H.323 is suggestion by the ITUTelecommunication Standardisation Sector (ITU-T) H.323 is an ITUTelecommunication Standardisation Sector (ITU-T) suggestion that outlinesprotocols for the distribution of Audio-Visual (A/V) communication sessions onall packet networks.
It became a recognised standard in 1996 and H.323 alongwith its family of ITU-T recommendations provides multimedia communicationservices across a variety of networks. The standards are important because theyoutline how H.323 complaint components facilitate calls, share compressed A/Vand work in conjunction with non-H.323 endpoints. H.
323 is similar to SIP inthat both support VoIP and multimedia communications, however H.323 favours thetelecommunications-orientated approach to VoIP whereas SIP prefers theinternet-orientated approach. H.323 is widely implemented by voice and videoconferencing equipment makers and is commonly used with different types ofinternet real-time applications e.g. NetMeeting and GnuGK; service providersdeploy it globally for VoIP and video services over IP networks. H.
323 isimportant because it provides standards for equipment, computer systems andmultimedia communication services on packet based networks. It also outlinestransmission protocols for real-time AV. End-users can communicate using theInternet to use the variety of H.
323 standard compatible products. The H.323standard is dependent on the Internet Engineering Task Force’s (IETF) Real-TimeControl Protocol (RTCP) and Real-Time Protocol (RTP) along with other protocolsfor AV, data communication as well as call signalling. H.323 defines four typesof components when connected with other networks offers point-to-point and point-to-multipointmultimedia communication services. These components are a. Terminals e.
g. LAN clientendpoints, b. Gateways e.g.
enjoins two different networks, c. Gatekeepers e.g.core point for each call inside its zone and d. Multipoint Control Units (MCU) e.
g.support for conferencing.
