ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)

Human Factors (HF); Telecommunications relay services

DTR/HF-00120

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 13-Sep-2009
• Technical Committee: HF - Human Factors
• Current Stage: 12 - Completion
• Due Date: 15-Sep-2009
• Completion Date: 14-Sep-2009

Standards Content (Sample)

ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
Technical Report


Human Factors (HF);
Telecommunications relay services

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2 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)



Reference
DTR/HF-00120
Keywords
relay, service
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3 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Introduction . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 References . 6
2.1 Normative references . 6
2.2 Informative references . 6
3 Definitions and abbreviations . 7
3.1 Definitions . 7
3.2 Abbreviations . 8
4 General . 9
4.1 Background . 9
4.2 Possible relay services . 9
4.3 Relay services in Europe . 9
4.4 Relay services internatio nall y . 10
4.5 Motivations for establishing relay services . 10
4.6 Harmonization of communication systems . 11
4.6.1 The need for harmonization . 11
4.6.2 The European experience . 11
4.6.3 Fragmentation caused by funding methods . 11
4.6.4 Relay services and local harmonization . 12
4.6.5 Global harmonization . 12
4.7 Inclusion of relay service users in the number plan. 12
5 Relay services in Europe . 13
5.1 Austria . 13
5.2 Belgium . 13
5.3 Bulgaria . 13
5.4 Cyprus . 13
5.5 Czech Republic . 13
5.6 Denmark . 13
5.7 Estonia . 13
5.8 Finland . 14
5.9 France . 14
5.10 Germany . 14
5.11 Greece . 15
5.12 Hungary . 15
5.13 Iceland . 15
5.14 Ireland . 15
5.15 Italy . 15
5.16 Latvia . 15
5.17 Lithuania. 16
5.18 Luxembourg . 16
5.19 Malta . 16
5.20 Netherlands. 16
5.21 Norway . 16
5.22 Poland . 16
5.23 Portugal . 16
5.24 Romania . 16
5.25 Serbia and Montenegro . 17
5.26 Slovakia . 17
5.27 Slovenia . 17
5.28 Spain . 17
5.29 Sweden . 17
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4 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
5.30 Switzerland . 18
5.31 United Kingdom . 18
6 Relay service internationally . 19
6.1 General . 19
6.2 Australia . 19
6.3 Canada . 19
6.4 New Zealand . 19
6.5 USA . 19
6.6 Multi-national . 20
7 Service offerings summary for Europe . 20
7.1 Text Relay Service . 20
7.2 Sign Relay Service . 20
7.3 Speech Relay Service . 21
7.4 Captioned Telephony Relay Service . 21
7.5 Text-to-text relay services . 21
8 Quality of Service (QoS) criteria . 21
8.1 General . 21
8.2 Examples of QoS requirements . 22
8.2.1 General . 22
8.2.2 Sweden . 22
8.2.3 USA . 22
8.3 Conclusions . 22
Annex A: Bibliography . 23
History . 24

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5 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
Intellectual Property Rights
IPRs essential or potentially essential to the present document may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (http://webapp.etsi.org/IPR/home.asp).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Foreword
This Technical Report (TR) has been produced by ETSI Technical Committee Human Factors (HF).
Introduction
The present document is intended to set out the background to ES 202 975 [i.5] the standard on Harmonized Relay
Services, to describe the research involved and to provide general information on relay services derived during the
research. Relay services in the sense described in these documents, are communication services that translate between
different modes of communication.
Relay Services are provided mainly to enable people with communications related disabilities to participate on more
equal terms in a society where telephony and electronic communications have become such an important part of life.
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6 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
1 Scope
The present document sets out significant background information to the writing of ES 202 975 [i.5] Harmonized relay
services.
It records the results of researches made during the preparation of the standard.
2 References
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific.
• For a specific reference, subsequent revisions do not apply.
• Non-specific reference may be made only to a complete document or a part thereof and only in the following
cases:
- if it is accepted that it will be possible to use all future changes of the referenced document for the
purposes of the referring document;
- for informative references.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
http://docbox.etsi.org/Reference.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
2.1 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of the present document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For non-specific references, the latest edition of the referenced document
(including any amendments) applies.
Not applicable.
2.2 Informative references
The following referenced documents are not essential to the use of the present document but they assist the user with
regard to a particular subject area. For non-specific references, the latest version of the referenced document (including
any amendments) applies.
[i.1] BT SIN 359: "BT TextDirect™ Service description".
[i.2] EICTA: "Position paper on eInclusion", Brussels, 5 November 2008 .
NOTE: See at http://www.eicta.org/index.php?id=34&id-article=290.
[i.3] ETSI EG 201 013: "Human Factors (HF); Definitions, abbreviations and symbols".
[i.4] ETSI EG 202 320: "Human Factors (HF); Duplex Universal Speech and Text (DUST)
communications".
[i.5] ETSI ES 202 975: "Human Factors (HF); Harmonized relay services".
[i.6] ETSI TR 101 806: "Human Factors (HF); Guidelines for Telecommunication Relay Services for
Text Telephones".
[i.7] IETF RFC 3261: "Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)".
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7 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
[i.8] IETF RFC 4103: "RTP payload for text conversation".
[i.9] ITU-T Recommendation F.703: "Multimedia conversational services".
[i.10] ITU-T Recommendation H.323: "Packet-based multimedia communications systems".
[i.11] ITU-T Recommendation T.140: "Protocol for multimedia application; Text conversation".
[i.12] ITU-T Recommendation V.18: "Operational and interworking requirements for modems operating
in the text telephone mode".
[i.13] ITU-T Recommendation V.23: "600/1200-baud modem standardized for use in the general
switched telephone network".
[i.14] NFTH: "Nordic guidelines for Telecommunications relay services".
[i.15] TIA-825-A: " A Frequency Shift Keyed Modem for Use on the Public Switched Telephone
Network".
[i.16] FCC 47 CFR § 64.601-606: "TRS Rules. FCC USA, The set of regulations that form the basis of
the relay services in USA. It is amended when new details take effect".
NOTE: See at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/dro/4regs.html.
[i.17] FCC 08-151A1 E911: "Requirements for IP-Enabled Service Providers", June 2008.
NOTE: See at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-08-151A1.pdf
[i.18] ITU-T Recommendation V.21: "300 bits per second duplex modem standardized for use in the
general switched telephone network".
3 Definitions and abbreviations
3.1 Definitions
For the purposes of the present document, the terms and definitions given in EG 201 013 [i.3] and the following apply:
automatic relay service: service that enables a conversation between two terminals using different communication
modes by providing the facility of automatic conversion between the two modes in substantially real time
captioned telephony: service that assists a deaf or hard of hearing user in a spoken dialogue by providing text captions
translating one direction of the conversation
NOTE: The service is usually provided via the Internet on a computer associated with the telephone being used.
lip-reading relay service: service that enables lip-readers and voice telephone users to interact by providing conversion
between the two modes of communication in substantially real time N
NOTE: This conversion is normally provided by a human operator who is a lip-speaker.
operator: person whose prime task is to provide assistance and support to users (also known as an "attendant")
relay service: telecommunications service that enables users of different modes of communication to interact by
providing conversion between the modes of communication
sign relay service: service (often known as a video relay service) that enables sign language users and voice telephone
users to interact by providing conversion between the two modes of communication in substantially real time
NOTE: This conversion is normally provided by a human operator.
speech to speech relay service: telecommunications service that enables speech impaired telephone users and other
users to interact by providing skilled assistance between them
NOTE: This assistance is provided by a specially trained operator.
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8 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
text relay service: telecommunications service that enables text telephone users and voice telephone users to interact
by providing conversion between the two modes of communication in substantially real time
NOTE: This conversion is normally provided by a human operator.
text telephone: terminal offering text telephony functions, either as a stand-alone unit or as an addition to a voice
telephone or as an application in a multi-function computer based terminal
text telephony: telecommunications facility offering real time text conversation through telecommunication networks.
Text telephony may be combined with voice telephony
NOTE: See EG 201 013 [i.3].
text to text service: telecommunications service that enables two text telephone users to interact by providing any
necessary protocol conversion between the two text telephones in substantially real time
NOTE: This conversion is normally provided automatically.
total conversation: audiovisual conversation service providing bidirectional symmetric real-time transfer of motion
video, text and voice between users in two or more locations
NOTE: See EG 202 320 [i.4] and ITU-T Recommendation F.703 [i.9].
V.18 protocols: protocols in accordance with ITU-T Recommendation V.18 [i.12]
NOTE: The text telephones supported by V.18 are EDT, 5-bit (or Baudot), DTMF, V.21, V.23, Bell 103 and V.18
based devices.
videophone relay service: service synonymous with sign relay service that enables deaf videophone signers and voice
telephone users to interact by providing conversion between the two modes of communication in substantially real time
NOTE: This conversion is normally provided by a human operator.
3.2 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
DTMF Dual Tone Multi Frequency
EDT European Deaf telephone
EICTA European Information and Communications Technology Association
FCC Federal Communications Commission (USA)
GSM Global System for Mobile communication
HCO Hearing Carry Over
QoS Quality of Service
RNID Royal National Institute for Deaf people
SIP Session Initiation Protocol
SMS Short Message Service
TRS Telecommunication Relay Service
VCO Voice Carry Over
VRS Video Relay Service
NOTE: Referred to as sign relay service in the present document.
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9 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
4 General
4.1 Background
A relay service in the sense described in the present document enables users of different modes of communication to
interact by providing conversion between differing modes of communication. The primary motivation is to enable
people with disabilities which influence their capability to use a voice telephone to have communication with voice
telephone users and users of other types of communication than they have themselves. Relay services are commonly
established as government enabled or government mandated services because of the evident economical and social
value in fulfilling policies for the provision of equal opportunities for all in the field of communications.
The present document records the background to and research undertaken during the writing of ES 202 975 [i.5], the
ETSI standard for Harmonized Relay Services. This standard was originally derived from TR 101 806 [i.6], Guidelines
for Telecommunications relay services for text telephones which dealt mainly with text telephones and recommended
very high performance targets based upon the best available in the world. The present document in its turn was largely
based on the Nordic guidelines for Telecommunications relay services [i.14].
The primary aim of the new standard was to update the original technical report in the light of new opportunities in
telecommunications, setting standards for new types of relay service that were not envisioned when the original report
was written.
Secondly it was necessary to take on board the changes in the telecommunications environment. When the report was
first written it was common for a single national operator to provide both the network and the relay service. Nowadays
the network and the service provision are often run by different entities and it therefore became necessary in the
ES 202 975 [i.5] to separate out those provisions such as supplementary services that are primarily network based.
Furthermore, as the purpose of a standard is to set mandatory requirements it was necessary to determine how many of
the performance targets could be achieved in practice and what level of achievement was possible for each of the
performance requirements.
4.2 Possible relay services
The original Technical Report TR 101 806 [i.6] set out detailed requirements for a basic text relay service based upon
PSTN text phones and also for an ISDN videophone based sign relay service. Some reference was also made to
providing textphone capability for Fax to speech conversion services and also for SMS and Paging services.
It was decided to consider new communications services introduced since the original document. The possibility of a
signing service over IP and over mobile telephony was considered as was a lip-reading service and one for the
translation of Fax to speech or text. In addition a service to assist users with impaired speech was investigated as was
Captioned telephony.
4.3 Relay services in Europe
A search was made to find which services are currently available within Europe. Letters requesting information were
sent to those ETSI members representing administrations within Europe asking for contact addresses of relay service
providers within their Countries. They were sent to Administration representatives of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the
Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg,
Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
Replies were received from the Czech Republic, Finland, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia and Switzerland.
Further letters were sent to members of the European Union of the Deaf. Replies were only been received from Austria,
Italy, Latvia and Serbia. A further attempt was made to seek information from the European members of the World
Federation of the Deaf. This approach showed a little more success and replies were received from Austria, Bulgaria,
the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia and Switzerland.
Further information was acquired through personal contacts in Italy, Greece, Spain, UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden,
Holland, France, Switzerland, Germany, USA and Canada.
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10 ETSI TR 102 974 V1.1.1 (2009-09)
The results of these enquiries showed that relay services exist in only a few European countries. Details of these
services are given in clause 5.
4.4 Relay services internationally
Internationally, relay services are found at least in USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Some relevant
characteristics of them are described in clause 6. One service was also found that provides service in many countries
over the Internet.
4.5 Motivations for establishing relay services
Relay services can be provided for both economic and social reasons.
Relay services can contribute to better integration of disabled people into society, thereby reducing the overall cost to
society
...