ETSI Tests ENUM

SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS, France -- The ETSI Plugtests™ interoperability event for Telephone Number Mapping (ENUM) has successfully provided a neutral setting for engineers to carry out testing against the ENUM standard. ENUM allows users to put phone numbers on the Internet and use them to receive Email, voice calls, and everything that a phone and the web can provide.

ENUM is set to be a major enabler in next generation networks, allowing calls to be connected irrespective of the home network of the user.

Testing revolved around the core ENUM specification; RFC3761 - published by the IETF and ETSI TISPAN specifications TS 102 051 on European ENUM administration and TS 102 172 on common formats for European trials of ENUM.

The tutorial sessions held concurrently with the testing event here have been like master-classes on what really happens when Domain Name Systems (DNS) become populated with large volumes of telephone numbers, in terms of data management and also security.

This was particularly the case with the DNS Security tutorial, where the participants - who are already experts in their field - were able to broaden considerably their collective knowledge in this area.

Another use of the event has been that the engineers have been able to discuss implementation issues beyond the scope of current specifications & standards. As a consequence, the output from this Plugtests event will be put forward by the experts here to the IETF and to the ETSI Technical Committee TISPAN.

Ronan Lupton, Head of Regulatory Affairs & EMEA Interconnect Policy, MCI International Affairs said:

“The ETSI ENUM Plugtests event provided an expert meeting of corporations and minds dedicated to communications convergence and efficient global network architectures.”

The following organisations attended this ENUM Interoperability event, which was hosted by ETSI Plugtests & supported by the eEurope initiative of the European Commission - from the 30th May to the 3rd June 2005;

AG Projects, Atlas Internet, DNS-MODA, Enum.at, Etisalat, MCI Inc., NASK, Nominet UK, Nominum, Inc., Roke Manor Research Ltd., SIEMENS AG, T-Systems International GmbH, SSC ENPS Berlin and VeriSign Inc.

European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)