dimension * Chapter 4: IP Telephony Solutions for the Customer Premises * Chapter 5: International Standards for VoIP * Chapter 6: SS7 over IP - Signalling Transport Protocols * Chapter 7: VoIP Gateways and the Megaco Architecture * Chapter 8: Bearer-Independent Call Control * Chapter 9: Numbering and Naming in VoIP Networks * Chapter 10: VoIP and Multimedia with H.323 * Chapter 11: SIP - the Session Initiation Protocol * Chapter 12: SIP and H.323 Interworking * Chapter 13: Building and Launching VoIP Applications * Chapter 14: VoIP Clearinghouses and the Open Settlement Protocol * Chapter 15: Case Study: Ride Replacement - a Hybrid PSTN/VoIP Application Solution * Chapter 16: TIPHON - PSTN Substitution and Beyond * Chapter 17: Evaluating VoIP Technology Push and Market Pull

Abstract: A bridge for multi-network communications is provided. A voice bridge includes an open settlement protocol (OSP) compliant interface for establishing inter-domain voice connections. The voice bridge facilitates connections between OSP compliant and non-OSP compliant networks and interfaces with an OSP server. A call set-up component processes requests from OSP compliant and non-OSP compliant networks. An OSP interface facilitates OSP compliant reporting to the OSP server. Other embodiments comprising additional features, such as address masking, are also provided.

Abstract: The paper proposes a novel model for an inter-domain quality of service (QoS) management architecture consisting of a common open policy services (COPS) based policy control management system, a clearing-house (CH) acting as a policy architecture that regulates the resource allocations to different groups of traffic, an open settlement protocol (OSP) used to negotiate between CHs, and a differentiated service (DiffServ) network with dynamic advanced resource allocation.