RE: [XCON] CPCP and resource allocation. (was: Chicken and Egg - Can CPCP create a conference)

[hisham.khartabil@nokia.com]

I don't think anyone was suggesting that as soon as a conference policy is in place, the resources must be reserved. CPCP does not provide an interface for resource allocation, but it does provide the scheduled time for the conference. It is up to the conference host to read the start and stop times for a conference and allocate resources using some local intelligence.

In my definitions, conference host and conference server are the same thing.

More comment inline...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ext Nermeen Ismail [mailto:nismail@cisco.com]
> Sent: 10.December.2003 03:01
> To: Rosen, Brian
> Cc: Khartabil Hisham (NMP-MSW/Helsinki); xcon@ietf.org
> Subject: RE: [XCON] CPCP and resource allocation. (was: 
> Chicken and Egg
> - Can CPCP create a conference)
> 
> 
> Ok back to the hot seat.
> 
> I agree that CPCP should allow conferences that have been 
> scheduled in 
> adavnce to be created. However that does not mean that CPCP
> should provide the inetrafce for resource allocation.
> 
> I am not sure that resource allocation is a function of the 
> conference 
> server because:
> - The same DSP resources can be scheduled for 
> mixing(conferencing) or for 
> other types of services (e.g. transcoding). So really 
> resource allocation 
> is not a conferencing-specific function
> - I can not see the point of allocating a URI (be it SIP, 
> SPIS, TEL, H.323) 
> when really the conference is going to start in two weeks 
> time. I prefer to
> separate the problem of resource allocation which can happen way in 
> adavance and can cater for more than just mixing resources  from the 
> problem of allocating a conference URI and a conferenec 
> policy that allows 
> participants to join into the conference right now. I have 
> understood CPCP 
> to be targeting the latter and not the first.

I don't quite understand what your saying here, but I'll comment anyway: Assigning a conference URI is not assigning resources. It is merely assigning an ID to that conference. It does not matter when that ID is assigned as long as it is done before the conference starts. But I would be done long enough to enable users to pass it around.

Regards,
Hisham

> 
> nermeen
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> >Hurray, someone else on the hot seat.
> >
> >I agree with Hisham, and others, that schedule in advance is
> >a clear requirement we must support (existing systems do it),
> >it's not hard, and the resource allocation is local policy at the
> >conference service.   The simplest way to get around time
> >zone issues is to simply have the schedule always be in GMT,
> >and leave it to the clients to deal with local conversion for display
> >purposes.
> >
> >Conference system vendors have coped with the scheduling problem for
> >years, and have sensible, albeit not foolproof heuristics to make
> >scheduled conferences work pretty well.  The reality these days is
> >that calculating conference resources is already an inexact science,
> >and you don't really know if your DSP will run out of 
> horsepower until
> >it does. Again, vendors often use heuristics and approximations to
> >give you a "port count".
> >
> >Brian

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