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@itu.int, itu-sg16@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