2.8.4 FEC Framework (fecframe)

NOTE: This charter is a snapshot of the 76th IETF Meeting in Hiroshima, Japan. It may now be out-of-date.

Last Modified: 2009-11-09

Chair(s):

Greg Shepherd <gjshep@gmail.com>

Transport Area Director(s):

Magnus Westerlund <magnus.westerlund@ericsson.com>
Lars Eggert <lars.eggert@nokia.com>

Transport Area Advisor:

Magnus Westerlund <magnus.westerlund@ericsson.com>

Mailing Lists:

General Discussion: fecframe@ietf.org
To Subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/fecframe
Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/fecframe

Description of Working Group:

The object of this group is to develop specifications for using forward
error correction (FEC) codes with applications in the Internet to 
provide protection against packet loss. The group will develop a 
protocol framework for application of FEC codes to arbitrary packet 
flows over unreliable transport protocols over both IP multicast and 
unicast. The application of the FEC codec on an aggregate of multiple 
packet flows may be investigated and considered to be included in the 
solution. 

The FECFrame working group will use the building block approach (RFC 
3269), especially the FEC Building Block (RFC 3452), developed by the 
RMT working group. The FEC Building Block was developed to ensure that 
the RMT framework developed can support multiple FEC codes and maintain
independence between FEC codes and protocols based on the framework.
The FECFrame WG may develop new FEC schemes if necessary to provide 
substantial performance gains for the intended applications. However 
the acceptance of any FEC scheme will require multiple, prior, detailed
reviews of the FEC code by independent experts from both the IETF and 
the broader community, since it is likely that the IETF working group 
will not include a large enough number of suitable experts in its 
working set. If these reviews are positive, then Working Group 
acceptance of an FEC scheme work item still needs the approval of the 
responsible Area Director. 

A primary objective of this framework is to support FEC for real-time 
media applications using RTP over UDP, such as on demand streaming and 
audio/video broadcast. Other potential usages of the framework may be 
brought to the working group for consideration during the development
of the requirements, to enable future support of those usages. The
group will coordinate closely with the AVT and MMUSIC working groups to
ensure that the streaming use-case is fully specified both in terms of 
interactions with RTP/RTCP and application layer signalling. The group 
will also coordinate with the DCCP working group, at least to consider 
that transport protocol's role in streaming media. The interactions of 
the framework with existing and used security mechanisms must also be 
considered. 

The group will work with the RMT working group to ensure that the FEC 
Building Block defined in RMT supports both the RMT use-cases (object 
delivery over multicast) and the more general FEC protection of 
flow(s) over unreliable unicast and multicast transport. 

Specification of hybrid schemes involving both retransmission and 
forward error correction is out of scope of the group.

Goals and Milestones:

Done  Working Group consensus on requirements and their prioritization for the FEC protocol framework
Done  Completed selection of solution to develop and mature
Done  FEC framework requirements WG soft-freeze
Done  FEC Streaming Framework WG soft-freeze
Mar 2008  FEC Grouping informational draft submitted to MMUSIC
Nov 2008  FEC Streaming Framework submitted as Proposed Standard
Nov 2008  FEC framework requirements submitted as Proposed Standard
Nov 2008  Usage of FEC framework with RTP submitted as Proposed Standard
Nov 2008  FEC SDP Elements submitted as Proposed Standard
Nov 2008  Discuss re-chartering

Internet-Drafts:

  • draft-ietf-fecframe-sdp-elements-04.txt
  • draft-ietf-fecframe-interleaved-fec-scheme-09.txt
  • draft-ietf-fecframe-dvb-al-fec-04.txt
  • draft-ietf-fecframe-rtp-raptor-02.txt

    No Request For Comments

    Meeting Minutes


    Slides

    Agenda
    RTP-MF
    RTP Payload for RS