Presence and Instant Messaging Protocol
charter-ietf-prim-01

The purpose of this working group is to produce a set of protocols for
Presence and Instant Messaging services, which will minimally satisfy
the IMPP Model and Requirements [RFC2778/2779]. In June 2000 the IMPP
WG produced various Internet-Drafts with several protocols falling in
the same group due to very similar architectures. Four of those
proposals were combined into a new one called PRIM (Presence and
Instant Messaging) following the WG chairs recommendation to proceed
with proposals from that group. The PRIM working group emerged from
this collaborative activity.

The working group will generate a set of standard track documents for
the PRIM specifications. It will specify the protocols and data
formats for the Presence and Instant Messaging services using a
minimalist approach, complying with RFC 2779 and with CPIM, without
adding implementation complexities. BCP 41 will be the basis for
working group consideration of the transport implications of the PRIM
designs with respect to network congestion

These protocols will take existing architecture and widely-deployed
Presence and Instant Messaging services on the Internet as an intra-
domain basis, and use CPIM over TCP for inter-domain exchange of
presence information and instant messages.

The working group will work in collaboration with the IMPP WG to finish
the CPIM specifications.

The PRIM specification documents will include the following:

o The inter-domain server-server protocol specification for the
Presence/Instant Messaging services, which map the CPIM specification
being developed by the IMPP working group over TCP. This
specification defines protocols for subscription/notification and
instant messaging.

o The client-server protocol specification for the Presence service.
This specification defines a protocol to subscribe to a presence
entity (presentity), to send a change notification to a watcher, and
to control the presentity and presence information distribution.

o The client-server protocol specification for the Instant Messaging
service. This specification defines a protocol to send and receive
instant messages between a client and a server.

The PRIM proposal (draft-mazzoldi-prim-impp-01.txt) will serve as the
starting point for the discussions in this WG.