WG Review: FEC Framework (fecframe)

[IESG Secretary <[e-mail]>]

A new IETF working group has been proposed in the Transport Area. The IESG has 
not made any determination as yet.  The following draft charter was submitted, 
and is provided for informational purposes only.  Please send your comments to 
the IESG mailing list ([e-mail]) by April 21st.

+++

FEC Framework (fecframe)
=========================

Current Status: Proposed Working Group 

Chairs: 
TBD

Transport Area Director(s): 
Magnus Westerlund ([e-mail]) 
Lars Eggert ([e-mail]) 

Transport Area Advisor: 
TBD

Charter for FECFrame Working Group 

The object of this group is to develop specifications for using forward 
error correction (FEC) codes with applications in the Internet to 
provide protection against packet loss. The group will develop a 
protocol framework for application of FEC codes to arbitrary packet 
flows over unreliable transport protocols over both IP multicast and 
unicast. The application of the FEC codec on an aggregate of multiple 
packet flows may be investigated and considered to be included in the 
solution. 

The FECFrame working group will use the building block approach (RFC 
3269), especially the FEC Building Block (RFC 3452), developed by the 
RMT working group. The FEC Building Block was developed to ensure that 
the RMT framework developed can support multiple FEC codes and maintain 
independence between FEC codes and protocols based on the framework. The 
FECFrame WG may develop new FEC schemes if necessary to provide 
substantial performance gains for the intended applications. However 
the acceptance of any FEC scheme will require multiple, prior, detailed 
reviews of the FEC code by independent experts from both the IETF and 
the broader community, since it is likely that the IETF working group 
will not include a large enough number of suitable experts in its 
working set. If these reviews are positive, then Working Group 
acceptance of an FEC scheme work item still needs the approval of the 
responsible Area 
Director. 

A primary objective of this framework is to support FEC for real-time 
media applications using RTP over UDP, such as on demand streaming and 
audio/video broadcast. Other potential usages of the framework may be 
brought to the working group for consideration during the development of 
the requirements, to enable future support of those usages. The group 
will coordinate closely with the AVT and MMUSIC working groups to ensure 
that the streaming use-case is fully specified both in terms of 
interactions with RTP/RTCP and application layer signalling. The group 
will also coordinate with the DCCP working group, at least to consider 
that transport protocol's role in streaming media. The interactions of 
the framework with existing and used security mechanisms must also be 
considered. 

The group will work with the RMT working group to ensure that the FEC 
Building Block defined in RMT supports both the RMT use-cases (object 
delivery over multicast) and the more general FEC protection of 
flow(s) over unreliable unicast and multicast transport. 

Specification of hybrid schemes involving both retransmission and 
forward error correction is out of scope of the group. 

MILESTONES: 

Nov 06 - Working Group consensus on requirements and their 
prioritization for the FEC protocol framework 
Mar 07 - Completed selection of solution to develop and mature 
Nov 07 - FEC Streaming Framework submitted as Proposed Standard 
Nov 07 - FEC framework requirements submitted as Informational 
Mar 08 - Usage of FEC framework with RTP submitted as Proposed Standard 
Mar 08 - FEC framework signalling specification submitted as Proposed 
Standard 
Mar 08 - Discuss re-chartering 



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