Generic signaling service framework

The IETF created the NSlS (next step in signaling) working group to develop a general-purpose IP signaling. The NSIS WG has decomposed the overall signaling protocol suite into a generic lower layer (NTLP) and an upper layer (NSLP). The NTLP layer is responsible for providing two main services the signaling message transport and state management. The NSLP layer implements signaling applications which use the lower layer for their own purposes. In this paper, we present an NTLP design and implementation which is called GISP (generic signaling service protocol). In particular, the paper provides the GISP services that the NSLP layer uses for the signaling purposes. It also provides the description of the interface between the GISP and the NSLP layers.