Talk:H.323

Proposal for a new article

Please find below a proposal for a new article on H.323. Feel free to contact us regarding any of the changes made. If there are no comments within the next days the edits are considered supported and we will publish the revised article. ITU-T 11:05, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

The suggested changes were presumably incorporated into the article. I have deleted the copy that was included here. --Kvng (talk) 15:15, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

External links

These links have been tagged as of concern since 2012 so have been reviewed per Wikipedia:External_links#Maintenance_and_review. None of them appear to meet the requirements at WP:EL, failing WP:ELNO#1 at least. However, they may be of use to editors wishing to work on the article so they have been moved here. If, after examination, a link is found not to be useful it can be removed from this list. If the link does prove useful, appropriate information can be summarised in the article, using the link as a reliable source if it meets the WP:RELIABLE criteria, and then the link can be removed from this list. Be aware that, per WP:ELBURDEN, none of these links should be returned to the article without first gaining consensus. SilkTork (talk) 16:12, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

The crossed out links have been restored to the article as External links following discussion. SilkTork (talk) 11:26, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

General

• H.323 Definition and overview at the Wayback Machine (archived March 18, 2009)

* H.323 Information site

• H.323 Tutorial and resources
• Implementing H.323 (Zip)

Papers

• H.323 Protocol Overview (technical)
• H.323 Overview (less technical)
• H.323 Call flow covering H.225, Q.931, H.245, RTP and RTCP protocols (PDF)
• H.323 Call flow (communication example)
• H.323 List of papers and presentations

Projects

* H.323 Plus open source H.323 project

• Xmeeting for Mac OS X

* GNU (OpenSource) Gatekeeper

• Ekiga: open source VoIP and video conferencing application for GNOME

There is very little information on H.323 on the web and I believe these links added a great deal of value. If you tried to read the linked standards documents, you would understand why its extremely important to have these other sources to make sense of them. Also, the OpenSource projects should stay linked since they are the only places of active H.323 development that are left these days. GeneVincent55 (talk) 14:44, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

Hi GeneVincent55, thanks for opening a discussion. The purpose of Wikipedia is to summarise information on a topic using reliable sources. Our purpose is not to substitute that summary with a series of links. See WP:LINKFARM and Wikipedia:External links, and in particular see WP:ELBURDEN which says that "Disputed links should normally be excluded by default unless and until there is a consensus to include them." From the lead of WP:EL: "Some external links are welcome (see § What can normally be linked), but it is not Wikipedia's purpose to include a lengthy or comprehensive list of external links related to each topic. No page should be linked from a Wikipedia article unless its inclusion is justifiable according to this guideline and common sense. The burden of providing this justification is on the person who wants to include an external link."

If there is useful information contained in any of the linked sources, this should be summarised in the article, and the linked source cited. If there is information contained in any of the links that is essential or very helpful to a general reader, but which cannot be summarised in this article, then that can be linked per WP:ELYES or WP:ELMAYBE. Is there a link source which you feel meets WP:ELYES or WP:ELMAYBE? SilkTork (talk) 15:00, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

Hi SilkTork, I think especially the "H.323 Information site" on packetizer.com contains a wealth of information that can't be summarized here. Also the OpenSource projects should be here, especially since H323Plus and the GNU Gatekeeper are the last active H.323 projects. I'd keep all the links (except the broken one to h323forum.org), but those are the bare minimum. GeneVincent55 (talk) 15:14, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

I will take a look at those. In the meantime, what are the external inks in the Sources section about? SilkTork (talk) 17:43, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

It might be worth noting that the H.323 Forum has concluded its work and all of the content was archived at this URL: https://h323forum.packetizer.com/ Paulej (talk) 19:45, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

Thanks Paulej. Do you feel that the one https://h323forum.packetizer.com/ link is sufficient to bring the reader up to date with H.323 progress? I'd be satisfied with that. SilkTork (talk) 19:51, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

The H.323 Forum site is just an archive of the former site Packetizer maintained for the IMTC and is no longer updated. The Forum (and even IMTC) no longer exist. However, development on H.323 is still an ongoing activity (albeit lower priority) with a new version 8 expected later this year. Information related to document progress, "what's new", implementation notes, discussion forum, technical & over documents are available at https://www.packetizer.com/ipmc/h323/. Aside from this H.323 page on Wikipedia (which I did contributed to at the request of ITU staff), the page on Packetizer is perhaps the most important page on the Internet for H.323-related information and it has been there and updated periodically for nearly 20 years. In full disclosure, I am the editor of H.323 and also maintain that page on Packetizer. Paulej (talk) 20:07, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

So, you would concur with GeneVincent55, that H.323 Information site is the most appropriate link? And that would suffice? What about the several links in the Sources section? The section is titled Sources, but in essence is essentially an External links section. What is the purpose and value of those links? SilkTork (talk) 20:29, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

SilkTork, of all the links there I think the "H.323 Information Site", "H.323 Plus", and "GNU Gatekeeper" links are most valuable since those three are all maintained. I think a link to the historical archive for the H.323 Forum is useful for the papers and presentations, though there is a link to that on the "H.323 Information Site".

Thanks Paulej, I have implemented your recommendations. And I am moving the Sources links here so they can be considered, as they appear to me to just be more External links. What purpose and value do they have? SilkTork (talk) 11:26, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

Sources (?)

External links moved here per Wikipedia:External_links#Maintenance_and_review. Though listed as sources, these are External links, and their purpose and value needs to be considered against WP:EL and WP:LINKFARM. SilkTork (talk) 11:26, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

@Paulej @SilkTork I think "Sources" is a pretty bad name. I would rename the section "Standards Documents" and keep them, because they are the official references, even so pretty hard to read. (not sure H.246 belongs there, never heard of that one before) GeneVincent55 (talk) 20:06, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

H.246 is for interworking H.323 with various other protocols, notably H.320 and the PSTN. H.320 is used for videoconferencing over ISDN. PSTN includes protocols like ISUP. Paulej (talk) 21:15, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

SilkTork, those are links to the standards that compose the H.323 system. Those were placed there by ITU-T staff and handy to have for anyone who wants to read the various standards. It's pretty typical for Wikipedia articles to point to standards documents. Perhaps what is unusual is the fact there are so many. IMO, they are useful in the same way that there are links to IETF RFCs. As an example, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol. Paulej (talk) 17:00, 10 June 2021 (UTC)

Paulej - what is the essential difference between the list at [1] and the ITU-T list below? And if there is a difference, why cannot the ITU-T list be added to your list at packetizer? SilkTork (talk) 15:02, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

SilkTork, the list here on Wikipedia is a subset of the links on Packetizer. Having it here is convenient for those looking for this list and I don't think duplication of this is a bad thing, especially as Wikipedia aims to be a source for a lot of information. Paulej (talk) 16:23, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

This situation is covered in WP:ELMAYBE#3: "A well-chosen link to a directory of websites or organizations. Long lists of links in articles are not acceptable."

The link to Packetizer serves as the link to a directory, and avoids us having a long list of links which is not allowed by policy. Wikipedia aims not to be a source itself, but a summary of existing sources. This situation here captures quite nicely Wikipedia's aims in that we would rather have one good link which summarises a long list of links than host the long list of links ourself. SilkTork (talk) 06:09, 15 June 2021 (UTC)

ITU-T recommendations of the H.323 system

ITU-T H.323 core recommendations

• ITU-T Recommendation H.323, Packet-based multimedia communications systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.225.0, Call signalling protocols and media stream packetization for packet-based multimedia communication systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.245, Control protocol for multimedia communication.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.246, Interworking of H-series multimedia terminals with H-series multimedia terminals and voice/voiceband terminals on GSTN and ISDN.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.283, Remote device control logical channel transport.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.341, Multimedia management information base.

ITU-T H.235 series recommendations

• ITU-T Recommendation H.235.1, H.323 security framework: Baseline security profile.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.235.2, H.323 security framework: Signature security profile.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.235.3, H.323 security: Hybrid security profile.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.235.4, H.323 security: Direct and selective routed call security.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.235.5, H.323 security: Framework for secure authentication in RAS using weak shared secrets.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.235.6, H.323 security framework: Voice encryption profile with native H.235/H.245 key management.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.235.7, H.323 security framework: Usage of the MIKEY key management protocol for the Secure Real Time Transport Protocol (SRTP) within H.235.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.235.8, H.323 security: Key exchange for SRTP using secure signalling channels.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.235.9, H.323 security: Security gateway support for H.323.

ITU-T H.450 series recommendations

• ITU-T Recommendation H.450.1, Generic functional protocol for the support of supplementary services in H.323.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.450.2, Call transfer supplementary service for H.323.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.450.3, Call diversion supplementary service for H.323.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.450.4, Call hold supplementary service for H.323.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.450.5, Call park and call pickup supplementary service for H.323.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.450.6, Call waiting supplementary service for H.323.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.450.7, Message waiting indication supplementary service for H.323.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.450.8, Name identification supplementary service for H.323.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.450.9, Call completion supplementary service for H.323.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.450.10, Call offering supplementary service for H.323.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.450.11, Call intrusion supplementary service for H.323.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.450.12, Common Information Additional Network Feature for H.323.

ITU-T H.460 series recommendations

• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.1, Guidelines for the use of the generic extensible framework.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.2, Number Portability interworking between H.323 and SCN networks.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.3, Circuit maps within H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.4, Call priority designation and country/international network of call origination identification for H.323 priority calls.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.5, H.225.0 transport of multiple Q.931 information elements of the same type.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.6, Extended Fast Connect feature.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.7, Digit maps within H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.8, Querying for alternate routes within H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.9, Support for online QoS-monitoring reporting within H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.10, Call party category within H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.11, Delayed call establishment within H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.12, Glare control indicator within H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.13, Called user release control.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.14, Support for Multi-Level Precedence and Preemption (MLPP) within H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.15, Call signalling transport channel suspension and redirection within H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.16, Multiple message release sequence capability.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.17, Using H.225.0 call signalling connection as transport for H.323 RAS messages.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.18, Traversal of H.323 signalling across network address translators and firewalls.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.19, Traversal of H.323 media across network address translators and firewalls.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.20, Location number within H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.21, Message broadcast for H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.22, Negotiation of security protocols to protect H.225.0 Call Signalling Messages.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.23, Network address translator and firewall device determination in ITU-T H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.24, Point-to-point media through network address translators and firewalls within ITU-T H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.25, Transport of geographic information in ITU-T H.323 systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.460.26, Using ITU-T H.225.0 call signalling connection as transport for media.

ITU-T H.500 series recommendations

• ITU-T Recommendation H.501, Protocol for mobility management and intra/inter-domain communication in multimedia systems.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.510, Mobility for H.323 multimedia systems and services.
• ITU-T Recommendation H.530, Symmetric security procedures for H.323 mobility in H.510.