Mr. M. F. TOSCO Chairman ITU-T SG16 WP2

Dear Mr. TOSCO:

We are very much pleased to see that an H.323 Annex O (Internet Protocols and Technologies Complementary to H.323) has been opened in the joint meeting of Q.13/16 and Q.13/16 held in Osaka, Japan on May 15-19, 2000. It is expected that this annex will cover the following topics:

1. H.323-SIP Interworking 2. Inteworking between H.323 and other IETF Protocols (e.g., TRIP, etc.)

With respect to item 1 (H.323-SIP Interworking), it has been noted in the meeting report that the IETF is also working to develop an Informational RFC (a standard track RFC is also a possibility) for the SIP-H.323 interworking. The way this work in the IETF is progressing is as follows (I believe that the editor of H.323 Annex O is also fully aware of this work of the IETF):

1. SIP-H.323 Interworking Requirements RFC (Informational): by July-December, 2000 (tentative) 2. SIP-H.323 Interworking RFC (Informational): December 2000 - March 2001 (tentative)

The Internet-Drafts and documents that are being provided to develop the RFC are as follows:

1. Agrawal, Roy, and Palawat, "SIP-H.323 Interworking Requirements," draft-agrawal-roy-palawat-sip-h323-interworking-00.txt, IETF, June 2000. 2. Singh and Schulzrinne, "Interworking Between SIP/SDP and H.323", draft- singh-sip-h323-00.txt, IETF, January 2000. 3. C. Agbah, "SIP and H.323 Signaling Gateway."

It is expected that the SIP-H.323 Interworking RFC will be based primarily on the above documents along with suggestions made via emails and conference calls.

People could take many those contributions to the ITU-T SG16 for the SIP-H.323 Interworking in the last SG16 February'00 meeting. However, it was found that many companies and institutions that invented the interworking solution could not afford to provide the membership fees of the ITU-T, and some of them even could not afford to make a foreign trip for the standard meeting. But this has not been the case for the IETF where the email has been good enough to work for developing the standard.

Therefore, I am proposing the following to harmonize the work of these two organizations so that the complementary standards are created in the ITU-T SG16 and IETF:

1. Let the IETF produce the SIP-H.323 interworking RFC, while we, the ITU-T SG16, will develop the H.323-TRIP and/or other IETF protocols Interworking standard. 2. Should the IETF do not develop the standard track SIP-H.323 RFC, we, the ITU-T SG16, might consider how IETF's SIP-H.323 Interworking (Informational) RFC can be made a formal standard.

I hope this suggestion will be acceptable to all of us.

Best regards,

Radhika R. Roy AT&T Delegation Manager in the ITU-T SG16 (WP1, WP2, & WP3) 200 Laurel Avenue, Middletown, NJ 07748, USA +1 732 420 1580 Tel +1 732 368 1195 Fax rrroy@att.com

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