[Sip] Comments to the TOTE draft

[Miguel Garcia <Miguel.Garcia at nsn.com>]

Here are some comments to the TOTE draft:

1. In the Introduction the draft mentions three general purpose 
mechanisms that allow a pair of agents to communicate data during a 
session. However it fails to name the most relevant work for this draft, 
which is the file transfer mechanism, an MMUSIC WG item:
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-mmusic-file-transfer-mech-06.txt

2. Then, I believe most of what the draft proposes can be done with the 
above draft. For good or for bad, the file transfer mechanism does not 
really define a new file transfer protocol as TOTE does, but reuses the 
existing MSRP.

3. I don't think I have seen the requirements for this draft. So, I 
cannot really evaluate why the file transfer mechanism is able to meet 
these requirements, and I cannot evaluate if MSRP is able to meet these 
requirements. The requirements corresponding to the file transfer 
mechanism were posted way back in this draft:
http://tools.ietf.org/draft/draft-isomaki-sipping-file-transfer/draft-isomaki-sipping-file-transfer-01.txt

4. Assuming that there is a need for a new protocol for transferring 
files between to endpoints, I would encourage to re-use existing work. 
In particular, the file transfer mechanism says:

       In principle it is possible to use the SDP extensions defined here
       and replace MSRP with any other similar protocol that can carry
       MIME objects.  This kind of specification can be written as a
       separate document if the need arises.  Essentially, such protocol
       should be able to be negotiated on an SDP offer/answer exchange
       (RFC 3264 [RFC3264]), be able to carry MIME objects between two
       endpoints, and use a reliable transport protocol (e.g., TCP).

For what I read, TOTE will qualify for such alternative protocol, but 
again, we need to understand the requirements that makes the need for 
yet another file transfer protocol.

5. On a slightly different topic. The draft also mentions Shared 
Browsing. I have recently put a draft that describes how to do 
collaboration between endpoints, and one of the topics is Shared 
Browsing. The draft is this one:

http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-garcia-mmusic-sdp-collaboration-00.txt

Section 4.2 discusses the topic, and proposes to use the file transfer 
mechanism for sending those URL objects between endpoints.

6. I've been told that in German language TOTE means DEATH, so, perhaps 
that name should be changed.

So, all in all, I think we need more discussion on the requirements with 
respect existing work, and try to identify the delta that makes the need 
for this draft.

/Miguel

-- 
Miguel A. Garcia           tel:+358-50-4804586
Nokia Siemens Networks     Espoo, Finland

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