H.

248/RTP/RTCP
N G N F A C U L T Y ,A L T T C G H A Z IA B D

After the advent of IP telephony or VOIP, it

became essential to connect the IP network with
TDM or legacy network so that the subscriber of
these two networks can communicate to each
other. For this a number of protocols were
developed during the year 1998 to 2000.These
development are shown in the GATEWAY
CONTROL FAMILY TREE

Gateway control family tree

IPDC

MDCP

SGCP

MGCP

Early 1998

Late 1998

family
MEGACO/H.248

1999-2000

MEGACO/H.248
H.248/Megaco has been developed jointly by
IETF and ITU .
It is fundamentally based on two key concepts:
termination and context.
Terminations identify media flows or resources,
implement signals (e.g. announcements, tones
etc), and generate events (e.g. on hook, off
hook), have properties and maintain statistics.

Megaco/H.248: A gateway control

architecture
Signaling Gateway
SS7 etc.

Call Control (eg.SIP, H.323)

Call Agent
Media
Gateway
Media
GatewayController
Controller
Media
MediaGateway
GatewayController
Controller

PSTN,
PSTN,
ATM, etc.
etc.
ATM,

Signaling Gateway Layer (SG)

Interface to SS7 signaling etc.
Not in Magaco scope (IETF
Sigtran)

Media Gateway Control Layer

(MGC)

Megaco/H.248 Protocol
trunks

Trunking
Gateway

Media

Gateway control Protocol

Media Gateway Layer (MG)

Access Gateway

Residential
Gateway

NGN Protocols : MEGACO/H.248

Megaco Network Elements

MEGACO
TCP

UDP

IP
Ethernet

MEGACO/H.248
Access Gateway:
A type of gateway that provides a User to
Network Interface (UNI) such as ISDN.
Descriptor: A syntactic element of the
protocol that groups related properties.
For instance, the properties of a media
flow on the MG can be set by the MGC by
including the appropriate descriptor in a
command.

MEGACO/H.248
Media Gateway (MG):

Media Gateway converts media

provided in one type of network to
the format required in another type of
network. For example, a MG could
terminate bearer channels from a
switched circuit network and media
streams from a packet network (e.g.,
RTP streams in an IP network).

MEGACO/H.248
Media Gateway (MG):

Media Gateway may be capable of

processing audio, video and T.120
alone or in any combination, and
will be capable of full duplex media
translations. The MG may also play
audio/video messages and perform
other IVR functions, or may perform
media conferencing.

MEGACO/H.248

Media Gateway Controller (MGC):

Controls the parts of the call state that
pertain to connection control for media
channels in a MG.
Residential Gateway:
A gateway that interworks an analogue
line to a packet network. A residential
gateway typically contains one or two
analogue lines and is located at the
customer premises.

MEGACO/H.248

Stream:
Bidirectional media or control flow
received/sent by a media gateway as part of
a call or conference.
Trunk: A communication channel between
two switching systems such as T1 or E1
line.
Trunking Gateway: A gateway between SCN
network and packet network that typically
terminates a large number of digital circuits.

MEGACO Features

MEGACO Connection
Model
The connection model for the protocol
describes the logical entities, or objects,
within the Media Gateway that can be
controlled by the Media Gateway Controller.

MEGACO Connection Model

MEGACO
TERMINATION
CONTEXT
MGC

MEGACO Connection
Model
TERMATIONS:
A Termination sources and/or sinks one or
more streams. In a multimedia conference,
a Termination can be multimedia and
sources or sinks multiple media streams.
The media stream parameters, as well as
modem, and bearer parameters are
encapsulated within the Termination.

MEGACO
FEATURES OF TERMINATIONS:
1. Terminations may have signals applied to
them.
2. Signals are MG generated media streams
such as tones and announcements or line
signals such as hook switch.
3. Terminations may be programmed to detect
events,or action by MG.

MEGACO
Terminations are referred by a termination
ID,which is an arbitrary number chosen by
the MG.
ROOT TERMINATIONS:
Generally a command is related to the
termination. But in some cases it must refer
to the entire gateway. A special Termination
ID ROOT is reserved for this purpose.

MEGACO Connection
Model
CONTEXT:
A Context is an association between a
collection of Terminations. There is a
special type of Context, the null Context,
which contains all Terminations that are not
associated to any other Context. For
instance, in a decomposed access gateway,
all idle lines are represented by
Terminations in the null Context.

CONNECTION MODEL

MEGACO Connection
Model

Media Flow

Topology of a Context
describe the media flow between
Terminations within a Context

Context
SCN 1
RTP
SCN 2

Concept of Context
MEGACO

MGC

MEGACO
MG

RTP

MG

Context
IP

Termination
SCN Channel

Termination
RTP Stream

Add 2 Terminations into 1 context

MEGACO
TransactionRequest
Consists of a number of commands
Usually requested by an MGC
Transacion Reply
A number of responses by MG

MEGACO
Packages:

Add detailed content to the protocol

All events, signals, and statistics are specified in
packages
Can also specify additional properties

Package definition a continuing process

being created by multiple standards bodies
private packages also allowed

Packages can inherit from and extend other

packages.

MEGACO Commands
Add
Adds a termination to a context

Modify
Change the property values of a termination
E.g., to issue signals or to detect specific events

Subtract
Remove a termination from a context
The response provides statistics

MEGACO COMMANDS
Move
From one context to another
Cannot be moved to the null context

AuditValue
Retrieve current values for properties, events, and signals

AuditCapabilities
Retrieve the possible values of properties, signals, and
events

COMMANDS
Notify
Inform the MGC of events that have occurred
Accompanied by a Request ID

Service Change
Inform an MGC that a group of termination will
be taken out of service or will resume service

Message structure
Megaco/H.248 message
Header Transaction Transaction ... Transaction
Req or Reply Req or Reply
Req or Reply
Trans Hdr Action ... Action
Ctx Hdr Ctx Properties Command ... Command
Cmd Hdr Descriptor ... Descriptor

Example message flow

PSTN
MGC
MG
Destination
1. IAM
2. ADD (trunk, send only);ADD(RTP,both)
3. Reply
4. INVITE (local SDP)
5. 180 Ringing (remote SDP)
7. ACM

6. MODIFY (RTP, remote SDP)

8. Reply

Example message flow (2)

PSTN

MGC

MG

Destination
10. 200 OK

11. ANM
12. MODIFY (trunk, both)
13. Reply
14. ACK

15. BYE

16. REL

17. SUBTRACT (trunk), SUBTRACT (RTP)

18. Reply
20. RLC

19. 200 OK

THANKS