MSF - Press FAQ

Q: What is the MultiService Forum (MSF)?
A: The MSF is an international group of telecom industry participants including service providers, equipment manufacturers, and other interested parties, promoting the acceptance and implementation of intra-switch system protocols and interfaces designed for multiservice switching systems.

Q: How does the MSF work?
A: The MSF is composed of two committees, technical and marketing. The Board of Directors establishes these committees, sets overall policy, and manages the non-profit MSF corporation. The MSF technical committee operates in a manner similar to many other standards bodies. Members submit technical contributions, which are reviewed and discussed in face-to-face meetings or via email exploder discussions. The end result is various phases of technical specifications. The MSF members vote on straw and final ballot stages of these specifications. The first MSF specification was the Release 1 Architecture document.

Q: What is the main goal or purpose of the MSF?
A: The MSF mission is to accelerate the deployment of open communications systems that realize economic benefits, which result from the flexible support of a full range of network services using multiple infrastructure technologies.

The MSF produces implementation agreements to promote interoperability between components within a network and between networks themselves.

Q: Why is that important?
A: The architecture allows operators to make smooth introduction of new services by partitioning switching and trunking resources and allocating them to each of the service types. Resources allocated to a service can be gradually increased as the user demand grows. Thus the threshold for starting new services is dramatically reduced.

Q: Who are the members of the MSF?
A: The members of the MSF come from all facets of the telecommunications industry worldwide. There are carriers, traditional switching manufacturers, software houses and hardware providers. The MSF is a global forum of carriers and suppliers, with more than 50 Principal Members.

Q: Who can be a member?
A: Any multiservice switching product or service provider, equipment manufacturer, or user is eligible to apply for Principal Membership.

Q: How does the MSF measure success?
A: The MSF is successful if it helps the industry grow and deliver more compelling services to end-users. In the shorter term, service providers and their suppliers should see benefits from the modular and flexible architecture that the MSF has developed and the greater level of interoperability between components of the networks they are building.

Q: How does the MSF relate to standards bodies such as the IETF and ITU?
A: The MSF works closely with a number of key IETF Working Groups using their preferred working method, which is the submission of Internet Drafts by MSF Individuals. With the ITU-T, MSF has established a formal liaison relationship or "communication process" which makes it straightforward for MSF documents to be brought to the attention of relevant ITU-T Study Groups. With IETF, MSF has worked closely on the extension and improvement of the General Switch Management Protocol (GSMP), which plays a key role in fulfilling the requirements of the Switch Control Interface in the MSF architecture. With ITU-T Study Group 16, MSF has been active in providing requirements from an MSF perspective on the H.248 protocol being co-developed by SG 16 and the IETF MEGACO Working Group. MSF is also developing a "profile" of this protocol and is co-sponsoring the first industry interoperability event for H.248.

Q: How does the MSF relate to industry forums such as ATMF, ISC, OIF and ODSI?
A: MSF has had and will continue to have liaison relationships of various kinds with a wide variety of industry forums working on related subjects. MSF liaisons have been received by the ATM Forum on a number of topics, and there has been an exchange of ideas and opinions regarding architecture with the International Softswitch Consortium. Discussions with OIF and ODSI regarding optical networking are planned.

Q: How does the MSF relate to other industry bodies working on softswitch technologies and interfaces?
A: The MSF is working cooperatively with other bodies on the standardization of these interfaces. The MSF has particularly focussed on the extension of these protocols to support a full range of voice transport options including VOIP and VOATM with the variety of compression technologies and encapsulation formats. The goal of this effort is to allow greater interoperability and smoother evolution of these networks.

Q: The ATMF focuses on ATM. What technology does the MSF endorse?
A: The MSF endorses networks based on a range of switching technologies. All the modern IP routers and optical switches are switching devices. Therefore, the MSF endorses ATM, IP and optical technologies.

Q: How is the Release 1 Architecture Implementation Agreement important to the industry?
A: The Release 1 of the MSF Architecture provides an overview of how flexible multiservice switching systems and networks can be built. It provides recommendations on the protocols to be used between components and explains the relationships between components of the system and network. Using this blueprint, both SPs and their suppliers can develop better plans for the networks and products. These networks and products should have a much longer useful life and should be able to supply services that meet the changing requirements of end users. The end result of this is lower costs and more functional networks and services.

Q: What are the key characteristics of the MSF Architecture?
A: The Release 1 Architecture is characterized by the following traits: 1) the separation of the control and data plane and the definition of the Interface 2) the notion of virtual partitioning that has been applied to switches and that can be applied to other architectural elements in the future 3) the introduction of the notion of sub-ordinate and super ordinate management that results from virtual partitioning.

Q: How do you expect the MSF Architecture to be used?
A: MSF compliance is an important aspect in assessing vendor offerings against longer term evolution. In particular, the need to establish a generic architecture which can be multi-sourced at the component level and the avoidance of proprietary stove pipes of proprietary functionality, vendor lock-in & wasted legacy investment are well recognized.

Q: What are the next steps for the MSF Architecture?
A: The MSF is contribution driven. A number of topics are under consideration for the next release of the architecture. These topics include, detailed support for technologies other than ATM, more detailed support for IP-centric protocols, optical networking, interfaces to the application/service layer, and wireless networking. The MSF is continuing to solidify the protocols and architectures that are used within multiservice switching systems. The MSF is also tackling the very significant issue of developing an appropriate management framework.

Home \| Contact Us \| © 2008 MultiService Forum. All Rights Reserved.	MSF is managed by: