Charter

							Next Steps in Signaling (nsis) Charter


Next Steps in Signaling (nsis)
Last Modified: 2002-05-23
Chair(s):
John Loughney <john.loughney@nokia.com>

Transport Area Director(s):
Scott Bradner <sob@harvard.edu>
Allison Mankin <mankin@isi.edu>

Transport Area Advisor:
Allison Mankin <mankin@isi.edu>

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Archive: www.ietf.org/mail-archive/working-groups/nsis/current/maillist.html

Description of Working Group:

Quite a bit of work has been done on Quality of Service and resource reservation
for the Internet. For a number of reasons, however, there has not been a
significant amount of end-to-end QoS deployed on the Internet other than best
effort service.
It is noted that resource reservation and traffic engineering can be considered
as part of network administration, and therefore beyond the scope of the IETF to
mandate a particular mechanism. When considering end-to-end communication, it is
likely that several administrative domains are traversed. Interworking between
domains in which different QoS solutions solutions are deployed is problematic.
Mobility and roaming additionally add complexity to the overall picture. This
creates a need for a simplified solution of signaling QoS, one that reuses parts
of existing methods. This will allow users to obtain QoS-aware services,
irrespective of underlying mechanisms used. It is out of scope of this working
group to define what quality of service is.
This working group will develop the requirements, architecture and protocols for
the next IETF steps on signaling QoS. The working group will use existing IETF
signaling as the basis for this work, evaluating RSVP in particular as the
starting point. Additionally, the working group will consider how to signal ,
where to signal (for example end-to-end,
end-to-edge network, end-to-proxy, edge network-to-edge network, intradomain,
interdomain etc.), which entities are involved in the signaling but not what to
signal.

As requirements input to the working group, the Mobile IP QoS Requirements
document (draft-mobileip-qos-requirements) will be considered as one starting
point for developing the overall set of requirements. The working group will not
limit itself to mobile IP-only signaling needs, however, but will consider
general cases of signaling in the Internet (both wired and wireless).
Consideration will be given to the idea of a building block structure, so the
group could develop elements for signaling that could be modular and be
combined with a different payload or different proxy. The added function will be
out of scope, but the openness of
the design (which may be a new version of RSVP) will be in scope.

This working group will focus on providing signaling function to a local
access network and end-to-end signaling. It is not the intention of this working
group to invent new signaling protocols. Additionally, mobility protocols and
AAA work are out of scope of the working group. The work produced in this
Working Group should work with existing IETF mobility and AAA protocols,
including (but not limited to) Mobile IP, SeaMoby Context Transfer and Diameter.

The working group will develop the requirements, analysis of existing solutions
and framework
 needed for signaling on the Internet. The Transport area directors and chair
will evaluate these against criteria including that the use of a simplified
version of RSVP has been fully
evaluated, and that the potential for a tool box or building block contribution
has been covered by the framework. Work on the protocol document will be
contingent on this evaluation.

As with nearly all work being done in the IETF, security is a very important
concern for NSIS. The working group will study the security requirements for QoS
Signaling, as well as create a threat analysis of signaling. Compatibility
with authentication and authorization mechanisms is also a concern. These topics
will be addressed in the Signaling Requirements document.

This working group will provide the framework for interworking with existing
resource allocation methods. It is a non-goal of the working group to develop
new resource allocation protocols.

The working group will coordinate with a number of other IETF working groups,
including Diffserv, Seamoby, Mobileip, AAA, Midcom and RAP. It will also welcome
participation and expression of requirements from non-IETF standards
organization members, for instance 3GPP and 3GPP2 and ITU-T.

Goals and Milestones:
      JAN 02 Initial ID on Signaling Requirements.
      MAR 02 Initial ID on Analysis of existing signaling protocols.
      MAR 02 Initial ID on Initial ID on Framework Signaling Architecture
      JUN 02 Submit 'Signaling Requirements' to IESG for publication as an
      Informational RFC.
      JUN 02 Initial ID on 'Next Step QoS Signaling
      JUL 02 Submit 'Analysis of existing signaling protocols' to IESG for
      publication as an Informational RFC.
      SEP 02 Submit 'Framework signaling architecture' to IESG for publication
      as an Informational RFC.
      SEP 02 If the initial analysis and framework do not meet criteria stated
      in charter, submit a rechartering request to the IESG
      DEC 02 If criteria were met, submit 'Next Step QoS Signaling' as a
      standards track RFC

Internet-Drafts:
Requirements for QoS Signaling Protocols (132137 bytes)

No Request For Comments


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