Overview of the Telepresence Interoperability License
More than ever, organizations are adopting Telepresence solutions to change the way they do business. Customers want new technologies to integrate transparently with their existing equipment-without sacrificing any benefits or features. With open standards such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the Cisco TelePresence™ solution can deliver any-to-any interoperability with standard- and high-definition video conferencing systems and other collaboration applications while preserving the immersive, lifelike experiences.
Building on the practice of using open standards, Cisco is releasing a Telepresence Interoperability Protocol license to allow other vendors to provide immersive experiences with their own products-and establish a standard of experience that customers have come to expect from telepresence solutions. By licensing this technology, Cisco offers other vendors the opportunity to:
• Take advantage of a switched architecture that reduces the need for media processing-lowering the cost of media resources as well as decreasing latency
• Use the network as a platform for easier implementation and deployment
• Scale interoperability with current Cisco® Unified Communications Manager-based solutions
Q. What is Cisco doing to achieve telepresence interoperability?
A. To create a holistic collaborative experience, Cisco offers interoperability and interworking with standard- and high-definition video conferencing, Cisco WebEx™ meeting applications, and other forms of video and collaboration applications. That is why Cisco TelePresence technology is built on open standards such as SIP. Building on the practice of using open standards, Cisco is now releasing a Telepresence Interoperability Protocol license that allows other vendors to provide immersive experiences with their own telepresence products.
Q. What is Cisco licensing?
A. Cisco is currently licensing the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol that is used between media endpoints to signal information related to the various media streams involved in an immersive Cisco TelePresence call. Two types of documents are provided:
A. As a leader in telepresence solutions, Cisco TelePresence conferencing helps enable business-transformation. In order to foster this transformation, Cisco TelePresence products must become as ubiquitous as telephones, so all vendors must be able to provide equipment that can interoperate successfully while maintaining the overall telepresence experience that Cisco has championed. We believe that licensing this technology can accelerate the overall support and adoption of telepresence solutions.
Q. What capabilities does the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol provide?
A. The highlights of the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol follow:
• The protocol enables devices to signal their multiscreen capabilities, including the number of video and audio streams supported and how these streams are positioned onto the various physical displays and speakers.
• Cisco multiplexes all its video and audio streams into one video Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) session and one audio RTP session. In other words, there are multiple media streams on the application side, but they are combined into a single stream on the network side, making it easy to pass the TelePresence session through firewalls, network address translation (NAT) devices, and session border controllers (SBCs).
• The Telepresence Interoperability Protocol provides flow-control capabilities to reduce the bandwidth needed during times of congestion as well as the ability to turn off transmitters when not needed.
• The protocol provides video feedback capabilities that can easily bypass signaling entities, SBCs, firewalls, and NAT. The protocol feedback is an acknowledgement-based mechanism that helps ensure higher video quality than current standards-based negative acknowledgement (NACK) mechanisms.
• The protocol offers enhanced codec capability negotiation such as context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC), long-term reference pictures (LTRP), and gradual decoder refresh (GDR).
• The Telepresence Interoperability Protocol supports data collaboration and simple floor control.
• The protocol facilitates an overall switching architecture that minimizes media processing, thereby reducing the latency and increasing the overall telepresence user experience.
Q. How is Cisco making the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol available?
A. The Telepresence Interoperability Protocol is available after you sign the license. To obtain the license, please visit http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/ns669/tip.html. After you sign the license you will receive documentation that details the protocol as well as specifics about how to implement the protocol in order to ensure interoperability with Cisco products.
Q. When will the program be available?
A. Licensing of the technology is available now.
Q. What is the benefit to Cisco TelePresence customers?
A. Vendors that support the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol on the multipoint control unit (MCU) will enable full interoperability with all the traditional video conferencing products behind that MCU and Cisco TelePresence systems. Additionally, endpoints that support the protocol will be fully integrated into the Cisco Unified Communications Solutions and will provide transparent interoperability with Cisco TelePresence products and the whole family of Cisco Unified Communications devices.
Q. What is the benefit to the vendor?
A. By supporting the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol, vendors have the following advantages:
• Cisco currently is the leader in telepresence technology. By adopting this technology, vendors can improve their products to provide a better immersive experience that customers have come to expect from Cisco TelePresence solutions.
• Vendors can take advantage of the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol in a switched architecture, which reduces the need for media processing, thereby lowering the cost of the media resources as well as decreasing the latency.
• The Telepresence Interoperability Protocol makes telepresence solutions over the IP network much easier to implement and deploy.
• Vendors can sell their equipment to current Cisco Unified Communications Manager (UCM) customers. Cisco Unified Communications Manager currently has the largest share of the market in IP telephony.
Q. Who will be able to license the technology?
A. Cisco will open the technology to all applicants.
Q. How much will licensing cost?
A. There will be no fees associated with licensing this technology.
Q. Why not just use existing technology to interoperate?
A. The current standards have no way to handle the context of multiple audio and video streams. Current standards are available that advertise multiple video streams, but there are gaps that do not allow mapping those streams to positions (for example, a fixed seat at the table you get with segment switching). Additionally, the current standards are not conducive to a switching architecture where, for example, the endpoints have to mix the audio or provide a voice-activity-detection (VAD) value. In order to take advantage of a switching architecture, Cisco mixes on the endpoint and signals VAD in the RTP streams.
Q. Will Cisco work within the standards committee to create a new interoperability standard?
A. Cisco is heavily involved in the standards bodies, and Cisco employees hold many official positions in the various standards bodies. There has been little activity in the video conferencing industry to promote standards necessary for telepresence. Licensing the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol is Cisco's first activity to achieve interoperability, and Cisco will continue to be very active in the standards forums to achieve telepresence interoperability.
Q. What are the terms of the license?
A. The terms of the license follow:
• The license is nonexclusive, nontransferable, perpetual, worldwide, and royalty-free, and it cannot be sublicensed.
• Vendors cannot use Cisco trademarks or trade names in any manner.
• No changes are allowed to this specification under this license.
• Vendors must agree to support updates of this specification.
• Vendors must agree to inform Cisco about any changes in implementation.
• Vendors must self-certify before claiming Telepresence Interoperability Protocol compliance.
Q. Does Cisco require any kind of certification to validate vendor equipment?
A. As part of the license, vendors must successfully execute a test plan in order to claim Telepresence Interoperability Protocol compliance.
Q. Is there any Cisco certification of vendor equipment?
A. Vendors that sign up with the Cisco Developer Network can have their equipment Cisco certified by a third-party lab. This certification includes Cisco Unified Communications Manager. Third-party companies that join the Cisco Developer Network can participate in interoperability verification testing (IVT) for their solution. As part of this IVT process, third-party products are tested with Cisco Unified Communications Manager and with the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol. Through the Cisco Developer Network program, we also provide joint marketing opportunities for Cisco Developer Network members including press announcements related to Cisco product interoperability.
Q. What will the certification testing cost?
A. The third-party lab that performs the tests will charge you. The fee will be announced within the next couple of months.
Q. What equipment will be certified?
A. At this point Cisco does not intend to limit the equipment that can use the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol. However, when the program is launched, certification testing will be available only for MCUs and endpoints.
Q. What type of configurations will Cisco support?
A. The following configurations will be supported and tested:
• Third-party endpoints registered to the Cisco Unified Communications Manager that can work with the Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch in a multipoint call are supported.
• Third-party endpoints registered to the Cisco UCM can place point to point calls to other Cisco TelePresence endpoints registered to the Cisco UCM.
• Third-party MCUs can interoperate with the Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch.
• Cisco TelePresence endpoints can connect to the third-party MCU.
Q. Are there any restrictions on endpoints requesting certification?
A. Endpoints must support the following high-level capabilities (detailed specifications will be provided at the launch of this program):
• The endpoint must support a mode of operation where the device maintains a minimum 720p resolution.
• The endpoint must support the mandatory portions of the licensed protocol.
• The endpoint must support the SIP protocol and register with the call manager.
Q. What do these restrictions mean for the Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch?
A. The Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch preverves the Cisco TelePresence experience for telepresence meetings of any size and continues to play a critical role in Cisco TelePresence infrastrcuture as a video switch as well as a services gateway. As a gateway, the Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch can interoperate with any MCU that supports this protocol. This setup enables customers with older video conferencing systems to use all the existing equipment and infrastructure with Cisco TelePresence systems while maintaining the Cisco TelePresence experience for those Cisco TelePresence endpoints. Additionally, the switch can connect directly to third-party endpoints that support the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol.
Q. Will the one-button-to-push feature be offered on third-party products?
A. The feature will not be initially supported on third-party endpoints. There is not a standard way to achieve this level of interoperability. Cisco is investigating this problem and may at a later time provide draft standards or licensed technology that will enable this capability.
Q. What features will be available to third-party endpoints that support the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol in a Cisco solution?
A. The following features are expected to be supported with third-party endpoints:
• H.264 720p and 1080p interoperability
• Auto Collaborate
• Triple-screen interoperability
• AAC-LD and G.722 audio
• Point-to-point and multipoint support (in both transcoded and switched environments)
