The Simple Gateway Control Protocol (SGCP) is a

communications protocol A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics and synchr ...

used within a

voice over Internet Protocol Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...

(VoIP) system. It has been superseded by the

Media Gateway Control Protocol The Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) is a signaling and call control communication protocol used in voice over IP (VoIP) telecommunication systems. It implements the media gateway control protocol architecture for controlling media gatew ...

(MGCP), another implementation of the

media gateway control protocol architecture The media gateway control protocol architecture is a methodology of providing telecommunication services using decomposed multimedia gateways for transmitting telephone calls between an Internet Protocol network and traditional analog facilities of ...

. The Simple Gateway Control Protocol was published in several

Internet Engineering Task Force The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a standards organization for the Internet and is responsible for the technical standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership roster or requirements and a ...

(IETF) draft versions between May and July 1998 by Mauricio Arango and Christian Huitema,M. Arango, C. Huitema
''Simple Gateway Control Protocol (SGCP) Version 1.1 draft''
30 July 1998 at

Telcordia Technologies iconectiv is a supplier of network planning and network management services to telecommunications providers. Known as Bellcore after its establishment in the United States in 1983 as part of the break-up of the Bell System, the company's name ...

(formerly Bellcore). The protocol architecture decomposes a telecommunications gateway located at the boundary between the public switched telephone network and an

Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet. ...

(IP) network, such as the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, into a media gateway controller (MGC) on the IP network, providing call and device control, and multiple media gateways (MGs) that handle the actual media conversion to the analog or digital circuits of the PSTN, or simply connect residential telephones. Other implementations of the architecture refer to the controller as a ''softswitch''. Communication between multiple media gateway controllers is handled by other protocols, such as the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Shortly after its publication, SGCP was merged with the

Internet Protocol Device Control Internet Protocol Device Control (IPDC) is a 1998 specification of a communications protocol for voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony, developed by Level 3 Communications., p.267 IPDC divides the operation of telephony gateways between int ...

(IPDC) proposal sponsored by Level3 Communications in the Fall of 1998. This led to the definition of the

, jointly submitted to the IETF by the authors of SGCP and IPDC in October 1998. MGCP was used as a conceptual basis with additions from the Media Gateway Device Protocol by

Lucent Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was established on September 30, 1996, through the divestiture of the former AT&T Technologies business u ...

resulting in the Megaco/H.248 protocol, which gained formal standards-level status at the IETF and the

International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

(ITU).

References

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External links

SGCP pages at Telcordia
Description of SGCP and the call agent architecture. VoIP protocols