Voice Profile for Internet Mail (vpim)
--------------------------------------

 Charter
 Last Modified: 2004-06-14

 Current Status: Active Working Group

 Chair(s):
     Glenn Parsons  <gparsons@nortel.com>

 Applications Area Director(s):
     Ted Hardie  <hardie@qualcomm.com>
     Scott Hollenbeck  <sah@428cobrajet.net>

 Applications Area Advisor:
     Scott Hollenbeck  <sah@428cobrajet.net>

 Mailing Lists: 
     General Discussion:vpim@ietf.org
     To Subscribe:      vpim-request@ietf.org
         In Body:       subscribe
     Archive:           http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/vpim/index.html

Description of Working Group:

The Voice Profile for Internet Mail (VPIM) Version 2 is currently a 
Proposed Standard (RFC 2421) Applicability Statement. It is an 
application of Internet Mail originally intended for sending voice 
messages between voice messaging systems.  As such, VPIM imposes
several restrictions on the message and transport to support the 
characteristics of voice messaging. Many voice mail vendors have 
implemented systems according to RFC 2421 and are in the process of
deploying these systems around the world. Most vendors have completed 
(or are currently involved in) interoperability testing of VPIM 
products and have posted their results on the VPIM website.  This 
working group will promote the advancement of VPIM v2 on the standards 
track.

Several minor problems with VPIM v2 have been identified during the 
development and testing of products.  These problems can easily be
fixed with minor clarifications to the protocol.  A revised VPIM v2
(and related protocols as necessary) will be produced to reflect these 
clarifications. No protocol changes will be introduced in this update.

Though VPIM uses Internet Mail, its restrictions can be inconvenient 
when sending and receiving messages from traditional desktop email 
clients. As a result, there is interest in loosening the restrictions
of VPIM in a new version and make it the voice component of a unified
messaging protocol suite.  This would make it easier for desktop 
clients to send, receive, and forward voice messages while maintaining 
support for the characteristics of a voice message.

The primary goal of Version 3 is to support interoperability with 
deployed desktop email clients.  A secondary goal is to specify 
interoperability with Version 2. The result is that the semantics of a 
voice or fax message within an email message can be interpreted at as 
many clients as possible.

An initial proposal for VPIM v3 (also known as Internet Voice Mail 
(IVM)) is currently documented in several Internet Drafts (see 
draft-ema-vpimv3-*): VPIM v3 Goals, VPIM v3 Unified Messaging (Primary 
Content), VPIM Addressing and VPIM v3 Specification. As well, several 
supporting protocol extensions may need to be worked in this group or
in collaboration with other groups.  These are: IMAP voice extensions, 
voice directory profiles, content negotiation details for voice and 
partial non-delivery notifications.

The working group will initially focus on agreement of the goals and 
then define a set of protocol documents to address the media, 
addressing, and handling semantics. Finally, VPIM v2 - v3 Interworking 
will be documented separately if needed.

Collaboration

The voice mail vendors and several email vendors have been meeting in 
the VPIM work group at the Electronic Messaging Association (EMA) for 
several years. This team produced VPIM v1 (RFC 1911) and VPIM v2 (RFC 
2421).  This group meets three times a year in between IETF meetings
and is regularly attended by core VPIM proponents.  As a result, there 
is benefit to using this venue as an interim meeting.

In addition, the work of this group is related to similar work by the 
Internet Fax WG.  It is intended that Version 3 will use at least the 
Simple Mode of Internet Fax.

As well, other IETF WGs may be interested in proposed voice extensions 
to protocols.  There may be value in collaborating on some work items.

 Goals and Milestones:

   Done         Document interworking VPIM v2 implementations 

   Done         Issue updated drafts of IVM/VPIM v3 Goals, IVM/VPIM v3 
                Specification and related protocol documents as Internet Drafts 

   Done         Issue updated VPIM v2 Internet Draft 

   Done         Issue updated Internet Drafts of VPIM addressing 

   Done         Issue updated Internet Drafts of VPIM directory 

   Done         WG last call on VPIM v3 Goals as Informational RFC 

   Done         Issue updated Internet Drafts of VPIM IMAP extensions 

   Done         Issue revised VPIM v3 Specification and related protocol 
                documents as Internet Drafts 

   Done         WG last call on IVM Specification and related protocol 
                documents as Proposed Standards RFCs 

   Done         WG last call on revised VPIM v2 for Draft Standard 

   Done         Submit IVM Goals to IESG for consideration as Informational RFC 

   Done         Submit VPIM addressing to IESG for consideration as a Proposed 
                Standard 

   Done         Submit IVM et al to IESG for consideration as a Proposed 
                Standard 

   Done         WG last call on VPIM client extensions as Standards Track RFC 

   Done         Submit VPIM v2 to IESG for consideration as a Draft Standard 
                RFC 

   Done         Submit VPIM IMAP client extensions to IESG for consideration as 
                Standards Track RFC 

   Done         WG last call on VPIM addressing as Standards Track RFC 

   Done         WG last call on VPIM directory profile as Standards Track RFC 

   Done         Submit VPIM addressing to IESG for consideration as Standards 
                Track RFC 

   Done         Submit VPIM directory to IESG for consideration as Standards 
                Track RFC 

   Done         WG last call on IVM/VPIM v3 content negotiation as Proposed 
                Standard RFC 

   Done         Submit VPIM content negotiation to IESG for consideration as 
                Proposed Standard RFC 

   Done         Review final work items and close 


 Internet-Drafts:

Posted Revised         I-D Title   <Filename>
------ ------- --------------------------------------------
Jul 00 Jun 04   <draft-ietf-vpim-ivm-06.txt>
                Internet Voice Messaging 

Jul 00 Apr 05   <draft-ietf-vpim-routing-10.txt>
                Voice Message Routing Service 

Jul 00 Apr 05   <draft-ietf-vpim-vpimdir-11.txt>
                Voice Messaging Directory Service 

 Request For Comments:

  RFC   Stat Published     Title
------- -- ----------- ------------------------------------
RFC3458 PS   Jan 03    Message Context for Internet Mail 

RFC3459 PS   Jan 03    Critical Content Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions 
                       (MIME) Parameter 

RFC3773 I    Jun 04    High-Level Requirements for Internet Voice Mail 

RFC3801Standard  Jun 04    Voice Profile for Internet Mail - version 2 

RFC3802Standard  Jun 04    Toll Quality Voice - 32 kbit/s ADPCM MIME Sub-type 
                       Registration 

RFC3803Standard  Jun 04    Content Duration MIME Header Definition 

RFC3804Standard  Jun 04    VPIM (Voice Profile for Internet Mail) Addressing