FREMONT, Calif. -- The Multiservice Switching Forum (MSF) announced today that its membership has approved the scope of testing upon which the Global MSF Interoperability (GMI) 2004 test cases will be based. The event will test basic point-to-point VoIP within a single service provider's network and then increase in complexity as Value Added Services, connectivity to the PSTN, and direct connectivity between two VoIP carrier networks is demonstrated on a global basis. In each scenario, requirements that are critical for real-world deployments such as security, Quality of Service (QoS), routing, and network management will be demonstrated. Participants will demonstrate to service providers and to the industry at large that the MSF solution for VoIP, based on approved standards from the IETF, the ITU and other standards bodies, is ready for network deployment.

"The physical scenarios we have created for GMI 2004 will stretch the technical capabilities of the participants by providing a demanding, realistic test setting," said Avri Doria, MSF Technical Committee chair. "Participating companies will have a chance to showcase their products to the world's biggest carriers in a real-world environment."

At GMI 2004, scheduled for October 4-16, tier 1 carriers located in North America, the UK, Japan, and Korea will provide host labs connected by live network facilities, creating a realistic environment in which to exercise the interoperability and deployment readiness of VoIP on a global scale. Each participant will demonstrate interoperability in the network through the use of predefined test suites utilizing key protocols that are accepted as core IP technologies by service providers around the world including MPLS and SIP. The GMI 2004 event will examine state-of-the-art network elements key to supporting a fully integrated VoIP solution such as application servers, service brokers, call agents, bandwidth managers and other control and management systems against the specific protocols defined in MSF Interoperability Agreements (IAs).

Multiservice Switching Forum