INETPhone: Telephone Services and Servers on Internet
RFC 1789
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RFC - Informational
(April 1995; No errata)
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Cui-Qing Yang
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2013-03-02
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Legacy
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IESG |
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RFC 1789 (Informational)
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Network Working Group C. Yang
Request for Comments: 1789 University of North Texas
Category: Informational April 1995
INETPhone: Telephone Services and Servers on Internet
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
IESG Note
Internet Engineering Steering Group comment from the Transport Area
Director: Please note well that this memo is an individual product of
the author. Work on standards and technology related to this topic
is additionally taking place in the IETF in the Multiparty MUltimedia
SessIon Control Working Group (MMUSIC).
Abstract
INETPhone is a true telephone service through the Internet. It
integrates the local telephone networks and the Internet using
INETPhone servers. Thus a long distance call can be split into two
local calls and an Internet connection, which is transparent to end
users. Such a phone service through Internet will be a major step
towards integrated services on Internet. In order to support the
INETPhone and lay down the ground rules of the service, a scheme of
"open partnership" is proposed, so that the entire Internet community
can have the equal opportunity and benefits from the INETPhone
service.
1. Introduction
The success of traditional Internet services, such as the electronic
mail, the file transfer, and the remote machine access, has inspired
a row of new network applications -- the world-wide information web,
voice and video conferencing, and network telemarketing are just a
few to mention. With the further development in infrastructure and
the architecture of integrated, multimedia information services
[1,2,3], certainly the Internet will play a crucial role in shaping
up the future of so-called information super-highway.
Among many new applications, the voice communication through Internet
bears perhaps the most potential impact, since it competes directly
with the telephone communication, which has become an indispensable
Yang [Page 1]
RFC 1789 Telephone Service and Servers on Internet April 1995
part of the modern society. Recently, many software packages are
available, either commercially or as public free-ware, which supports
voice communication on Internet. Some of these products are targeted
directly as possible substitution for long distance telephone
services. However, so far, all such products only support voice
communications using a computer that is on the Internet or is
connected, via a SLIP link, to the Internet [4].
This RFC presents a true telephone service, called INETPhone, which
supports voice communication through the Internet. INETPhone
integrates the local phone network with the Internet. The phone
network provides local access of INETPhone service with the existing
telephone facilities, whereas the Internet delivers the packets of
voice communication over long distances. The service of INETPhone is
illustrated by the following scenario. Assuming a user at area A
wants to call another user in area B. The user first makes a local
call to an INETPhone server in area A. After the connection, the user
keys in the remote phone number in area B to the server. Then the
server in area A makes a connection to another INETPhone server in
area B, and requests the remote server to dial, as a local call, the
phone number in area B. Therefore, a long distance phone connection
between users in area A and B is established via two local phone
connections and one Internet connection between two INETPhone
servers.
The INETPhone provides a general service of voice communication on
Internet compatible to the existing telephone service. The
motivation in developing and experimenting the INETPhone service can
be two-folds: on the one hand, a general telephone service on the
Internet will be a major step towards integrated services on Internet
and a great challenge to the future development of Internet
infrastructure and protocol architecture; on the other hand, the
entire Internet community can take the advantage from the cheap and
convenient voice communication of the INETPhone service.
2. Design Philosophy
The design philosophy of the INETPhone differs from the most of
current voice communication services on Internet in three basic
aspects: integrating the existing telephone networks with the
Internet; using the INETPhone servers to carry out the task of voice
packet delivery on Internet; and an open-partnership of establishing
the INETPhone service on Internet. The discussion of each of these
aspects is given as follows.
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