1998 Reports

Toward the PSTN/Internet Inter-Networking--Pre-PINT Implementations

Krishnaswamy, Murali; Conroy, Lawrence; Bellovin, Steven M.; Burg, Fred M.; DeSimone, A.; Tewani, Kamlesh T.; Davidson, Paul; Schulzrinne, Henning G.; Vishwanathan, Kumar

This document contains the information relevant to the development of the inter-networking interfaces underway in the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)/Internet Inter-Networking (PINT) Working Group. It addresses technologies, architectures, and several (but by no means all) existing pre-PINT implementations of the arrangements through which Internet applications can request and enrich PSTN telecommunications services. The common denominator of the enriched services (a.k.a. PINT services) is that they combine the Internet and PSTN services in such a way that the Internet is used for non-voice interactions, while the voice (and fax) are carried entirely over the PSTN. One key observation is that the pre-PINT implementations, being developed independently, do not inter-operate. It is a task of the PINT Working Group to define the inter-networking interfaces that will support inter-operation of the future implementations of PINT services.