SCSA Industry Forums

The following list identifies the many organizations that have been influencing how CT components work together to form robust and scalable CT servers. The standards offered by these organizations address both hardware and software SCSA development issues. To quickly locate specific standards, see SCSA Reference Specifications.

ANSI
ATM Forum
Dialogic Corporation
CMA
ECTF
ETSI
IETF
IMTC (VoIP)
INF
ISO
ITU-T
Microsoft Corporation (TAPI)
OMG
OSF
PICMG
SCSA
Sun Microsystems (JavaSoft JTAPI)
Versit
VITA

ANSI

New York Headquarters
11 West 42nd Street, 13th floor
New York, NY 10036 USA
Phone: 1-212-642-4900
Fax: 1-212-398-0023
Email: mailto:%20mgonzale@ansi.org
Web: http://www.ansi.org/

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) was founded in 1918 by five engineering societies and three government agencies to facilitate consensus standards and conformity assessment systems in the US. It remains a private, nonprofit organization that is supported by a diverse membership of private and public sector organizations. While ANSI does not develop standards, it facilitates development by consensus, due process, and openness through more than 175 distinct accredited organizations and committees. Among these groups is the VITA Standards Organization (VSO), which worked to adopt the SCSA SCbus standard for the VMEbus and is in the process of taking the SCSA Extensions (VITA P6.1, Draft 6.0) through the ANSI balloting process. ANSI also contributes US standards to the international market through the two major non-treaty international standards organizations: the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), via the US National Committee (USNC).

ATM Forum World Headquarters
2570 West El Camino Reale, Suite 304
Mountain View, CA 94040-1313 USA
Phone: 1-415-949-6700
Fax: 1-415-949-6705
Email: info@atmforum.com
Web: http://www.atmforum.com/

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is one of the most important enabling technologies for allowing SCSA-based systems to be distributed over a wide area network. The ATM Forum is a worldwide organization, aimed at promoting ATM awareness and industry cooperation. Formed in October 1991, the ATM Forum consists of over 750 members, spanning the communications and computer industries, government agencies, research organizations, and technology users. The ATM Forum includes a worldwide Technical Committee; Marketing Committees for North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific; and an end-user forum, known as the Enterprise Network Roundtable. The Technical Committee is responsible for working with other standards bodies, such as ANSI and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU, formerly CCITT), selecting appropriate standards, resolving differences among standards, and recommending new standards when existing ones are absent or inappropriate.

Corporate Headquarters
1515 Route Ten
Parsippany, NJ 07054 USA
Phone: 1-800-755-4444 or 1-973-993-3030
Fax: 1-973-631-9631
Email: sales@dialogic.com
Web: http://www.dialogic.com/

Dialogic is the industry抯 leader in providing solid, standards-based platforms for the CT industry. Adding to over ten years of experience and innovation, this company is known for working with industry leaders to provide the tools and technology that allow developers to create solutions for the global market as quickly and as easily as possible. Dialogic is also known for its work in educating people about the opportunities in CT, as well as the technologies needed to succeed in them. As an added convenience to developers, Dialogic also distributes copies of the SCSA hardware specifications and the ECTF S.100 specification.

114 Rue du Rhône
CH1204 Geneva Switzerland
Phone: 41-22-849-60-00
Fax: 41-22-849-60-01
Email: helpdesk@ecma.ch
Web: http://www.ecma.ch/

ECMA (formerly, the European Computer Manufacturers Association) is an association of companies dedicated to the standardization of information and communications systems. ECMA has been in existence for well over 30 years and includes several working groups such as TC32-TG11, which developed the Computer Supported Telecommunications Applications (CSTA) standard. CSTA is an application layer protocol in the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) hierarchy that defines the interactions between switches and host computers required for implementing integrated call processing applications such as call centers and voice mail. CSTA-based applications are used in both public and private telecommunications networks. The Telephony Services Application Programming Interface (TSAPI), developed by AT&T and Novell, is a C-language interface to the CSTA protocol.

ECMA is active in the development of private integrated service network management and service standards, including the Q.SIG standard for communication between ISDN-based PBXs. ECMA is also a co-signer of the Memorandum of Understanding endorsing Q.SIG.

39355 California Street
Suite 307
Freemont, CA 94538 USA
Phone: 1-510-608-5915
Fax: 1-510-608-5917
Email: ectf@ectf.org
Web: http://www.ectf.org/

The Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum (ECTF) is an industry organization that promotes an open, competitive market for computer telephony integration (CTI) technology. By gathering a broad group of suppliers, developers, systems integrators, and users, the ECTF works to achieve interoperability agreements for CT technology based on de facto and de jure standards. The first interoperability specification approved by the ECTF was the ECTF S.100 Media Services API, which evolved out of the submission of the SCSA TAO APIs. ECTF workgroups are currently working on other media server interoperability agreements at the protocol level (S.200), resource SPI level (S.300), and server management level (M.100, M.110, M.500, and M.510). In addition, the ECTF is seeking to develop a common call control model to promote interoperability between TAPI and TSAPI applications. Most recently, the ECTF approved the H.100 hardware interoperability specification, which defines the new CT Bus for the PCI platform, developed the C.001 call control services model, and is currently working on a backplane version of CT Bus (H.110)

650 Route de Lucioles
F-06921 Sophia Antipolis
Cedex, France
Phone: 33-9-294-4200
Fax: 33-9-365-4716
Email: secretariat@etsi.org (X.400: c=fr; a=atlas; p=etsi; s=secretariat)
Web: http://www.etsi.org/

The European Telecommunicatons Standards Institute (ETSI) was formed by the administrations of France and the UK to serve as the "European Standardization Organization" for telecommunications, information technology, and sound and TV broadcasting. It is composed of national governments and private organizations representing network operators, manufacturers, users, and private providers offering service to public and research bodies. ETSI was established in order to increase the speed at which standards are developed, by adopting a procedure of weighted voting in place of consensus. ETSI has been primarily involved in the development of standards for telecommunications network management and private telecommunication network protocols. It was active in developing Q.SIG, the protocol standard that governs communication between ISDN-based PBXs. ETSI is also a co-signer of the Memorandum of Understanding endorsing Q.SIG.

IETF Secretariat
c/o Corporation for National Research Initiatives
Suite 100
1895 Preston White Drive
Reston, VA 22091
Phone: 1-703-620-8990
Fax: 1-703-758-5913
Email: ietf-info@ietf.org
Web: http://www.ietf.org/

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the protocol engineering and development arm of the Internet. It provides a forum for working groups, who are concerned with the evolution and smooth operation of the Internet, to coordinate the development and selection of new standards within the Internet protocol suite. The IETF began in January 1986 as a forum for technical coordination by contractors for the then US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), working on the ARPANET, US Defense Data Network (DDN), and the Internet core gateway system. Since that time, the IETF has grown into a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers.

IETF recommendations have a strong impact on the design of local and wide-area networks in which SCSA-based systems must operate. As voice-on-the-net (VON) becomes a more widely-used technology, IETF recommendations concerning network routing, quality of service, and security will become requirements of SCSA-based systems.

IMTC Corporate Secretary
Bishop Ranch 2
2694 Bishop Drive, Suite 105
San Ramon, CA 94583 USA
Phone: 1-510-277-1320 or 1-510-277-8110
Fax: 1-510-277-8111
Email: dkamlani@inventures.com
IMTC Web: http://www.imtc.org/
VoIP Web: http://www.imtc.org/act_voip.htm

The International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium (IMTC) Inc. is a non-profit company that brings together organizations throughout the world which are involved in the development of multimedia teleconferencing products and services in order to facilitate the creation and adoption of industry-wide interoperability standards. The IMTC includes several activity groups, such as the Voice over IP (VoIP) Forum, which is responsible for defining and establishing a set of open, consistent guidelines for implementing devices that perform telephony communications over IP protocol data networks. The VoIP activity group is currently focused on the H.323 protocol and relevant CODEC standards, including G.723.1, G.729, and GSM. Other work within the IMTC is focused on relevant standards adopted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), including ITU-T T.120, H.320, and H.324.

11312 LBJ Freeway
#600-1114
Dallas, TX 75238
Email: chorn@ballistic.com

The Intelligent Network Forum (INF) is an open, non-profit organization that focuses accelerating the development of services for the intelligent network by influencing and promoting relevant standards, developing and publishing implementation agreements, facilitating application development, and publishing educational material about intelligent networks. INF members include service providers, equipment vendors, software developers, systems integrators, research and engineering organizations, users, and other parties interested in intelligent network technology and applications.

Central Secretariat
1, rue de Varemb?br> Case postale 56
CH-1211 Gen鑦e 20
Switzerland
Phone: 41-22-749-01-11
Fax: 41-22-733-34-30
Telex: 41-22-05 iso ch
Telegram: isorganiz
Email: mailto:central@isocs.iso.ch(X.400: c=ch; a=400net; p=iso; o=isocs; s=central)
Web: http://www.iso.ch/

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from over 100 countries. This non-governmental group was formed in 1947 to facilitate standards activities that are applicable in international commerce, and to foster global cooperation in intellectual, scientific, technological, and economic development. ISO's work results in international agreements, which are published as International Standards.

The most important impact of ISO in the telecommunications field is the development of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) architectural model. Most communication networks follow the OSI architecture and implement appropriate protocols, such as the High Level Data Link Control (HDLC) protocol at the link layer, which is used in the design of SCbus. More recently, ISO technical committees have been developing standards for routing, security, and service features within the ISDN architecture for both public and private telecommunications networks. ISO is also a co-signer of the Memorandum of Understanding endorsing the Q.SIG standard.

Note that while ISO is the short form for the International Organization for Standardization, it is not an acronym. ISO was selected because of its derivation from the Greek isos, meaning equal, and for its validity in the organization抯 three official languages: English, French, and Russian.

Place des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
Phone: 41-22-730-6039
Fax: 41-22-730-5939
Email: helpdesk@itu.ch (X.400: s=helpdesk; a=400net; p=itu; c=ch)
Web: http://www.itu.ch/

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), formerly known as the CCITT, is an international organization that allows governments and the private sector to coordinate global telecommunications networks and services through standards, international regulations and treaties, and worldwide telecommunications development. Within the ITU, the Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) is responsible for studying and making recommendations on technical, operating, and tariff questions. The scope of these activities cover telecommunication services and network operations, telecommunication tariffs and accounting principles, maintenance, protection of outside plant, data communication, terminal for telematic services, switching, signaling, human-machine language, transmission performance, systems and equipment, and ISDN.

Although they are not binding, most governments and telecommunications organizations comply with ITU Recommendations because they guarantee the interconnectivity of networks and enable services (on a technical level) to be provided on a worldwide scale. As of 22 February 1996, the ITU comprised 185 member states and 363 member organizations (scientific and industrial companies, public and private operators, broadcasters, and regional/international organizations).

ITU-T developed the standards comprising the ISDN architecture, and publishes the standards defining the Signaling System 7 (SS7) and Intelligent Network (IN) architectures. It is also a co-signer of the Memorandum of Understanding endorsing the Q.SIG standard.

One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399 USA
Phone 1-800-426-9400 or 1-206-936-8861
Web: http://www.microsoft.com/

Microsoft defines several telephony related interfaces under the Windows Open Services Architecture (WOSA), among them the Telephony Application Program Interface (TAPI) and the Speech Application Program Interface (SAPI). The goal of WOSA is to shield Windows programmers from the complexities of integrated applications, such as those that offer "personal telephony" functions for end-users.

Object Management Group, Inc.
Framingham Corporate Center
492 Old Connecticut Path
Framingham, MA 01701 USA
Phone: 1-508-820-4300
Fax: 1-508-820-4303
Email: cindy@omg.org
Web: http://www.omg.org/

The Object Management Group (OMG) is a non-profit consortium, founded in 1989, to promote the theory and practice of object technology (OT) for the development of distributed computing systems. The goal of the OMG is to provide a common, object-oriented application framework that helps reduce the complexity, lower the costs, and hasten the introduction of new software applications. Objects encapsulate the attributes, relationships, and methods of software identifiable program components. The OMG抯 charter includes the establishment of industry guidelines and object management specifications. Its international membership stands at over 600 software vendors, developers, and end users.

Among its achievements, the OMG introduced the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), which allows applications to communicate with one another, independent of their physical location or manufacturer. CORBA may be used as the interprocess communication mechanism to connect client applications to an SCSA-compatible CT server.

Open Software Foundation
11 Cambridge Center
Cambridge MA 02142-1405 USA
Phone 1-617-621-8700
Email: s.long@opengroup.org
Web: http://www.opengroup.org/

In 1988, several major computer venders formed the Open Software Foundation (OSF) to address the growing demand for vendor-neutral, open system solutions. The OSF is a non-profit research and development organization whose goal is to provide software solutions that enable computers from multiple vendors to work together in an open systems computing environment. With over 400 members, the OSF hosts collaborative, industry-wide research and development. Among its achievements, the OSF hosted the development and agreement among major hardware and software vendors on the OSF Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) specification. The OSF DCE forms the foundation for creating and using interoperable, distributed applications from multiple vendors, in open, multiplatform computing environments. DCE may be used as the interprocess communication mechanism to connect client applications to an SCSA-compatible CT server.

301 Edgewater Place, Suite 220
Wakefield, MA 01880 USA
Phone: 1-617-224-1100
Email: picmg@rogerscom.com
Web: http://www.picmg.com/

The PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG) is a consortium of over 120 vendors who develop specifications for PCI-based systems and boards for use in industrial computing applications. The PICMG is committed to open standards. Specifications are developed by technical committees composed of representatives of member companies, placed in the public domain after vote, and then maintained by PICMG. Recent developments include Passive Backplane PCI-ISA standards, PCI-PCI Bridge Specifications, and the Compact PCI standard. The SCSA Working Groups are developing a specification that will bring the power of the SCbus to this popular 3U/6U Eurocard form factor.

35 Ridgedale Ave.
Suite 100
East Hanover, NJ 07936 USA
Email: info@scsa.org
Web: http://www.scsa.org/

The goal of the Signal Computing System Architecture (SCSA) community is to promote the integration and interoperability of CT technology through a modular framework of open standards. SCSA supporters have identified and leveraged existing standards, and are actively working through the many industry forums and organizations to define those that do not yet exist.

JavaSoft
10201 North DeAnza Blvd.
Cupertino, CA 95014
Phone: 1-800-JAVASOFT or 1-512-434-1591
Email: jtapi-comments@sun.com
Web: http://java.sun.com/products/jtapi/index.html

JavaSoft is a business unit of Sun Microsystems, Inc., whose mission is to develop, market, and support Java technology and products based on it. Java supports networked applications and enables developers to write applications once that will run on any machine. JavaSoft develops applications, tools, and systems platforms to further enhance Java as a cross-platform programming standard for complex network applications, including computer telephony applications, using such tools as the JTAPI Call Control and Media Extensions.

Versit began as an initiative of companies, founded by Apple Computer, AT&T, IBM and Siemens, who were dedicated to developing a series of specifications for computer communications products, including CT. Versit's projects included the Personal Data Interchange (PDI) specification, the GeoPort Universal Network Port specification, implementors' agreements addressing the H.320 video conferencing standard, and the Versit CTI Encyclopedia (VCE). The VCE, a set of specifications including feature definitions, protocols and TSAPI-based APIs for enterprise call control, was made available to ECMA and to the ECTF in 1996. It served as one of the source documents for the ECTF C.001 Call Control Model specification and for the ECMA CSTA Phase III standard.

In 1996, Versit completed its work program, having transferred the rights to its PDI technology to the Internet Mail Consortium, and having made their other specifications publicly available. Copies of the Versit CTI Encyclopedia CDROM are available through the ECTF.

7825 East Gelding Road, Suite 104
Scottsdale, AZ 85260 USA
Phone: 1-602-951-8866
Fax: 1-602-951-0720
Email: techdir@vita.com
Web: http://www.vita.com/

VITA is an international trade association for the VMEbus (high-density systems) that promotes VMEbus use through the development and support of open industry standards. The VITA Standards Organization (VSO) is the ANSI-accredited standards body that develops standards around the VMEbus. The SCbus, defined under SCSA, was adopted as an ANSI standard for the VMEbus (ANSI/VITA-6 1994) through the efforts of the VSO. Most recently, VITA has taken the VITA 6.1 SCSA Extensions through the ANSI balloting process.