Dear experts,
During the last Q.1 Rapporteur meeting in Ottawa, Canada (August
29-31, 2006), an interesting discussion took place around future work
on T.120 and the possibility for existing or in development
NAT/firewall traversal standards to be extended to allow T.120
transport through NATs and firewalls. As Rapporteur, I was asked to
send a message out to T.120 and other SG16 experts and solicit
contributions on what Q.1 named "iT.120", a project that would take
the best of the existing T.120-series and adapt it to allow it to
take advantage of todays' IP networks and future NGN networks. Q.1
would also welcome any initiatives from the NAT/FW traversal experts
of Q.5 to help address T.120 NAT/FW traversal.
The following is an extract of the meeting report:
"5.3 T.120 and NAT/firewall traversal
The revision of T.120 and T.123 started an interesting discussion on
the future of T.120 applications and the problem that T.120 terminals
face when placed behind NATs and firewalls. Experts thought that
T.120 was a well engineered standards suite and it was unfortunate
that the arrival of NATs and firewalls gave web browsers a
competitive advantage relaying the use of T.120 applications to
internal networks. The group could envision the possibility to start
a "iT.120" work item if there was interest and contributions
proposing to progress such work. The Q.1 Rapporteur is asked to send
a message to appropriate mailing lists to encourage submission of
contributions on such new work. Q.1 is also asking Q.5 to consider
the incorporation of T.120 NAT/firewall traversal in their existing
or planned standards such as H.proxy."
I am looking forward to seeing more discussion taking place on the
mailing lists (t05sg16avd(a)itu.int, itu-sg16(a)external.cisco.com) and
will welcome any contributions on this subject to the upcoming
meeting of SG16 (November 14-24, 2006).
Please feel free to forward this message to anyone interested in
T.120 and data conferencing!
Best regards,
Patrick Luthi
Rapporteur for Q.1/16