Media Server Control Protocol Requirements
RFC 5167

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Network Working Group                                           M. Dolly
Request for Comments: 5167                                     AT&T Labs
Category: Informational                                          R. Even
                                                                 Polycom
                                                              March 2008

               Media Server Control Protocol Requirements

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.

Abstract

   This document addresses the communication between an application
   server and media server.  The current work in IETF working groups
   shows these logical entities, but it does not address the physical
   decomposition and the protocol between the entities.

   This document presents the requirements for a Media Server Control
   Protocol (MCP) that enables an application server to use a media
   server.  It will address the aspects of announcements, Interactive
   Voice Response, and conferencing media services.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
   3.  Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
     3.1.  Media Control Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
     3.2.  Media mixing Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     3.3.  IVR Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
     3.4.  Operational Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
   5.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
   6.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Dolly & Even                 Informational                      [Page 1]
RFC 5167                    MCP Requirements                  March 2008

1.  Introduction

   The IETF conferencing framework in RFC 4353 [CARCH] presents an
   architecture that is built of several functional entities.  RFC 4353
   [CARCH] does not specify the protocols between the functional
   entities since it is considered out of scope.

   Based on RFC 4353 [CARCH], this document defines the requirements for
   a protocol that will enable one functional entity, known as an
   Application Server (AS), that includes the conference/media policy
   server, the notification server, and the focus, all defined in RFC
   4353 [CARCH], to interact with one or more functional entities,
   called Media Server (MS), that serves as mixer or media server.

   The media server can also be used for announcements and Interactive
   Voice Response (IVR) functions.

   Application servers host one or more instances of a communication
   application.  Media servers provide real time media processing
   functions.  An example of the decomposition of a media server and an
   application server is described in the media control framework
   document [MEDIACTRL-FW].

   This document presents the requirements for a Media Server Control
   Protocol (MCP) that enables an application server to control a media
   server.  It will address the aspects of announcements, IVR, and
   conferencing media services.

   The requirements are for the protocol and do not address the AS or MS
   functionality discussed in the media control framework.

   Since the media server is a centralized component, the charter of the
   working group states that this work will not investigate distributed
   media processing algorithms or control protocols.

2.  Terminology

   The media server work uses, when appropriate, and expands on the
   terminology introduced in the conferencing framework [CARCH] and
   Centralized Conferencing (XCON) framework [XCON-FRMWRK].  The
   following additional terms are defined:

   Application Server (AS) - A functional entity that hosts one or more
   instances of a communication application.  The application server may
   include the conference policy server, the focus, and the conference
   notification server, as defined in [CARCH].  Also, it may include
   communication applications that use IVR or announcement services.

Dolly & Even                 Informational                      [Page 2]
RFC 5167                    MCP Requirements                  March 2008

   Media Server (MS) - The media server includes the mixer as defined in
   [CARCH].  The media server plays announcements, it processes media
   streams for functions like Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) detection
   and transcoding.  The media server may also record media streams for
   supporting IVR functions like announcing participants

   Media Resource Broker (MRB) - A logical entity that is responsible
   for both the collection of appropriate published Media Server (MS)
   information and supplying of appropriate MS information to consuming