IMPORT R:\\ART\\W INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION MF\\ITU.WM F \* mergeforma t CCITT E.115 THE INTERNATIONAL TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE TELEPHONE NETWORK AND ISDN — OPERATION, NUMBERING, ROUTING AND MOBILE SERVICE COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION SERVICE FOR TELEPHONE SUBSCRIBER NUMBERS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES (DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE), RESERVED FOR OPERATORS Recommendation E.115 IMPORT Geneva, 1991 R:\\ART\\ WMF\\CCIT TRUF.WMF \* mergeform at Printed in Switzerland FOREWORD The CCITT (the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee) is the permanent organ of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). CCITT is responsible for studying technical, operating and tariff questions and issuing Recommendations on them with a view to standardizing telecommunications on a worldwide basis. The Plenary Assembly of CCITT which meets every four years, establishes the topics for study and approves Recommendations prepared by its Study Groups. The approval of Recommendations by the members of CCITT between Plenary Assemblies is covered by the procedure laid down in CCITT Resolution No. 2 (Melbourne, 1988). Recommendation E.115 was prepared by Study Group I and was approved under the Resolution No. 2 procedure on the 11 of March 1991. ___________________ CCITT NOTE p private operating agency. c ITU 1991 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from the ITU. PAGE BLANCHE Recommendation E.115 Recommendation E.115 COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION SERVICE FOR TELEPHONE SUBSCRIBER NUMBERS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES (DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE), RESERVED FOR OPERATORS 1 Preamble The method to be followed in providing the customers and operators in one country with information on the national significant telephone numbers (as specified in Recommendation E.160) of subscribers in another country depends on the way the information service is organized in the country of destination, distance between the countries, operating procedures, etc. 2 Methods of obtaining information The operator in the country of origin dealing with international inquiries should be able to obtain information, depending on the organization of the inquiry service in each country, by one of the following methods: a) from telephone directories; b) from other information systems sent by the country of destination and kept up-to-date (e.g., microfiches); c) by calling the information service operator in the country of destination: — outgoing operators in the originating country should, where language and other conditions permit, have direct access to the appropriate foreign information centre(s) which hold, or are able to obtain from other centres up-to-date information; — where language and other conditions do not permit the outgoing operator to have direct access to the appropriate foreign information centre, the outgoing operator should call the operator in the international exchange of the country of destination; — where access to a number of information centres is possible, provision should be made for access to a centralized international information centre or assistance operator in case the originating operator encounters language or other difficulties; d) by having access to foreign information service computers: — either via a national computer using appropriate procedures; — or, in special circumstances, via direct access using dedicated or switched connections. 3 General principles applicable to the various methods of obtaining information In any relation, Administrations should abide by the following general principles: a) Inquiries from customers concerning foreign subscribers' numbers should normally be addressed to operators in the country of origin who will obtain the required information; it may be useful to keep the customer on line while this information is being sought. styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 PAGE7 b) In order to give operators in the country of origin ready access to the international telephone inquiry service in other countries, it is desirable that Administrations, in conformity with Recommendation E.149, provide common routing codes or abbreviated access numbers to the foreign computerized or manual telephone inquiry services. c) Technical arrangements should, as far as practicable, prevent access by a subscriber of one country to an operator of the telephone information service of another country. Administrations should not communicate access numbers of telephone information services in foreign countries to their subscribers (except in cases covered in Recommendation E.128). d) Exceptionally, however, subscribers in one country may be permitted to have access to the information service in another country subject to bilateral agreement between the Administrations concerned. e) An international system should be able to provide: — for the desired correspondent: his international number; — for the locality in which this correspondent resides: the country code and the trunk code. f) No secret numbers should be issued. 4 Principles for the organization of an interconnected computerized international information service For the organization of an interconnected computerized international information service, Administrations should abide by the following principles: a) The international system should be so designed that national systems can be used; each Administration should adapt its system to the international system by means of the appropriate interface procedures. b) The operator should be able to supply the most adapted and selective search data in order to avoid a situation in which the number of subscribers matching the search criteria exceeds the maximum capacity of a single response message. c) To overcome language difficulties, the questions put to a remote system containing the file to be consulted should be formulated in the language used in the country concerned. This means that the language problems raised by certain inquiry and response features should be resolved by the country making the inquiry. d) Where, in a given country, the files have been allocated to different computers integrated in a single system, access to the system from a foreign country should be possible via a designated computer. e) Formats for inquiry and response procedures should be standardized. f) A question should give rise to only one response message with no dialogue between computers. The response message may cover several subscribers where such subscribers match the search characteristics introduced in the system. The maximum number of subscribers mentioned in a response message depends both on the maximum capacity prescribed for the type of message in question and on the limitations imposed by national systems. Any dialogue concerning all the information provided should be prepared at the national level. g) With regard to the management of messages, there is no relationship between the inquiry and the response; where for any reason the response to a particular question has not been obtained, the inquiry must be reiterated by the requesting country and on its initiative. PAGE6 styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 h) To realize the interconnection of computers of different countries, the network procedures described in Annex A should be used. The layer 4 will conform to Recommendation X.214 and X.224, class O. The layer 5 follows Recommendations X.215 and X.225 (BCS)1). Functional units "kernel" and "duplex" are only selected. For the layer 6, the procedures will be the subject of further study. i) The structure and coding of the Entry and Reply formats will use the notation defined in Recommendations X.208 and 209, and are described in Annex B. j) Considering the question of correct locality spelling, some countries may want to implement a matching table for synonyms between spelling(s) of a locality in the local country and spelling(s) of the same locality in the remote country, so as to make the search easier for the operator. To accomplish this, it is necessary to define the content and the format of a locality file for the E.115 service. Each country should put this file at the other countries' disposal, in order to make the implementation of these tables easier. Procedures to keep the locality file up to date, if other than by bilateral agreement, are for further study. 5 Description of the standards used for inquiry and response When operator access is given via a national computer to foreign information service computers, unless modified by bilateral agreement, the following minimum standards should apply to the inquiry and response process, to permit maximum flexibility in the national information service and compatibility with the international information service. 5.1 Input information 5.1.1 The operator should request information using the details supplied by the caller, according to the following format: — country, locality (geographical area), surname, forename(s) or initial(s), trade or residential address (street name and number), supplementary data (according to bilateral agreement). 5.1.2 Country code, locality (or geographical area) and surname are minimum requirements. 5.1.3 The foreign system should reply to every question asked. If the foreign computer indicates that the information supplied is insufficient, the question should be repeated with more selective information. 5.1.4 Certain specified conditions, i.e. the number is not available (secret number, no listing, etc.) or further information has to be obtained, may be indicated by a standardized coded response. 5.2 Output information The output from the foreign computer system should give the following information as available in the data base, in order to identify the accuracy of the telephone number: — surname, forename(s) or initial(s), address, locality, country code, national significant number. 1) BCS — Basic combined subset. styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 PAGE7 5.3 Alphabet to be used 5.3.1 The Latin alphabet should be employed for inquiries and responses in communication between computers. The systems must in general be able to use the following characters2): — 26 capital letters A - Z — 10 figures 0 - 9 — space, full stop according to International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2 (Recommendation S.1 [1]). 5.3.2 Special signs associated with letters are not transmitted. 5.4 Description of standardized inquiry and response messages The standard formats for inquiry and response shown in Figures1/E.115 and 2/E.115 should be used2). 5.4.1 Inquiry format See Figure 1/E.115. The question contains the following information: a) Part 1 1) Obligatory — message code identifying a request to the international inquiry service; — codes identifying the countries of origin and destination; these codes normally consist of the country code (see Recommendation E.163); — code of the originating terminal. This code should not be used by the receiving country but should be repeated in identical fashion in the response format. 2) Optional — areas reproduced identically in the response: i) date and time of the origin of the inquiry Format: YYMMDDHHMMSS ii) message number given by the local country. b) Part 2 1) Basic data — locality: The name of the locality should be introduced according to its exact3) spelling. Special signs should be replaced by spaces and each space must be introduced as a space. Abbreviations are not permitted, except for the words "Sint", "Saint", "Sankt", "San", . . ., which are abbreviated by the letter "S" followed by a space. The mandatory minimum number of characters to be input should be fixed by each country and be mentioned in an operator's manual. The system of the outgoing country should check whether this minimum is respected. Each complete word must be terminated with a full stop. 2) The use of punctuation marks will be studied at a later stage. 3) The problem of exact native spelling is subject to further study. PAGE6 styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 — Surname or trade name of subscriber: The subscriber's surname should be input according to its exact spelling. Special signs, including the full stop, should be replaced by spaces and each space must be introduced as a space. Abbreviations should not be allowed. The mandatory minimum number of characters to be input should be fixed by each country and be mentioned in the operator's manual. The system of the outgoing country should check whether this minimum is respected. Each complete word must be terminated with a full stop. When the subscriber's surname or trade name is replaced by initials, the characters composing the acronym should be introduced successively without being separated by special signs or spaces. Numbers forming part of names or acronyms should be introduced as numbers. 2) Additional data (for making the search easier) — Name of street or address: The name of the street should be input according to its exact spelling, the complete name of the street being retained. Special signs, including the full stop, should be replaced by spaces and each space must be input as a space. The words "Sint", "Saint", "Sankt", "San", . . . should be abbreviated by the letter "S" followed by a space. The mandatory minimum number of characters to be input should be fixed by each country and be mentioned in the operator's manual. The system of the outgoing country should check whether this minimum is respected. Each complete word must be terminated with a full stop. Numbers forming part of the name of the street should be introduced as numbers. — House number: The numerical part of the house number should precede the alphabetical part without separation. Non-significant zeros should be omitted. — Subscriber's forename: Entire forenames, initials or a combination of forenames and initials should always be separated by spaces. — Heading in the guide: This data should only be introduced after bilateral agreements. — Profession code: This data should only be introduced after bilateral agreements. — Additional information for a selective search: This data should only be introduced after bilateral agreements. — County or province: This data should only be introduced after bilateral agreements. — Category: The category to which the required subscriber number belongs: business, residential or public service (government). This data should only be introduced after bilateral agreements. On the basis of the above data, the computer of destination searches in its files. styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 PAGE7 include 115-T01E ATTENTION MONTAGE FIGURE 1/E.115 table landscape PAGE6 styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 5.4.2 Structure of the inquiry ENTRY message 1010 0000 Directory message (telephone) LENGTH 1010 0000 Telephone (entry) LENGTH 0011 0000 Entry LENGTH 0110 0000 Part 1 LENGTH 1000 0000 Message indicators LENGTH Message indicators 1000 0001 International indicators LENGTH International indicators 1000 0010 Originating terminal code LENGTH Originating terminal code 1000 0011 Date and time (optional) LENGTH Date and time 1000 0100 Message number (optional) LENGTH Message number 0110 0001 Part 2 LENGTH 1000 0000 Locality LENGTH Locality 1000 0001 Subscriber name LENGTH Subscriber name 1000 0010 Street name (optional) LENGTH Street name 1000 0011 House number (optional) LENGTH House number 1000 0100 Forename (optional) LENGTH First name 1000 0101 Heading in the Guide (optional) LENGTH Heading in the Guide 1000 0110 Profession code (optional) LENGTH Profession Code styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 PAGE7 1000 0111 Additional information for a selective search (optional) LENGTH Additional information for a selective search 1000 1000 County or province (optional) LENGTH County or province 1000 1001 Category (optional) LENGTH Category 5.4.3 Response format See Figure 2/E.115. The response contains the following information: a) Part 1 1) Obligatory: — message code identifying an answer to the international inquiry service; — codes identifying both the answering country and the requesting country; these codes normally consist of the country code (see Recommendation E.163); — code of the originating terminal. 2) Optional: — areas generated by the country of the input message: i) date and time ii) message number. b) Part 2 — Message code Always included and common in all answer messages. The coded message must be converted to text by the calling country. The following codes have been defined: 00 = one or some subscribers have been found 01 = locality insufficiently defined; no subscriber number is forthcoming 02 = street name insufficiently defined; no subscriber number is forthcoming 03 = no subscriber has been found 04 = fault or congestion; no subscriber number is forthcoming 05 = the number of subscribers who correspond to the selection criteria exceeds the maximum capaci y for the message. Re- enter the question with more precise information. No subscriber number is forthcoming 06 = partial fault or congestion. The list of subscriber numbers who correspond to the selection criteria is not complete 07 = the number of subscribers who correspond to the selection criteria exceeds the maximum capacity of the message. The list of subscriber numbers answering to the selection criteria is not complete. Re-enter eventually the question using more precise indicators 08 = insufficient search elements have been entered. Re-enter the question with more information. No subscriber number is forthcoming 09 = selection criteria not known (e.g. locality does not exist) 10 = protocol error — country code (in accordance with the CCITT Recommendations) — 3 characters: aligned from the left (if necessary, supplemented by spaces). PAGE6 styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 c) Part 3.1 — trunk code (in accordance with the CCITT Recommendations) — 5 characters — zone number: aligned from the left (if necessary, supplemented by spaces); — zeros if no subscriber has been found or if a subscriber's number is not to be disclosed; — subscriber's number (in accordance with the CCITT Recommendation) — 8 characters: i) aligned from the left (if necessary, supplemented by spaces); ii) zeros if no subscriber has been found or a series of "x" characters if a subscriber's number is not to be disclosed; — locality, subscriber's surname or trade name, forename, street name, house number, supplementary data: data concerning the subscriber found. If no subscriber has been found, the zone of the corresponding data in the question format; — subscriber message: The coded message which must be converted into text by the calling country. The following codes have been defined: 0 = no comment 1 = subscriber changed address 2 = refer to distant operator — heading in the guide; — profession code; — additional information for a selective search; — county or province; — category. d) Part 3.2 to 3.x — contains the continuation of the selection if other subscribers have been selected. Each supplementary selection uses the same form as in the layout of Part 3.1. 5.4.4 Structure of the response REPLY message 1010 0000 Directory message (telephone) LENGTH 1010 0001 Telephone (reply) LENGTH 0011 0000 Reply LENGTH 0110 0011 Part 1 LENGTH 1000 0000 Message indicators LENGTH Message indicators 1000 0001 International indicators LENGTH International indicators 1000 0010 Originating terminal code LENGTH Originating terminal code styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 PAGE7 1000 0011 Date and time (optional) LENGTH Date and Time 1000 0100 Message number (optional) LENGTH Message number 0110 0100 Part 2 LENGTH 1000 0000 Message code LENGTH Message code 1000 0001 Country code LENGTH Country code 0110 0101 Part 3 (optional) LENGTH 0011 0001 Selection LENGTH 1000 0000 Trunk code (optional) LENGTH Trunk code 1000 0001 Subscriber number LENGTH Subscriber number 1000 0010 Locality LENGTH Locality 1000 0011 Subscriber name LENGTH Subscriber name 1000 0100 Forename (optional) LENGTH Forename 1000 0101 Street name (optional) LENGTH Street name 1000 0110 House number (optional) LENGTH House number 1000 0111 Supplementary data (optional) LENGTH Supplementary data 1000 1000 Subscriber message (optional) LENGTH Subscriber message 10000 1001 Heading in the Guide (optional) LENGTH Heading in the Guide PAGE6 styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 1000 1010 Profession code (optional) LENGTH Profession code 1000 1011 Additional information for a selective search (optional) LENGTH Additional information for a selective search 1000 1100 County or province (optional) LENGTH County or province 1000 1101 Category (optional) LENGTH Category 0011 0001 Selection LENGTH 1000 0000 Trunk code LENGTH Trunk code include 115-T02E ATTENTION MONTAGE FIGURE 2/E.115 TABLE Landscape styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 PAGE7 5.4.5 The different parts of the inquiry formulated by the operator of the country of origin should be converted by the national computer into the international standard format. The different parts of the response transmitted in the international standard format should be converted by the computer of the country which made the request into its national format. 6 Charges Note — As specified in Article 106 of the Instructions for the International Telephone Service [2], no charge is made for obtaining information in accordance with Article 51 of the Instructions, even when this requires the use of an international circuit. However, some Administrations may reserve the possibility of applying certain charges in the future. The amounts charged would remain a national arrangement. 7 Operator manual Each country that implements this Recommendation must supply a simple operator manual for remote countries. This manual describes principally the main characteristics of its directory assistance system so as to indicate the best way to inquire for the remote operators. ANNEX A (to Recommendation E.115) Directory services interconnect bearer services A.1 Introduction The interconnection of International Directory Databases should be network independent. The general structure for the arrangement of the physical link (OSI layer 1), link access (OSI layer 2) and network layer (OSI layer 3) are as outlined in Figure A-1/E.115. Where Administrations have provided similar equipment, interconnection may be arranged by bilateral agreement to suit local requirements. This method of interconnection is solely the matter of the Administrations concerned. A.2 Identification The types of bearer services considered applicable for directory inquiry interconnect are: i) packet switched public data network (PSPDN); ii) circuit switched public data network (CSPDN); iii) public switched telephone network (PSTN); iv) Administration leased line (point-to-point). With possible evolution to ISDN, Signalling System No. 7 includes Message Transfer Part and message handling systems. A.3 Network interconnection The choice of network to be used for the interconnection of computer-based directory systems should be agreed bilaterally. However, to achieve commonality across all types of networks, the link, data transfer and call procedures, as specified in the appropriate Recommendations, should be used. Figure A-1/E.115 = 20 cm PAGE6 styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 ANNEX B (to Recommendation E.115) Formal definitions of directory messages Directory Message ::= CHOICE [ [0] Telephone ] Telephone ::= CHOICE [ Entry [0], Reply [1] ] Entry ::= SEQUENCE [ Part 1, Part 2 ] Part 1 ::= [ APPLICATION 0 ] IMPLICIT SET [ MessageIndicators [0] IMPLICIT IA5String, InternationalIndicators [1] IMPLICIT IA5String, OriginatingTerminalCode [2] IMPLICIT IA5String, DataAndTime [3] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, MessageNumber [4] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL ] Part 2 ::= [ APPLICATION 1 ] IMPLICIT SET [ Locality [0] IMPLICIT IA5String, SubscriberName [1] IMPLICIT IA5String, StreetName [2] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, HouseNumber [3] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, Forename [4] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, HeadingInTheGuide [5] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, ProfessionCode [6] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, AdditionalInformationForASelectiveSearch [7] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, CountyOrProvince [8] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, Category [9] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL ] Reply ::= SEQUENCE [ Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 OPTIONAL ] Part 1 ::= [ APPLICATION 3 ] IMPLICIT SET [ MessageIndicators [0] IMPLICIT IA5String, InternationalIndicators [1] IMPLICIT IA5String, OriginatingTerminalCode [2] IMPLICIT IA5String, DateAndTime [3] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, MessageNumber [4] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL ] Part 2 ::= [ APPLICATION 4 ] IMPLICIT SET [ MessageCode [0] IMPLICIT IA5String, CountryCode [1] IMPLICIT IA5String ] Part 3 ::= [ APPLICATION 5 ] IMPLICIT SET of Selection Selection ::= SET [ TrunkCode 1[0] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, SubscriberNumber 1[1] IMPLICIT IA5String, Locality 1[2] IMPLICIT IA5String, SubscriberName 1[3] IMPLICIT IA5String, Forename 1[4] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, StreetName 1[5] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, HouseNumber 1[6] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, SupplementaryData 1[7] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, styleref head_footRecommendation E.115 PAGE7 SubscriberMessage 1[8] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, HeadingInTheGuide 1[9] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, ProfessionCode [10] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, AdditionalInformationForASelectiveSearch [11] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, CountyOrProvince [12] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL, Category [13] IMPLICIT IA5String OPTIONAL ] References [1] CCITT Recommendation International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2 (ITA2), Rec. S.1. [2] CCITT Instructions for the International Telephone Service (1st October 1985), ITU, Geneva, 1985. PAGE6 styleref head_footRecommendation E.115