Subject: [tcmtf] Improved description of the BOF proposal

From: "Jose Saldana" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:52:23 +0200

Hi all.

After talking with Dan, we have improved the BOF description. This is the
new proposal:

The interactivity requirements of some emerging services (VoIP,
videoconferencing, telemedicine, video vigilance, online gaming, etc.) make
them send high rates of small packets, in order to transmit frequent updates
between the two extremes of the communication. They also demand small
network delays. In addition, some other services also use small packets,
although they are not delay-sensitive (e.g., instant messaging, m2m packets
sending collected data in sensor networks using wireless or satellite
scenarios). For both the delay-sensitive and delay-insensitive applications,
their small data payloads incur significant overhead.

When a number of small-packet flows share the same path, bandwidth can be
saved by multiplexing packets belonging to different flows. If a
transmission queue has not already been formed but multiplexing is desired,
it is necessary to add a multiplexing delay, which has to be maintained
under some threshold in order to grant the delay requirements. Some examples
of the scenarios where grouping packets is possible are: 

- aggregation networks of a network operator

- an end-to-end tunnel between appliances located in two different offices
of the same company

- a satellite connection used for collecting the data of a high number of
sensors.

 <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4170> RFC4170 (TCRTP) defined a method for
grouping VoIP packets considering three different layers: header compression
by means of ECRTP; multiplexing by means of PPPMux; tunneling by means of
L2TPv3. However, in the last years, emerging real-time services which do not
use UDP/RTP have become popular: some of them use UDP or even TCP. In
addition, new header compression methods have been defined (ROHC). So there
is a need of widening the scope of RFC4170 in order to consider not only
UDP/RTP but also other protocols. The same structure of three layers will be
considered: header compression, multiplexing and tunneling.

The BOF aims for the creation of a Working Group in order to specify the
protocol stack, signaling mechanisms and maximum added delay recommendations
for tunneling, compressing and multiplexing traffic flows (TCMTF).

Jose