H.350 Standard Eases Videoconferencing

released September 09, 2003

A new standard announced by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) will make videoconferencing via the Internet easier and less expensive. Resulting from an Internet2 Middleware Initiative Video working group, the new H.350 standard provides a uniform way for storing and finding information related to video and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in enterprise directories.

The newly standardized technology enables companies and universities to scale up video and VoIP operations from a few hundred endpoints to full enterprise deployments without hiring additional systems administrators by linking account management and authorization automation to the enterprise directory using the lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP).

H.350 makes video and VoIP information available globally and helps with user device configuration, as well as providing a convenient place to store authentication credentials, resulting in a more secure and integrated environment for video and VoIP conferencing.

H.350 was born out of the Video Middleware Group, a joint effort between the Internet2 Middleware group and the Video Development Initiative (ViDe). Significant support was provided by a National Science Foundation grant to the University of Alabama at Birmingham with partners Claremont Graduate University, SURFnet, and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. An example directory service based on H.350 is available through ViDeNet at https://videnet.unc.edu/vide-dod/ for searching and making IP calls around the world.

H.350 supports H.320, H.323, session initiation protocol (SIP), and non-standard protocols.

 

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