RFC 2568 (rfc2568) - Page 2 of 10
Rationale for the Structure of the Model and Protocol for the Internet Printing Protocol
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 2568 Rationale for IPP April 1999
The full set of IPP documents includes:
Design Goals for an Internet Printing Protocol [RFC 2567]
Rationale for the Structure and Model and Protocol for the
Internet Printing Protocol (this document)
Internet Printing Protocol/1.0: Model and Semantics [RFC 2566]
Internet Printing Protocol/1.0: Encoding and Transport [RFC 2565]
Internet Printing Protocol/1.0: Implementer's Guide [ipp-iig]
Mapping between LPD and IPP Protocols [RFC 2569]
The "Design Goals for an Internet Printing Protocol" document takes a
broad look at distributed printing functionality, and it enumerates
real-life scenarios that help to clarify the features that need to be
included in a printing protocol for the Internet. It identifies
requirements for three types of users: end users, operators, and
administrators. The Design Goals document calls out a subset of end
user requirements that are satisfied in IPP/1.0. Operator and
administrator requirements are out of scope for version 1.0.
The "Internet Printing Protocol/1.0: Model and Semantics" document
describes a simplified model consisting of abstract objects, their
attributes, and their operations that is independent of encoding and
transport. The model consists of a Printer and a Job object. The
Job optionally supports multiple documents. This document also
addresses security, internationalization, and directory issues.
The "Internet Printing Protocol/1.0: Encoding and Transport" document
is a formal mapping of the abstract operations and attributes defined
in the model document onto HTTP/1.1. It defines the encoding rules
for a new Internet media type called "application/ipp".
The "Internet Printing Protocol/1.0: Implementer's Guide" document
gives insight and advice to implementers of IPP clients and IPP
objects. It is intended to help them understand IPP/1.0 and some of
the considerations that may assist them in the design of their client
and/or IPP object implementations. For example, a typical order of
processing requests is given, including error checking. Motivation
for some of the specification decisions is also included.
The "Mapping between LPD and IPP Protocols" document gives some
advice to implementers of gateways between IPP and LPD (Line Printer
Daemon) implementations.
1. ARCHITECTURAL OVERVIEW
The Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) is an application level protocol
that can be used for distributed printing on the Internet. This
protocol defines interactions between a client and a server. The
Zilles Experimental