Positive decisiions in ITU-T SG 16 complete the basic work with Total Conversation

Gunnar Hellstrom gunnar.hellstrom at OMNITOR.SE
Sun Nov 19 19:09:49 EST 2000


A meeting in ITU-T SG16 Multimedia Systems and Services, was closed on
November 17, 2000, marking the end of a successful four year long study
period and the beginning of a new.

It has been a pleasure to lead Question 9, "Accessibility to Multimedia" to
good achievements in a stimulating and co-operative environment. I want to
thank the experts in all SG16 groups for the work during the study period
leading to the situation that:

-We have real time text conversation specified in all major multimedia
protocol environments. (H.320,H.323,H,324,T.120)

-We have a service description for Total Conversation, being conversational
multimedia including video, text and voice,(F.703).

-We have one universal presentation protocol for real time text conversation
(T.140), also applicable to the IP environment (IETF RFC2793).

-We have maintained and improved the Recommendation for text telephony
modems created during the previous study period, so that it now forms the
natural base for harmonising Text Telephony, (v.18)

-We have a service description recognizing Text Telephony (F.703).

-We have the specification of how gateways connecting text conversation in
different environments can be controlled (H.248 Annex F)

-We have brought awareness about the needs in video communication for sign
language and lip reading to the video coding and multimedia system experts.
(H series Supplement 1 )

All these achievements are intended to be useful for all, and essential for
people who have no or little use of voice communication because of a
disability in hearing or speech.

With these basic Recommendations for accessibility completed, we are now
prepared to accept proposals for new work with Accessibility to Multimedia
services, systems and terminals.

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Report from the meeting
-----------------------
For Q9/16, "Accessibility to Multimedia", this meeting resulted in a set of
positive decisions, that mark the end of a series of actions intended to
enable higher accessibility to conversational multimedia.

Q9 is seen as a "Horisontal" question, and will be transformed to Question
H/16 "Accessibility to Multimedia" in the new study period. "Horisontal"
means that most work items are performed in close co-operation with other
questions handling specific technologies.

The decisions related to Q.9 accessibility goals in this meeting were:

1. Text telephone modem Recommendation V.18
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Q.9 own work item.
Version 3 of V.18 Operation and Interworking procedures for the DCE:s in the
text telephone mode.

Main improvements: Use full V.8 connection procedure, for better
opportunities to negotiate the connection, and include the changes earlier
published in implementor guides and appendices.

2. Gateway control packages H.248 Annex F
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--
With Q.14 and "Q.Fax":
H.248 Annex F, Text Conversation, Facsimile and Call Discrimination
packages.
The control of a Media Gateway capable of handling Fax, multimedia Text
Conversation and Text Telephony, with general call discrimination between
different modem type connections.

3. Multimedia service descriptions; F.700, F.703
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--
With Q.1:
F.700 revision of Annex A to include a definition of the medium
conversational text.
F.703 Multimedia Conversation Service Description
Inclusion of a Description of Total Conversation as a combination of Video,
Text and Voice.
Inclusion of a Description of Text Telephony as real time character by
character text conversation with optional opportunity to use voice.

4. Managed objects for modems; V.59
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With Q.4:
V.59 Managed objects for modems
Inclusion of message definitions for V.18 management.

5. DCE control; V.250
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With Q.7:
V.250 Implementors guide
Revision of the commands and responses for control of V.18 modems.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------

The group has only one open issue, about an alternative proposal for
simultaneous voice and text in PSTN text telephony. A usability report is
expected.
The full report is in document TD73(plen) of the meeting.

Thank you all!

****************************************
Gunnar Hellström
Ericsson Radio Systems AB
tel +46 708 204 288
*****************************************

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