Subject: Minutes of the IPP/IFAX Meeting - 10/1/98

From: Ron Bergman <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 18:34:43 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)

Here are my minutes from the Savannah meeting.  I will post these on the
PWG server if I don't get any negative comments on the use of IFC as the
project code by Friday.

	Ron Bergman
	Dataproducts Corp.

Minutes from the IPP/IFAX meeting - October 1, 1998

Attendees:    Ron Bergman      - Dataproducts Corp.
              Lee Farrell      - Canon
              Tom Hastings     - Xerox
              Harry Lewis      - IBM
              Carl-Uno Manros  - Xerox
              Stuart Rowley    - Kyocera
              Randy Turner     - Sharp Labs

These comments are directed at the paper by Richard Shockey titled 
"Memorandum on the Use of IPP and Facsimile Service Requirements and 
Protocol Mapping", dated 09/29/98.

In general, it was agreed that Richard did an excellent job of defining 
these requirements.  The information provided was extremely helpful to 
us printer folks.  Most of the questions and comments are due to our 
limited background in facsimile.

1. We will establish an IPP/IFAX mail list on the PWG server.  I suggest 
   IFC, for IPP Fax Compatibility.

2. In the sub heading of section 2.2 titled "END-USER" (this is a quote 
   from the IPP Requirements Document), it should be noted that 
   "altering the attributes of a print job" is not a part of IPP 1.0.

3. The left column of the Functional Matrix on page 5 should be:

     (heading).......................IPP
     Addressing......................URL
     Protocol........................HTTP 1.1 "POST"
     Negotiation Capabilities........Get-Printer-Attributes or 
                                     Validate-Job (operation)
     Allowable Content...............Any format supported by the 
                                     printer, must have a MIME type 
     Minimum Supported Content.......None
     Sender ID.......................job-originating-user-name (Job 
                                     Description Attribute) 
                                     requesting-user-name (Operation 
                                     Attribute)
     Compression.....................compression-supported  (Printer 
                                     Description Attribute)
     Security........................TLS, Digest Authentication (DAA), 
                                     and SSL3
     Transmission....................Network
     Status Reporting-Tracking.......Notifications (work in progress)
     Gateway Addressing..............URL
     Notification & Confirmation.....Notifications and Real-Time Clock
     Error Coding....................IPP & HTTP specific codes

4. Information regarding the proposed IPP notifications can be found on 
   the PWG ftp server.

     ftp://ftp.pwg.org/pub/pwg/ipp/new_NOT/

   The three papers that provide a good view of the proposal are:

     ipp-notifications-very-short-980701.pdf (and .doc)
     ipp-notification-printer-980701.pdf (and .doc)
     ipp-job-prog-attr-980706.pdf (and .doc)

   For those who really are into this subject and have nothing to do, 
   the complete IPP notifications paper is:

     ipp-event-notification-proposal.pdf (and .doc)

5. There was some discussion as to what is the concept of redirection 
   within the scope of fax.  Within IPP, this term has been used for the 
   situation where an IPP server has determined that a different IPP 
   printer should process a received job and "redirects" the job to 
   another printer.  (An IPP server can "front" for multiple printer 
   devices.)  This may be due to features available on the other 
   printer, to balance the current print load on the devices, or any 
   other reason.  It was believed that this may not be the case for fax.  
   In the case of a fax offramp, the job is "redirected" from the 
   Internet to the PSTN for delivery to a legacy fax machine.  Or, the 
   job may be "redirected" by a distribution list to many destinations 
   which may be on the Internet or PSTN.  The IPP group requests 
   additional information from the IFAX group regarding this subject.

6. The fax requirement of a header with the time and date generated 
   significant discussion.  The first question, from this discussion:

   "Where is the time stamp affixed to the document?  (i.e. At the 
   source or the destination?)"  If the document image is ever stored 
   between the two points these times could be very different, even 
   without the consideration of time zone changes.

   Subsequent email discussion on this topic from IFAX participants has 
   indicated that the header is generated at the document source.  The 
   image received by the printer should contain the required header and 
   this is not a concern of the printing device.

   It was generally agreed by IPP participants that an IPP/IFAX 
   compatible printer could be required to implement a real-time clock.  
   The IPP/IFAX feature would be a superset of the present IPP version 
   1.0, as it most likely will require the inclusion of new attributes 
   and other features beyond the current specifications.  This is not a 
   serious problem, since IPP is very extensible and is not restricted 
   by any legacy printing applications.

   Email discussion has since indicated that a real-time clock is not 
   required to create the document header.  A time stamp may, however, 
   be necessary to maintain a log of faxes received.  This depends upon 
   how many of the fax device's functionally is desired.  (This may be 
   more of a marketing decision than an absolute requirement.)

   The second question concerns the legal issues... "Would the legal
   requirements of a real-time clock for current fax machines 
   automatically apply to an IPP/IFAX device?"  
   
   This subject generated a significant number of email messages with no 
   clear consensus.  Again, this may degenerate to more of a market 
   position issue.

7. The paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of downloading a 
   printer driver (defined as a PDL in the paper).  It should be noted 
   that the ability to locate and download a driver is one of the 
   eventual goals of IPP, it is not a feature of version 1.0.

8. Must a fax document be transmitted using TIFF?  Adobe once had a 
   PostScript version of fax.  Are there others?

9. If the output is from an IPP printer, what would differentiate a fax 
   job from any other print job?  What are the set of requirements that 
   are tied to a fax?

10. Section 5.2 mentions VCARD and Job Ticket.  Is there a definition 
    for these items?