A new IETF working group has been proposed in the Real-time Applications and Infrastructure Area. The IESG has not made any determination as yet. The following draft charter was submitted, and is provided for informational purposes only. Please send your comments to the IESG mailing list (iesg@ietf.org) by Tuesday, May 19, 2009. Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (xmpp) ------------------------------------------------- Last Modified: 2009-04-27 Current Status: Proposed Working Group Chair(s): TBD Area Director(s): Robert Sparks <rjsparks@nostrum.com> Cullen Jennings <fluffy@cisco.com> Area Advisor: TBD Mailing Lists: General Discussion: xmpp@ietf.org Description of Working Group: The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is an technology for the near-real-time exchange of messages and presence notifications, where data is exchanged over Extensible Markup Language (XML) streams. XMPP was originally formalized by the XMPP Working Group in 2002-2004, resulting in publication of RFCs 3920-3923. Implementation and deployment experience since that time has resulted in errata, clarifications, and suggestions for improvement to the core XMPP specifications (RFCs 3920 and 3921). Some technologies on which XMPP depends (e.g., Transport Layer Security and the Simple Authentication and Security Layer) have undergone modifications of their own, which XMPP needs to track. Finally, the group needs to define a sustainable solution to internationalization of XMPP addresses, since the approach taken in RFC 3920 (based on stringprep profiles) is limited to Unicode 3.2 characters. Both draft-saintandre-rfc3920bis-* and draft-saintandre-rfc3921bis-* reflect community input so far regarding these modifications, but the group needs to complete this work, especially with regard to internationalization. Because of the scope of changes involved, it is envisioned that these specifications will be cycled at Proposed Standard. Although RFC 3923 defines an end-to-end signing and encryption technology for use by XMPP systems, to date it has not been implemented. A goal of the group is to develop an implementable method for end-to-end encryption, preferably based on well known and widely deployed security technologies. XMPP uses TLS for encryption and the Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) for authentication. In the case of a server-to-server stream, XMPP is deployed using TLS and the SASL EXTERNAL mechanism, where each peer presents an X.509 certificate. This model introduces scaling challenges in multi-domain deployments because RFC 3920 requires that a stream cannot be reused for more than one domain, thus necessitating multiple TCP connections. The group will work to overcome these challenges by defining an optional mechanism for using a single connection with multiple identities. It is anticipated that most of the work will consist of defining and providing requirements to the TLS and SASL working groups. Many of the core and extended features of XMPP have also been implemented in technologies based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). To ensure interworking between XMPP systems and SIP systems, a number of Internet-Drafts (draft-saintandre-sip-xmpp-*) have been produced. The group will define a framework within which this work could be completed. In completing its work, the group will strive to retain backwards compatibility with RFCs 3920 and 3921. However, changes that are not backwards compatible might be accepted if the group determines that the changes are required to meet the group's technical objectives and the group clearly documents the reasons for making them. Goals and Milestones: - Deliver rfc3920bis and rfc3921bis to the IESG. - Decide upon a direction for end-to-end encryption. - Decide upon a direction for server-to-server connection reuse. - Define a framework for SIP-XMPP interworking. - Define a solution for end-to-end encryption. - Define a solution for server-to-server connection reuse. _______________________________________________ IETF-Announce@ietf.org https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-announce
