RFC 2357 (rfc2357) - Page 2 of 11

IETF Criteria for Evaluating Reliable Multicast Transport and Application Protocols

RFC 2357             Evaluating Reliable Multicast             June 1998


   The TSV Area Directors and their Directorate have outlined a set of
   review procedures that address these questions and set criteria and
   processes for the publication as RFCs of Internet-Drafts on reliable
   multicast transport protocols.

1.0 Background on IETF Processes and Procedures

   In the IETF, work in an area is directed and managed by the Area
   Directors (ADs), who have authority over the chartering of working
   groups (WGs).

   In addition, ADs review individually submitted (not by WGs)
   Internet-Drafts about work that is relevant to their areas prior to
   publication as RFCs (Experimental, Informational or, in rare cases,
   Standards Track). The review is done according to the guidelines set
   out in the Internet Standards Process, RFC 2026 [InetStdProc96].

   The purpose of this document is to present the criteria that will be
   used by the TSV ADs in reviewing reliable multicast Internet-Drafts
   for any form of RFC publication.

   For I-Ds submitted for Standards Track publication, these criteria
   must be met or else the ADs will decline to support publication of
   the document, which suffices to prevent publication.  For I-Ds
   submitted as Experimental or Informational, these criteria must be
   met or else, at a minimum, the Ads will recommend publishing the I-D
   with an IESG note prepended stating that the protocol fails to comply
   with these criteria.

2.0 Introduction

   There is a strong application demand for reliable multicast.
   Widespread use of the Internet makes the economy of multicast
   transport attractive.  The current Internet multicast model offers
   best-effort many-to-many delivery service and offers no guarantees.
   One-to-many and few-to-few services may become more important in the
   future.  Reliable multicast transports add delivery guarantees, not
   necessarily like those of reliable unicast TCP, to the group-delivery
   model of multicast.  A panel of some major users of the Internet,
   convened at the 38th IETF, articulated reliable bulk transfer
   multicast as one of their most critical requirements [DiffServBOF97].
   Examples of applications that could use reliable bulk multicast
   transfer include collaborative tools, distributed virtual reality,
   and software upgrade services.

   To meet the growing demand for reliable multicast, there is a large
   number of protocol proposals.  A few were published as RFCs before
   the impact of congestion from reliable multicast was fully



Mankin, et. al.              Informational