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Media Header Extensions for Wireless Networks
draft-kaippallimalil-tsvwg-media-hdr-wireless-03

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors John Kaippallimalil , Sri Gundavelli , Spencer Dawkins
Last updated 2023-10-16 (Latest revision 2023-07-05)
Replaces draft-kaippallimalil-media-hdr-wireless-networks
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draft-kaippallimalil-tsvwg-media-hdr-wireless-03
TSVWG WG                                               J. Kaippallimalil
Internet-Draft                                                 Futurewei
Intended status: Standards Track                           S. Gundavelli
Expires: 18 April 2024                                             Cisco
                                                              S. Dawkins
                                                                 Tencent
                                                         16 October 2023

             Media Header Extensions for Wireless Networks
            draft-kaippallimalil-tsvwg-media-hdr-wireless-03

Abstract

   Wireless networks like 5G cellular or Wi-Fi experience significant
   variations in link capacity over short intervals due to wireless
   channel conditions, interference, or the end-user's movement.  These
   variations in capacity take place in the order of hundreds of
   milliseconds and is much too fast for end-to-end congestion signaling
   by itself to convey the changes for an application to adapt.  Media
   applications on the other hand demand both high throughput and low
   latency, and can dynamically adjust the size and quality of a stream
   to match available network bandwidth.  However, catering to such
   media flows over a radio link with rapid changes in capacity requires
   the buffers and congestion to be managed carefully.  This draft
   proposes to provide metadata about the media transported in each
   packet to allow the wireless network to manage radio resources
   optimally and to maximize network utilization while also improving
   application performance.

   This draft discusses potential solution options to this problem and
   the trade-offs involved.  The draft then defines a new UDP option to
   carry media metadata between a UDP source and destination.  This
   metadata is designed to be minimal, compact and has low processing
   overhead per-packet for encoding and retrieval.

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
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 18 April 2024.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2023 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 (https://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 include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   3.  Architecture  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   4.  Media Metadata  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     4.1.  Design Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     4.2.  Metadata Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
       4.2.1.  Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
       4.2.2.  Importance  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
       4.2.3.  Burst Size  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
       4.2.4.  Delay Budget  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
       4.2.5.  Media Data Unit Sequence  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
       4.2.6.  Packet Counter  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
       4.2.7.  Timestamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     4.3.  Metadata Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   5.  Metadata Transport  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   6.  Common Deployments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     6.1.  Data Center Deployment  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     6.2.  Security Gateways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
     6.3.  Outer UDP Packet with MED Option  . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
   7.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
   8.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
   9.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   10. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
     10.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20

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     10.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   Appendix A.  Gaps and Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
   Appendix B.  Media Frames in Wireless Networks  . . . . . . . . .  24
     B.1.  Media Metadata  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
     B.2.  DSCP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     B.3.  Multiple Congestion Control Segments  . . . . . . . . . .  26
     B.4.  Other Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27

1.  Introduction

   Wireless networks inherently experience large variations in link
   capacity due to several factors.  These include the change in
   wireless channel conditions, interference between proximate cells and
   channels or because of the end user movement.  These variations in
   link capacity can be in the order of hundreds of milliseconds.  End-
   to-end congestion control at the IP layer does not react fast enough
   to these changes when a combination of high throughput and low
   latency are required.  Media packets on the other hand can demand
   both high throughput and low latency, and many emerging applications
   are expected to increase the strain on radio network capacity and
   utilization.  The application can adapt, but when the feedback signal
   (i.e., via end-to-end congestion signaling and application level
   feedback) is of low resolution or frequency compared to the rapid
   (but transient) changes in the wireless network, the application can
   settle to a longer term average sending rate that is well below the
   capacity available.  One option is for the application to increase
   the sending rate to match the radio network capacity available in
   theory.  If the application increases the sending rate aggressively,
   it can result in packet loss because the radio network keeps smaller
   buffers to ensure low latency for these flows.  Low latency for the
   media flow and maximal usage of radio network capacity without
   affecting media application performance is not easy to realize in
   practice.

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   With the aim of providing low latency, maximizing radio network
   resource utilization and improving media application performance,
   3GPP studied QoS and other enhancements in the wireless network in
   [TR.23.700-60-3GPP].  The findings of the study are now standardized
   in [TR.23.501-3GPP].  The recommendations include providing the
   destination wireless network (where the wireless endpoint is located)
   with information on groups of media packets that should be handled
   similarly (e.g., all packets of a video I-frame), the importance of a
   group of media packets relative to other such groups of packets
   (defined as Media Data Unit (MDU) in Section 2) as well as delay and
   error tolerance.  Since MDUs vary in size based on the codec, the
   content encoded and multistreaming, the wireless network can use the
   classification to make optimal choices while shaping and using
   existing traffic control.

   The specification in [TR.23.501-3GPP] relies on inspecting RTP
   headers and using that information for packet classification in the
   terminating/destination side radio network.  However, further
   specification is needed for handling of fully encrypted media streams
   (RTP over QUIC, media over QUIC, RTP cryptex).  Inspection of RTP
   packets (not encrypted) also improve as the media classification does
   not require deep packet inspection.  Further details and other gaps
   are described in Appendix A.  Appendix B discusses potential solution
   options and why providing media metadata maybe the best option now.

   Metadata information elements, processing and transport are the main
   aspects covered in this document:

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   1.  Metadata information elements and processing: The parameters that
       constitute the metadata are inserted by the media application to
       convey its relative priority, delay tolerance and burst
       characteristics.  Metadata sent in each packet also contains
       dynamically encoded information such as timestamp and sequence
       information that identify the set of packets of an MDU.  The
       wireless network uses the metadata to handle the media flow
       optimally.  While the metadata is inserted by the media server in
       the application network (originating side, for example Network-
       A), the metadata is only processed by the wireless network
       (endpoint, wireless node in terminating side, for example
       Network-B).  Network entities on-path do not inspect UDP metadata
       unless configured to do so.  An example of such a configuration
       is a policy in a 3GPP wireless node to inspect MED UDP option.
       Such a policy may be installed during setup of a connectivity
       session for an endpoint.  The network in which metadata is
       inserted (i.e., media server in application network) is different
       from the network in which the metadata is used (i.e., terminating
       side endpoint and wireless network).  Section 3 and Section 4
       cover these considerations in detail.  The metadata can be used
       for any UDP media payload including SRTP [RFC3711], and RTP or
       HTTP/3 media over QUIC.

   2.  Transport of the Metadata: Transport provides a compact and
       efficient means for sending metadata between the source (media
       server) and the destination (end-host) while having a low
       processing overhead for insertion at the source (media server) as
       well as in the wireless network that retrieves and processes the
       metadata for each packet of the application (media) flow.  In
       this specification, metadata is intended to be used in a limited
       domain ([RFC8799]) for which trust for these operations have been
       established.  An AUTH UDP option for integrity protection may be
       used to detect if this UDP option is modified on path.  This
       specification does not recommend encrypting the metadata.  The
       information conveyed in the UDP option does not contain sensitive
       user information.  And the cost to decrypt metadata in a wireless
       node for each packet is significant at the time of this
       specification.  Decryption of metadata for each packet also adds
       latency in packet forwarding at the wireless node.  A new UDP
       option, MED is specified to transport the metadata and is based
       on extensions to UDP defined in [I-D.ietf-tsvwg-udp-options].
       MED provides reasonable trade-offs in terms of lookup efficiency
       and protocol overhead.  Section 5 describes transport and the MED
       UDP option.  Some examples of deployment are provided in
       Section 6.

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1.1.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  Terminology

   The following terms is used in this document:

   *  Media Data Unit (MDU) - a set of one or more IP packets carrying a
      media payload that should be treated as unit in the wireless
      network.  For example, packets of an MDU may be of a low priority
      and all packets may be dropped in case of extreme congestion.  In
      protocols like RTP, the payload may consist of data of one media
      type (e.g., a video I-frame) and in protocols like HTTP/3 that
      carry multiple streams, each stream in the packet can potentially
      carry a payload of different media types.  In either case, the
      application should classify the MDU that a packet belongs to and
      in turn the network applies policies that treat the set of packets
      of an MDU as a unit.

   *  Importance - The importance of a packet (or group of packets
      belonging to an MDU) identify the priority of the packet(s),
      dependency between packet(s) of an MDU to another (e.g., packets
      of a video P-frame depend on an I-frame) and delivery preferences
      when packet(s) are delayed due to congestion or temporary lack of
      wireless resources.  The application marks importance (and other
      metadata) and the wireless network interprets the marking as
      preferences when handling these media packets under reduced
      wireless capacity.  If an application marks all packets with the
      same priority, the result would be random packet drop in the
      wireless network in the presence of extreme congestion.

3.  Architecture

   Section 1 has outlined the issue around changes in link capacity in a
   wireless network and the need for additional information to handle
   such flows in the wireless network.  This section provides an end-to-
   end view of what the wireless network needs to optimize its resource
   handling and the actions of clients, servers, and entities in the
   network to facilitate it.

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       UDP payload + metadata       UDP payload + metadata
        +-------------------+     +-------------------------+
       /                     \   /         _____             \
      /         _____         \ /         (     )             \
     /         (     )     +---V----+    (        )            \
+---V----+    (Wireless)   |Wireless|   (    IP    )       +----o-----+
| Client +---( Network  )--+  Node  +--(   Network  )------+  Server  |
+--------+    (        )   +--------+   (          )       +----------+
(UDP dest)     (_____)                   (       )         (UDP source)
                                          (_____)

         Wireless Provider                           Applicaton Provider
    |------------------------|                           |-------------|

          Figure 1: Media Payload and Metadata in UDP Packet

   Figure 1 outlines the scenario where a packet containing a media
   payload from a server (e.g., a media server or relay) is sent to a
   client (i.e., a wireless endpoint).  Media metadata is carried along
   with the packet payload in UDP option MED.  The Server in an
   Application Provider network sends media packets (UDP payload) and
   metadata (UDP option) to the Client (end-host) attached to Wireless
   Provider network.  The Wireless Node is responsible for forwarding
   packets to the Client over the Wireless Network.  The Wireless Node
   inspects metadata but does not alter the UDP option.  The Client (UDP
   destination) may use timestamps for determining one way delay,
   received / dropped packets and other statistics that can be fed back
   to the Server.  The Server may in turn adjust the sending rate and
   media quality (codec) based on the feedback.

   The Server and on-path Wireless Node that serves the Client (wireless
   endpoint) are in two networks that may belong to the same or
   different providers (Wireless Provider, Application Provider
   Figure 1).  The Wireless Provider and Application Provider shares a
   trust relationship that allows entities in these networks to exchange
   media metadata.  The media metadata is used only within the Wireless
   Provider and Application Provider.  The wireless and application
   provider networks are part of a trusted domain (e.g., as outlined in
   [RFC8799]).  Public key and trust anchors within each provider
   network have the ability to perform operations to authorize, enroll,
   and manage nodes with specific policy and roles (i.e., Server,
   Wireless node, gateways) for managing media metadata handling in a
   secure manner.  When the application (Server, UDP source) and
   wireless network are not directly connected, a secure overlay network
   with encryption MUST be used between the two domains.

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   It is assumed here that the Server and Client in Figure 1 have
   completed signaling to setup the media session (e.g., using SDP,
   HTTP) prior to sending media packets.  The UDP source (i.e., Server)
   is responsible for inserting relevant metadata based on the media
   content of the packet and using the metadata format specified in
   Section 4.  The metadata in the UDP option is inspected and used by
   the Wireless Node (e.g., a 3GPP UPF) to classify using metadata in
   the packet along with other network policies.  The metadata and its
   transport is designed to be efficient in processing and byte overhead
   per packet.  The metadata is expected to work with any UDP media
   transport including RTP, SRTP and QUIC.  Metadata parameters are
   encoded in binary format for compact representation.  Details are in
   Section 4.

   The Wireless Node only inspects packets for which a rule to inspect
   metadata is present.  The rule in the Wireless Provider may be based
   on the source address (e.g., inspect for servers in Application
   Provider) or it may be based on service to the Client (e.g., Client
   has a service agreement with the Wireless Provider).  This
   configuration happens out of band and prior to the media packet
   exchange and details are not covered in this document.  When there
   are insecure network segments in between, all packets that carry the
   metadata in the MED UDP option must be secured with encryption
   between these segments (e.g., secure GRE/VXLAN or MASQUE tunnel).
   Section 6 describes a few common deployments.

   The application server (Server in Figure 1) is responsible for
   inserting the metadata in the UDP option.  The application server
   determines the importance and other metadata parameters based on the
   type of media encoded as well other information (e.g., configured
   information on destination wireless network, live feedback from the
   session).  The application server encrypts the payload (i.e., media
   content) in the UDP packet and adds the MED UDP option to be used in
   the Wireless Provider (Client and Wireless Node).  Other network
   entities on-path do not process the UDP option.  A flow with the MED
   option can transit an insecure network in between only by encrypting
   the entire flow (e.g., in an encrypted tunnel between to security
   gateways).  Inspection (e.g., by a security gateway) at the boundary
   of a trust domain will remove the MED option if it arrives from an
   untrusted network segment.  The Wireless Node receives the UDP
   packet, inspects the metadata in the UDP option and applies local
   policies to the metadata to derive optimal scheduling and forwarding
   on the wireless path.  The Wireless Node does not examine the content
   of the packet which may use various encrypted application transports
   like SRTP cryptex, HTTP/3 and may have variable number of media
   streams.

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4.  Media Metadata

   Media packets are encoded and formatted to enable efficient and
   reliable processing of the data at both the encoding and decoding
   endpoints.  Media may consist of audio, live video, static pictures
   and overlaid objects among others.  Each of these may have different
   tolerance to delays in the network, resiliency (i.e., the ability to
   recover from loss) or subjective importance (e.g., a loss of a video
   base layer I-frame packets is more significant than enhanced layer
   P-frame).  Media encoding is evolving continually and modern codecs
   use complex prediction structures and make various dynamic decisions
   in the encoding process.  However, there are differences in priority,
   delay and acceptable loss across sets of packets that form a Media
   Data Unit (MDU).

4.1.  Design Criteria

   A media application that uses this specification provides a set of
   metadata about the media packet that an endpoint or authorized
   wireless network can inspect to optimize handling during adverse
   radio network conditions.  Metadata for media packets are carried in
   a new UDP option discussed further in Section 5.

   Metadata defined in Section 4.2 is broad enough to be applied
   regardless of whether the application uses RTP, HTTP or another
   application protocol that uses UDP transport.  The wireless network
   only inspects packets for which a rule to inspect metadata is
   present.  Other network entities on-path do not process the UDP
   option since there is no configured rule.

   The media application (Server, UDP source) is responsible for and
   retains control over the metadata that is inserted at the UDP source.
   Feedback from the endpoint on packets received, latency and jitter
   may be used by the application to adjust the sending rate and quality
   (e.g., feedback in RTCP receiver report).  The application that
   processes the feedback may use heuristics or other algorithms,
   explicit network congestion information, encoding characteristics of
   the media or other aspects of the data to obtain the desired stable
   congestion handling in the wireless network.  Details of the
   mechanisms an application uses are not in the scope of this document.
   The feedback provided allows the application server (or UDP sender)
   to remain in control and determine if there is any potential
   malicious or incoherent handling of media packets.  In such cases,
   the application server (or UDP sender) can revert to marking all
   packets with the same level of importance.

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   The media application only inserts metadata if the destination
   (wireless endpoint) is a device attached to a trusted Wireless
   Provider network.  For example, a range of IP addresses that belong
   to the trusted wireless Provider.  The wireless network verifies that
   a packet with MED UDP option metadata has originated from a trusted
   server.  The wireless network that inspects metadata may delay or
   drop packets to optimize the use of radio resources.

   The on-path wireless network entity that inspects metadata does not
   rely on packets arriving in order.  The metadata itself should
   provide sufficient information and the network entity should factor
   in these assumptions when calculating jitter and burst length using
   the metadata in each packet.  For example, jitter may be calculated
   as a moving average across multiple packets and burst length should
   compensate for potential out-of-order packet arrivals especially
   towards the tail end of a burst.

   Metadata is transported in a new UDP option, MED, defined in
   Section 5.  The metadata in MED UDP option is carried in each packet
   that the application server (or UDP source) inserts.  While the
   metadata is inserted by the media server in the application network,
   the metadata is only processed by the wireless node and endpoint in
   the wireless network.  Network entities on-path do not inspect UDP
   metadata unless configured to do so.  An example of such a
   configuration is a policy in a 3GPP wireless node to inspect MED UDP
   option.  Such a policy may be installed during setup of a
   connectivity session for an endpoint.  The wireless entity keeps some
   state information to use the metadata.  For example, a sequence
   counter is used to track the set of packets that belong to a media
   data unit (MDU), and a series of timestamps may be used to derive
   jitter.

   This specification describes one set of metadata described as a
   profile.  A Profile field makes this specification extendable to
   future specifications that describe a new metadata profile.

4.2.  Metadata Parameters

   The media application provides a set of metadata about the content of
   the packet, and the wireless network inspects the metadata to
   optimize flow processing during adverse radio conditions.  Some
   information that is useful to wireless networks include the
   importance of a packet (or a group of packets), the number of packets
   in a burst, timestamps and acceptable end-to-end latency of the
   packet.  Importance of a packet (or group of packets that form an
   MDU) provides relative priority of one group of packets from other
   packets (or group of packets) in the media stream.  Importance may be
   used to determine drop priority in cases of extreme congestion in the

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   wireless network.  Burst size and tolerance to delay may be used by
   the wireless network to reserve additional resources in advance or to
   defer packets that can tolerate some additional delay.  For example,
   if some set of packets carry a stored video image that is stored in
   advance, it may be able to tolerate some additional delay over a
   real-time video encoding carried in another stream.  Only the media
   application is able to provide such information since even inspecting
   a clear media header (e.g., RTP packet carrying an I-frame fragment)
   does not provide the on-path network entity with sufficient
   information as whether that represents live media, the length of a
   data burst or the actual delay budget where the packet is useful for
   decoding.  The application may provide just importance, or burst size
   or delay tolerance, or all of them.  However, the application must
   provide the timestamp, MDU sequence and packet counter information
   for all packets with the metadata.

   The parameters below identify a minimum set that an on-path network
   entity can use for optimizing the use of wireless network resources.

4.2.1.  Profile

   This parameter allows for more metadata profiles to be carried by the
   MED UDP option.  This specification only defines one profile.

              0
              0 1 2 3 4
             +-+-+-+-+-+
             | Profile |
             +-+-+-+-+-+

          Value      Meaning
          -----------------------------------------------------
            0        RESERVED
            1        Basic - defined in this specification
            2-31     Unassigned (assignable by IANA)

   Specifications may define a new metadata format in future using one
   of the unassigned values.

4.2.2.  Importance

   Importance represents the media characteristics of the set of packets
   that that form a media data unit (MDU) relative to the
   characteristics of another MDU.  The characteristics represented in
   importance are the priority level, the ability to tolerate delay and
   transmission errors.

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            0
            0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
           +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
           | L |  D  |  P  |
           +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

         Value      Meaning
        -----------------------------------------------------
           L        Delay Tolerance
                      00   No delay tolerance information
                      01   always forward
                      10   limited value if delayed
           D        Inter-MDU Dependency
                     000   No dependency Information provided
                     001   Independent
                     010   Base MDU
                     011   Enhanced MDU (dependent on previous base MDU)
           P        Priority level
                     001   high priority
                     010   medium priority
                     011   low priority

   The application determines the priority of a packet in terms of how
   critical the loss of packets of an MDU is for a destination/decoding
   end.  Some media frames may be extremely important but not as
   sensitive to delay, others may be important and should be delivered
   even past a delay deadline.  There are various other factors such as
   packets with medium or lower priority and varying tolerance for delay
   that need to be considered.

   The dependency flags indicate whether the packet is independent or
   dependent on packets of other MDUs.  TBD - specification/behavior of
   the different values of priority.

4.2.3.  Burst Size

   The data burst field represents the number of byptes of data in a
   continuous burst of packets.  This may be the result of a large
   amount of media encoded at a particular time.  In many cases, the
   distribution of packets tends to be heavy tailed and this
   information, if available to the wireless network at the beginning of
   the burst, is useful to let the wireless network know so that it can
   plan for radio resources in advance.  In RTP streams, a burst may for
   example represent the number of bytes to send in a video I-frame.
   However, in more complex encodings where the media in a packet
   belongs to multiple streams (e.g., AR/VR), the application should
   determine the length of a burst of data.

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           0                   1
           0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
          +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
          |        Data Burst Size        |
          +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   If the value is set to "zero", it indicates that the application does
   not provide the size of the data burst.  All other values indicate
   the actual size of the data burst in bytes up to a maximum of 2^16
   bytes.  The wireless node keeps track of the number of bytes in each
   packet payload to determine the total number of bytes in a burst.

4.2.4.  Delay Budget

   The delay budget represents an upper bound in milliseconds between
   the reception of the first packet of the MDU to the last packet of
   the MDU.

              0
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
             +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
             |     Delay     |
             +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   The delay budget along with data burst and importance (priority) is
   used to convey to the wireless network in advance the duration of
   time over which the burst of packets is sent.  This can allow the
   wireless scheduler to plan for the appropriate level of resources.

4.2.5.  Media Data Unit Sequence

   The Media Data Unit (MDU) sequence is a cyclical counter that has the
   same value for a set of packets identified by an application to be
   treated as a unit (i.e., an MDU), and is incremented for the next
   MDU.

              0
              0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
             +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
             | MDU Sequence  |
             +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   The wireless network uses this field to provide consistent treatment
   to the set of packets that belong to the same MDU.  In some cases,
   based on the priority and tolerance to delay and loss, the wireless

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   network may delay or drop the sequence of packets that has the same
   MDU sequence value.  An MDU sequence of 8-bits means that there can
   be up to 256 (2^8) concurrent MDU sequences for a UDP source/
   destination pair that a wireless network can distinguish.

   The MDU sequence value is not itself associated to any set of media
   properties.  These media properties are defined in Importance, burst
   length and delay.

4.2.6.  Packet Counter

   This parameter provides a counter starting at "0" that is incremented
   for each subsequent packet belonging to a Media Data Unit (MDU).

           0                   1
           0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
          +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
          |         Packet Counter        |
          +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   The delay between subsequent packets of an MDU may be averaged or
   otherwise used to extrapolate jitter in the arrival stream at the
   wireless node.

4.2.7.  Timestamp

   Timestamp filed contains the wall clock time (absolute date and time)
   of transmission of the packet as defined in [RFC5905].  The first 32
   bits represent integer part of seconds relative to 0h UTC on 1
   January 1900, and the second 32 bits represent the fractional part of
   a second.

        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
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                        Timestamp (sec)                        |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                        Timestamp (usec)                       |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   A pair of timestamps S2 and S1 represent a time interval between them
   of (S2 - S1) that have sequential Packet counter values.  The
   transmission time contained in the field may be used for network
   jitter calculations.

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4.3.  Metadata Handling

   Metadata in this specification consists of the set of parameters in
   Section 4.2 and always uses Profile value of "1".

   The application server (UDP source) inserts the metadata into each
   packet.  The application server should only prepare metadata in UDP
   MED option if the UDP destination belongs to a wireless network that
   has a trust relationship with the application network.  Importance,
   data burst and delay budget parameters are the same for all packets
   of an MDU (identified by an MDU sequence value for the UDP source/
   destination).  The timestamp indicates the sending time of each
   packet while the packet counter is incremented for each packet in an
   MDU.

   The wireless node that receives metadata in the UDP MED option should
   verify that it originated from an application network with which it
   has a trust relationship.  The metadata is used to prioritize, defer
   or drop packets of an MDU when radio resources are limited.

5.  Metadata Transport

   Metadata between the application and wireless network is sent in each
   media packet to allow the wireless network to classify the group of
   packets of an MDU for consistent congestion and QoS handling over the
   wireless link.  The wireless network enhances QoS handling for low
   latency media that uses UDP transport (RTP, SRTP, QUIC) to deliver
   media.  Media protocols (RTP, QUIC) are not fragmented and thus the
   UDP option with metadata is carried in each packet.  The media
   payload is limited in size to allow the addition of the MED and AUTH
   UDP options within the UDP packet and not exceed the MTU.  The
   metadata is used by the wireless node and endpoint (client) in the
   destination network and therefore it is not the intention that all
   network nodes on path should parse this metadata.  Considering end-
   to-end performance of the flow, the effort in-network to parse the
   metadata and classify the packet should be as low as possible.
   Additional considerations include the ease with which an application
   can encode the metadata in a transport header, compactness of the
   metadata as this is applied per packet, and the security of the
   metadata itself (not unique to wireless networks).  In this
   specification, the media metadata is transported in UDP options.  UDP
   transport of metadata is efficient and applicable to not only HTTP/3
   media but also RTP/SRTP for any further extensions related to
   wireless networks.  The end-to-end architecture considered in this
   specification is limited to trusted networks, or the use of security
   gateways over an insecure network in between.  This specification
   does not require encryption of the metadata however the AUTH UDP
   option may be used for integrity protection in network scenarios that

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   need it.  This specification does not require encryption of the
   metadata, however the AUTH UDP option may be used for integrity
   protection in network scenarios that need it.

   A new UDP option, MED, that conforms to [I-D.ietf-tsvwg-udp-options]
   is defined to carry media metadata.  Figure 2 shows the parameters in
   the MED UDP option.  The Kind value for this option is (TBD - IANA
   assigned).  The MED option is a SAFE option as it does not alter the
   UDP data payload in any manner and should therefore be assigned a
   value in the 0..191 range as defined in [I-D.ietf-tsvwg-udp-options].
   The length of this option can be variable since another specification
   can define a new media "Profile" of a different length.

        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
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |   Kind=TBA2   |    Len=18     | RES | Profile |  Importance   |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |           Burst size          |     Delay     | MDU Sequence  |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |       Packet Counter          |          Timestamp            |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                           Timestamp                           |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |           Timestamp           |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                       Figure 2: MED UDP Option

   The MED UDP option in this specification has a size of 18 bytes.  In
   this specification, the Profile option MUST be set to "1".  Following
   the length field, 3 bits are left reserved (RES) for future use.  The
   MDU sequence indicates the set of media data unit packets of the UDP/
   IP datagram 5-tuple).  The MDU sequence value should be the same for
   all packets that form a media data unit (MDU) Other UDP/IP datagrams
   (e.g., from the same server to another client) that have the same
   value of MDU sequence represents a different MDU set.  The Importance
   of a packet includes its priority relative to other MDUs of the same
   UDP/IP datagram (5-tuple).  The Timestamp value in this option
   represents the transmission time of the packet and along with Packet
   counter may be used to derive latency and jitter information.  For a
   media flow/sequence identified by IP 5-tuple, the MDU sequence is
   incremented for every subsequent MDU.  The Packet counter represents
   a sequence of packets of an MDU and may be used along with timestamps
   to derive jitter.  The wireless node does not attempt to sequence
   packets arriving out of order using the Packet counter.  The Data
   burst when provided indicates the number of bytes of the MDU and this

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   value remains the same for all packets of the MDU.  The Delay field
   conveys the upper bound in milliseconds between the reception of the
   first packet of the MDU to the last packet of the MDU.  All packets
   of an MDU have the same value of Delay.

   The UDP source (application server) MUST NOT add the UDP MED option
   if the UDP destination (wireless client) does not belong to a
   wireless network that has a trust relationship with the application
   network.  The wireless network MUST NOT use metadata in the UDP MED
   option of the UDP source (application server) does not belong to an
   application network that has a trust relationship with it.  The
   wireless network MUST NOT remove the UDP MED option when forwarding
   the packet to the wireless node.

   A security gateway at the boundary of an application network or
   wireless network that share a trust relationship should inspect the
   UDP MED option to ensure that the origin/destination network comply
   with the policies of the domain.

6.  Common Deployments

   This section provides a few examples of common deployments and the
   use of the MED UDP option to carry media metadata.

6.1.  Data Center Deployment

   In this deployment scenario, the UDP source (i.e., App Server) and
   the wireless network entity (i.e., Wireless Node) are within the same
   Data Center and within a secure network.

               Wireless Network Provider               App Provider
            |----------------------------------|     |---------------|
               ______              +--------------------------------+
              (      )             |  +--------+       +----------+ |
   +------+  (Wireless)            |  |Wireless|       |   App    | |
   |client/---------------------------/        /=======/  Server  | |
   +------+  (Network )            |  |  Node  |       +----------+ |
              (______)             |  +--------+                    |
                                   +--------------------------------+
                                                Data Center

                                  /======/ UDP Packet with MED option

            Figure 3: Server and Wireless entity in Data Center

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   The UDP MED option is inserted by the Application Server and
   forwarded.  The networks in the App Provider and Wireless Network
   Provider are within the boundaries of the trust domain.  The Wireless
   Node processes the metadata in the MED UDP option and forwards the
   packet to the client (wireless endpoint).  The MED UDP option is used
   by the wireless node to prioritize sets of packets (MDU), and may use
   the classification for packets of an MDU to share the same QoS and
   congestion handling in the wireless network.

6.2.  Security Gateways

   In this deployment scenario, the UDP sender (i.e, App Server) and the
   wireless network entity (i.e., Wireless Node) have a trust
   relationship between them and security gateways are used to encrypt
   all traffic traversing an insecure network segment in between.

               Wireless Network Provider            Application Provider
            |------------------------------|        |------------------|
               ______
              (      )   +--------+   +---+         +---+    +--------+
   +------+  (Wireless)  |Wireless|   |Sec|_________|Sec|    |  App   |
   |client/==============/        /===+GW O____+____O GW+====/ Server |
   +------+  (Network )  |  Node  |   |   |    |    |   |    +--------+
              (______)   +--------+   +---+    |    +---+
                                               V
                                         Secure Tunnel

                                    /======/ UDP Packet with MED option

      Figure 4: Security Gateways between Server and Wireless network

   As in Section 6.1, the UDP MED option is inserted by the Application
   Server and forwarded.  The security gateways encrypt the packet
   across the insecure network segment.  The Wireless Node processes the
   metadata in the MED UDP option and forwards the packet to the client
   (wireless endpoint).  The MED UDP option is used by the wireless node
   to prioritize sets of packets (MDU), and may use the classification
   for packets of an MDU to share the same QoS and congestion handling
   in the wireless network.

6.3.  Outer UDP Packet with MED Option

   In this deployment scenario, the UDP sender (i.e, App Server) and the
   wireless network entity (i.e., Wireless Node) establish a UDP tunnel
   that carries the MED UDP option.  The inner UDP packet carries the
   media data.

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                Wireless Network Provider       Application Provider
               |-------------------------|        |---------------|
                  ______
                 (      )       +--------+             +--------+
   +------+     (Wireless)      |Wireless|_____________|  App   |
   |client/---------------------/        O______+______O Server |
   +------+     (Network )      |  Node  |      |      |        |
                 (______)       +--------+      |      +--------+
                                                V
                                        MED in outer UDP

                               _____
                              O_____O outer UDP with MED option

                              /-----/ inner packet with media data

                  Figure 5: MED UDP Option in Outer Tunnel

   The MED option is carried in the outer tunnel from the Application
   Provider and is terminated at the Wireless Network Provider.  The
   Wireless Node examines the MED UDP option for classifying the packet
   and forwards the inner packet to the client (inner UDP destination).
   The inner media packet does not have to use UDP transport.  For
   example, RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) or HLS (HTTP Live
   Streaming) using TCP transport may have an outer UDP encapsulation
   with the MED option.  The MED UDP option is used by the wireless node
   to prioritize sets of packets (MDU), and may use the classification
   for packets of an MDU to share the same QoS and congestion handling
   in the wireless network.

7.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks to Tiru Reddy for extensive discussions on security, metadata
   and UDP options formats in this draft.  Thanks to Dan Wing for input
   on security and reliability of messages for this draft.  Xavier De
   Foy and the authors of this draft have discussed the similarities and
   differences of this draft with the MoQ draft for carrying media
   metadata.  The authors wish to thank Mike Heard, Sebastian Moeller
   and Tom Herbert for discussions on metadata fields, fragmentation and
   various transport aspects.

8.  IANA Considerations

   IANA request to assign new kind from UDP option registry to be set by
   IANA for [I-D.ietf-tsvwg-udp-options].

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      Kind    Length       Meaning
      -----------------------------------------------------
      TBA1      18         Media Metadata (MED)

9.  Security Considerations

   Metadata in the UDP option MED must only be exchanged between
   entities that have a trust relationship that permits sending/
   receiving this UDP option.  The parameters in MED are general
   information about priority, burst size, delay along with timestamps
   and sequence numbers.  They do not contain information about the
   content in the payload.  The end-host also feeds back packet
   statistics to the application which can then determine if there was
   unexpected handling in the forward path.  The application server has
   the option to not add the MED UDP option for flows in such cases.

   Metadata in the MED UDP option is not sent to a wireless network that
   does not have a trust relationship with the application network (UDP
   source).  A wireless network that receives a MED UDP option is also
   required to verify that the origin of the metadata is from a trusted
   network.  If the wireless network receives a packet with a MED UDP
   option from an insecure network, the MED option is deleted but the
   packet is forwarded.

   If the application network that sends the media packet with MED UDP
   option and the wireless network that receives the UDP packet/MED
   option is separated by an untrusted network, the traffic is required
   to be encrypted across the untrusted network segment.  Security
   gateways at the boundary of trusted networks are required to inspect
   and verify that the MED UDP option origin or destination is from
   within trusted networks.  If the wireless network receives a packet
   with a MED UDP option from an insecure network, the MED option is
   deleted but the packet is forwarded.

10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [I-D.ietf-avtcore-rtp-over-quic]
              Ott, J., Engelbart, M., and S. Dawkins, "RTP over QUIC
              (RoQ)", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-
              avtcore-rtp-over-quic-06, 25 September 2023,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-avtcore-
              rtp-over-quic-06>.

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   [I-D.ietf-tsvwg-udp-options]
              Touch, J. D., "Transport Options for UDP", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-tsvwg-udp-options-23,
              15 September 2023, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/
              draft-ietf-tsvwg-udp-options-23>.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC5905]  Mills, D., Martin, J., Ed., Burbank, J., and W. Kasch,
              "Network Time Protocol Version 4: Protocol and Algorithms
              Specification", RFC 5905, DOI 10.17487/RFC5905, June 2010,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5905>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

10.2.  Informative References

   [RFC2474]  Nichols, K., Blake, S., Baker, F., and D. Black,
              "Definition of the Differentiated Services Field (DS
              Field) in the IPv4 and IPv6 Headers", RFC 2474,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2474, December 1998,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2474>.

   [RFC3550]  Schulzrinne, H., Casner, S., Frederick, R., and V.
              Jacobson, "RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time
              Applications", STD 64, RFC 3550, DOI 10.17487/RFC3550,
              July 2003, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3550>.

   [RFC3711]  Baugher, M., McGrew, D., Naslund, M., Carrara, E., and K.
              Norrman, "The Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP)",
              RFC 3711, DOI 10.17487/RFC3711, March 2004,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3711>.

   [RFC8799]  Carpenter, B. and B. Liu, "Limited Domains and Internet
              Protocols", RFC 8799, DOI 10.17487/RFC8799, July 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8799>.

   [RFC8837]  Jones, P., Dhesikan, S., Jennings, C., and D. Druta,
              "Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) Packet Markings
              for WebRTC QoS", RFC 8837, DOI 10.17487/RFC8837, January
              2021, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8837>.

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   [RFC9335]  Uberti, J., Jennings, C., and S. Murillo, "Completely
              Encrypting RTP Header Extensions and Contributing
              Sources", RFC 9335, DOI 10.17487/RFC9335, January 2023,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9335>.

   [RFC9419]  Arkko, J., Hardie, T., Pauly, T., and M. Kühlewind,
              "Considerations on Application - Network Collaboration
              Using Path Signals", RFC 9419, DOI 10.17487/RFC9419, July
              2023, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9419>.

   [TR.22.847-3GPP]
              3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), "Study on
              supporting tactile and multi-modality communication
              services; Stage 1 (Release 18)", August 2022.

   [TR.23.501-3GPP]
              3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), "3rd Generation
              Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Servies
              and System Aspects; System architecture for the 5G System
              (5GS); Stage 2 (Release 18)", March 2023.

   [TR.23.700-60-3GPP]
              3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), "Study on XR
              (Extended Reality) and media services (Release 18)",
              August 2022.

Appendix A.  Gaps and Requirements

   Section 1 outlined the issues around providing high throughput and
   low latency when link capacity fluctuates in very short periods of
   time as is the case in a wireless network.  Some deployment examples
   are also shown in Section 6.  This applies not only in wireless
   downstream, but also for upstream.  [TR.22.847-3GPP], section 5.8
   describes an Industry 4.0 use case which includes support for various
   aspects to optimize production some of which use enhanced media.
   Examples include monitor camera capture of robot movement,
   observation using VR glasses and related control signaling.  Use
   cases include wireless upstream and downstream video, haptics and
   other media processing that requires low latency.  From an IP
   transport/protocol viewpoint, these examples additionally illustrate
   the need for a wireless endpoint (UDP source) to provide
   classification information.

   End-to-end congestion control reacts in the order of round trip times
   (RTT) while wireless capacity variations take place in the order of
   hundreds of milliseconds.  When a wireless network provides low
   latency handling for flows while maximizing the use of all available
   bandwidth, it results in either packet drops or delays.  The

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   application is not able to adapt quickly enough when maximizing
   bandwidth use and packets may be dropped to keep the queues short/
   latency low.

   Packets dropped due to short term (order of milliseconds) capacity
   fluctuation and the resulting feedback to the server (e.g., via RTCP)
   have the potential for the server (UDP source) to reduce the flow
   rate.  Over time it could result in the application ramping the
   sending rate up and down, reducing the encoding quality of sent
   packets, or settling for a lower flow rate.  None of the above result
   in higher quality media delivery.  In 3GPP studies (see
   [TR.23.700-60-3GPP]) and most recent standards updates for QoS in
   [TR.23.501-3GPP], the approach considered is to prioritize media
   frames as more or less important and drop media frames as a whole if
   absolutely necessary, and not just random packets.  However, when
   fully encrypted packets such as with QUIC or RTP-cryptex [RFC9335]
   are sent it is not practical to inspect the media headers and
   classify packets into set of frames with priority/importance levels.

   When addressing these gaps, solutions should also consider the
   evolution of media encoding, feedback for packet pacing, multipath,
   performance and security aspects.

   1.  Evolving media encoding: Media encoding and delivery are evolving
       to meet new demands from virtual and augmented reality, cloud
       gaming, streaming, conversational video and other applications.
       Encoding may use compression, texture maps and new redndering
       methods that synthesize images from point clouds or neural
       radiance fields (NeRF) for 3D representations of images with high
       fidelity.  From a network transport point of view, these changes
       result in varying demands to deliver larger amounts of data, a
       range of framing mechanisms as well as different levels of
       tolerance to delay in the network.

   2.  Feedback and packet pacing: The server uses ECN/L4S feedback,
       packet drops and RTT received (over e.g., RTCP) to determine
       packet pacing.  However, in the case of wireless networks, the
       packet drops may only be the result of a very short, transient
       drop in capacity and not indicative of sustained congestion.  The
       media application would likely choose to reduce the sending rate
       based on the feedback received.  In a wireless network which is
       almost always capacity constrained when serving many end users,
       the state-of-the-art congestion handling mechanisms would result
       in lower encoded media rates being sent as it is not practical to
       utilize the full bandwidth without incurring random packet drops
       (and resulting loss in media quality at the decoding end/wireless
       host).

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   3.  Multipath: Wireless networks are likely to rely on multiple paths
       to support higher bandwidth for a single user.  The multiple
       paths can be realized by Layer-2 mechanisms in the radio network
       and may not be directly visible to the end-to-end flow.  These
       multipath mechanism aid in delivering higher bandwidth, but not
       necessarily low latency for real-time applications.

   4.  Application preferences: The application itself may have
       preferences in how media frames are handled in the network.  For
       example, a streaming application that carries both content and
       advertisements may prefer to prioritize advertisements and hence
       its relative importance.  Another example is that of a static
       image of high quality that is part of some complex scene
       rendering may be able to tolerate higher network delays.  The
       network is not able determine such preferences even if it is able
       to inspect media headers.

   5.  Performance: When considering solutions to maximize utilization
       of wireless bandwidth along with low latency, the solutions
       themselves should not add significant complexity in handling as
       to adversely impact performance.

   6.  Security: Any protocol extensions or other enhancements should
       not affect security or result in leakage of sensitive
       information.

Appendix B.  Media Frames in Wireless Networks

   This section provides an outline of some possible solutions
   approaches to handling media frames/media data units (MDU) identified
   in Section 1.  The aim is to provide low latency, maximize radio
   network resource utilization and improve media application
   performance.  The approaches considered here include providing
   metadata on MDU, assigning different DSCP values within a single
   media flow, as well as considering new congestion control handling.
   Each of them has different trade-offs to consider but these options
   are not mutually exclusive.

B.1.  Media Metadata

   In this case the wireless router inspects metadata inserted by the
   media application and uses it for classification in the wireless
   network.  Since media headers are encrypted, the application would
   provide this information in a header that the wireless node can
   inspect.  One option is to send the metadata in a new UDP option and
   this is described in the main body of this document (see Section 5
   for UDP transport details).  Another option is to transport the
   metadata in a MASQUE tunnel between the media/application server and

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   the wireless router.

   Both approaches (new UDP option, MASQUE tunnel) can use the metadata
   defined in Section 4.2 and the main difference is how the metadata is
   transported between server/wireless router/endpoint.  The UDP option
   in this draft requires wireless and application networks to be
   deployed across networks with a degree of trust to exchange the
   metadata parameters.  If the application and wireless network are not
   directly connected, a secure overlay network with encryption is
   necessary between the two domains.  The packet that arrives at the
   wireless router contains metadata in the original form (i.e., all
   packets decrypted after exiting the overlay network).  The demands on
   processing the metadata per packet by the wireless router are minimal
   as a result.

   The transport of metadata MASQUE is similar, however it is encrypted
   end-to-end and terminated at the wireless router.  The end-to-end
   encryption provides an inherently safe transmission of metadata but
   the wireless router has to decrypt the metadata in the MASQUE tunnel
   to process it.  This can have a significant impact to performance/
   delay in classifying each packet.  The MASQUE approach also requires
   the setup of the tunnel by the wireless router at the beginning of
   the media session which is additional configuration overhead (i.e.,
   determining which upstream flows should trigger the initiation of the
   MASQUE tunnel).

   Metadata used by the wireless router to classify packets into MDUs of
   different priorities, delay tolerance is used by the wireless network
   to optimize handling but the feedback from the client/endpoint back
   to the server (e.g., via RTCP) can skew the behavior/sending rate of
   the server.  For example, if a wireless network drops an entire media
   frame due to transient lack of bandwidth and this is reported back to
   the server, it should not be misunderstood by the server as extreme
   congestion and a subsequent reduction of sending rate.  This is
   perhaps not what is desired to manage transient changes in bandwidth.

B.2.  DSCP

   DSCP [RFC2474] could have offered an excellent solution if were
   possible to assign a separate code to categorize different media
   frames (audio frames, different sets of video frames, etc.).
   However, DSCP codes are relatively limited and additionally, it is
   not possible to convey a delay budget or related constraint that is
   valuable for a wireless scheduler.  [RFC8837] has recommendations for
   using two DSCP values for WebRTC flows, however, they are for flows
   (media flow, data flow) and not at the granularity of media frames/
   MDU.  Extending DSCP to the granularity of media frames (assuming
   enough codes available) has different implications that need to be

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   looked at.  It should also be assumed in this case that DSCP values
   are not overwritten (or re-classified) between the application and
   wireless networks, which may not always be a safe one.

   Even if DSCP does not provide level of detail that metadata provides,
   it may be able to complement the overall solution for handling media
   along the lines indicated in [RFC8837].

B.3.  Multiple Congestion Control Segments

   One option would be to deploy media relays/proxies in close to the
   wireless network (for example, in an edge data center).  The media
   relays/proxies would then use specific congestion control mechanisms
   that are developed for the wireless network in that network segment.

   A congestion control solution between an application proxy and
   wireless end-host would still operate at different timescales.  The
   metadata/DSCP information is used to optimize radio resource usage in
   very short timeframes (10-100 ms) while E2E congestion control can
   operate to stabilize over a longer timeframe.  This option also
   implies the provisioning and deployment of proxies on-path which may
   add to the cost.  In any case, this would be complementary to the
   metadata/DSCP based approach at the transport layer.

B.4.  Other Options

   Some other solutions that can potentially be considered but have
   significant disadvantages:

   *  Media-over-QUIC Relay: A Media-over-QUIC (MoQ) rekay can be co-
      located with the wireless router, and the MoQ headers can arguably
      be extended to carry relevant information that the wireless
      network uses to classify packets.  However, while MoQ addresses
      some media use cases, there are other media use cases handled
      using RTP (or RTP over QUIC [I-D.ietf-avtcore-rtp-over-quic]).
      Additionally, sharing keys intended for MoQ relays with wireless
      routers (or providers) may not be as simple.

   *  GTP-extensions: A media server (or relay) that is customized for
      3GPP systems sends media header extensions over the GTP-U protocol
      which is then used by the wireless (3GPP) router to classify
      packets.  This solution if adopted by 3GPP (and media server
      implementations to support the GTP protocol) only address these
      issues for 3GPP systems, but not WiFi.

   *  Key-sharing: In this case, media packet encryption keys are shared
      with trusted wireless providers.  Wireless routers use the keys to
      decrypt media packets, inspect RTP or other media headers and

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      classify for the wireless network.  This method breaks end-to-end
      security of media packets and places very high processing demands
      on wireless routers to decrypt packets.

Authors' Addresses

   John Kaippallimalil
   Futurewei
   United States of America
   Email: john.kaippallimalil@futurewei.com

   Sri Gundavelli
   Cisco
   United States of America
   Email: sgundave@cisco.com

   Spencer Dawkins
   Tencent
   United States of America
   Email: spencerdawkins.ietf@gmail.com

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