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H.320 Series of VC

H.320 is an ITU-T standard for video conferencing over ISDN networks, established in 1990, which facilitates multimedia communication including audio, video, and data. It ensures vendor interoperability, network independence, and supports multipoint connections, making it a flexible choice for video conferencing systems. The standard includes various protocols for audio and video compression, call management, and privacy, allowing for high-quality communication across different devices and platforms.

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23 views5 pages

H.320 Series of VC

H.320 is an ITU-T standard for video conferencing over ISDN networks, established in 1990, which facilitates multimedia communication including audio, video, and data. It ensures vendor interoperability, network independence, and supports multipoint connections, making it a flexible choice for video conferencing systems. The standard includes various protocols for audio and video compression, call management, and privacy, allowing for high-quality communication across different devices and platforms.

Uploaded by

karthikmadhu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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H.

320 Series video conferencing

What is H.320 Series video conferencing?

• H.320 or Narrow-band visual telephone systems and terminal


equipment is an umbrella recommendation by the International
Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) for running Multimedia
(Audio/Video/Data) over ISDN based networks. ISDN means "Integrated
Services Digital Networking" and it is a form of digital communications that
can provide up to 64 Kbps of bandwidth per ISDN channel.

• H.320 is the name of the standard for video conferencing using what are
called "switched services" like ISDN and Switched-56. The standard was
established in 1990. There are a number of protocols related to the H.320
standard. This series of standards govern basic video communications
including graphical communications and audio over commonly used time
division multiplexed (TDM) circuits.

• This H.320 type of video conferencing has historically been the most
popular and flexible. The standard governs communications over digital
channels, similar to those your telephone uses deep within the
telecommunications network. Frequently, in order to ensure a high degree
of picture and sound quality, a technique called "inverse multiplexing" is
used to aggregate channels for higher bandwidth.

H.320 Benefits

• CODEC Standards
H.320 establishes standards for compression/decompression of audio and
video data streams as well as standards for multiplexing of data streams, call
set-up, and call tear down. By adhering to standards, vendors will ensure that
their equipment will work with that from other vendors.

• Vendor-to-Vendor Interoperability
Users want to “make the call” without having to worry about whether the
receiving equipment is from the “right” manufacturer or will be able to
handle the data. Beside ensuring that data is compressed in a way that a
receiver can decompress it, H.320 establishes methods for receiving terminal
equipment to communicate its capabilities to the sender equipment.

• Desktop-to-Room System Interoperability


Virtually all room systems support H.320, so H.320-compliant
desktop systems will be able to communicate with these
endpoints as well.

• Network Independence
H.320 is designed to ride on top of ISDN and to work in
common 128, 384, and 768 kbps configurations.

• Platform and Application Independence


H.320 is not tied to any hardware or operating system.

• Multipoint Support
Added in 1992, two recommendations standardize the functions of a
multipoint controller unit and the communications protocols used between
them.

Block diagram and identification of elements

• A generic visual telephone system is shown in Figure 1. It consists of


terminal equipment, network, Multipoint Control Unit (MCU) and other
system operation entities.
Fig: 1: H.320 – Visual telephone system

A configuration of the terminal equipment consisting of several functional units is


also shown in Figure 1. Video I/O equipment includes cameras, monitors and
video processing units to provide functions such as split-screen scheme. Audio I/O
equipment includes microphones, loudspeakers and audio processing units to
provide such functions as acoustic echo cancellation (see ITU-T Rec. G.167).
Telematic equipment includes visual aids such as electronic blackboard, text
conversation facility and still picture transceiver to enhance basic visual telephone
communication. The system control unit carries out such functions as network
access through end-to-network signalling and end-to-end control to establish
common mode of operation and signalling for proper operation of the terminal
through end-to-end signalling. The video codec carries out redundancy reduction
coding and decoding for video signals, while audio codec does the same thing for
audio signals. The delay in the audio path compensates video codec delay to
maintain lip synchronization.
The mux/dmux unit multiplexes transmitting video, audio, data and control
signals into a single bit stream and demultiplexes a received bit stream into
constituent multimedia signals. Network interface makes necessary adaptation
between the network and the terminal according to the user-network interface
requirements.

• The H.320 recommendation includes three standards for audio coding:


G.711, G.722, and G.728.

• The core of the H.320 standard is the H.261 video compression


recommendation, which presents the general rules for encoding and
decoding digital video information.

• H.221 defines a frame structure for single or multiple B or H0 channels.

• It describes the order in which the bits are woven together and lined
up or multiplexed before they are transmitted.

• H.221 also describes how to label the bits of transmitted information


as either audio, visual, or control data.

• H.231 (1992) defines a multipoint control unit (MCU) that serves as a


bridge in multipoint connections.

• H.231 MCUs provide audio mixing and video switching.

• H.233 describes the confidentiality part of a privacy system for H.320, but
does not include any of the actual encryption algorithms.

• H.234 describes the authentication and key management methods for a


privacy system.

• H.242 deals with call setup and disconnect (including adding and deleting
channels during a call, and call transfers).

• H.243 (1992) defines a system for establishing communication between


three or more audiovisual terminals using digital channels up to 2 Mbps.
H.320 Network Considerations

• Recommendation H.320, narrow-band visual telephone systems and


terminal equipment, is a standard for switched digital networks.

• H.320 runs on connections made with 64 kbps B (bearer) channel, 16 kbps


or 64 kbps D channels, and H channels, which can be configured to have
384, 1536, or 1920 kbps capacity.

• The B channel carries the data and is the basic unit of circuit switching. So
all audio, video, or other data on a single B channel must be destined for the
same end point

• The D channel is the signalling information to control the circuit-switched


call and may also be used for packet-switching at low speeds.

• H channels are for higher bit rates.

• A major use for H.320 is over primary rate ISDN, which offers the customer
2B+D channels over a single twisted pair from the telco, if the local loop is
qualified.

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