The
main work of the ECTF is achieved in the Technical Committee (TC) whose task is
to produce Implementation Agreements to accelerate the deployment of computer
telephony technology and facilitate industry convergence on interoperability.
The TC is structured as a collection
of focused Working Groups (WG), some with Task Groups (TG) to carry out subcomponents
or very detailed work. Each WG takes responsibility for managing a specific segment
of the TC workload devolving the detailed tasks for that segment, where applicable
to the TGs for implementation. Each WG has a Coordinator, an Editor and a number
of members. Coordinators manage the activity within and between WGs and Editors
document the progress and deliverable agreements. TGs also have Editors to document
the working output from the group.
Working Groups
The
Working Groups are:
Architectural
Working Group working on a high level framework to ensure synergy within ECTF
initiatives.
Administrative
Services Working Group working on administering CT servers through common
means and with existing administration applications. (M.001, M.100, M.110, M.500,
and M.510)
Application
Interoperability Working Group working on effective interoperation of CT applications.
(A.001 and A.100)
Call
Control Interoperability Working Group working on interoperability of call
control solutions using existing and emerging standards and industry models.
Computer Telephony Services Platform
Working Group working on expanding the ability of CT applications to share
media resources and existing call control architectures. (S.100, S.200 and S.300)
Hardware Components Interoperability
Working Group working on interoperability issues between media buses for CT
media transport. (H.100 and H.110)
The
Working Groups typically meet by conference call each week with face to face meetings
quarterly. More conference calls are scheduled as needed.
Generalized CT Server
This
model of a generalized CT server will be used to indicate the area of activity
for each of the working groups. It shows how the functions of a fully modularized
server are divided by interfaces. Some CT servers may implement all of the functionality
shown or just a portion. For example, a PBX might implement just call control
and nothing more. Some CT server implementations will implement all of the interfaces
and some will be less modular and only support a subset of the defined interfaces.
It is the definition of the interfaces between modules that forms the majority
of the work within the ECTF. These interfaces consist of APIs that allow two modules
running on the same machine to interoperate and protocols that allow modules running
on different machines to interoperate.
