RFC 6849 on An Extension to the Session Description Protocol (SDP) and Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) for Media Loopback

A new Request for Comments is now available in online RFC libraries.

        RFC 6849

        Title:      An Extension to the Session 
                    Description Protocol (SDP) and Real-time Transport 
                    Protocol (RTP) for Media Loopback 
        Author:     H. Kaplan, Ed.,
                    K. Hedayat, N. Venna,
                    P. Jones, N. Stratton
        Status:     Standards Track
        Stream:     IETF
        Date:       February 2013
        Mailbox:    hkaplan@acmepacket.com, 
                    kh274@cornell.edu, 
                    vnagarjuna@saperix.com,
                    paulej@packetizer.com, 
                    nathan@robotics.net
        Pages:      33
        Characters: 66214
        Updates/Obsoletes/SeeAlso:   None

        I-D Tag:    draft-ietf-mmusic-media-loopback-27.txt

        URL:        http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6849.txt

The wide deployment of Voice over IP (VoIP), real-time text, and Video 
over IP services has introduced new challenges in managing and maintaining
real-time voice/text/video quality, reliability, and overall
performance.  In particular, media delivery is an area that needs
attention.  One method of meeting these challenges is monitoring
the media delivery performance by looping media back to the
transmitter.  This is typically referred to as "active monitoring"
of services.  Media loopback is especially popular in ensuring the
quality of transport to the edge of a given VoIP, real-time text, or
Video over IP service.  Today, in networks that deliver real-time
media, short of running 'ping' and 'traceroute' to the edge,
administrators are left without the necessary tools to actively
monitor, manage, and diagnose quality issues with their service.
The extension defined herein adds new Session Description Protocol
(SDP) media types and attributes that enable establishment of media
sessions where the media is looped back to the transmitter.  Such
media sessions will serve as monitoring and troubleshooting tools
by providing the means for measurement of more advanced VoIP,
real-time text, and Video over IP performance metrics.  

This document is a product of the Multiparty Multimedia Session Control Working Group of the IETF.

This is now a Proposed Standard.

STANDARDS TRACK: This document specifies an Internet standards track
protocol for the Internet community,and requests discussion and suggestions
for improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the Internet
Official Protocol Standards (STD 1) for the standardization state and
status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

This announcement is sent to the IETF-Announce and rfc-dist lists.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, see
  http://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-announce
  http://mailman.rfc-editor.org/mailman/listinfo/rfc-dist

For searching the RFC series, see http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfcsearch.html.
For downloading RFCs, see http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc.html.

Requests for special distribution should be addressed to either the
author of the RFC in question, or to rfc-editor@rfc-editor.org.  Unless
specifically noted otherwise on the RFC itself, all RFCs are for
unlimited distribution.

The RFC Editor Team
Association Management Solutions, LLC