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A Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) Classifier Header Extension
draft-carlberg-avtext-classifier-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Author Ken Carlberg
Last updated 2013-10-17
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draft-carlberg-avtext-classifier-00
AVTEXT Working Group                                    K. Carlberg
Internet-Draft                                          G11
Intended Status: Standards Track                        Oct 14, 2013
Expires: April 14, 2014

    A Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) Classifier Header Extension
                   draft-carlberg-avtext-classifier-00

Abstract

   This document defines a new RTP header extension. The purpose of the
   extension is to provide additional information that further
   distinguishes the RTP datagram (and its payload) from other datagrams
   containing the same type of payload.  The information may be used by
   application layer gateways to drop packets, or place them in a lower
   priority outbound queue.  Or, through deep packet inspection,
   information stored in the classifier header extension may be used to
   (re)set diff-serv code points set in the IP header that may be have
   reset at ingress/egress boundaries of a diff-serv domain.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 14, 2014.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must

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   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

1. Introduction

   This document defines a new RTP Header extension.  The purpose of the
   extension it to provide additional information that distinguishes the
   RTP datagram (and its payload) from other datagrams containing the same
   type of payload.  This distinction can be viewed as a generalized
   abbreviation of the significance of the payload.

   It is important to note that this document uses the term classification,
   NOT priority, in distinguishing payloads.  This is because the word
   priority tends to convey a definitive importance of the packet, as well
   as an expected Quality of Service (QoS).  In addition, the concept of
   priority may be different on aper application or per user community
   basis.  Hence, local policy is required to determine the relationship of
   various classifications.  This policy may be associated with the
   administrative policy defined for a domain.  The form, support of, and
   dissemination of local policy is outside the scope of this document.

   Another advantage in appending a classifier extension to the RTP header
   is that it provides a means by which a forwarding node aquires
   information from the source without the need to breach confidentiality
   (through the use of Secure RTP) or support of the codec used to produce
   the RTP payload.

1.2  Terminology and Abbreviations

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC2119 [RFC2119].

2. Related Work

   There have been several efforts that have added classification, in the
   more narrow scope of priority to other applications.  These efforts
   include: (1) a Resource Priority Header in the Session Initiation
   Protocol (SIP) [rfc4412] and (2) a priority extension for the Simple Mail
   Transfer Protocol (SMTP) [rfc6710].

   In each of these examples, the priority classification was accomplished
   by dividing the solution space into two parts.  The first identified a
   namespace associated with the set of priorities.  The second part
   identified the specific priority.  Initial example values would be
   defined in the respective RFC, while future values would be placed in a
   registry maintained by IANA.  The advantage in using this two-part

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   solution was that various "communities of interest" had the freedom to
   define the form of the classification (in their case, priority) and the
   number of classifications.  In addition, the registry provided a common
   place where various vendors and user groups could access and agree on a
   single set of values that assisted in interopability.

3. Classifier Header Extension

   The classifier header extension for RTP is divided into two parts: a
   Namespace entry and a Value entry.  This information is carried in an
   RTP header extension element as by "A General Mechanism for RTP Header
   Extensions" [rfc5285].

   The payload of the classifier header extension element can be encoded
   using either the one-byte or two-byte header defined in [RFC5285].
   Figures 1 and 2 show sample audio level encodings with each of these
   header formats.

         0                   1                   2                   3
         0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
        +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
        |  ID   | len=1 |   Namespace   |    Value      |    0 (pad)    |
        +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                 Figure 1: Classifier Using the One-Byte Header

         0                   1                   2                   3
         0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
        +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
        |      ID       |     Len=2     |  Namespace    |    Value      |
        +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                 Figure 2: Classifier Using the Two-Byte Header

3.1 Example A

   Authors note: There have been recent discussions in the Transport
   Services working group (TSVWG) on the relative importance of different
   types of payloads.  There has also been recent work concerning the
   mapping of diff-serv code points related to RTP payloads.  In both of
   these cases, the focus has been with the characteristics of specific
   types of applications.

   On the other hand, and as discussed above in section 2, previous related
   work has gravitated to supporting classifications (specifically,
   priorities) based on a user community.  One can easily observe that
   these are two different and possibly divergent motivations in adding
   classification information to an RTP payload.  A question to the

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   community is should both interests be supported by a new RTP classifier
   header?

   Examples exist in the case of Namespaces correlating to a user
   community.  This section shoulw, at a minimum, present an example
   Namespace that correpates to eitehr a specific application or a set of
   applications.  A question to the community is whether the latter can be
   achieved since it would reduce the number of Namespaces that would need
   to be supported by implementors.

4.  IANA Considerations

   At present, this section is listed as To Be Done.  Eventually, a
   description and statement requirement of a registry will need to be
   described.

5.  Security Considerations

   To Be Done

6. Acknowledgements

   An earlier work-in-progress related effort concerning the specification
   of a classifier extension header for RTP was presented to the IETF
   community in 2002.  The author thanks James Polk and Dave Oran for
   earlier discussions on this topic.  The author also thanks Toerless
   Eckert and Cheng-Jai Lai for recent discussion on the topic.

7.  References

7.1 Normative

   [rfc2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
             Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [rfc5285] Singer, D., et. al., "A General Mechanism for RTP
             Header Extensions", RFC 5285, IETF, July 2008

7.2 Informative

   [rfc4412] Schulzrinne, H., J. Polk, "Communications Resource
             Priority for the Session Inititiation Protocol (SIP)"
             RFC 4412, IETF, Feb 2006

   [rfc6710] Melnikov, A., K. Carlberg, "Simple Mail Transfer
             Protocol Extension for Message Transfer Priorities",

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             RFC 6710, IETF, Aug 2012

Author's Addresses

   Ken Carlberg
   G11
   1600 Clarendon Blvd
   Arlington  VA
   USA

   Email: carlberg@g11.org.uk

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