Network Working Group M. Handley
Internet-Draft UCL
Obsoletes: 2327, 3266 (if V. Jacobson
approved) Packet Design
Expires: April 26, 2004 C. Perkins
University of Glasgow
October 27, 2003
SDP: Session Description Protocol
draft-ietf-mmusic-sdp-new-15.txt
Status of this Memo
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This memo defines the Session Description Protocol (SDP). SDP is
intended for describing multimedia sessions for the purposes of
session announcement, session invitation, and other forms of
multimedia session initiation.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Glossary of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Examples of SDP Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1 Multicast Announcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2 Session Initiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.3 Streaming media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.4 Email and the World Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Requirements and Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.1 Media Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2 Timing Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.3 Private Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.4 Obtaining Further Information about a Session . . . . . . . 7
4.5 Categorisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.6 Internationalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. SDP Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.1 Protocol Version ("v=") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.2 Origin ("o=") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.3 Session Name ("s=") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.4 Session and Media Information ("i=") . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.5 URI ("u=") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.6 Email Address and Phone Number ("e=" and "p=") . . . . . . . 12
5.7 Connection Data ("c=") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.8 Bandwidth ("b=") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.9 Timing ("t=") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.10 Repeat Times ("r=") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.11 Time Zones ("z=") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.12 Encryption Keys ("k=") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.13 Attributes ("a=") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5.14 Media Announcements ("m=") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
6. Suggested Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7. Communicating Conference Control Policy . . . . . . . . . . 30
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
9.1 The "application/sdp" media type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
9.2 Registration of Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
A. SDP Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
B. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . 44
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1. Introduction
[Note to RFC Editor: All references to RFC XXXX should be replaced by
the RFC number of this document, when published.]
When initiating multimedia teleconferences, voice-over-IP calls,
streaming video, or other real-time sessions, there is a requirement
to convey media details, transport addresses, and other session
description metadata to the participants.
SDP provides a standard representation for such information,
irrespective of how that information is transported. SDP is purely a
format for session description - it does not incorporate a transport
protocol, and is intended to use different transport protocols as
appropriate, including the Session Announcement Protocol [8], Session
Initiation Protocol [9], Real-Time Streaming Protocol [10],
electronic mail using the MIME extensions, and the Hypertext
Transport Protocol.
SDP is intended to be general purpose so that it can be used in a
wide range of network environments and applications. However, it is
not intended to support negotiation of session content or media
encodings: this is viewed as outside the scope of session
description.
2. Glossary of Terms
The following terms are used in this document, and have specific
meaning within the context of this document.
Conference: A multimedia conference is a set of two or more
communicating users along with the software they are using to
communicate.
Session: A multimedia session is a set of multimedia senders and
receivers and the data streams flowing from senders to receivers.
A multimedia conference is an example of a multimedia session.
Session Advertisement: See session announcement.
Session Announcement: A session announcement is a mechanism by which
a session description is conveyed to users in a pro-active
fashion, i.e., the session description was not explicitly
requested by the user.
Session Description: A well defined format for conveying sufficient
information to discover and participate in a multimedia session.
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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 RFC 2119 [1].
3. Examples of SDP Usage
3.1 Multicast Announcement
In order to assist the advertisement of multicast multimedia
conferences and other multicast sessions, and to communicate the
relevant session setup information to prospective participants, a
distributed session directory may be used. An instance of such a
session directory periodically sends packets containing a description
of the session to a well known multicast group. These advertisements
are received by other session directories such that potential remote
participants can use the session description to start the tools
required to participate in the session.
One protocol commonly used to implement such a distributed directory
is the Session Announcement Protocol, SAP [8]. SDP provides the
recommended session description format for such announcements.
3.2 Session Initiation
The Session Initiation Protocol, SIP [9] is an application layer
control protocol for creating, modifying and terminating sessions
such as Internet multimedia conferences, Internet telephone calls and
multimedia distribution. The SIP messages used to create sessions
carry session descriptions which allow participants to agree on a set
of compatible media types. These session descriptions are commonly
formatted using SDP. When used with SIP, the offer/answer model [11]
provides a limited framework for negotiation using SDP.
3.3 Streaming media
The Real Time Streaming Protocol, RTSP [10], is an application- level
protocol for control over the delivery of data with real-time
properties. RTSP provides an extensible framework to enable
controlled, on-demand delivery of real-time data, such as audio and
video. An RTSP client and server negotiate an appropriate set of
parameters for media delivery, partially using SDP syntax to describe
those parameters.
3.4 Email and the World Wide Web
Alternative means of conveying session descriptions include
electronic mail and the World Wide Web. For both email and WWW
distribution, the use of the MIME content type "application/sdp" MUST
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be used. This enables the automatic launching of applications for
participation in the session from the WWW client or mail reader in a
standard manner.
Note that announcements of multicast sessions made only via email or
the World Wide Web (WWW) do not have the property that the receiver
of a session announcement can necessarily receive the session because
the multicast sessions may be restricted in scope, and access to the
WWW server or reception of email is possible outside this scope. SAP
announcements do not suffer from this mismatch.
4. Requirements and Recommendations
The purpose of SDP is to convey information about media streams in
multimedia sessions to allow the recipients of a session description
to participate in the session. SDP is primarily intended for use in
an internetwork, although it is sufficiently general that it can
describe conferences in other network environments.
A multimedia session, for these purposes, is defined as a set of
media streams that exist for some duration of time. Media streams
can be many-to-many. The times during which the session is active
need not be continuous.
Thus far, multicast based sessions on the Internet have differed from
many other forms of conferencing in that anyone receiving the traffic
can join the session (unless the session traffic is encrypted). In
such an environment, SDP serves two primary purposes. It is a means
to communicate the existence of a session, and is a means to convey
sufficient information to enable joining and participating in the
session. In a unicast environment, only the latter purpose is likely
to be relevant.
Thus SDP includes:
o Session name and purpose
o Time(s) the session is active
o The media comprising the session
o Information needed to receive those media (addresses, ports,
formats and so on)
As resources necessary to participate in a session may be limited,
some additional information may also be desirable:
o Information about the bandwidth to be used by the conference
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o Contact information for the person responsible for the session
In general, SDP must convey sufficient information to enable
applications to join a session (with the possible exception of
encryption keys) and to announce the resources to be used to non-
participants that may need to know.
4.1 Media Information
SDP includes:
o The type of media (video, audio, etc)
o The transport protocol (RTP/UDP/IP, H.320, etc)
o The format of the media (H.261 video, MPEG video, etc)
For an IP multicast session, the following are also conveyed:
o Multicast address for media
o Transport port for media
This address and port are the destination address and destination
port of the multicast stream, whether being sent, received, or both.
For an IP unicast session, the following are conveyed:
o Remote address for media
o Transport port for media
The semantics of this address and port depend on the media and
transport protocol defined. By default, this is the remote address
and remote port to which data is sent, however some media types may
redefine this behaviour.
4.2 Timing Information
Sessions may either be bounded or unbounded in time. Whether or not
they are bounded, they may be only active at specific times.
SDP can convey:
o An arbitrary list of start and stop times bounding the session
o For each bound, repeat times such as "every Wednesday at 10am for
one hour"
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This timing information is globally consistent, irrespective of local
time zone or daylight saving time.
4.3 Private Sessions
It is possible to create both public sessions and private sessions.
SDP itself does not distinguish between these: private sessions are
typically conveyed by encrypting the session description during
distribution. The details of how encryption is performed are
dependent on the mechanism used to convey SDP - e.g. mechanisms are
defined for SDP transported using SAP [8] and SIP [9].
If a session announcement is private it is possible to use that
private announcement to convey encryption keys necessary to decode
each of the media in a conference, including enough information to
know which encryption scheme is used for each media.
4.4 Obtaining Further Information about a Session
A session description should convey enough information to decide
whether or not to participate in a session. SDP may include
additional pointers in the form of Universal Resources Identifiers
(URIs) for more information about the session.
4.5 Categorisation
When many session descriptions are being distributed by SAP, or any
other advertisement mechanism, it may be desirable to filter
announcements that are of interest from those that are not. SDP
supports a categorisation mechanism for sessions that is capable of
being automated.
4.6 Internationalization
The SDP specification recommends the use of the ISO 10646 character
sets in the UTF-8 encoding [3] to allow many different languages to
be represented. However, to assist in compact representations, SDP
also allows other character sets such as ISO 8859-1 to be used when
desired. Internationalization only applies to free-text fields
(session name and background information), and not to SDP as a whole.
5. SDP Specification
SDP session descriptions are entirely textual using the ISO 10646
character set in UTF-8 encoding. SDP field names and attribute names
use only the US-ASCII subset of UTF-8, but textual fields and
attribute values MAY use the full ISO 10646 character set. Field and
attribute values which use the full UTF-8 character set are never
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directly compared, hence there is no requirement for UTF-8
normalization. The textual form, as opposed to a binary encoding
such as ASN.1 or XDR, was chosen to enhance portability, to enable a
variety of transports to be used (e.g, session description in a MIME
email message) and to allow flexible, text-based toolkits (e.g., Tcl/
Tk) to be used to generate and to process session descriptions.
However, since SDP may be used in environments where the maximum
permissable size of a session description is limited (e.g. SAP
announcements; SIP transported in UDP), the encoding is deliberately
compact. Also, since announcements may be transported via very
unreliable means or damaged by an intermediate caching server, the
encoding was designed with strict order and formatting rules so that
most errors would result in malformed announcements which could be
detected easily and discarded. This also allows rapid discarding of
encrypted announcements for which a receiver does not have the
correct key.
An SDP session description may contain URIs which reference external
content in the "u=", "k=" and "a=" lines. These URIs may be
dereferenced in some cases, making the session description non-self
contained.
An SDP session description consists of a number of lines of text of
the form:
<type>=<value>
where <type> MUST be exactly one case-significant character and
<value> is structured text whose format depends on <type>. In
general <value> is either a number of fields delimited by a single
space character, or a free format string. Whitespace MUST NOT be used
either side of the "=" sign.
A session description consists of a session-level section followed by
zero or more media-level sections. The session-level part starts
with a "v=" line and continues to the first media-level section. The
media description starts with an "m=" line and continues to the next
media description or end of the whole session description. In
general, session-level values are the default for all media unless
overridden by an equivalent media-level value.
Some lines in each description are REQUIRED and some are OPTIONAL but
all MUST appear in exactly the order given here (the fixed order
greatly enhances error detection and allows for a simple parser).
OPTIONAL items are marked with a "*".
Session description
v= (protocol version)
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o= (owner/creator and session identifier).
s= (session name)
i=* (session information)
u=* (URI of description)
e=* (email address)
p=* (phone number)
c=* (connection information - not required if included in
all media)
b=* (zero or more bandwidth information lines)
One or more time descriptions (see below)
z=* (time zone adjustments)
k=* (encryption key)
a=* (zero or more session attribute lines)
Zero or more media descriptions (see below)
Time description
t= (time the session is active)
r=* (zero or more repeat times)
Media description
m= (media name and transport address)
i=* (media title)
c=* (connection information - optional if included at
session-level)
b=* (zero or more bandwidth information lines)
k=* (encryption key)
a=* (zero or more media attribute lines)
The set of type letters is deliberately small and not intended to be
extensible -- an SDP parser MUST completely ignore any announcement
that contains a type letter that it does not understand. The
attribute mechanism ("a=" described below) is the primary means for
extending SDP and tailoring it to particular applications or media.
Some attributes (the ones listed in this document) have a defined
meaning but others may be added on an application-, media- or
session-specific basis. An SDP parser MUST ignore any attribute it
doesn't understand.
The connection ("c=") and attribute ("a=") information in the
session-level section applies to all the media of that session unless
overridden by connection information or an attribute of the same name
in the media description. For instance, in the example below, each
media behaves as if it were given a "recvonly" attribute.
An example SDP description is:
v=0
o=jdoe 2890844526 2890842807 IN IP4 10.47.16.5
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s=SDP Seminar
i=A Seminar on the session description protocol
u=http://www.example.com/seminars/sdp.pdf
e=j.doe@example.com (Jane Doe)
c=IN IP4 224.2.17.12/127
t=2873397496 2873404696
a=recvonly
m=audio 49170 RTP/AVP 0
m=video 51372 RTP/AVP 31
m=application 32416 udp wb
a=orient:portrait
Text records such as the session name and information are octet
strings which may contain any octet with the exceptions of 0x00
(Nul), 0x0a (ASCII newline) and 0x0d (ASCII carriage return). The
sequence CRLF (0x0d0a) is used to end a record, although parsers
SHOULD be tolerant and also accept records terminated with a single
newline character. By default these byte strings contain ISO-10646
characters in UTF-8 encoding, but this default MAY be changed using
the "charset" attribute.
5.1 Protocol Version ("v=")
v=0
The "v=" field gives the version of the Session Description Protocol.
There is no minor version number.
5.2 Origin ("o=")
o=<username> <session id> <version> <network type> <address type>
<address>
The "o=" field gives the originator of the session (her username and
the address of the user's host) plus a session id and session version
number.
<username> is the user's login on the originating host, or it is "-"
if the originating host does not support the concept of user ids.
<username> MUST NOT contain spaces.
<session id> is a numeric string such that the tuple of <username>,
<session id>, <network type>, <address type> and <address> form a
globally unique identifier for the session. The method of session
id allocation is up to the creating tool, but it has been
suggested that a Network Time Protocol (NTP) format timestamp be
used to ensure uniqueness [7].
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<version> is a version number for this announcement. It is needed for
proxy announcements to detect which of several announcements for
the same session is the most recent. Again its usage is up to the
creating tool, so long as <version> is increased when a
modification is made to the session data. Again, it is RECOMMENDED
(but not mandatory) that an NTP format timestamp is used.
<network type> is a text string giving the type of network.
Initially "IN" is defined to have the meaning "Internet".
<address type> is a text string giving the type of the address that
follows. Initially "IP4" and "IP6" are defined.
<address> is the globally unique address of the machine from which
the session was created. For an address type of IP4, this is
either the fully-qualified domain name of the machine, or the
dotted-decimal representation of the IP version 4 address of the
machine. For an address type of IP6, this is either the
fully-qualified domain name of the machine, or the compressed
textual representation of the IP version 6 address of the machine.
For both IP4 and IP6, the fully-qualified domain name is the form
that SHOULD be given unless this is unavailable, in which case the
globally unique address may be substituted. A local IP address
MUST NOT be used in any context where the SDP description might
leave the scope in which the address is meaningful.
In general, the "o=" field serves as a globally unique identifier for
this version of this session description, and the subfields excepting
the version taken together identify the session irrespective of any
modifications.
5.3 Session Name ("s=")
s=<session name>
The "s=" field is the session name. There MUST be one and only one
"s=" field per session description. The "s=" field MUST NOT be empty
and SHOULD contain ISO 10646 characters (but see also the "a=charset"
attribute). If a session has no meaningful name, the value "s= "
SHOULD be used (i.e. a single space as the session name).
5.4 Session and Media Information ("i=")
i=<session description>
The "i=" field is information about the session. There may be at
most one session-level "i=" field per session description, and at
most one "i=" field per media. Although it may be omitted, this is
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NOT RECOMMENDED for session announcements, and user interfaces for
composing sessions should require text to be entered. If it is
present it must contain ISO 10646 characters (but see also the
"a=charset" attribute below).
A single "i=" field can also be used for each media definition. In
media definitions, "i=" fields are primarily intended for labeling
media streams. As such, they are most likely to be useful when a
single session has more than one distinct media stream of the same
media type. An example would be two different whiteboards, one for
slides and one for feedback and questions.
5.5 URI ("u=")
u=<URI>
A URI is a Universal Resource Identifier as used by WWW clients [4].
The URI should be a pointer to additional information about the
conference. This field is OPTIONAL, but if it is present it MUST be
specified before the first media field. No more than one URI field is
allowed per session description.
5.6 Email Address and Phone Number ("e=" and "p=")
e=<email address>
p=<phone number>
These specify contact information for the person responsible for the
conference. This is not necessarily the same person that created the
conference announcement.
Inclusion of an email address or phone number is OPTIONAL. Note that
the previous version of SDP specified that either an email field or a
phone field MUST be specified, but this was widely ignored. The
change brings the specification into line with common usage.
If the email addres or phone number are present, they MUST be
specified before the first media field. More than one email or phone
field can be given for a session description.
Phone numbers SHOULD be given in the conventional international
format: preceded by a "+" and the international country code. There
must be a space or a hyphen ("-") between the country code and the
rest of the phone number. Spaces and hyphens may be used to split up
a phone field to aid readability if desired. For example:
p=+44-171-380-7777 or p=+1 617 555 6011
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Both email addresses and phone numbers can have an optional free text
string associated with them, normally giving the name of the person
who may be contacted. This should be enclosed in parenthesis if it
is present. For example:
e=j.doe@example.com (Jane Doe)
The alternative RFC822 name quoting convention is also allowed for
both email addresses and phone numbers. For example:
e=Jane Doe <j.doe@example.com>
The free text string SHOULD be in the ISO-10646 character set with
UTF-8 encoding, or alternatively in ISO-8859-1 or other encodings if
the appropriate charset session-level attribute is set.
5.7 Connection Data ("c=")
c=<network type> <address type> <connection address>
The "c=" field contains connection data.
A session announcement MUST contain either at least one "c=" field in
each media description (see below) or a single "c=" field at the
session-level. It MAY contain a single session-level "c=" field and
additional "c=" field(s) per media description, in which case the
per-media values override the session-level settings for the
respective media.
The first sub-field is the network type, which is a text string
giving the type of network. Initially "IN" is defined to have the
meaning "Internet".
The second sub-field is the address type. This allows SDP to be used
for sessions that are not IP based. Currently only IP4 and IP6 are
defined.
The third sub-field is the connection address. Optional extra
sub-fields MAY be added after the connection address depending on the
value of the <address type> field.
For IP4 and IP6 addresses, the connection address is defined as
follows:
o If the session is multicast, the connection address will be an IP
multicast group address. If the session is not multicast, then
the connection address contains the unicast IP address of the
expected data source or data relay or data sink as determined by
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additional attribute fields. It is not expected that unicast
addresses will be given in a session description that is
communicated by a multicast announcement, though this is not
prohibited.
o Conferences using an IPv4 multicast connection address MUST also
have a time to live (TTL) value present in addition to the
multicast address. The TTL and the address together define the
scope with which multicast packets sent in this conference will be
sent. TTL values MUST be in the range 0-255.
The TTL for the session is appended to the address using a slash as a
separator. An example is:
c=IN IP4 224.2.36.42/127
IPv6 multicast does not use TTL scoping, and hence the TTL value MUST
NOT be present for IPv6 multicast. It is expected that IPv6 scoped
addresses will be used to limit the scope of conferences.
Hierarchical or layered encoding schemes are data streams where the
encoding from a single media source is split into a number of layers.
The receiver can choose the desired quality (and hence bandwidth) by
only subscribing to a subset of these layers. Such layered encodings
are normally transmitted in multiple multicast groups to allow
multicast pruning. This technique keeps unwanted traffic from sites
only requiring certain levels of the hierarchy. For applications
requiring multiple multicast groups, we allow the following notation
to be used for the connection address:
<base multicast address>[/<ttl>]/<number of addresses>
If the number of addresses is not given it is assumed to be one.
Multicast addresses so assigned are contiguously allocated above the
base address, so that, for example:
c=IN IP4 224.2.1.1/127/3
would state that addresses 224.2.1.1, 224.2.1.2 and 224.2.1.3 are to
be used at a ttl of 127. This is semantically identical to including
multiple "c=" lines in a media description:
c=IN IP4 224.2.1.1/127
c=IN IP4 224.2.1.2/127
c=IN IP4 224.2.1.3/127
Similarly, an IPv6 example would be:
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c=IN IP6 FF15::101/3
which is semantically equivalent to:
c=IN IP6 FF15::101
c=IN IP6 FF15::102
c=IN IP6 FF15::103
(remembering that the TTL field is not present in IPv6 multicast).
Multiple addresses or "c=" lines MAY be specified on a per-media
basis only if they provide multicast addresses for different layers
in a hierarchical or layered encoding scheme. They MUST NOT be
specified for a session-level "c=" field.
The slash notation described above MUST NOT be used for IP unicast
addresses.
5.8 Bandwidth ("b=")
b=<modifier>:<bandwidth-value>
This specifies the proposed bandwidth to be used by the session or
media, and is OPTIONAL.
The <bandwidth-value> is in kilobits per second by default. Modifiers
MAY specify that alternative units are to be used (the modifiers
defined in this memo use the default units).
The <modifier> is a single alphanumeric word giving the meaning of
the bandwidth figure. Two modifiers are initially defined:
CT If the bandwidth of a session or media in a session is different
from the bandwidth implicit from the scope, a "b=CT:..." line
should be supplied for the session giving the proposed upper limit
to the bandwidth used. The primary purpose of this is to give an
approximate idea as to whether two or more sessions can co-exist
simultaneously. When using the CT modifier with RTP, if several
RTP sessions are part of the conference, the conference total
refers to total bandwidth of all RTP sessions.
AS The bandwidth is interpreted to be application-specific (it will
be the application's concept of maximum bandwidth). Normally this
will coincide with what is set on the application's "maximum
bandwidth" control if applicable. For RTP based applications, AS
gives the RTP "session bandwidth" as defined in section 6.2 of
[12].
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Note that CT gives a total bandwidth figure for all the media at all
sites. AS gives a bandwidth figure for a single media at a single
site, although there may be many sites sending simultaneously.
Tool writers MAY define experimental bandwidth modifiers by prefixing
their modifier with "X-". For example:
b=X-YZ:128
Use of the "X-" prefix is NOT RECOMMENDED: instead new modifiers
SHOULD be registered with IANA in the standard namespace. SDP parsers
MUST ignore bandwidth fields with unknown modifiers. Modifiers MUST
be alpha-numeric and, although no length limit is given, they are
recommended to be short.
5.9 Timing ("t=")
t=<start time> <stop time>
"t=" fields specify the start and stop times for a session. Multiple
"t=" fields MAY be used if a session is active at multiple
irregularly spaced times; each additional "t=" field specifies an
additional period of time for which the session will be active. If
the session is active at regular times, an "r=" field (see below)
should be used in addition to and following a "t=" field - in which
case the "t=" field specifies the start and stop times of the repeat
sequence.
The first and second sub-fields give the start and stop times for the
session respectively. These values are the decimal representation of
Network Time Protocol (NTP) time values in seconds [7]. To convert
these values to UNIX time, subtract decimal 2208988800.
NTP timestamps are 64 bit values which wrap sometime in the year
2036. Since SDP uses an arbitrary length decimal representation,
this should not cause an issue (SDP timestamps will continue counting
seconds since 1900, NTP will use the value modulo the 64 bit limit).
If the stop-time is set to zero, then the session is not bounded,
though it will not become active until after the start-time. If the
start-time is also zero, the session is regarded as permanent.
User interfaces SHOULD strongly discourage the creation of unbounded
and permanent sessions as they give no information about when the
session is actually going to terminate, and so make scheduling
difficult.
The general assumption may be made, when displaying unbounded
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sessions that have not timed out to the user, that an unbounded
session will only be active until half an hour from the current time
or the session start time, whichever is the later. If behaviour
other than this is required, an end-time should be given and modified
as appropriate when new information becomes available about when the
session should really end.
Permanent sessions may be shown to the user as never being active
unless there are associated repeat times which state precisely when
the session will be active. In general, permanent sessions SHOULD
NOT be created for any session expected to have a duration of less
than 2 months, and should be discouraged for sessions expected to
have a duration of less than 6 months.
5.10 Repeat Times ("r=")
r=<repeat interval> <active duration> <offsets from start-time>
"r=" fields specify repeat times for a session. For example, if a
session is active at 10am on Monday and 11am on Tuesday for one hour
each week for three months, then the <start time> in the
corresponding "t=" field would be the NTP representation of 10am on
the first Monday, the <repeat interval> would be 1 week, the <active
duration> would be 1 hour, and the offsets would be zero and 25
hours. The corresponding "t=" field stop time would be the NTP
representation of the end of the last session three months later. By
default all fields are in seconds, so the "r=" and "t=" fields might
be:
t=3034423619 3042462419
r=604800 3600 0 90000
To make description more compact, times may also be given in units of
days, hours or minutes. The syntax for these is a number immediately
followed by a single case-sensitive character. Fractional units are
not allowed - a smaller unit should be used instead. The following
unit specification characters are allowed:
d - days (86400 seconds)
h - hours (3600 seconds)
m - minutes (60 seconds)
s - seconds (allowed for completeness but not recommended)
Thus, the above announcement could also have been written:
r=7d 1h 0 25h
Monthly and yearly repeats cannot be directly specified with a single
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SDP repeat time - instead separate "t=" fields should be used to
explicitly list the session times.
5.11 Time Zones ("z=")
z=<adjustment time> <offset> <adjustment time> <offset> ....
To schedule a repeated session which spans a change from daylight-
saving time to standard time or vice-versa, it is necessary to
specify offsets from the base time. This is required because
different time zones change time at different times of day, different
countries change to or from daylight time on different dates, and
some countries do not have daylight saving time at all.
Thus in order to schedule a session that is at the same time winter
and summer, it must be possible to specify unambiguously by whose
time zone a session is scheduled. To simplify this task for
receivers, we allow the sender to specify the NTP time that a time
zone adjustment happens and the offset from the time when the session
was first scheduled. The "z=" field allows the sender to specify a
list of these adjustment times and offsets from the base time.
An example might be:
z=2882844526 -1h 2898848070 0
This specifies that at time 2882844526 the time base by which the
session's repeat times are calculated is shifted back by 1 hour, and
that at time 2898848070 the session's original time base is restored.
Adjustments are always relative to the specified start time - they
are not cumulative. Adjustments apply to all "t=" and "r=" lines in
a session description.
If a session is likely to last several years, it is expected that the
session announcement will be modified periodically rather than
transmit several years worth of adjustments in one announcement.
5.12 Encryption Keys ("k=")
k=<method>
k=<method>:<encryption key>
If transported over a secure and trusted channel, the session
description protocol MAY be used to convey encryption keys. A simple
mechanism for key exchange is provided by the key field ("k=")
although this is primarily supported for compatibility with older
implementations and its use is NOT RECOMMENDED. Work is in progress
to define new key exchange mechanisms for use with SDP [17][16] and
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it is expected that new applications will use those mechanisms.
A key field is permitted before the first media entry (in which case
it applies to all media in the session), or for each media entry as
required. The format of keys and their usage is outside the scope of
this document, and the key field provides no way to indicate the
encryption algorithm to be used, key type, or other information about
the key: this is assumed to be provided by the higher-level protocol
using SDP. If there is a need to convey this information within SDP,
the extensions mentioned previously SHOULD be used. Many security
protocols require two keys, one for confidentiality and another for
integrity. This specification does not support the transfer of two
keys.
The method indicates the mechanism to be used to obtain a usable key
by external means, or from the encoded encryption key given. The
following methods are defined:
k=clear:<encryption key>
The encryption key is included untransformed in this key field.
This method MUST NOT be used unless it can be guaranteed that
the SDP is conveyed over a secure channel.
k=base64:<encoded encryption key>
The encryption key is included in this key field but has been
base64 encoded because it includes characters that are
prohibited in SDP. This method MUST NOT be used unless it can
be guaranteed that the SDP is conveyed over a secure channel.
k=uri:<URI to obtain key>
A Universal Resource Identifier is included in the key field.
The URI refers to the data containing the key, and may require
additional authentication before the key can be returned. When
a request is made to the given URI, the reply should specify
the encoding for the key. The URI is often a secure HTTP URI,
although this is not required.
k=prompt
No key is included in this SDP description, but the session or
media stream referred to by this key field is encrypted. The
user should be prompted for the key when attempting to join the
session, and this user-supplied key should then be used to
decrypt the media streams. The use of user-specified keys is
NOT RECOMMENDED, since such keys tend to have weak security
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properties.
The key field MUST NOT be used unless it can be guaranteed that the
SDP is conveyed over a secure and trusted channel. An example of such
a channel might be SDP embedded inside an S/MIME message or a TLS
protected HTTP or SIP session. It is important to ensure that the
secure channel is with the party that is authorized to join the
session, not an intermediary: if a caching proxy server is used, it
is important to ensure that the proxy is either trusted or unable to
access the SDP. Definition of appropriate security measures is beyond
the scope of this specification, and should be defined by the users
of SDP.
5.13 Attributes ("a=")
a=<attribute>
a=<attribute>:<value>
Attributes are the primary means for extending SDP. Attributes may
be defined to be used as "session-level" attributes, "media-level"
attributes, or both.
A media description may have any number of attributes ("a=" fields)
which are media specific. These are referred to as "media-level"
attributes and add information about the media stream. Attribute
fields can also be added before the first media field; these
"session-level" attributes convey additional information that applies
to the conference as a whole rather than to individual media; an
example might be the conference's floor control policy.
Attribute fields may be of two forms:
o property attributes:
A property attribute is simply of the form "a=<flag>".
These are binary attributes, and the presence of the
attribute conveys that the attribute is a property of
the session. An example might be "a=recvonly".
o value attributes:
A value attribute is of the form "a=<attribute>:<value>".
For example, a whiteboard could have the value attribute
"a=orient:landscape"
Attribute interpretation depends on the media tool being invoked.
Thus receivers of session descriptions should be configurable in
their interpretation of announcements in general and of attributes in
particular.
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Attribute names MUST be in the US-ASCII subset of ISO-10646/UTF-8.
Attribute values are octet strings, and MAY use any octet value
except 0x00 (Nul), 0x0A (LF), and 0x0D (CR). By default, attribute
values are to be interpreted as in ISO-10646 character set with UTF-8
encoding. Unlike other text fields, attribute values are NOT
normally affected by the "charset" attribute as this would make
comparisons against known values problematic. However, when an
attribute is defined, it can be defined to be charset-dependent, in
which case it's value should be interpreted in the session charset
rather than in ISO-10646.
Attributes MUST be registered with IANA (see Section 9). If an
attribute is received that is not understood, it MUST be ignored by
the receiver.
5.14 Media Announcements ("m=")
m=<media> <port> <transport> <fmt list>
A session description may contain a number of media descriptions.
Each media description starts with an "m=" field, and is terminated
by either the next "m=" field or by the end of the session
description. A media field has several sub-fields.
The first sub-field is the media type. Currently defined media are
"audio", "video", "application", "data" and "control", though this
list may be extended in future. The difference between "application"
and "data" is that the former is a media flow such as whiteboard
information, and the latter is bulk-data transfer such as
multicasting of program executables which will not typically be
displayed to the user. "control" is used to specify an additional
conference control channel for the session.
The second sub-field is the transport port to which the media stream
is sent. The meaning of the transport port depends on the network
being used as specified in the relevant "c=" field, and on the
transport protocol defined in the third sub-field. Other ports used
by the media application (such as the RTCP port [12]) MAY be derived
algorithmically from the base media port or MAY be specified in a
separate attribute (e.g. "a=rtcp:" as defined in [14]).
For applications where hierarchically encoded streams are being sent
to a unicast address, it may be necessary to specify multiple
transport ports. This is done using a similar notation to that used
for IP multicast addresses in the "c=" field:
m=<media> <port>/<number of ports> <transport> <fmt list>
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In such a case, the ports used depend on the transport protocol. For
RTP, the default is that only the even numbered ports are used for
data with the corresponding one-higher odd ports used for the RTCP
belonging to the RTP session, and the <number of ports> denoting the
number of RTP sessions. For example:
m=video 49170/2 RTP/AVP 31
would specify that ports 49170 and 49171 form one RTP/RTCP pair and
49172 and 49173 form the second RTP/RTCP pair. RTP/AVP is the
transport protocol and 31 is the format (see below). If non-
contiguous ports are required, they must be signalled using a
separate attribute (e.g. "a=rtcp:" as defined in [14]).
If multiple addresses are specified in the "c=" field and multiple
ports are specified in the "m=" field, a one-to-one mapping from port
to the corresponding address is implied. For example:
c=IN IP4 224.2.1.1/127/2
m=video 49170/2 RTP/AVP 31
would imply that address 224.2.1.1 is used with ports 49170 and
49171, and address 224.2.1.2 is used with ports 49172 and 49173.
The third sub-field is the transport protocol. The transport
protocol values are dependent on the address-type field in the "c="
fields. Thus a "c=" field of IP4 defines that the transport protocol
runs over IP4. For IP4, it is normally expected that most media
traffic will be carried as RTP over UDP. The following transport
protocols are defined, but may be extended through registration of
new protocols with IANA (see Section 9):
RTP/AVP - the IETF's Realtime Transport Protocol using the
Audio/Video profile carried over UDP.
udp - User Datagram Protocol
TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
If an application uses a single combined proprietary media format and
transport protocol over UDP, then simply specifying the transport
protocol as udp and using the format field to distinguish the
combined protocol is recommended. If a transport protocol is used
over UDP to carry several distinct media types that need to be
distinguished by a session directory, then specifying the transport
protocol and media format separately is necessary. RTP is an example
of a transport-protocol that carries multiple payload formats that
must be distinguished by the session directory for it to know how to
start appropriate tools, relays, mixers or recorders.
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The main reason to specify the transport-protocol in addition to the
media format is that the same standard media formats may be carried
over different transport protocols even when the network protocol is
the same - a historical example is vat PCM audio and RTP PCM audio.
In addition, relays and monitoring tools that are
transport-protocol-specific but format-independent are possible.
For RTP media streams operating under the RTP Audio/Video Profile
[13], the protocol field is "RTP/AVP". Should other RTP profiles be
defined in the future, their profiles will be specified in the same
way. For example, the protocol field "RTP/XYZ" would specify RTP
operating under a profile whose short name is "XYZ".
The fourth and subsequent sub-fields are media formats. For audio
and video, these SHOULD reference a MIME sub-type describing the
format under the "audio" and "video" top-level MIME types.
When a list of payload formats is given, this implies that all of
these formats may be used in the session, but the first of these
formats SHOULD be used as the default format for the session.
For media whose transport protocol is not RTP or UDP the format field
is protocol specific. Such formats should be defined in an
additional specification document.
For media whose transport protocol is RTP, SDP can be used to provide
a dynamic binding of media encoding to RTP payload type. The encoding
names in the RTP AV Profile do not specify unique audio encodings (in
terms of clock rate and number of audio channels), and so they are
not used directly in SDP format fields. Instead, the payload type
number should be used to specify the format for static payload types
and the payload type number along with additional encoding
information should be used for dynamically allocated payload types.
An example of a static payload type is u-law PCM coded single channel
audio sampled at 8kHz. This is completely defined in the RTP Audio/
Video profile as payload type 0, so the media field for such a stream
sent to UDP port 49232 is:
m=audio 49232 RTP/AVP 0
An example of a dynamic payload type is 16 bit linear encoded stereo
audio sampled at 16 kHz. If we wish to use dynamic RTP/AVP payload
type 98 for such a stream, additional information is required to
decode it:
m=audio 49232 RTP/AVP 98
a=rtpmap:98 L16/16000/2
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The general form of an rtpmap attribute is:
a=rtpmap:<payload type> <encoding name>/<clock rate>
[/<encoding parameters>]
For audio streams, <encoding parameters> may specify the number of
audio channels. This parameter may be omitted if the number of
channels is one provided no additional parameters are needed.
For video streams, no encoding parameters are currently specified.
Additional parameters may be defined in the future, but codec-
specific parameters SHOULD NOT be added. Parameters added to an
rtpmap attribute SHOULD only be those required for a session
directory to make the choice of appropriate media to participate in a
session. Codec-specific parameters should be added in other
attributes (for example, "a=fmtp:").
Up to one rtpmap attribute can be defined for each media format
specified. Thus we might have:
m=audio 49230 RTP/AVP 96 97 98
a=rtpmap:96 L8/8000
a=rtpmap:97 L16/8000
a=rtpmap:98 L16/11025/2
RTP profiles that specify the use of dynamic payload types MUST
define the set of valid encoding names and/or a means to register
encoding names if that profile is to be used with SDP.
Note that RTP audio formats typically do not include information
about the number of samples per packet. If a non-default (as defined
in the RTP Audio/Video Profile) packetisation is required, the
"ptime" attribute is used as given below.
For more details on RTP audio and video formats, see [13].
Predefined application formats for the UDP protocol with non-RTP
media are as below:
wb: LBL Whiteboard (transport: udp)
nt: UCL Network Text Editor (transport: udp)
6. Suggested Attributes
The following attributes are suggested. Since application writers
may add new attributes as they are required, this list is not
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exhaustive.
a=cat:<category>
This attribute gives the dot-separated hierarchical category
of the session. This is to enable a receiver to filter
unwanted sessions by category. It is a session-level
attribute, and is not dependent on charset.
a=keywds:<keywords>
Like the cat attribute, this is to assist identifying wanted
sessions at the receiver. This allows a receiver to select
interesting session based on keywords describing the purpose
of the session. It is a session-level attribute. It is a
charset dependent attribute, meaning that its value should be
interpreted in the charset specified for the session
description if one is specified, or by default in ISO
10646/UTF-8.
a=tool:<name and version of tool>
This gives the name and version number of the tool used to
create the session description. It is a session-level
attribute, and is not dependent on charset.
a=ptime:<packet time>
This gives the length of time in milliseconds represented by
the media in a packet. This is probably only meaningful for
audio data, but may be used with other media types if it makes
sense. It should not be necessary to know ptime to decode RTP
or vat audio, and it is intended as a recommendation for the
encoding/packetisation of audio. It is a media attribute, and
is not dependent on charset.
a=maxptime:<maximum packet time>
The maximum amount of media which can be encapsulated in each
packet, expressed as time in milliseconds. The time SHALL be
calculated as the sum of the time the media present in the
packet represents. The time SHOULD be a multiple of the frame
size. This attribute is probably only meaningful for audio
data, but may be used with other media types if it makes
sense. It is a media attribute, and is not dependent on
charset. Note that this attribute was introduced after RFC
2327, and non updated implementations will ignore this
attribute.
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a=rtpmap:<payload type> <encoding name>/<clock rate>
[/<encoding parameters>]
See Section 5.14. This may be a session or media attribute.
a=recvonly
This specifies that the tools should be started in receive
only mode where applicable. It can be either a session or
media attribute, and is not dependent on charset. Note that
recvonly applies to the media only, not to any associated
control protocol (e.g. an RTP based system in recvonly mode
SHOULD still send RTCP packets).
a=sendrecv
This specifies that the tools should be started in send and
receive mode. This is necessary for interactive conferences
with tools that default to receive only mode. It can be either
a session or media attribute, and is not dependent on charset.
If none of the attributes "sendonly", "recvonly", "inactive",
and "sendrecv" is present, "sendrecv" SHOULD be assumed as the
default for sessions which are not of the conference type
"broadcast" or "H332" (see below).
a=sendonly
This specifies that the tools should be started in send-only
mode. An example may be where a different unicast address is
to be used for a traffic destination than for a traffic
source. In such a case, two media descriptions may be use,
one sendonly and one recvonly. It can be either a session or
media attribute, but would normally only be used as a media
attribute, and is not dependent on charset. Note that sendonly
applies only to the media, and any associated control protocol
(e.g. RTCP) SHOULD still be received and processed as normal.
a=inactive
This specifies that the tools should be started in inactive
mode. This is necessary for interactive conferences where
users can put other users on hold. No media is sent over an
inactive media stream. Note that an RTP based system SHOULD
still send RTCP, even if started inactive. It can be either a
session or media attribute, and is not dependent on charset.
a=orient:<whiteboard orientation>
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Normally this is only used in a whiteboard media specification.
It specifies the orientation of a the whiteboard on the screen.
It is a media attribute. Permitted values are "portrait",
"landscape" and "seascape" (upside down landscape). It is not
dependent on charset.
a=type:<conference type>
This specifies the type of the conference. Suggested values
are "broadcast", "meeting", "moderated", "test" and "H332".
"recvonly" should be the default for "type:broadcast"
sessions, "type:meeting" should imply "sendrecv" and
"type:moderated" should indicate the use of a floor control
tool and that the media tools are started so as to mute new
sites joining the conference.
Specifying the attribute "type:H332" indicates that this
loosely coupled session is part of a H.332 session as defined
in the ITU H.332 specification [15]. Media tools should be
started "recvonly".
Specifying the attribute "type:test" is suggested as a hint
that, unless explicitly requested otherwise, receivers can
safely avoid displaying this session description to users.
The type attribute is a session-level attribute, and is not
dependent on charset.
a=charset:<character set>
This specifies the character set to be used to display the
session name and information data. By default, the ISO-10646
character set in UTF-8 encoding is used. If a more compact
representation is required, other character sets may be used
such as ISO-8859-1 for Northern European languages. In
particular, the ISO 8859-1 is specified with the following
SDP attribute:
a=charset:ISO-8859-1
This is a session-level attribute; if this attribute is
present, it MUST be before the first media field. The charset
specified MUST be one of those registered with IANA, such as
ISO-8859-1. The character set identifier is a US-ASCII string
and MUST be compared against the IANA identifiers using a
case- insensitive comparison. If the identifier is not
recognised or not supported, all strings that are affected by
it SHOULD be regarded as octet strings.
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Note that a character set specified MUST still prohibit the
use of bytes 0x00 (Nul), 0x0A (LF) and 0x0d (CR). Character
sets requiring the use of these characters MUST define a
quoting mechanism that prevents these bytes appearing within
text fields.
a=sdplang:<language tag>
This can be a session level attribute or a media level
attribute. As a session level attribute, it specifies the
language for the session description. As a media level
attribute, it specifies the language for any media-level SDP
information field associated with that media. Multiple
sdplang attributes can be provided either at session or media
level if multiple languages in the session description or
media use multiple languages, in which case the order of the
attributes indicates the order of importance of the various
languages in the session or media from most important to least
important.
In general, sending session descriptions consisting of
multiple languages is discouraged. Instead, multiple
descriptions SHOULD be sent describing the session, one in
each language. However this is not possible with all
transport mechanisms, and so multiple sdplang attributes are
allowed although NOT RECOMMENDED.
The "sdplang" attribute value must be a single RFC 3066
language tag in US-ASCII [6]. It is not dependent on
the charset attribute. An "sdplang" attribute SHOULD be
specified when a session is of sufficient scope to cross
geographic boundaries where the language of recipients cannot
be assumed, or where the session is in a different language
from the locally assumed norm.
a=lang:<language tag>
This can be a session level attribute or a media level
attribute. As a session level attribute, it specifies the
default language for the session being described. As a media
level attribute, it specifies the language for that media,
overriding any session-level language specified. Multiple
lang attributes can be provided either at session or media
level if the session description or media use multiple
languages, in which case the order of the attributes indicates
the order of importance of the various languages in the
session or media from most important to least important.
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The "lang" attribute value must be a single RFC 3066 language
tag in US-ASCII [6]. It is not dependent on the charset
attribute. A "lang" attribute SHOULD be specified when a
session is of sufficient scope to cross geographic boundaries
where the language of recipients cannot be assumed, or where
the session is in a different language from the locally
assumed norm.
a=framerate:<frame rate>
This gives the maximum video frame rate in frames/sec. It is
intended as a recommendation for the encoding of video data.
Decimal representations of fractional values using the
notation "<integer>.<fraction>" are allowed. It is a
media attribute, defined only for video media, and is not
dependent on charset.
a=quality:<quality>
This gives a suggestion for the quality of the encoding as an
integer value. The intention of the quality attribute for
video is to specify a non-default trade-off between frame-rate
and still-image quality. For video, the value in the range 0
to 10, with the following suggested meaning:
10 - the best still-image quality the compression scheme
can give.
5 - the default behaviour given no quality suggestion.
0 - the worst still-image quality the codec designer
thinks is still usable.
It is a media attribute, and is not dependent on charset.
a=fmtp:<format> <format specific parameters>
This attribute allows parameters that are specific to a
particular format to be conveyed in a way that SDP doesn't
have to understand them. The format must be one of the
formats specified for the media. Format-specific parameters
may be any set of parameters required to be conveyed by SDP
and given unchanged to the media tool that will use this
format.
It is a media attribute, and is not dependent on charset.
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7. Communicating Conference Control Policy
There is some debate over the way conference control policy should be
communicated. In general, the authors believe that an implicit
declarative style of specifying conference control is desirable where
possible.
A simple declarative style uses a single conference attribute field
before the first media field, possibly supplemented by properties
such as `recvonly' for some of the media tools. This conference
attribute conveys the conference control policy. An example might
be:
a=type:moderated
In some cases, however, it is possible that this may be insufficient
to communicate the details of an unusual conference control policy.
If this is the case, then a conference attribute specifying external
control might be set, and then one or more "media" fields might be
used to specify the conference control tools and configuration data
for those tools. An example is an ITU H.332 session:
...
c=IN IP4 224.5.6.7
a=type:H332
m=audio 49230 RTP/AVP 0
m=video 49232 RTP/AVP 31
m=application 12349 udp wb
m=control 49234 H323 mc
c=IN IP4 134.134.157.81
In this example, a general conference attribute (type:H332) is
specified stating that conference control will be provided by an
external H.332 tool, and a contact addresses for the H.323 session
multipoint controller is given.
In this document, only the declarative style of conference control
declaration is specified. Other forms of conference control should
specify an appropriate type attribute, and should define the
implications this has for control media.
8. Security Considerations
SDP is a session description format that describes multimedia
sessions. A session description SHOULD NOT be trusted unless it has
been obtained by an authenticated transport protocol from a trusted
source. Many different transport protocols may be used to distribute
session description, and the nature of the authentication will differ
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from transport to transport.
One transport that will frequently be used to distribute session
descriptions is the Session Announcement Protocol (SAP). SAP
provides both encryption and authentication mechanisms but due to the
nature of session announcements it is likely that there are many
occasions where the originator of a session announcement cannot be
authenticated because they are previously unknown to the receiver of
the announcement and because no common public key infrastructure is
available.
On receiving a session description over an unauthenticated transport
mechanism or from an untrusted party, software parsing the session
should take a few precautions. Session descriptions contain
information required to start software on the receivers system.
Software that parses a session description MUST NOT be able to start
other software except that which is specifically configured as
appropriate software to participate in multimedia sessions. It is
normally considered inappropriate for software parsing a session
description to start, on a user's system, software that is
appropriate to participate in multimedia sessions, without the user
first being informed that such software will be started and giving
their consent. Thus a session description arriving by session
announcement, email, session invitation, or WWW page MUST NOT deliver
the user into an interactive multimedia session unless the user has
explicitly pre-authorized such action. As it is not always simple to
tell whether a session is interactive or not, applications that are
unsure should assume sessions are interactive.
In this specification, there are no attributes which would allow the
recipient of a session description to be informed to start multimedia
tools in a mode where they default to transmitting. Under some
circumstances it might be appropriate to define such attributes. If
this is done an application parsing a session description containing
such attributes SHOULD either ignore them, or inform the user that
joining this session will result in the automatic transmission of
multimedia data. The default behaviour for an unknown attribute is
to ignore it.
Session descriptions may be parsed at intermediate systems such as
firewalls for the purposes of opening a hole in the firewall to allow
the participation in multimedia sessions. It is considered
inappropriate for a firewall to open such holes for unicast data
streams unless the session description comes in a request from inside
the firewall. For multicast sessions, it is likely that local
administrators will apply their own policies, but the exclusive use
of "local" or "site-local" administrative scope within the firewall
and the refusal of the firewall to open a hole for such scopes will
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provide separation of global multicast sessions from local ones.
Use of the "k=" field poses a significant security risk, since it
conveys session encryption keys in the clear. SDP MUST NOT be used
to convey key material, unless it can be guaranteed that the channel
over which the SDP is delivered is both private and authenticated.
9. IANA Considerations
9.1 The "application/sdp" media type
One new MIME type is to be registered, as defined below. This updates
the previous definition from RFC 2327.
To: ietf-types@iana.org
Subject: Registration of MIME media type application/sdp
MIME media type name: application
MIME subtype name: sdp
Required parameters: None.
Optional parameters: None.
Encoding considerations:
See section 5 of RFC XXXX
Security considerations:
See section 8 of RFC XXXX
Interoperability considerations:
See RFC XXXX
Published specification:
RFC XXXX
Applications which use this media type:
Voice over IP, video teleconferencing, streaming media, instant
messaging, etc. See also section 3 of RFC XXXX.
Additional information:
Magic number(s): None.
File extension(s): The extension ".sdp" is commonly used.
Macintosh File Type Code(s):
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Person & email address to contact for further information:
Colin Perkins <csp@csperkins.org>
IETF MMUSIC working group
Intended usage: COMMON
Author/Change controller:
Authors of RFC XXXX
IETF MMUSIC working group
9.2 Registration of Parameters
There are seven field names that may be registered with IANA. Using
the terminology in the SDP specification BNF, they are "media",
"proto", "fmt", "att-field", "bwtype", "nettype" and "addrtype".
9.2.1 Media types ("media")
The set of media types is intended to be small and SHOULD NOT be
extended except under rare circumstances. The same rules should
apply for media names as for top-level MIME content types, and where
possible the same name should be registered for SDP as for MIME. For
media other than existing MIME top-level content types, a
standards-track RFC MUST be produced for a new top-level content type
to be registered, and the registration MUST provide good
justification why no existing media name is appropriate (the
"Standards Action" policy of RFC 2434 [5].
9.2.2 Transport protocols ("proto")
The "proto" field describes the transport protocol used. This SHOULD
reference a standards-track protocol RFC. This memo registers three
values: "RTP/AVP" is a reference to RTP [12] used under the RTP
Profile for Audio and Video Conferences with Minimal Control [13]
running over UDP/IP; "TCP" denotes an unspecified format over TCP;
and "udp" indicates an unspecified format over UDP.
New transport protocols MAY be registered with IANA. Registrations
MUST reference an RFC describing the protocol. Such an RFC MAY be
Experimental or Informational, although it is preferable if it is
Standards-Track. Registrations MUST also define the rules by which
their "fmt" namespace is managed (see below).
9.2.3 Media formats ("fmt")
Each transport protocol, defined by the "proto" field, has an
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associated "fmt" namespace that describes the media formats which may
conveyed by that protocol. Formats cover all the possible encodings
that might want to be transported in a multimedia session.
RTP payload formats under the "RTP/AVP" protocol that have been
assigned static payload types MUST use the static payload type as
their "fmt" value. For payload formats under "RTP/AVP" that have a
dynamic payload type number, the dynamic payload type number is given
as the "fmt" and an additional "rtpmap" attribute specifies the
format name and parameters as defined by the MIME type registration
for the payload format.
For "TCP" and "udp" protocols, new formats SHOULD be registered. Use
of an existing MIME subtype for the format is encouraged. If no MIME
subtype exists, it is RECOMMENDED that a suitable one is registered
through the IETF process (RFC 2048) by production of, or reference
to, a standards-track RFC. If a MIME subtype is for some reason
inappropriate, an RFC publication describing the format MUST be
referenced in the registration, but it may be Informational or
Experimental if the protocol is not deemed to be of widespread
deployment.
For other protocols, formats MAY be registered according to the rules
of the associated "proto" specification.
Registrations of new formats MUST specify which transport protocols
they apply to.
9.2.4 Attribute names ("att-field")
Attribute field names ("att-field") MUST be registered with IANA and
documented, because of noticeable issues due to conflicting
attributes under the same name. Unknown attributes in SDP are simply
ignored, but conflicting ones that fragment the protocol are a
serious problem.
New attribute registerations are accepted according to the
"Specification Required" policy of RFC 2434, provided that the
specification includes the following information:
o contact name, email address and telephone number
o attribute-name (as it will appear in SDP)
o long-form attribute name in English
o type of attribute (session level, media level, or both)
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o whether the attribute value is subject to the charset attribute.
o a one paragraph explanation of the purpose of the attribute.
o a specification of appropriate attribute values for this
attribute.
The above is the minimum that IANA will accept. Attributes that are
expected to see widespread use and interoperability, SHOULD be
documented with a standards-track RFC that specifies the attribute
more precisely.
Submitters of registrations should ensure that the specification is
in the spirit of SDP attributes, most notably that the attribute is
platform independent in the sense that it makes no implicit
assumptions about operating systems and does not name specific pieces
of software in a manner that might inhibit interoperability.
9.2.5 Bandwidth specifiers ("bwtype")
A proliferation of bandwidth specifiers is strongly discouraged.
New bandwidth specifiers ("bwtype" fields) MUST be registered with
IANA. The submission MUST reference a standards-track RFC specifying
the semantics of the bandwidth specifier precisely, and indicating
when it should be used, and why the existing registered bandwidth
specifiers do not suffice.
9.2.6 Network types ("nettype")
New network types (the "nettype" field) may be registered with IANA
if SDP needs to be used in the context of non-Internet environments.
Whilst these are not normally the preserve of IANA, there may be
circumstances when an Internet application needs to interoperate with
a non- Internet application, such as when gatewaying an Internet
telephony call into the PSTN. The number of network types should be
small and should be rarely extended. A new network type cannot be
registered without registering at least one address type to be used
with that network type. A new network type registration MUST
reference an RFC which gives details of the network type and address
type and specifies how and when they would be used. Such an RFC MAY
be Informational.
9.2.7 Address types ("addrtype")
New address types ("addrtype") may be registered with IANA. An
address type is only meaningful in the context of a network type, and
any registration of an address type MUST specify a registered network
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type, or be submitted along with a network type registration. A new
address type registration MUST reference an RFC giving details of the
syntax of the address type. Such an RFC MAY be Informational.
Address types are not expected to be registered frequently.
9.2.8 Registration Procedure
In the RFC documentation that registers SDP "media", "proto", "fmt",
"bwtype", "nettype" and "addrtype" fields, the authors MUST include
the following information for IANA to place in the appropriate
registry:
o contact name, email address and telephone number
o name being registered (as it will appear in SDP)
o long-form name in English
o type of name ("media", "proto", "fmt", "bwtype", "nettype", or
"addrtype")
o a one paragraph explanation of the purpose of the registered name.
o a reference to the specification (e.g. RFC number) of the
registered name.
IANA may refer any registration to the IESG Transport Area Directors
for review, and may request revisions to be made before a
registration will be made.
Appendix A. SDP Grammar
This appendix provides an Augmented BNF grammar for SDP. ABNF is
defined in [2].
; SDP Syntax
announcement = proto-version
origin-field
session-name-field
information-field
uri-field
email-fields
phone-fields
connection-field
bandwidth-fields
time-fields
key-field
attribute-fields
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media-descriptions
proto-version = "v=" 1*DIGIT CRLF
;this memo describes version 0
origin-field = "o=" username SP sess-id SP sess-version SP
nettype SP addrtype SP unicast-address CRLF
session-name-field = "s=" text CRLF
information-field = ["i=" text CRLF]
uri-field = ["u=" uri CRLF]
email-fields = *("e=" email-address CRLF)
phone-fields = *("p=" phone-number CRLF)
connection-field = ["c=" nettype SP addrtype SP
connection-address CRLF]
;a connection field must be present
;in every media description or at the
;session-level
bandwidth-fields = *("b=" bwtype ":" bandwidth CRLF)
time-fields = 1*( "t=" start-time SP stop-time
*(CRLF repeat-fields) CRLF)
[zone-adjustments CRLF]
repeat-fields = "r=" repeat-interval SP typed-time
1*(SP typed-time)
zone-adjustments = "z=" time SP ["-"] typed-time
*(SP time SP ["-"] typed-time)
key-field = ["k=" key-type CRLF]
attribute-fields = *("a=" attribute CRLF)
media-descriptions = *( media-field
information-field
*connection-field
bandwidth-fields
key-field
attribute-fields )
media-field = "m=" media SP port ["/" integer]
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SP proto 1*(SP fmt) CRLF
; sub-rules of 'o='
username = non-ws-string
;pretty wide definition, but doesn't
;include space
sess-id = 1*DIGIT
;should be unique for this username/host
sess-version = 1*DIGIT
;0 is a new session
nettype = token
;typically "IN"
addrtype = token
;typically "IP4" or "IP6"
; sub-rules of 'u='
uri = URI-reference; see RFC1630 and RFC2732
; sub-rules of 'e='
email-address = email *SP "(" 1*email-safe ")" /
1*email-safe "<" email ">" /
email
email = addr-spec ; defined in RFC2822
; modified to remove CFWS
; sub-rules of 'p='
phone-number = phone *SP "(" 1*email-safe ")" /
1*email-safe "<" phone ">" /
phone
phone = "+" POS-DIGIT 1*(SP / "-" / DIGIT)
;there must be a space or hyphen between
;the international code and the rest of
;the number.
; sub-rules of 'c='
connection-address = multicast-address / unicast-address
; sub-rules of 'b='
bwtype = token
bandwidth = 1*DIGIT
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; sub-rules of 't='
start-time = time / "0"
stop-time = time / "0"
time = POS-DIGIT 9*DIGIT
; 10-digit NTP time represents times between
; 1931 and 5068 AD. 9* allows times after
; that as well.
; sub-rules of 'r=' and 'z='
repeat-interval = POS-DIGIT *DIGIT [fixed-len-time-unit]
typed-time = 1*DIGIT [fixed-len-time-unit]
fixed-len-time-unit = "d" / "h" / "m" / "s"
; sub-rules of 'k='
key-type = "prompt" /
"clear:" text /
"base64:" base64 /
"uri:" uri /
key-method [ ":" text ]
base64 = *base64-unit [base64-pad]
base64-unit = 4base64-char
base64-pad = 2base64-char "==" / 3base64-char "="
base64-char = ALPHA / DIGIT / "+" / "/"
key-method = token
; sub-rules of 'a='
attribute = (att-field ":" att-value) / att-field
att-field = token
att-value = byte-string
; sub-rules of 'm='
media = token
;typically "audio", "video", "application"
;or "data"
fmt = token
;typically an RTP payload type for audio
;and video media
proto = token "/" token
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/ token
;typically "RTP/AVP" or "udp" for IP4
port = 1*DIGIT
;should be either "0" or in the range "1024"
;to "65535" inclusive for UDP based media
;(a value of "0" is used to signal special
;conditions in some uses of SDP)
; generic sub-rules: addressing
unicast-address = IP4-address / IP6-address / FQDN / extn-addr
multicast-address = IP4-multicast / IP6-multicast
IP4-multicast = m1 3( "." decimal-uchar )
"/" ttl [ "/" integer ]
; IPv4 multicast addresses may be in the
; range 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255
m1 = ("22" ("4"/"5"/"6"/"7"/"8"/"9")) /
("23" DIGIT )
IP6-multicast = hexpart [ "/" integer ]
; IPv6 address starting with FF
ttl = (POS-DIGIT *2DIGIT) / "0"
FQDN = 4*(alpha-numeric / "-" / ".")
; fully qualified domain name as specified
; in RFC1035
IP4-address = b1 3("." decimal-uchar) / "0.0.0.0"
b1 = decimal-uchar
; less than "224"; not "0" or "127"
; The following is from RFC2373 Appendix B. It is a direct copy.
IP6-address = hexpart [ ":" IP4-address ]
hexpart = hexseq / hexseq "::" [ hexseq ] /
"::" [ hexseq ]
hexseq = hex4 *( ":" hex4)
hex4 = 1*4HEXDIG
; Generic for other address families
extn-addr = non-ws-string
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; generic sub-rules: datatypes
text = byte-string
;default is to interpret this as UTF8 text.
;ISO 8859-1 requires "a=charset:ISO-8859-1"
;session-level attribute to be used
byte-string = 1*(%x01-09/%x0B-0C/%x0E-FF)
;any byte except NUL, CR or LF
non-ws-string = 1*(VCHAR/%x80-FF)
;string of visible characters
token-char = %x21 / %x23-27 / %x2A-2B / %x2D-2E / %x30-39
/ %x41-5A / %x5E-7E
token = 1*(token-char)
email-safe = %x01-09/%x0B-0C/%x0E-27/%x2A-3B/%x3D/%x3F-FF
;any byte except NUL, CR, LF, or the quoting
;characters ()<>
integer = POS-DIGIT *DIGIT
; generic sub-rules: primitives
alpha-numeric = ALPHA / DIGIT
POS-DIGIT = %x31-39 ; 1 - 9
decimal-uchar = DIGIT
/ POS-DIGIT DIGIT
/ ("1" 2*(DIGIT))
/ ("2" ("0"/"1"/"2"/"3"/"4") DIGIT)
/ ("2" "5" ("0"/"1"/"2"/"3"/"4"/"5"))
; external references:
; ALPHA, DIGIT, CRLF, SP, VCHAR: from RFC 2234
; URI-reference: from RFC1630 and RFC2732
; addr-spec: from RFC 2822
Appendix B. Acknowledgments
Many people in the IETF MMUSIC working group have made comments and
suggestions contributing to this document. In particular, we would
like to thank Eve Schooler, Steve Casner, Bill Fenner, Allison
Mankin, Ross Finlayson, Peter Parnes, Joerg Ott, Carsten Bormann,
Steve Hanna and Jonathan Lennox.
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Normative References
[1] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[2] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
[3] Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646", RFC
2279, January 1998.
[4] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R. and L. Masinter, "Uniform Resource
Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 2396, August 1998.
[5] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA
Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 2434, October 1998.
[6] Alvestrand, H., "Tags for the Identification of Languages", BCP
47, RFC 3066, January 2001.
Informative References
[7] Mills, D., "Network Time Protocol (Version 3) Specification,
Implementation", RFC 1305, March 1992.
[8] Handley, M., Perkins, C. and E. Whelan, "Session Announcement
Protocol", RFC 2974, October 2000.
[9] Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston, A.,
Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M. and E. Schooler, "SIP:
Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261, June 2002.
[10] Schulzrinne, H., Rao, A. and R. Lanphier, "Real Time Streaming
Protocol (RTSP)", RFC 2326, April 1998.
[11] Rosenberg, J. and H. Schulzrinne, "An Offer/Answer Model with
Session Description Protocol (SDP)", RFC 3264, June 2002.
[12] Schulzrinne, H., Casner, S., Frederick, R. and V. Jacobson,
"RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications", RFC
3550, July 2003.
[13] Schulzrinne, H. and S. Casner, "RTP Profile for Audio and Video
Conferences with Minimal Control", RFC 3551, July 2003.
[14] Huitema, C., "Real Time Control Protocol (RTCP) attribute in
Session Description Protocol (SDP)", RFC 3605, October 2003.
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[15] International Telecommunications Union, "H.323 extended for
loosely coupled conferences", ITU Recommendation H.332,
September 1998.
[16] Arkko, J., "Key Management Extensions for Session Description
Protocol (SDP) and Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP)",
draft-ietf-mmusic-kmgmt-ext-09 (work in progress), October
2003.
[17] Andreasen, F., Baugher, M. and D. Wing, "SDP Security
Descriptions for Media Streams",
draft-ietf-mmusic-sdescriptions-02 (work in progress), October
2003.
Authors' Addresses
Mark Handley
University College London
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
UK
EMail: M.Handley@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Van Jacobson
Packet Design
2465 Latham Street
Mountain View, CA 94040
USA
EMail: van@packetdesign.com
Colin Perkins
University of Glasgow
17 Lilybank Gardens
Glasgow G12 8QQ
UK
EMail: csp@csperkins.org
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