[May 23, 2001]

Multiservice Switching Forum Moves To Examine Physical Architecture Specifications Process

The Multiservice Switching Forum (MSF) announced the creation of a Physical Architecture Scenario Task Force to further extend MSF's ability to foster end-to-end network interoperability.

The goal of the new task force, led by Technical Committee Vice Chairman Mark Disbrow, is to ensure that all of the MSF's efforts are coordinated into a network interoperability-driven work structure. The new task force will work to develop physical implementation agreements, protocol specifications and interoperability scenarios that will meet the demands of service providers and be consistent with the forthcoming MSF Release 2 Functional Architecture and existing standards

"The creation of the Physical Architecture Scenario Task Force is a sign that we are making significant progress on the strategic initiatives outlined by the MSF board of directors last year," said Roger Ward, president of MSF. "We are convinced that the MSF can provide the greatest value to its members and to the industry by moving down the MSF 'product stack' and increasing our focus on physical architecture and end-to-end network interoperability."

In addition to the new task force, the MSF announced a new liaison with the International Softswitch Consortium (ISC) on Legal Intercept (LI) issues and the creation of a new charter for MSF's Media Control Working Group (MCWG). The new liaison recognizes the work of the ISC and other standards bodies in the area of LI and ensures that LI specifications are included in MSF's open architecture implementation agreements. The new MCWG charter was written to better reflect that group's work to create requirements and implementation agreements for call bearer control protocols and interfaces at reference points in the MSF architecture as it relates to media gateways and media gateway controllers.

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