WG Review: Media OPerationS (mops)

[The IESG <[e-mail]>]

The Media OPerationS (mops) WG in the Operations and Management Area of the
IETF is undergoing rechartering. The IESG has not made any determination 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 2026-09-13.

Media OPerationS (mops)
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Current status: Active WG

Chairs:
  Leslie Daigle <[e-mail]>
  Jana Iyengar <[e-mail]>

Assigned Area Director:
  Éric Vyncke <[e-mail]>

Operations and Management Area Directors:
  Mahesh Jethanandani <[e-mail]>
  Mohamed Boucadair <[e-mail]>

Technical advisors:
  Glenn Deen <[e-mail]>
  Mohamed Boucadair <[e-mail]>

Mailing list:
  Address: [e-mail]
  To subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/mops
  Archive: https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/mops/

Group page: https://datatracker.ietf.org/group/mops/

Charter: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/charter-ietf-mops/

Internet-wide and within-domain IP-delivered media is widespread,
leading to significant technology development across industries not
traditionally thought of as Internet technology developers or operators, as
well as considerable quantities of traffic on local and transit networks. The
focus of MOPS is on identifying areas where existing protocols and/or
networks are challenged by updated requirements.

MOPS will solicit input on media-related operational issues and practices;
existing and proposed technologies related to the deployment, engineering,
and operation of media streaming and manipulation protocols and procedures
in the global Internet (inter-domain) and within-domain networking. In the
context of this working group, media is considered to include the transport
of video, audio, objects and any combination thereof, possibly
non-sequentially. The scope is media and media protocols’ interactions with
the network, but not the technologies of control protocols or media formats.

MOPS provides a venue for both video industry and Internet engineering
experts to engage in discussion of video technology’s requirements of
networking standards, as well as proposals for new uses of IP technology
in video. Where new protocols are needed, MOPS will help identify candidate
venues for their development.

The goals of MOPS include documenting existing protocol and operational issues
with media on the Internet, and identifying requirements for potential IETF
work. The general process of elaboration through documentation will be for
issues to be identified (on the mailing list) and presentations made at WG
meetings. When topics merit more coherent documentation, MOPS will adopt
working group documents to capture the information in Internet-Drafts. If the
working group consensus is that the material of the Internet-Draft is
generally useful for archival purposes, the WG will seek publication of the
work items as informational RFCs. At any point — from early discussion of
topics, through later documentation stages — MOPS may identify a more
appropriate WG for the matter and/or document, and redirect it.

With that in mind, MOPS will:

1/ Solicit regular updates from other media technology developing
consortia/standards bodies working with IETF-developed protocols.

2/ Solicit input from network operators and users to identify operational
issues with media delivery in and across networks, and determine solutions or
workarounds to those issues.

3/ Solicit discussion and documentation of the issues and opportunities in
media acquisition and delivery, and of the resulting protocols and
technologies developed outside the IETF.

4/ Document operational requirements for media acquisition (for example, from
cameras and recording devices) and delivery.

5/ Develop operational information to aid in operation of media technologies
in the global Internet.

These activities should document media operational experience, including
global Internet, inter-domain and within-domain operations.

In all cases of working with other organizations mentioned above, MOPS will
work with existing liaison managers where the IETF has them, and informal
connections with other organizations otherwise. If new formal liaison
relationships are required, MOPS will work with the IAB to help establish
them.

Media operational and deployment issues with specific protocols or
technologies (such as Applications, Transport Protocols, Routing Protocols,
DNS or Sub-IP Protocols) remain the responsibility of the groups or areas
responsible for those protocols or technologies. However, the MOPS Working
Group may provide input to those areas/groups, as needed, and cooperate with
those areas/groups in reviewing solutions to MOPS operational and deployment
problems.

There must be a continuing expression of interest for the Working Group to
work on a particular work item. If there is no longer sufficient interest in
the Working Group in a work item, the item may be removed from the list of
Working Group items.

Milestones:

  Sep 2026 - Last-call document on Network Overlay Impacts to Streaming Video

  Nov 2026 - Network Overlay Impacts to Streaming Video to IESG for
  publication as Informational