Hosts provide:
- physical facilities,
- communication,
- network, and
- registration services.
Physical facilities
- For about 100-120 attendees, a main room size of 4000 sq. ft. is
comfortable. Typical attendance is now 200 people from roughly 60
organizations. A single large room is better than a number of smaller
rooms. Generally, a minimum of 25 sq. ft per person is required, with
2 people on an 8x3' table, separated by a 3' aisle. Planning for about
200 attendees is appropriate.
- It is highly recommended to set up a few side rooms where groups of
about ten people can set up advanced scenarios on a fixed schedule.
These rooms need to have normal Ethernet network facilities.
- The host provides table space and chairs, with each table clearly
labeled with the name of the company;
- It is recommended to use ceiling hangers or other guide posts to
make it easier to find attendees.
- food and beverages;
- power (110 Volts), with at least one outlet per attendee (provide
power strips that accomodate wall-wart power bricks); be sure to check
power capacity of local wiring;
Communications
To facilitate coordination between teams, hosts should provide
- a video projector for coordination and setting up test events;
- some whiteboards and/or flipcharts;
- a PA system for announcements and coordination, preferably with a
wireless lapel microphone;
- an IRC server for group coordination;
- an analog or preferably a SIP phone for each group or table;
- possibly a number of 'family radio service' (FM walkie-talkies such
as the Motorola Talkabouts) so that test event pairings can communicate
without shouting;
Network facilities
Planning for network facilities should commence at least three months
prior to the event.
- 10/100 Mb/s Ethernet switches, with about 2.5 ports per
attendee (hubs are useful to allow packet sniffing);
- users may bring their own hubs, so switched ports are recommended;
- a Gigabit Ethernet backbone is recommended;
- WaveLAN (802.11B) 11 Mb/s wireless LAN is highly recommended; this
allows participants to just move their machine right next to the person
they are testing with.
- Internet connectivity, with at least T1/E1 (1.5 Mb/s) capacity;
- a list of permanent, global IP addresses to assign to devices
under test; this list should be provided to attendees ahead of time, so
that they can configure their devices. It is recommended to reserve at
least 512 IP addresses.
- a local DHCP server for laptops and IP phones, as described below;
- a local DNS server that should be configurable by a interoperability
test event organizer and should be local and authoritative for the
sipbakeoff.org domain; for example, host acme.com
might be assigned the SRV record for acme.sipbakeoff.org.
Static IP addresses are assigned to each attending organization and
mapped ahead of time to DNS names. A sample zone file can be used as a starting point.
- outbound mail server that allows visitors to send email; this simply
requires configuration information, providing the same address
configured, say, in Netscape Mail as Outgoing mail (SMTP) server.
This is helpful since well-configured email servers in the home domains
of the attendees will not accept incoming SMTP connections from IP
addresses outside their own local area network. (This policy has been in
place for a few years to discourage use of mail servers by spammers.)
- a small number of analog PSTN ports for gateways and for modem
dial-up "home" (generally, 1-3 ports should be enough, unless
participants specifically request more);
Hosts should pre-assign ranges of static IP addresses to attending
groups and also provide a DHCP server. (Exclusive use of DHCP is not
feasible, since servers need constant addresses.)
It is recommended that all IP addresses are drawn from a single
subnet, to simplify moving machines between ports. There should be at
least 2 class-C nets.
NATs or firewalls must not be used as groups often use
off-site servers and SIP will not work across NATs.
IP addresses need to be mapped to host names. One scheme that worked
well is to assign names of the form 17.foo.sipbakeoff.org,
where foo is the name of the group. Providing at least one SRV
record per group is also helpful. Servers can be assigned as
foo.sipbakeoff.org. (sipbakeoff.org is the official
domain name for the interoperability test event.) Rick Dean currently maintains the
sipbakeoff.org domain.
A DHCP server must be available for use by laptops and possibly SIP
phones. DHCP hosts should be mapped to
dhcpN.sipbakeoff.org, where N is the least
significant number of the IP address. For example,
128.59.16.123 would appear as dhcp123.sipbakeoff.org.
Implementations should be entered into DNS before the
interoperability test event. Implementations to be tested should be
assigned fixed IP addresses; personal laptops may use DHCP.
Registration and miscellaneous services
- registration services and name tags;
- a map showing where each group is located, preferably also available
as a web page;
- In addition, the host organizes a press release at the conclusion of
the SIP interoperability test event.
- In addition, past interoperability test event hosts have provided
- on-site catered breakfast, lunch and dinner;
- a common dinner on the first or second night of the interoperability
test event;
- SIP T-shirts, mugs and baseball caps :-)
Users register implementations via a web
page.
Attendees are expected to bring their own computer equipment,
although providing a few VGA monitors or arranging for an equipment
rental service is sometimes helpful to minimize transportation issues.
Hosts also are encouraged to block hotel rooms in the vicinity of the
interoperability event facility. However, booking lodging is the
responsibility of the attendees.
Providing shuttle transportation from the hotel to the
interoperability test event facility is a nice gesture, but may not be
needed, as many participants will rent at least one car per company,
just to transport equipment.