RFC 1911 (rfc1911) - Page 1 of 22

Voice Profile for Internet Mail

Network Working Group                                       G. Vaudreuil
Request for Comments: 1911                        Octel Network Services
Category: Experimental                                     February 1996


                    Voice Profile for Internet Mail

Status of this Memo

   This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
   community.  This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any
   kind.  Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

1. Abstract

   A class of special-purpose computers has evolved to provide voice
   messaging services.  These machines generally interface to a
   telephone switch and provide call answering and voice messaging
   services.  Traditionally, messages sent to a non-local machine are
   transported using analog networking protocols based on DTMF signaling
   and analog voice playback.  As the demand for networking increases,
   there is a need for a standard high-quality digital protocol to
   connect these machines.  The following document is a profile of the
   Internet standard MIME and ESMTP protocols for use as a digital voice
   networking protocol.

   This profile is based on an earlier effort in the Audio Message
   Interchange Specification (AMIS) group to define a voice messaging
   protocol based on X.400 technology.  This protocol is intended to
   satisfy the user requirements statement from that earlier work with
   the industry standard ESMTP/MIME mail protocol infrastructures
   already used within corporate internets.  This profile will be called
   the voice profile in this document.

2. Scope and Design Goals

   MIME is the Internet multipurpose, multimedia messaging standard.
   This document explicitly recognizes its capabilities and provides a
   mechanism for the exchange of various messaging technologies
   including voice and facsimile.

   This document specifies a profile of the TCP/IP multimedia messaging
   protocols for use by special-purpose voice processing platforms.
   These platforms have historically been special-purpose computers and
   often do not have facilities normally associated with a traditional
   Internet Email-capable computer.  This profile is intended to specify
   the minimum common set of features and functionally for conformant



Vaudreuil                     Experimental