[ogpx] VWRAP Draft Charter - 2009 09 01

[Infinity Linden <[e-mail]>]

Working Group Name:

  Virtual Worlds Region Agent Protocol (VWRAP)

Chairs:

  TBD

Area and Area Directors:

  Applications Area

  Lisa Dusseault <[e-mail]>
  Alexey Melnikov <[e-mail]>

Responsible Area Director:

  TBD

Mailing List:

  [e-mail]
  http://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ogpx

Description of Working Group:

The working group will define the Virtual Worlds Region Agent Protocol
(VWRAP)  for  collaborative  3-dimensional  virtual  environment.  The
protocol permits  users to interact as  digital representations called
"avatars".  Avatars exist  in at  most  one location  within a  shared
virtual  space. Conforming  client  applications use  the protocol  to
manipulate  and  move  the  user's  avatar,  create  virtual  objects,
interactd with other users  and their surroundings, consume and create
media and information from  sources inside and outside their simulated
environment.

Adjacent points in  virtual spaces accessible by this  protocol may be
explicitly partitioned into  "regions" to facilitate the computational
and  communication load  balancing  required to  simulate the  virtual
environment.  Such   virtual  environments  may   consist  of  regions
administered  by distinct organizations.  Regions provide  the service
endpoints  for  interacting  with  the inhabitants  and  objects  they
contain.  Regions uniquely  represent their  partition of  the virtual
space (that is,  they are not a "sharding" mechanism).  The state of a
virtual world is independent of the client applications that access it
and may persist between user sessions.

Regions and other services implemented according to the specifications
may be  deployed by separate  organizations with varying  policies and
trust  domains. The  VWRAP protocol  will provide  the  mechanisms for
these virtual world services to interoperate, when permitted by policy
and   shared  trust   domains.  To   support  the   exegesis   of  the
specifications,  the   group  may  define  a   non-exhaustive  set  of
non-normative policies protocol participants may enforce.

Foundational components of the protocol include the publication of:

  * an abstract  type system, suitable for  describing the application
    protocol in an implementation neutral manner,

  * a   security   model   describing  trust   relationships   between
    participating entities,

  * guidelines   for   the   use   of  existing   authentication   and
    confidentiality mechanisms,

  * an application-layer  protocol for establishing  the user's avatar
    in a region,

  * an application-layer  protocol for changing  an avatar's position,
    including moving between regions,

  * format descriptions for objects and avatars, and

  * an  application-layer  protocol   for  identifying  entities,  and
    requesting information about them.

The protocol  defined by this  group will carry information  about the
virtual  environment,  its contents  and  its  inhabitants.  It is  an
application layer protocol,  independent of transport, based partially
on these previously published internet drafts:

  * http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hamrick-ogp-intro
  * http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hamrick-llsd
  * http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hamrick-ogp-auth
  * http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hamrick-ogp-launch
  * http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-lentczner-ogp-base
  * http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-levine-ogp-clientcap
  * http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-levine-ogp-layering

The  protocol  should describe  interaction  semantics independent  of
transport,  leveraging existing standards  where practical.  It should
define interoperability expectations for server to server interactions
as  well  as  client-server   interactions.  Though  the  protocol  is
independent of  transport, early interoperability  trials used HTTP(S)
for  non-real-time messages.  The working  group will  define specific
features that must  be replicated in other transports  and will define
the use of HTTP(S) as a transport of protocol messages.

Goals and Milestones:

  * December  2009  "Introduction  and   Goals"  to  the  IESG  as  an
    Informational RFC

  * March 2010  "Abstract Type System for the  Transmission of Dynamic
    Structured Data" to the IESG as Proposed Standard

  * March 2010  "Foundational Concepts and  Transport Expectations" to
    the IESG as Proposed Standard

  * March  2010  "Service  Establishment"  to  the  IESG  as  Proposed
    Standard

  * July 2010 "Guidelines  for Host Authentication" to the  IESG as an
    Informational RFC

  * July 2010  "Client Application Launch  Message" to the IESG  as an
    Informational RFC

  * July  2010  "Simulation Presence  Establishment"  to  the IESG  as
    Proposed Standard

  * November 2010  "Primitive Object Format"  to the IESG  as Proposed
    Standard

  * March 2011 "Digital Asset Access" to the IESG as Proposed Standard

  * June 2011 "Entity Identifiers" to the IESG as Proposed standard