Introduction - Alcatel-Lucent ENUM Technology White Paper

Introduction

With today's increased focus on convergent technologies, such as IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)
networks, and the increased use of Voice over IP (VoIP) and other IP-based services like Multimedia
Messaging Service (MMS), fast, easy, and reliable administration of IP addresses and Domain Name
System (DNS) services is quickly becoming a critical management issue.
One technology beginning to be implemented in DNSs for supporting various types of services is ENUM,
which is defined in IETF RFC 3761. Different sources define the ENUM acronym differently, and one
definition, as per the IETF, is "tElephone NUmber Mapping." In brief, ENUM specifies a method for
storing information in DNS servers to map an E.164 number (a.k.a., telephone number) to Uniform
Resource Identifiers (URIs) for associated communication services (e.g., VoIP service). Each URI (for
VoIP phone, cell phone, e-mail, web page, Session Initiation Protocol [SIP] Proxy Server, Session Border
Controller, etc.) is stored in a DNS Naming Authority Pointer (NAPTR) record, which is in an E.164 domain.
One example application of ENUM is to convert a phone number dialed on the Public Switched
Telephone Network (PSTN) to an IP address for a VoIP phone on the Internet. For example an E.164
domain name for the phone number (222) 333-4444 is "4.4.4.4.3.3.3.2.2.2.1.e164.arpa". Note
that the digits in the E.164 domain name consist of a phone number in reverse order.
Alcatel-Lucent Technology provides a centralized management solution enabling you to administer
ENUM domains (e.g., 1.my-enum.com) and their associated NAPTR records in VitalQIP and
Alcatel-Lucent DNS servers. As part of this solution, ENUM Manager, which is one of the optional
modules of VitalQIP, is used. Using a SOAP interface, an upstrean provisioning system can create, update,
delete, and search NAPTR records in ENUM Manager. ENUM Manager stores these records in the ENUM
database, which is shared with VitalQIP. VitalQIP accesses this database, and uses the data in it to
update downstream DNS servers, either through Dynamic DNS updates or zone file pushes.
Users can administer NAPTR records via ENUM Manager's Web GUI. To handle the growth of your
ENUM domains, the ENUM Manager features the ability to split and merge them in order to manage
the size of ENUM zone files used in DNS servers. The GUI also allows an administrator to create, update,
delete, and search the NAPTR records. As a result of using VitalQIP ENUM Manager, Alcatel-Lucent's
DNS servers respond to queries for telephone number-to-URI translation for on-net calls and off-net
calls to peering partners, and support other ENUM capabilities.
A comprehensive ENUM management application is a necessity to reliably deliver complex next
generation services. Many service providers are looking to leverage their existing IPAM, DNS, and DHCP
management applications to support ENUM services. As more and more service providers offer ENUM
trials and subsequent service deployments, the ENUM management applications will need to keep
pace with the needs of the service provider and evolving standards.
Alcatel-Lucent | ENUM Use and Management for the Successful Deployment of ENUM-Enabled Services 1