RFC 2729 (rfc2729) - Page 3 of 27
Taxonomy of Communication Requirements for Large-scale Multicast Applications
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 2729 Taxonomy of Communication Requirements December 1999
The taxonomy is likely to be useful in a number of ways:
1. Most simply, it can be used as a checklist to create a
requirements statement for a particular LSMA. Example applications
will be classified [bagnall98] using the taxonomy in order to
exercise (and improve) it
2. Because strictest requirement have been defined for many
parameters, it will be possible to identify worst case scenarios
for the design of protocols
3. Because the scope of each parameter has been defined (per session,
per receiver etc.), it will be possible to highlight where
heterogeneity is going to be most marked
4. It is a step towards standardization of the way LSMAs define their
communications requirements. This could lead to standard APIs
between applications and protocol adaptation middleware
5. Identification of limitations in current Internet technology for
LSMAs to be added to the LSMA limitations memo [limitations]
6. Identification of gaps in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
working group coverage
This approach is intended to complement that used where application
scenarios for Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) are proposed
in order to generate network design metrics (values of communications
parameters). Instead of creating the communications parameters from
the applications, we try to imagine applications that might be
enabled by stretching communications parameters.
2. Definition of Sessions
The following terms have no agreed definition, so they will be
defined for this document.
Session
a happening or gathering consisting of flows of information
related by a common description that persists for a non-trivial
time (more than a few seconds) such that the participants (be they
humans or applications) are involved and interested at
intermediate times. A session may be defined recursively as a
super-set of other sessions.
Secure session
a session with restricted access
Bagnall, et al. Informational