Open settlement protocol
Encyclopedia
The Open Settlement Protocol (OSP) is a client/server protocol used by Internet service providers to exchange authorization, accounting, and usage information to support IP telephony. Open Settlement Protocol is implemented in voice telephony gateways such as softswitches, H.323
multimedia conferencing gateways, and Session Initiation Protocol
(SIP) proxies.
OSP is defined by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute
(ETSI) Project TIPHON (Telecommunications and Internet Protocol Harmonization Over Networks).
A press release of September 2, 1998, announced that the industry leaders 3Com Corporation, Cisco
, GRIC Communications, iPass
, and TransNexus
had "teamed up to promote inter-domain
authentication, authorization and accounting standards for IP telephony through the Open Settlement Protocol (OSP)". The Open Settlement Protocol is being developed under the authority of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's ETSI project TIPHON.
The TIPHON project objective is
One of the benefits of the new Open Settlement Protocol is: "flexible and feature-rich information exchange via the Extensible Markup Language (XML)". The message system defined in the protocol architecture uses HTTP to communicate the principal message content; this includes a MIME
header together with the XML
document in a
Open Settlement Protocol standard specification may be found in the document ETSI Technical Specification 101 321: Telecommunications and Internet Protocol Harmonization Over Networks (TIPHON) Release 4: Open Settlement Protocol for Inter-domain pricing, authorisation, and usage exchange. Version 4.1.1 of this document was ratified in November 2003.
The document's statement of scope reads:
Section 6 (XML Content)
XML
element and attribute declarations in this section define the provisional DTD
for the Open Settlement Protocol.
The OSP Toolkit is a complete development kit for software developers who want to implement the client side of the European Telecommunication Standards Institute's (ETSI) OSP standard for secure VoIP peering. The OSP Toolkit includes source code written in ANSI C, test tools and extensive documentation on how to implement the OSP standard. A hosted OSP test server is freely available on the Internet for all developers to test their OSP implementation.
H.323
H.323 is a recommendation from the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector that defines the protocols to provide audio-visual communication sessions on any packet network...
multimedia conferencing gateways, and Session Initiation Protocol
Session Initiation Protocol
The Session Initiation Protocol is an IETF-defined signaling protocol widely used for controlling communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol . The protocol can be used for creating, modifying and terminating two-party or multiparty sessions...
(SIP) proxies.
OSP is defined by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute
European Telecommunications Standards Institute
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute is an independent, non-profit, standardization organization in the telecommunications industry in Europe, with worldwide projection...
(ETSI) Project TIPHON (Telecommunications and Internet Protocol Harmonization Over Networks).
A press release of September 2, 1998, announced that the industry leaders 3Com Corporation, Cisco
Cisco
Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore...
, GRIC Communications, iPass
IPass
iPass, a commercial company, unifies the management of remote and mobile devices and connectivity. It provides Internet services to business users working remotely by integrating Internet connectivity with management of VPN and other third-party security applications...
, and TransNexus
TransNexus
TransNexus, founded in 1997, is a commercial company providing software products for managing peering among VoIP networks. VoIP Peering is a concept that has grown from the practice of peering IP data networks.Evolution of VoIP Peering...
had "teamed up to promote inter-domain
Inter-domain
inter-domain is a term used to describe data flow control and interaction between Primary Domain Controller computers. This type of computer uses various computer protocols and services to operate. It is most commonly used to multicast between internet domains.-Internet use:An Internet service...
authentication, authorization and accounting standards for IP telephony through the Open Settlement Protocol (OSP)". The Open Settlement Protocol is being developed under the authority of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's ETSI project TIPHON.
The TIPHON project objective is
- "to support the market for voice communication and related voiceband communication (such asfacsimile) between users . . . [to] ensure that users connected to IP based networks can communicate with users in Switched Circuit Networks (such as PSTN/ISDN and GSM), and vice versa."
One of the benefits of the new Open Settlement Protocol is: "flexible and feature-rich information exchange via the Extensible Markup Language (XML)". The message system defined in the protocol architecture uses HTTP to communicate the principal message content; this includes a MIME
MIME
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions is an Internet standard that extends the format of email to support:* Text in character sets other than ASCII* Non-text attachments* Message bodies with multiple parts...
header together with the XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
document in a
<Message>.Open Settlement Protocol standard specification may be found in the document ETSI Technical Specification 101 321: Telecommunications and Internet Protocol Harmonization Over Networks (TIPHON) Release 4: Open Settlement Protocol for Inter-domain pricing, authorisation, and usage exchange. Version 4.1.1 of this document was ratified in November 2003.
The document's statement of scope reads:
- "This document specifies a set of protocols and associated profiles to permit the exchange of inter-domain pricing, authorisation, and settlement information between internet telephony operators. The protocols specified fulfil the essential requirements of such services, by providing appropriate functionality between multiple administrative domains in a secure manner. The specification also provides for non-standard extensions that permit co-operating parties to augment or replace the basic functionality."
Section 6 (XML Content)
- "specifies the actual message format used by the OSP to exchange pricing, authentication and authorization, and usage information. It outlines the overall XMLXMLExtensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
document structure, lists the individual XMLXMLExtensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
elements, and describes how those elements are combined into exchanges."
XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
element and attribute declarations in this section define the provisional DTD
Document Type Definition
Document Type Definition is a set of markup declarations that define a document type for SGML-family markup languages...
for the Open Settlement Protocol.
The OSP Toolkit is a complete development kit for software developers who want to implement the client side of the European Telecommunication Standards Institute's (ETSI) OSP standard for secure VoIP peering. The OSP Toolkit includes source code written in ANSI C, test tools and extensive documentation on how to implement the OSP standard. A hosted OSP test server is freely available on the Internet for all developers to test their OSP implementation.