Voice Messaging Client Behaviour
RFC 4024

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Network Working Group                                         G. Parsons
Request for Comments: 4024                               Nortel Networks
Category: Informational                                      J. Maruszak
                                                               July 2005

                   Voice Messaging Client Behaviour

Status of This Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).

Abstract

   This document defines the expected behaviour of a client to various
   aspects of a Voice Profile for Internet Mail (VPIM) message or any
   voice and/or fax message.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction..................................................  2
   2.  Conventions Used in This Document.............................  2
   3.  Message Icon..................................................  3
       3.1.  Proposed Mechanism......................................  3
   4.  Sender's Number Column........................................  3
       4.1.  Proposed Mechanism......................................  4
   5.  Message Size..................................................  4
       5.1.  Proposed Mechanism......................................  4
   6.  Media Viewer..................................................  5
       6.1.  Proposed Mechanism......................................  6
   7.  Mark Message as Read..........................................  6
       7.1.  Proposed Mechanism......................................  6
   8.  Security Considerations.......................................  7
   9.  Informative References........................................  7
   10. Acknowledgments...............................................  8

Parsons & Maruszak           Informational                      [Page 1]
RFC 4024            Voice Messaging Client Behaviour           July 2005

1.  Introduction

   As Internet messaging evolves into unified messaging, the term
   "e-mail" no longer refers to text-only messages.  Today's "e-mail"
   are often multi-media.  That is, they can have numerous non-text
   parts.  These parts can be attachments or can contain voice and/or
   fax.

   Each of voice, fax, and text have their own distinct characteristics,
   which are intuitive to the user.  For example, each of these message
   types require a different media viewer (text editor for text, audio
   player for voice, and image viewer for fax), and the dimensions of
   message size are also different for all three (kilobytes for text,
   seconds for voice, and pages for fax).  As a result, a message that
   includes more than one of these in its parts is termed a mixed media
   message.

   How the messaging client responds to, and acts on these differences
   is termed "Client Behaviour".  This is dependent on the concept of
   "Message-Context" [2] (previously called primary content), which
   defines whether the message is a voice mail, fax, or text message.
   The client can utilize this header to determine the appropriate
   client behaviour for a particular message.

   Traditionally, a messaging "client" referred to some sort of visual
   interface (or GUI - graphical user interface) that was presented on
   the users computer.  However, as messaging evolves to unified
   communications the actual form of the messaging client is expected to
   change.  Today's email can often be viewed on wireless devices with
   very limited screens or even "viewed" over a telephone (i.e.,
   listening to email as you would listen to voice mail through a TUI -
   telset user interface).

   The intent of this document is to be general and refer to all types
   of messaging clients, as the user's expectation of behaviour based on
   the type of message is not expected to change.  However, some of the
   following concepts may tend towards the more common GUI client.

2.  Conventions Used in This Document

   In examples, "C:" and "S:" indicate lines sent by the client and
   server respectively.

   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 [4].

Parsons & Maruszak           Informational                      [Page 2]
RFC 4024            Voice Messaging Client Behaviour           July 2005

3.  Message Icon

   The preferred method to distinguish between voice, fax, and text
   messages on a GUI client is with a visual cue, or icon.  A similar
   voice prompt or "earcon" would be used for TUI clients.

   As it is possible for the message to contain more than one media
   type, the icon should describe the primary message content, as
   defined by the "Message-Context" header.  Obvious choices for the
   icon/message pairs would be a telephone for a voice message, a fax