Web-Based Push Notifications
charter-ietf-webpush-00-00

Many applications require continuous access to network communications so that real-time events - such as incoming calls or messages - can be conveyed ("pushed") to the user in a timely fashion. Uncoordinated use of the network by multiple applications can contribute to unnecessary use of the network on devices. For instance, maintaining sessions can dominate costs over the long term, since pushed events are relatively rare. This is particularly onerous for battery-powered devices, on which network communication contributes a significant proportion of power usage. Each independent session independently incurs overheads, causing unnecessary resource usage on devices.

Several modern computing platforms provide a push notification service that consolidates application events, distributing those events to applications as they arrive. The single session avoids duplicated overhead costs on devices.

This working group will develop a protocol that applications can use to request the delivery of application data to a device using a consolidated push notification service. This protocol will include the ability to push the same message to multiple devices (broadcast). The work may include an exemplar protocol for devices registering with push services.

This work will be done in collaboration with the W3C Webapps Working Group, who are developing a Web Push API for use in web applications (see http://www.w3.org/TR/push-api/).