SIMPLE Made Simple: An Overview of the IETF Specifications for Instant Messaging and Presence Using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
RFC 6914

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                      J. Rosenberg
Request for Comments: 6914                                   jdrosen.net
Category: Informational                                       April 2013
ISSN: 2070-1721

       SIMPLE Made Simple: An Overview of the IETF Specifications
                for Instant Messaging and Presence Using
                 the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

Abstract

   The IETF has produced many specifications related to Presence and
   Instant Messaging with the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).
   Collectively, these specifications are known as SIP for Instant
   Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE).  This document
   serves as a guide to the SIMPLE suite of specifications.  It
   categorizes the specifications, explains what each is for, and how
   they relate to each other.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6914.

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RFC 6914                   Simple Made Simple                 April 2013

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
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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.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
   2.  Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     2.1.  Core Protocol Machinery  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     2.2.  Presence Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     2.3.  Privacy and Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     2.4.  Provisioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     2.5.  Federation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     2.6.  Optimizations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   3.  Instant Messaging  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     3.1.  Page Mode  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     3.2.  Session Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     3.3.  IM Chat Rooms  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     3.4.  IM Features  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   4.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   5.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   6.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.  Introduction

   The IETF has produced many specifications related to Presence and
   Instant Messaging with the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)
   [RFC3261].  Collectively, these specifications are known as SIP for
   Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE).  These
   specifications cover topics ranging from protocols for subscription
   and publication to presence document formats to protocols for
   managing privacy preferences.  The large number of specifications can
   make it hard to figure out exactly what SIMPLE is, what
   specifications cover it, what functionality it provides, and how
   these specifications relate to each other.

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RFC 6914                   Simple Made Simple                 April 2013

   This document serves to address these problems.  It provides an
   enumeration of the protocols that make up the SIMPLE suite of
   specifications from IETF.  It categorizes them into related areas of
   functionality, briefly explains the purpose of each, and how the
   specifications relate to each other.  Each specification also
   includes a letter that designates its category [RFC2026].  These
   values are:

   S: Standards Track

   E: Experimental

   B: Best Current Practice

   I: Informational

2.  Presence

   SIMPLE provides for both presence and instant messaging (IM)