Internet DRAFT - draft-andreasen-mmusic-sdp-capability-negotiation

draft-andreasen-mmusic-sdp-capability-negotiation









      
      
     MMUSIC Working Group                                       F. Andreasen 
     Internet Draft                                            Cisco Systems 
     Expires: April 2007                                    October 20, 2006 
                                         
      
                                           
                             SDP Capability Negotiation 
              draft-andreasen-mmusic-sdp-capability-negotiation-01.txt 


     Status of this Memo 

        By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that       
        any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is       
        aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she       
        becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of       
        BCP 79. 

        Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 
        Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that 
        other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
        Drafts. 

        Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 
        and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 
        time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 
        material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 

        The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at 
             http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt 

        The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at 
             http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html 

        This Internet-Draft will expire on April 20, 2007. 

     Abstract 

        The Session Description Protocol (SDP) was intended for describing 
        multimedia sessions for the purposes of session announcement, session 
        invitation, and other forms of multimedia session initiation. SDP was 
        not intended to provide capability indication or capability 
        negotiation, however over the years, SDP has seen widespread adoption 
        and as a result it has been gradually extended to provide limited 
        support for these. SDP and its current extensions however do not have 
        the ability to negotiate one or more alternative transport protocols 
        (e.g. RTP profiles) which makes it particularly difficult to deploy 
        new RTP profiles such as secure RTP and RTP with RTCP-based feedback. 
      
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                 [Page 1] 
      







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        The purpose of this document is to address that by identifying a set 
        of requirements, evaluate existing work in this area, and provide a 
        recommended solution for extending SDP with capability negotiation.  

     Conventions used in this document 

        The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 
        "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 
        document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]. 

     Table of Contents 

         
        1. Introduction...................................................3 
        2. Requirements...................................................5 
        3. Review of Existing Work........................................7 
           3.1. Grouping of Media Lines...................................8 
           3.2. Session Description Protocol (SDP) Simple Capability 
           Declaration....................................................9 
           3.3. Session Description and Capability Negotiation (SDPng)...10 
           3.4. Multipart/alternative....................................12 
           3.5. Sharing Ports Between "m=" Lines.........................13 
           3.6. Opportunistic Encryption Using a Session Attribute.......14 
           3.7. Best-Effort Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol..........14 
           3.8. Opportunistic Encryption using Probing...................15 
        4. Proposed Solution.............................................15 
           4.1. Solution Overview........................................15 
           4.2. Extensions to Simcap.....................................17 
           4.3. Attribute Definitions....................................18 
              4.3.1. The Attribute Parameter Capability Attribute........18 
              4.3.2. The Transport Protocol Capability Attribute.........19 
              4.3.3. The Potential Configuration Attribute...............20 
              4.3.4. The Actual Configuration Attribute..................22 
           4.4. Offer/Answer Model Extensions............................24 
              4.4.1. Generating the Initial Offer........................24 
              4.4.2. Generating the Answer...............................24 
              4.4.3. Offerer Processing of the Answer....................25 
              4.4.4. Modifying the Session...............................25 
        5. Examples......................................................26 
        6. Security Considerations.......................................26 
        7. IANA Considerations...........................................26 
        8. To Do and Open Issues.........................................26 
        9. Acknowledgments...............................................26 
        10. Change Log...................................................26 
           10.1. Changes since -00.......................................26 
        11. References...................................................28 
           11.1. Normative References....................................28 
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                 [Page 2] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

           11.2. Informative References..................................28 
        Author's Addresses...............................................30 
        Intellectual Property Statement..................................30 
        Disclaimer of Validity...........................................30 
        Copyright Statement..............................................30 
        Acknowledgment...................................................31 
         
     1. Introduction 

        The Session Description Protocol (SDP) was intended for describing 
        multimedia sessions for the purposes of session announcement, session 
        invitation, and other forms of multimedia session initiation. The SDP 
        contains one or more media stream descriptions with information such 
        as IP-address and port, type of media stream (e.g. audio or video), 
        transport protocol (possibly including profile information, e.g. 
        RTP/AVP or RTP/SAVP), media formats (e.g. codecs), and various other 
        session and media stream parameters that define the session.  

        Simply providing media stream descriptions is sufficient for session 
        announcements for a broadcast application, where the media stream 
        parameters are fixed for all participants. When a participant wants 
        to join the session, he obtains the session announcement and uses the 
        media descriptions provided, e.g., joins a multicast group and 
        receives media packets in the encoding format specified.  If the 
        media stream description is not supported by the participant, he is 
        unable to receive the media.  

        Such restrictions are not generally acceptable to multimedia session 
        invitations, where two or more entities attempt to establish a media 
        session using a set of media stream parameters acceptable to all 
        participants. First of all, each entity must inform the other of its 
        receive address, and secondly, the entities need to agree on the 
        media stream parameters to use for the session, e.g. transport 
        protocols and codecs. We here make a distinction between the 
        capabilities supported by each participant and the parameters that 
        can actually be used for the session. More generally, we can say that 
        we have the following: 

        o  A set of capabilities, or potential configurations of the media 
           stream components, supported by each side.  

        o  A set of actual configurations of the media stream components, 
           which specifies which media stream components to use and with what 
           parameters. 



      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                 [Page 3] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        o  A negotiation process that takes the set of potential 
           configurations (capabilities) as input and provides the actual 
           configurations as output.  

        SDP by itself was designed to provide only the second of these, i.e., 
        the actual configurations, however over the years, use of SDP has 
        been extended beyond its original scope.  Session negotiation 
        semantics was defined by the offer/answer model in RFC 3264.  It 
        defines how two entities, an offerer and an answerer, exchange SDPs 
        to negotiate a session. The offerer can include one or more media 
        formats (codecs) per media stream, and the answerer then selects one 
        or more of those offered and returns them in an answer. Both the 
        offer and the answer contain actual configurations - potential 
        configurations are not supported. The answer however may reduce the 
        set of actual configurations from the offer.  

        Other relevant extensions have been defined. Simple capability 
        declarations, which defines how to provide a simple and limited set 
        of capability descriptions in SDP was defined in RFC 3407.  Grouping 
        of media lines, which defines how media lines in SDP can have other 
        semantics than the traditional "simultaneous media streams" 
        semantics, was defined in RFC 3388, etc.   

        Each of these extensions was designed to solve a specific limitation 
        of SDP.  Since SDP had already been stretched beyond its original 
        intent, a more comprehensive capability declaration and negotiation 
        process was intentionally not defined.  Instead, work on a "next 
        generation" of a protocol to provide session description and 
        capability negotiation was initiated [SDPng].  SDPng however has not 
        gained traction and has remained as work in progress for an extended 
        period of time.  Existing real-time multimedia communication 
        protocols such as SIP, RTSP, Megaco, and MGCP continue to use SDP.  
        SDP and its current extensions however do not address an increasingly 
        important problem: the ability to negotiate one or more alternative 
        transport protocols (e.g., RTP profiles).  This makes it difficult to 
        deploy new RTP profiles such as secure RTP (SRTP) [SRTP], RTP with 
        RTCP-Based Feedback [AVPF], etc.  This particular problem is 
        exacerbated by the fact that RTP profiles are defined independently.  
        When a new profile is defined and N other profiles already exist, 
        there is a potential need for defining N additional profiles, since 
        profiles cannot be combined automatically.  For example, in order to 
        support the plain and secure RTP version of RTP with and without 
        RTCP-based feedback, four separate profiles (and hence profile 
        definitions) are needed: RTP/AVP [RFC3551], RTP/SAVP [SRTP], RTP/AVPF 
        [AVPF], and RTP/SAVPF [SAVPF].  In addition to the pressing profile 
        negotiation problem, other important real-life constraints have been 
        found as well.  
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                 [Page 4] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        The purpose of this document is to define a mechanism that enables 
        SDP to provide limited support for indicating potential 
        configurations (capabilities) and negotiate the use of those 
        potential configurations as actual configurations.  It is not the 
        intent to provide a full-fledged capability indication and 
        negotiation mechanism along the lines of SDPng or ITU-T H.245. 
        Instead, the focus is on addressing a set of well-known real-life 
        limitations.  

        As mentioned above, SDP is used by several protocols, and hence the 
        mechanism should be usable by all of these.  One particularly 
        important protocol for this problem however is the Session Initiation 
        Protocol (SIP) [RFC3261].  SIP uses the offer/answer model (which is 
        not specific to SIP) to negotiate sessions and hence any mechanism 
        must at least consider how it either interacts with offer/answer, or 
        how it should extend it.  

        The rest of the document is structured as follows. We first provide a 
        set of requirements for the solution in Section 2.  In Section 3. we 
        review relevant existing work in this area, how a solution based on 
        that might look, and the pros and cons associated with each. In 
        Section 4. we present our proposed solution in more detail followed 
        examples in Section 5. and security considerations in Section 6.  

     2. Requirements 

        REQ-10: It MUST be possible to indicate and negotiate alternative 
        media formats on a per media stream basis. 

           For example, many implementations support multiple codecs, but 
           only one at a time.  Changes between codecs cannot be done on-
           the-fly, e.g. when receiving a simple RTP payload type change. 

        REQ-20: It MUST be possible to indicate and negotiate alternative 
        attribute values ("a=") on a per media stream basis.  

           For example, T.38 defines new attributes that may need to be 
           conveyed as part of a capability.  

        REQ-25: It MUST be possible to indicate and negotiate alternative 
        attribute values ("a=") at the session level.    

        REQ-30: It MUST be possible to indicate and negotiate alternative 
        media format parameter values ("a=fmtp") per media format on a per 
        media stream basis. 


      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                 [Page 5] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

           For example, a media format (codec) indicated as an alternative 
           capability may include fmtp parameters.  

        REQ-40: It MUST be possible to indicate and negotiate alternative 
        transport protocols, e.g. different RTP profiles, on a per media 
        stream basis.  

           For example, "RTP/AVP" and "RTP/SAVP" may be alternatives. 

        REQ-50: It MUST be possible to indicate and negotiate alternative 
        transport protocol and media type combinations on a per media stream 
        basis. 

           For example, an entity may support a fax call using either T.38 
           fax relay ("m=image <port> udptl t38") or PCMU ("m=audio <port> 
           RTP/AVP 0").  

        REQ-80: The mechanism MUST be backwards compatible for SIP. Ideally, 
        the mechanism should be completely transparent to entities that do 
        not support it, without the need for any further signaling.  

        REQ-90: The mechanism MUST either be backwards compatible for Megaco 
        and MGCP or it MUST be possible to interwork it with Megaco and MGCP 
        without any additional signaling between the MGC and its peer (e.g. 
        another SIP UA as opposed to a media gateway).  

           For example, if a media gateway controller (MGC) uses SIP to 
           communicate with peers, and the MGC uses Megaco or MGCP to 
           control a media gateway, it must be possible to translate between 
           the mechanism and normal SDP. Avoiding interworking requirements 
           in the MGC is desirable.  

        REQ-100: The mechanism MUST work within the context of the 
        offer/answer model [RFC3264]. Specifically, it MUST be possible to 
        negotiate alternatives within a single offer/answer exchange. 

        REQ-110: The offer/answer model requires the offerer to be able to 
        receive media for any media streams listed as either "recvonly" or 
        "sendrecv" in an offer, as soon as that offer is generated.  The 
        mechanism MUST preserve this capability for all actual configurations 
        included in an offer.  

           Potential configurations do not have such a requirement.  

        REQ-120: The mechanism MUST enable inclusion of potential 
        configurations (alternative capabilities) in the offer - the answer 
        would then indicate which, if any of these potential configurations 
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                 [Page 6] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        were accepted. The offerer is not required to process media for a 
        specific potential configuration until the offerer receives an answer 
        showing that potential configuration was accepted. 

           Note that this implies that it may not be possible for the 
           offerer to process early media generated using a potential 
           configuration (as opposed to the actual configuration) until the 
           answer has been received.  

        REQ-130: The mechanism MUST work in the presence of SIP forking.  

        REQ-140: The mechanism SHOULD be reasonably efficient in terms of 
        overall message size.  

           This is a relative requirement to evaluate alternative solutions 
           as opposed to an absolute and quantifiable requirement. Use of 
           compression techniques can help reduce the size of text-based 
           messages, however it is still considered important to try and 
           keep the message size reasonably small.  

        Above, we presented the requirements for the capability negotiation 
        mechanism. Below, we provide a set of features that were considered 
        and then explicitly deemed to be out-of-scope: 

        o  Indication of mandatory and optional capabilities. 

        o  Constraints on combinations of configurations, e.g. inability to 
           use a video codec together with a particular audio codec, 
           parameter X values that can only be used with parameter Y values, 
           etc. 

        o  Support for negotiation of unicast and multicast addresses as 
           alternatives. It was suggested as a requirement initially, but 
           subsequent discussion led to its removal.  

        o  Support for negotiation of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses as 
           alternatives. It was suggested as a requirement initially, but 
           subsequent discussion let to its removal.  

     3. Review of Existing Work  

        In this section, we provide an overview of existing relevant work 
        that has either been completed or is work in progress.  For each 
        item, we outline how/if it can be used to address the requirements 
        provided and the pros and cons of doing so.  


      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                 [Page 7] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

     3.1. Grouping of Media Lines 

        Grouping of Media Lines is defined in [RFC3388]. RFC 3388 defines a 
        framework that enables two or media lines to be grouped together for 
        different purposes. Each media line is assigned an identifier and one 
        or more group attributes then references two or more of those 
        identifiers. Associated with each group attribute is a semantics 
        indication. One semantic indication is the Alternative Network 
        Address Types ("ANAT") [RFC4091] which allows for IPv4 and IPv6 
        addresses to be specified as alternatives. The requirements presented 
        above go beyond that, however a new semantic to simply indicate 
        alternative media lines and associated negotiation rules could easily 
        be defined.  

        The main advantages of such an approach would be: 

        o  Mechanism Reuse:  Several semantics have already been defined 
           which increases the likelihood of an implementation supporting the 
           framework.  

        The disadvantages of such an approach would be: 

        o  Backwards Compatibility:   The mechanism is not transparently 
           backwards compatible.  If an entity that does not support the 
           mechanism receives it, the entity may incorrectly interpret the 
           SDP as consisting of multiple media streams.  While RFC 3388 
           defines procedures for recognizing and recover from this when 
           using offer/answer, it can still lead to unintended behavior with 
           endpoints that do not support the mechanism.  

             In practice, it is not clear how much of an issue this is, at 
             least for intelligent SIP endpoints. Most current 
             implementations generally accept only one media stream of a 
             given type (e.g. audio). Use of alternatives with different 
             media stream types (e.g. a fax call using "audio" for voice-
             band data or "image" for T.38) makes it less clear though.  
             Also, Media Gateway Controllers and Media Gateways that do not 
             support grouping of media lines have been known to encounter 
             problems.  

        o  Semantics Combination Issues: Multiple semantics may be provided 
           by use of grouping, however they may interact with each other 
           unintentionally. For example, the "FID" semantics defined in RFC 
           3388 forbids grouping of media lines with the same transport 
           address, however that would be needed for alternative 
           capabilities. Thus, using "FID" and alternative capabilities 
           together would require special consideration.  
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                 [Page 8] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        o  Some Combinatoric Explosion:  The mechanism is not ideal to 
           indicate alternative capabilities for multiple parameters or media 
           formats within a particular media stream. For example, alternative 
           attribute values and media format parameters for several codecs 
           would lead to combinatoric explosion.  
            
           [Editor's note: In practice, it is not clear this is a huge issue 
           though.]  

        o  Message Size:  Each alternative requires full duplication of all 
           the relevant media stream parameters.  
            
           [Editor's note: In practice, it is not clear this is a huge issue 
           though.]  

     3.2. Session Description Protocol (SDP) Simple Capability Declaration 

        SDP Simple Capability Declaration (simcap) is defined in [RFC3407]. 
        It defines a set of SDP attributes that enables capabilities to be 
        described at a session level or on a per media stream basis.  RFC 
        3407 defines capability declaration only - actual negotiation 
        procedures taking advantage of such capabilities have not been 
        defined. Such rules however could easily be defined - the negotiation 
        part would extend the offer/answer model to examine alternative 
        configurations (capabilities).  In conjunction with that, attributes 
        to indicate the alternative configurations accepted would likely be 
        needed as well.  
         
        The main advantages of this approach are: 

        o  Satisfies all the requirements provided above.  In particular, by 
           relying solely on SDP attributes, transparent backwards 
           compatibility is always ensured.  

        The disadvantages of this approach are: 

        o  Offered Capabilities Hidden in Attributes:   An offer may be 
           accepted by the answerer and a media stream established based on 
           SDP parameters contained in SDP attributes not known to 
           intermediaries. Such intermediaries may be back-to-back user 
           agents, or proxies that need to inspect the SDP, e.g., to 
           authorize Quality of Service, add transcoders, etc. 

        o  Maximum of 255 alternative media formats per SDP:     RFC 3407 
           currently allows a maximum of 255 alternative media formats 
           (codecs) per SDP. This may be too restrictive.  

      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                 [Page 9] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

     3.3. Session Description and Capability Negotiation (SDPng) 

        The Session Description and Capability Negotiation protocol [SDPng] 
        was intended as a replacement for SDP [SDP].  SDPng includes a full 
        capability indication and negotiation framework that would address 
        the shortcomings of SDP and satisfy the requirements provided above.  
        However, SDPng has not gained traction, in large part due to existing 
        widespread adoption of SDP.  As a consequence, SDPng has remained as 
        work in progress with limited progress for an extended period of 
        time.  

        SDPng consists of two things: an SDPng description, which is an XML 
        document that describes the actual and/or potential configurations as 
        well as an optional negotiation process (an offer/answer compliant 
        process is included as part of SDPng). The SDPng description consists 
        of up to five parts: 

        o  Capabilities:     An optional list of capabilities (potential 
           configurations) to be matched with the other parties' 
           capabilities.  

        o  Definitions:      An optional set of definitions of commonly used 
           parameters for later referencing. 

        o  Configurations:   A mandatory description of the conference 
           components, each of which can provide a list of alternative 
           configurations.  

        o  Constraints:      An optional set of constraints of combinations 
           of configurations.  Constraints are not defined as part of the 
           base SDPng specification.  

        o  Session Information:    Optional meta information on the 
           conferences and individual components.  

        SDPng is application-agnostic with the base specification defining a 
        basic XML schema supporting the above.  In order to actually use 
        SDPng, application-specific packages are needed.  Packages define 
        things such as media types, codecs and their configuration 
        parameters, etc.  The base SDPng specification includes a couple of 
        example packages to support audio, video, and RTP.  

        One approach to extending SDP with capability indication and 
        negotiation capabilities could be to adopt the mechanisms defined by 
        SDPng that are necessary to satisfy the requirements provided above.  
        Those areas could then be included within SDP itself, e.g. in the 

      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 10] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        form of one or more SDP attributes ("a=") containing the actual SDPng 
        description. The areas to consider here include: 

        o  Capabilities:  This would be needed to describe alternative media 
           formats and media format parameters. 

        o  Configurations:   This would be needed to define alternative 
           configurations 

        The constraints and session information parts of SDPng would not be 
        used.  

        The main advantages of such an approach would be: 

        o  SDPng was designed and intended to solve the general capability 
           negotiation problems faced by SDP.  A considerable amount of work 
           has already gone into it and it was originally targeted as the 
           long-term direction (replacement for SDP).  

        The disadvantages of such an approach would be: 

        o  Duplicate Encoding and Specification Work:   SDPng uses a 
           different coding format than SDP and hence all SDP parameters 
           (incl. codecs and transports) that need to be provided will need 
           to have an equivalent SDPng definition.  There is currently no 
           automatic process for translating all SDP parameters or values 
           into corresponding SDPng parameters or values; many existing SDP 
           parameters and values currently have no corresponding SDPng 
           definition.  

        o  SDPng is Work in Progress: SDPng is currently work in progress but 
           has seen limited interest and progress for a while.  Adoption of a 
           subset of its current definition may end up differing from the 
           final specification.  Also, the current SDPng specification needs 
           further clarification and semantic tightening in a number of areas 
           that would be of relevance to this approach.  

        o  Negotiation of Transport Parameters:   SDPng currently does not 
           support negotiation of transport parameters as individual 
           capabilities.  It is however still possible to negotiate different 
           transport parameters by providing alternative configurations. 

        o  Verbose Encoding and Large Message Size:  SDPng descriptions are 
           XML documents, which are fairly verbose and result in descriptions 
           that are substantially larger than existing SDP.  


      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 11] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

     3.4. Multipart/alternative 

        In [I-D.jenning-sipping-multipart], the use of multipart/alternative 
        MIME is proposed as a way to support multiple alternative offers.  
        Each alternative offer has an id associated with it by use of a new 
        MIME header field called Content-Answering-CID. The answerer chooses 
        one of the offers and performs normal offer/answer operation on that 
        offer, and then sends back a single answer which includes the 
        Content-Answering-CID value of the offer chosen.  

        The main advantages of this approach are: 

        o  It allows for use of alternative encodings of the offer, e.g. SDP 
           and SDPng, as well as varying levels of confidentiality and 
           integrity by use of S/MIME [RFC3851].  

        Use of multipart/alternative to solve the SDP capability negotiation 
        problems however has several shortcomings: 

        o  Backwards Compatibility:   Neither SIP nor RTSP mandate support 
           for Multipart MIME. In the case of SIP, multipart/alternative is 
           generally incompatible with existing SIP proxies, firewalls, 
           Session Border Controllers, and endpoints. 

        o  Heterogeneous Error Response Forking Problem (HERFP): When a SIP 
           proxy forks a request to multiple Contacts, each of which generate 
           a response, the proxy only forwards the "best" of these responses 
           to the request originator.  If one or more of the Contacts do not 
           support multipart/alternative, the request originator may never 
           discover this.  Instead, only a Contact that supports 
           multipart/alternative will be able to generate an answer that 
           reaches the request originator.  

        o  Combinatoric Explosions:   Use of multipart/alternative to convey 
           alternatives on a per media stream basis or even per media format 
           parameter basis quickly leads to combinatoric explosions. 

        o  Message Size:  Each alternative requires full duplication of all 
           the relevant SDP parameters (one complete SDP per alternative).  

        It should be noted, that use of multipart/alternative has been 
        discussed several times before and, in large part due to the problems 
        mentioned above as well as the semantics defined for 
        multipart/alternative [RFC2046], has met with opposition when it 
        comes to addressing the above types of requirements.  


      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 12] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

     3.5. Sharing Ports Between "m=" Lines 

        SDP [SDP] does not state whether two "m=" lines can share the same 
        transport address or not but rather leaves this explicitly undefined.  
        It has been suggested that alternative capabilities for a media 
        stream could be indicated by including multiple media stream 
        descriptions sharing the same transport address (i.e. using the same 
        port number in the "m=" line and sharing the same IP-address).  

          Such practice was not defined in [RFC2327], however it was 
          suggested in an Internet-Draft version of [SDP].  Following 
          discussion of the potential problems it introduced, it was removed.  

        The main advantages of this approach would be: 

        o  May not require any additional extensions to SDP - only additional 
           semantics.  
            
           [Editor's note: It is somewhat unclear how it would work without 
           extensions if we allow for alternative attributes and media format 
           parameters and the offerer needs to always know which ones were 
           accepted] 

        The disadvantages of this approach would be: 

        o  Backwards Compatibility Issues:  Since sharing of transport 
           addresses between multiple streams was never specified as part of 
           SDP, backwards compatibility is likely to be an issue.  Some 
           implementations may support it whereas others may not. The lack of 
           an explicit signaling indication to indicate the desired operation 
           may lead to ungraceful failure scenarios.  Offer/answer semantics 
           would be unclear here as well.  

        o  Some Combinatoric Explosion:  The mechanism is not ideal to 
           indicate alternative capabilities for multiple parameters or media 
           formats within a particular media stream. For example, alternative 
           attribute values and media format parameters for several codecs 
           would lead to combinatoric explosion.  

        o  Message Size:  Each alternative requires full duplication of all 
           the relevant media stream parameters.  
            
           [Editor's note: In practice, it is not clear this is a huge issue 
           though.]  



      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 13] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

     3.6. Opportunistic Encryption Using a Session Attribute  

        This approach was suggested to address the specific scenario of 
        negotiating either RTP or SRTP. The endpoints signal their desire to 
        do SRTP by listing RTP (RTP/AVP) as the transport protocol in the 
        "m=" line in the offer together with an attribute ("a=") that 
        indicates whether SRTP is supported or not. If the answerer supports 
        SRTP and wants to use it, the answer then includes SRTP (RTP/SAVP) as 
        the transport protocol in the "m=" line.  

        The main advantages of this approach are: 

        o  Compatible with non-SRTP-aware endpoints.  

        The disadvantages of this approach are: 

        o  Does not allow the offerer to indicate alternatives other than 
           SRTP (including vanilla RTP as an alternative to SRTP).  

        o  Addresses only a small subset of the requirements provided above.  

     3.7. Best-Effort Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol  

        This approach is documented in [BESRTP]. The approach is similar to 
        the one described above, except it does not actually include any 
        explicit signaling indication as to the transport protocols 
        supported. Instead, support for the Secure RTP profile [SRTP] is 
        inferred based on the presence of the crypto attribute defined in 
        [SDES] and/or the key-mgmt attribute defined in [KMGMT]. 

        The main advantages of this approach are: 

        o  Compatible with non-SRTP-aware endpoints.  

        The disadvantages of this approach are: 

        o  Defines new semantics above and beyond those defined by RFC 3264, 
           RFC 4567, and RFC 4568 without any explicit signaling in the offer 
           to that effect. This in turn may lead to unintended side-effects. 

              Without explicit signaling indication, it is questionable to 
              infer that presence of e.g. a crypto parameter in the offer 
              indeed indicates that the offer wants to use the mechanism 
              defined by the proposal.  Furthermore, Section 5.1.2 of [SDES] 
              defines generic operation where presence of a crypto attribute 
              without e.g. SRTP as the offered transport protocol could 
              result in the media stream being rejected.  
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 14] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        o  Does not allow the offerer to indicate alternatives other than the 
           inferred SRTP (including vanilla RTP as an alternative to SRTP). 

        o  Addresses only a small subset of the requirements provided above. 

     3.8. Opportunistic Encryption using Probing  

        This is another approach suggested to address the specific scenario 
        of negotiating either RTP or SRTP. In this case, the endpoints first 
        establish an RTP session using RTP (RTP/AVP). The endpoints send 
        probe messages, over the media path, to determine if the remote 
        endpoint supports their keying technique. 

        The main advantages of this approach are: 

        o  Compatible with non-SRTP-aware endpoints.  

        The disadvantages of this approach are: 

        o  Addresses only a small subset of the requirements provided above. 

      
     4. Proposed Solution 

        Based on the requirements provided in Section 2. and the alternatives 
        examined in Section 3. the solution based on the Session Description 
        Protocol (SDP) Simple Capability Declaration (simcap) [RFC3407] with 
        extensions as outlined in Section 3.2. is preferred.  In this section 
        we present that solution in detail.   

     4.1. Solution Overview  

        The solution consists of the following: 

        o  The capability declaration mechanism defined by simcap [RFC3407] 
           with a few extensions. 

        o  A new attribute ("a=capar") similar to the "a=cpar" attribute 
           defined by simcap, except with a handle that enables referencing 
           individual attribute capabilities (and for attributes only).  

        o  A new attribute ("a=ctrpr") that defines how to list transport 
           protocols as capabilities. 




      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 15] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        o  A new attribute ("a=pcfg") that lists the potential configurations 
           supported by the entity that generated the SDP. This is done by 
           reference to the extended simcap capabilities from the SDP in 
           question, and optionally one or more of the transport protocol 
           capabilities. The potential configurations are listed in order of 
           preference.  

        o  A new attribute ("a=acfg") to be used in an answer SDP. The 
           attribute identifies which of the potential configurations from an 
           offer SDP were used as actual configurations to form the answer 
           SDP. This is done by listing the potential configurations that 
           were used from the offer SDP.  

        o  Extensions to the offer/answer model that allow for potential 
           configurations to be included in an offer, where they constitute 
           offers that may be accepted by the answerer instead of the actual 
           configuration(s) included in the "m=" line(s).  

        The mechanism is illustrated by the offer/answer exchange below, 
        where Alice sends an offer to Bob:  

                     Alice                               Bob 

                       | (1) Offer (SRTP and RTP)         | 
                       |--------------------------------->| 
                       |                                  | 
                       | (2) Answer (RTP)                 | 
                       |<---------------------------------| 
                       |                                  | 

        Alice's offer includes RTP and SRTP as alternatives. RTP is the 
        default, but SRTP is the preferred one: 

           v=0 
           o=- 25678 753849 IN IP4 128.96.41.1 
           s=  
           c=IN IP4 128.96.41.1 
           t=0 0 
           m=audio 3456 RTP/AVP 0 18  
           a=sqn: 0 
           a=cdsc: 1 audio RTP/AVP 0 18  
           a=cdsc: 3 audio RTP/SAVP 0 18  
           a=capar: 1 a=crypto:1 AES_CM_128_HMAC_SHA1_32    
              inline:NzB4d1BINUAvLEw6UzF3WSJ+PSdFcGdUJShpX1Zj|2^20|1:32  
           a=pcfg: c=3,4 a=1 
           a=pcfg: c=1,2  
            
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 16] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        The "m=" line indicates that Alice is offering to use plain RTP with 
        PCMU or G.729.  The extended simcap capability declaration is 
        provided by the "a=sqn" and "a=cdsc" attributes as defined in 
        [RFC3407], and the new "a=capar" attribute defined in this document. 
        The capabilities indicate that PCMU and G.729 are supported with 
        either RTP or secure RTP. The "capar" attribute provides a capability 
        parameter with a handle of 1. The capability parameter is a "crypto" 
        attribute in the capability set, which provides the keying material 
        for SRTP using SDP security descriptions [SDES]. The new "a=pcfg" 
        attribute provides the potential configurations included in the offer 
        by reference to the simcap capability declarations.  Two alternatives 
        are provided; the first one, and hence the preferred one is using 
        capabilities 3 and 4, i.e. PCMU and G.729 under the RTP/SAVP profile 
        (secure RTP) together with the attribute capability parameter 1, i.e. 
        the crypto attribute provided. The second one is using capabilities 1 
        and 2, i.e. PCMU and G.729 under the RTP/AVP profile.  

        Bob receives the SDP offer from Alice. Bob supports RTP, but not 
        SRTP, and hence he accepts the potential configuration for RTP 
        provided by Alice: 

           v=0 
           o=- 24351 621814 IN IP4 128.96.41.2 
           s=  
           c=IN IP4 128.96.41.2 
           t=0 0 
           m=audio 4567 RTP/AVP 0 18  
           a=acfg: c=1,2 

        Bob includes the new "a=acfg" attribute in the answer to inform Alice 
        that he based his answer on an offer containing the potential 
        configuration with capabilities 1 and 2 from the offer SDP (i.e. PCMU 
        and G.729 under the RTP/AVP profile).  Note that in this particular 
        example, the answerer supported the capability extensions defined 
        here, however had he not, everything would still have worked fine 
        since the actual configuration is what was being used. Consequently, 
        the answer would simply have omitted the "a=acfg" attribute line.  

     4.2. Extensions to Simcap 

        Simcap [RFC3407] defines capability descriptions to be on the form: 

           a=cdsc: <cap-num> <media> <transport> <fmt list> 

        where <cap-num> is an integer between 1 and 255 (both included) used   
        to number the capabilities, and <media>, <transport>, and <fmt list>   
        are defined as in the SDP "m=" line.  We extend that definition here 
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 17] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        to allow for wild-carding of the <media>, <transport> and <fmt list> 
        parameters at the session level only. The wild-card character to use 
        is asterisk ("*"). This enables us to provide session level 
        capability parameters that are not specific to any particular media 
        stream, or applies only to certain types of media streams. Such 
        capability parameters apply to all media streams that match the 
        combined <media>, <transport> and <fmt list> provided.  

          An example use case is to allow for negotiation of MIKEY at the 
          session level outside of a specific simcap capability description 
          (and hence media type) by use of the key management framework 
          [KMGMT]. 

        This is illustrated by the following examples: 

           a=cdsc: 1 * * * 

           a=cdsc: 2 audio * * 

        In the first example, the capability description applies to all media 
        stream. In the second example, the capability description applies to 
        media streams of type audio only.  

        Simcap capability descriptions start with a sequence number ("a=sqn") 
        and, as specified in [RFC3407], require that a capability description 
        as defined by simcap, i.e. an "a=cdsc" line, follows immediately 
        after the sequence number. We remove that requirement here. As a 
        result of that, we enable the new "a=capar" attribute (and other 
        parameters) to follow after the sequence number. There is however not 
        a requirement that it follows immediately after the sequence number.  

     4.3. Attribute Definitions 

     4.3.1. The Attribute Parameter Capability Attribute 

        Attributes can be expressed as negotiable parameters by use of a new 
        attribute parameter capability attribute ("a=capar") similar to the 
        "a=cpar" attribute defined by simcap, except with a handle that 
        enables referencing it and supporting attributes only (the "cpar" 
        attribute defined in RFC 3407 supports bandwidth information as 
        well). The attribute is defined as follows: 

           a=capar: <att-cap-num> <att-par> 

        where <att-cap-num> is an integer between 1 and 255 (both included) 
        used to number the attribute parameter capability and <att-par> is an   
        attribute ("a=") in its full  '<type>=<value>' form (see [SDP]) 
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 18] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        The "capar" attribute can be provided at the session level or the 
        media level. Each occurrence of the attribute MUST use a different 
        value of <app-cap-num>, with the first one being 1, the second one 
        being 2, etc. The <att-cap-num> values provided are independent of 
        similar <cap-num> values provided for other attributes, i.e., they 
        form a separate name-space for attribute parameter capabilities.  

           TO DO: There is a need to clarify the relationship between this 
           one, the simcap cpar values, and regular attributes (actual 
           configuration attributes). The basic idea is that attributes that 
           can only be used with certain potential configurations should be 
           provided here and then included by reference in those potential 
           configurations.  

        The following example illustrates use of the "capar" attribute:  

           a=capar: 1 a=ptime:20 
         
           a=capar: 2 a=ptime:30 

           a=capar: 3 a=key-mgmt:mikey AQAFgM0XflABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAsAyONQ6gAA 
           AAAGEEoo2pee4hp2UaDX8ZE22YwKAAAPZG9uYWxkQGR1Y2suY29tAQAAAAAAAQAk0
           JKpgaVkDaawi9whVBtBt0KZ14ymNuu62+Nv3ozPLygwK/GbAV9iemnGUIZ19fWQUO
           SrzKTAv9zV 
            
           a=capar: 4 a=crypto:1 AES_CM_128_HMAC_SHA1_32    
                 inline:NzB4d1BINUAvLEw6UzF3WSJ+PSdFcGdUJShpX1Zj|2^20|1:32  
            

        The first two ones provide attribute values for the ptime attribute. 
        The third one provides SRTP parameters by using MIKEY with the key-
        mgmt attribute [KMGMT]. The fourth one provides SRTP parameters by 
        use of security descriptions with the crypto attribute [SDES]. 

     4.3.2. The Transport Protocol Capability Attribute 

        Transport Protocols can be expressed as capabilities by use of a new 
        Transport Protocol Capability attribute ("a=ctrpr") defined as 
        follows: 

           a=ctrpr: <trpr-cap-num> <proto> 

        where <trpr-cap-num> is an integer between 1 and 255 (both included) 
        used to number the transport address capability for later reference, 
        and <proto> is defined as in the SDP "m=" line.  


      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 19] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        The "ctrpr" attribute can be provided at either the session or media-
        level. Each occurrence of the attribute MUST use a different value of 
        <trpr-cap-num>, with the first one being 1, the second one being 2, 
        etc. The <trpr-cap-num> values provided are independent of similar 
        <cap-num> values provided for other attributes, i.e., they form a 
        separate name-space for transport protocol capabilities.  

        Below, we provide examples of the "a=ctrpr" attribute: 

           a=ctrpr: 1 RTP/AVP 
           a=ctrpr: 2 RTP/AVPF 

        The first one provides a capability for the "RTP/AVP" profile defined 
        in [RFC3551] and the second one provides a capability for the RTP 
        with RTCP-Based Feedback profile defined in [AVPF].  

        Note that the simcap extensions already provide similar functionality 
        by inclusion in the "cdsc" attribute (as illustrated by the example 
        in Section 4.1. ), however having this as a separate capability 
        indication can provide significant message size reduction when 
        negotiating alternative profiles (of which there can be many). In 
        particular, there is no need to repeat supported payload types. Also, 
        use of this attribute combined with the potential configuration 
        attribute (see Section 4.3.3. ) provides for more expressive power.  

     4.3.3. The Potential Configuration Attribute 

        Potential Configurations can be expressed by use of a new Potential 
        Configuration Attribute ("a=pcfg") defined as follows:  

           a=pcfg:     <simcap-capabilities>  
                       [<attribute-parameter-capabilities>] 
                       [<transport-protocol-capabilities>]  

        The potential configuration attribute includes one or more sets of 
        simcap-capabilities. A list of attribute parameter capabilities and a 
        list of transport protocol capabilities can optionally be included as 
        well. Together, these values define a set of potential 
        configurations. There can be one or more potential configuration 
        attributes provided at the session level as well as for each media 
        stream. The attributes are provided in order of preference.  

           TO DO: Clean up capability and configuration terminology. 

        <simcap-capabilities> is defined by the following ABNF:  


      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 20] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

           simcap-capabilities = "c=" cap-list *("|" cap-list) 
           cap-list            = cap-num *("," cap-num) 
           cap-num             = 1*3DIGIT   ; defined in [RFC4234] 

        Each capability list is a comma-separated list of simcap capability 
        numbers where cap-num refers to simcap capability numbers and hence 
        MUST be between 1 and 255 (both included).  Alternative potential 
        simcap configurations are separated by a vertical bar ("|"). The 
        alternatives are ordered by preference.  

        <attribute-parameter-capabilities> is defined by the following ABNF: 

           attribute-parameter-capabilities  
                             = "a=" capar-cap-list *("|" capar-cap-list) 
           capar-cap-list    = att-cap-num *("," att-cap-num) 
           att-cap-num       = 1*3DIGIT  ;defined in [RFC4234] 

        Each attribute parameter capability list is a comma-separated list of 
        attribute capability parameter numbers where att-cap-num refers to 
        attribute parameter capability numbers defined above and hence MUST 
        be between 1 and 255 (both included). Alternative attribute parameter 
        capabilities are separated by a vertical bar ("|"). The alternatives 
        are ordered by preference.  

        <transport-protocol-capabilities> is defined by the following ABNF: 

           transport-protocol-capabilities =  
                                "p=" trpr-cap-num *("|" trpr-cap-num) 
           trpr-cap-num        = 1*3DIGIT   ; defined in [RFC4234] 

        The trpr-cap-num refers to transport protocol capability numbers 
        defined above and hence MUST be between 1 and 255 (both included). 
        Alternative transport protocol capabilities are separated by a 
        vertical bar ("|"). When transport protocol capabilities are not 
        included, the transport protocol information from the media 
        description ("m=" line) will be used.  

        The potential configuration ("a=pcfg") attribute can be provided at 
        the session level and the media-level. Each occurrence of the 
        attribute within a given media description ("m=" line) defines a set 
        of potential configurations that can be used for that media 
        description.  

          TO DO: Need to decide on relationship between session-level and 
          media-level (how should conflicts, overlap, etc. be handled - 
          simplicity at the possible expense of expressive power is 
          preferable in the editor's opinion).  
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 21] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        Below, we provide an example of the "a=pcfg" attribute in a complete 
        media description in order to properly indicate the supporting 
        attributes: 

           v=0 
           o=- 25678 753849 IN IP4 128.96.41.1 
           s=  
           c=IN IP4 128.96.41.1 
           t=0 0 
           m=audio 3456 RTP/SAVPF 0 18  
           a=crypto:1 AES_CM_128_HMAC_SHA1_32    
              inline:NzB4d1BINUAvLEw6UzF3WSJ+PSdFcGdUJShpX1Zj|2^20|1:32  
           a=sqn: 0 
           a=cdsc: 1 audio RTP/SAVP 0 4 18  
           a=ctrpr: 1 RTP/AVP 
           a=ctrpr: 2 RTP/AVPF 
           a=ctrpr: 3 RTP/SAVP 
           a=ctrpr: 4 RTP/SAVPF 
           a=pcfg: c=1|3 p=1|2|3|4 
           a=pcfg: c=2 p=1 

        We have two potential configurations listed here. The first one 
        indicates that PCMU (payload type number 0 referenced by simcap 
        capability number 1) or G.729 (payload type number 18 referenced by 
        simcap capability number 3) can be supported with either of the 
        profiles RTP/AVP, RTP/AVPF, RTP/SAVP, or RTP/SAVPF (specified by the 
        transport protocol capability numbers 1,2,3 and 4). The second 
        potential configuration indicates that G.723 (payload type number 4 
        referenced by simcap capability number 2) can be supported with the 
        RTP/AVP profile only (transport protocol capability number 1).  

     4.3.4. The Actual Configuration Attribute 

        The actual configuration attribute identifies which of the potential 
        configurations from an offer SDP were used as actual configurations 
        in an answer SDP. This is done by reference to the simcap 
        capabilities, and the transport protocol (if included) capabilities 
        from the offer that were actually used by the answerer in his 
        offer/answer procedure.  

        The Actual Configuration Attribute ("a=acfg") is defined as follows:  

           a=acfg:     <simcap-capability-list>  
                       [<attribute-parameter-capabilities>] 
                       [<transport-protocol-capability] 

        <simcap-capability-list> is defined by the following ABNF:  
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 22] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

           simcap-capability-list = "c=" cap-list  
           cap-list               = cap-num *("," cap-num) 
           cap-num                = 1*3DIGIT   ; defined in [RFC4234] 

        Each capability list is a comma-separated list of simcap capability 
        numbers where cap-num refers to simcap capability numbers and hence 
        MUST be between 1 and 255 (both included).   

        <attribute-parameter-capabilities> is defined by the following ABNF: 

           attribute-parameter-capabilities = "a=" capar-cap-list 
           capar-cap-list    = att-cap-num *("," att-cap-num) 
           att-cap-num       = 1*3DIGIT  ;defined in [RFC4234] 

        Each attribute parameter capability list is a comma-separated list of 
        attribute capability parameter numbers where att-cap-num refers to 
        attribute parameter capability numbers defined above and hence MUST 
        be between 1 and 255 (both included).  

        <transport-protocol-capabilities> is defined by the following ABNF: 

           transport-protocol-capability = "p=" trpr-cap-num 
           trpr-cap-num        = 1*3DIGIT   ; defined in [RFC4234] 

        The trpr-cap-num refers to transport protocol capability numbers 
        defined above and hence MUST be between 1 and 255 (both included). 
        When a transport protocol capability is not included, the transport 
        protocol information from the media description ("m=" line) in the 
        offer is being used.  

        The actual configuration ("a=acfg") attribute can be provided at the 
        session level and the media-level. There MUST NOT be more than one 
        occurrence of an actual configuration attribute at the session level, 
        and there MUST NOT be more than one occurrence of an actual 
        configuration attribute within a given media description.  

        Below, we provide an example of the "a=acfg" attribute (building on 
        the previous example with the potential configuration attribute): 

           v=0 
           o=- 24351 621814 IN IP4 128.96.41.2 
           s=  
           c=IN IP4 128.96.41.2 
           t=0 0 
           m=audio 4567 RTP/AVPF 0  
           a=acfg: c=1 p=2 

      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 23] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        It indicates that the answerer used an offer consisting of simcap 
        capability 1 from the offer (PCMU) and transport protocol capability 
        2 from the offer (RTP/AVPF).  

     4.4. Offer/Answer Model Extensions 

        In this section, we define extensions to the offer/answer model 
        defined in [RFC3264] to allow for potential configurations to be 
        included in an offer, where they constitute offers that may be 
        accepted by the answerer instead of the actual configuration(s) 
        included in the "m=" line(s).  

           [Editor's Note: Multicast considerations have been omitted for 
           now.] 

           TO DO: Elaborate and firm up offer/answer procedures. 

     4.4.1. Generating the Initial Offer 

        An offerer that wants to use capability negotiation extensions 
        defined in this document MUST include the following in the offer: 

        o  one or more simcap capability descriptions (as defined in 
           [RFC3407] and extended above) for each of the capabilities. 

        o  optionally, one or more attribute parameter capability attributes 
           (as defined in Section 4.3.1. ) if one or more alternative 
           attribute parameter values is to be negotiated. 

        o  optionally, one or more transport protocol capability attributes 
           (as defined in Section 4.3.2. ) if one or more alternative 
           transport protocols is to be negotiated. 

        o  one or more potential configuration attributes (as defined in 
           Section 4.3.3. which define the potential configurations supported 
           by the offerer.  

        Each of the potential configurations listed constitutes an 
        alternative offer which may be used to negotiate and establish the 
        session.  The current actual configuration is included in the "m=" 
        line (as defined by [RFC3264]).  

     4.4.2. Generating the Answer  

        When the answerer receives an offer with one or more valid potential 
        configuration information attributes present, it may use any of the 
        potential configurations as an alternative offer. A potential 
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 24] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        configuration information attribute is valid if all of the 
        capabilities (simcap, attribute capabilities and transport protocol) 
        it references are present and valid themselves.  

        The actual configuration is contained in the media description's "m=" 
        line.  The answerer can send media to the offerer in accordance with 
        the actual configuration, however if it chooses to use one of the 
        alternative potential configurations, media sent to the offerer may 
        be discarded by the offerer until the answer is received.   

        If the answerer chooses to accept one of the alternative potential 
        configurations instead of the actual configuration, the answerer MUST 
        generate an answer as if the offer contained that potential 
        configuration instead of the actual configuration included. The 
        answerer MUST also include an actual configuration attribute in the 
        answer that identifies the potential configuration from the offer 
        used by the answerer. The actual configuration attribute in the 
        answer MUST include information about the capabilities. Furthermore, 
        if the offered potential configuration included attribute capability 
        parameters and/or transport protocol capabilities, those parameters 
        MUST be included in the actual configuration attribute in the answer 
        as well.  

     4.4.3.  Offerer Processing of the Answer  

        When the offerer included potential configurations for a media 
        stream, it MUST examine the answer for the presence of an actual 
        configuration attribute for each such media stream.  If the attribute 
        is missing, offerer processing of the answer MUST proceed as defined 
        by [RFC3264].  If the attribute is present, processing continues as 
        follows: 

        The actual configuration attribute specifies which of the potential 
        configurations was used by the answerer to generate the answer. This 
        includes all the types of capabilities from the potential 
        configuration offered, i.e. the media formats ("cdsc" capabilities), 
        attribute capability parameters ("capar") and transport protocol 
        capabilities ("ctrpr") 

        The offerer MUST now process the answer as if the offer had contained 
        the potential configuration as the actual configuration in the media 
        description ("m=" line) and relevant attributes in the offer.  

     4.4.4. Modifying the Session        

        Potential configurations may be included in subsequent offers as 
        defined in [RFC3264, Section 8].  The procedure for doing so is 
      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 25] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        similar to that described above with the answer including an 
        indication of the actual configuration used by the answerer.  

     5. Examples 

        TBD. 

     6. Security Considerations 

        TBD. 

     7. IANA Considerations 

        TBD. 

     8. To Do and Open Issues 

        o  Capability descriptions, potential configurations and actual 
           configurations can be provided at both the session level and media 
           level. It needs to be decided what the relationship between the 
           session level and media level parameters are.  

        o  We are currently capping all capability numbers at 255. Is this a 
           concern, not least considering the limits apply to the session, 
           not just individual media streams.  

     9. Acknowledgments 

        Thanks to Francois Audet and Dan Wing for comments on this document. 

     10. Change Log 

     10.1. Changes since -00 

        o  Added requirements to allow for alternative attribute values to be 
           negotiated at the session level.  

        o  Removed requirements to support unicast/multicast as alternatives 
           and IPv4/IPv6 as alternatives.  

        o  Updated section 3.6. on opportunistic encryption using a session 
           attribute 

        o  Added new section 3.7. on best-effort secure real-time transport 
           protocol. 


      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 26] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        o  Updated solution to align with updated requirements. More 
           specifically 

            o  Added minor extensions to simcap in new Section 4.2.  

            o  Removed the "a=ctrad" attribute that supported transport 
               addresses as capabilities and updated the rest of the 
               attributes and procedures accordingly.  

            o  Allowed for the "a=ctrpr" to be specified at the session level 
               as well.  

            o  Updated semantics for the "a=pcfg" attribute to specify that 
               potential configurations are listed in order of preference.  

            o  Defined a new attribute "a=capar" that enables the offerer to 
               determine which of several possible alternative attributes 
               from an offer was chosen by the answerer.  

            o  Updated example in Section 4.1. to illustrate backwards 
               compatibility with a non-SRTP capable endpoint.  

            o  Updated open issues section and in particular noted issue 
               around session level and media level parameter semantics 
               overlap. 






















      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 27] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

     11. References 

     11.1. Normative References 

        [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 
                  Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 

        [RFC2234] Crocker, D. and Overell, P.(Editors), "Augmented BNF for 
                  Syntax Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, Internet Mail 
                  Consortium and Demon Internet Ltd., November 1997. 

        [RFC3264] Rosenberg, J., and H. Schulzrinne, "An Offer/Answer Model 
                  with Session Description Protocol (SDP)", RFC 3264, June 
                  2002.  

        [RFC3407] F. Andreasen, "Session Description Protocol (SDP) Simple 
                  Capability Declaration", RFC 3407, October 2002. 

        [RFC3605] C. Huitema, "Real Time Control Protocol (RTCP) attribute in 
                  Session Description Protocol (SDP)", RFC 3605, October 
                  2003.  

        [RFC4234] Crocker, D., and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax 
                  Specifications: ABNF", RFC 4234, October 2005. 

        [SDP]     Handley, M., Jacobson, V., and C. Perkins, "SDP: Session 
                  Description Protocol", RFC 4566, July 2006.  

     11.2. Informative References 

        [RFC2046] Freed, N., and N. Borensteain, "Multipurpose Internet Mail 
                  Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046, 
                  November 1996. 

        [RFC2327] Handley, M., Jacobson, V., and C. Perkins, "SDP: Session 
                  Description Protocol", RFC 2327, April 1998.  

        [RFC3261]  Rosenberg, J., Schulzrinne, H., Camarillo, G., Johnston, 
                  A., Peterson, J., Sparks, R., Handley, M., and E. Schooler, 
                  "SIP: Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 3261, June 2002. 

        [RFC3388] Camarillo, G., Eriksson, G., Holler, J., and H. 
                  Schulzrinne, "Grouping of Media Lines in the Session 
                  Description Protocol (SDP)", RFC 3388, December 2002. 



      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 28] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        [RFC3551] Schulzrinne, H., and S. Casner, "RTP Profile for Audio and 
                  Video Conferences with Minimal Control", RFC 3551, July 
                  2003.  

        [SRTP]    Baugher, M., McGrew, D., Naslund, M., Carrara, E., and K. 
                  Norrman, "The Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP)", 
                  RFC 3711, March 2004. 

        [RFC3851] B. Ramsdell, "Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions 
                  (S/MIME) Version 3.1 Message Specification", RFC 3851, July 
                  2004.  

        [RFC4091] Camarillo, G., and J. Rosenberg, The Alternative Network 
                  Address Types (ANAT) Semantics for the Session Description 
                  Protocol (SDP) Grouping Framework, RFC 4091, June 2005.  

        [AVPF]    Ott, J., Wenger, S., Sato, N., Burmeister, C., and J. Rey, 
                  "Extended RTP Profile for RTCP-Based Feedback (RTP/AVPF)", 
                  Work in Progress, August 2004.  

        [I-D.jennings-sipping-multipart] Wing, D., and C. Jennings, "Session 
                  Initiation Protocol (SIP) Offer/Answer with Multipart 
                  Alternative", Work in Progress, March 2006. 

        [SAVPF]   Ott, J., and E Carrara, "Extended Secure RTP Profile for 
                  RTCP-based Feedback (RTP/SAVPF)", Work in Progress, 
                  December 2005.  

        [SDES]    Andreasen, F., Baugher, M., and D. Wing, "Session 
                  Description Protocol Security Descriptions for Media 
                  Streams", RFC 4568, July 2006.  

        [SDPng]   Kutscher, D., Ott, J., and C. Bormann, "Session Description 
                  and Capability Negotiation", Work in Progress, February 
                  2005.  

        [BESRTP]  Kaplan, H., and F. Audet, "Session Description Protocol 
                  (SDP) Offer/Answer Negotiation for Best-Effort Secure Real-
                  Time Transport Protocol, Work in progress, August 2006.  

        [KMGMT]   Arkko, J., Lindholm, F., Naslund, M., Norrman, K., and E. 
                  Carrara, "Key Management Extensions for Session Description 
                  Protocol (SDP) and Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP)", 
                  RFC 4567, July 2006.  



      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 29] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

     Author's Addresses 

        Flemming Andreasen 
        Cisco Systems 
        Edison, NJ 
            
        Email: fandreas@cisco.com 
         

     Intellectual Property Statement 

        The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any 
        Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to 
        pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in 
        this document or the extent to which any license under such rights 
        might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has 
        made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information 
        on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be 
        found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. 

        Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any 
        assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an 
        attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of 
        such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this 
        specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at 
        http://www.ietf.org/ipr. 

        The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any 
        copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary 
        rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement 
        this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at 
        ietf-ipr@ietf.org. 

     Disclaimer of Validity 

        This document and the information contained herein are provided on an 
        "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS 
        OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET 
        ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, 
        INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE 
        INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED 
        WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. 

     Copyright Statement 

        Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006). 

      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 30] 
         







     Internet-Draft        SDP Capability Negotiation           October 2006 
         

        This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions 
        contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors 
        retain all their rights. 

     Acknowledgment 

        Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the 
        Internet Society. 

         





































      
      
     Andreasen               Expires April 20, 2007                [Page 31]