Applications Area

Director(s):

   o Russ Hobby:  rdhobby@ucdavis.edu

Area Summary reported by Russ Hobby/UCDavis

Area Overview

The general goal of the Area is to define the protocols to create an
interoperable multimedia distributed computing environment for the
Internet.  A lot of attention at the San Diego meeting was directed
toward the creation of workstation based conferencing.  There were
demonstrations of how video and audio could be carried between
workstations over the Internet today.  The Teleconferencing Architecture
BOF discussed what is necessary to create a multi-workstation multimedia
conference environment.  With the greater international interest in the
IETF there is a desire to be able to extend the ``face-to-face''
meetings over the network around the world.

Extensions to FTP BOF (FTPEXT)

The FTP Extensions BOF was to determine if there is sufficient interest
to work on the definition of new extensions to FTP. There were many
ideas were discussed, in particular the passing of file attributes with
the transfer.  Jordan Brown (Quarterdeck) agreed to Chair a new Working
Group to continue the work.

Internet Mail Extensions Working Group (SMTPEXT)

The Working Group did the final review of the document that extends SMTP
to allow the transport of 8-bit characters and provides some additional
capabilities to improve efficiency, especially when very large files are
being transmitted.  After final editing the Working Group will submit
the document to be a Proposed Standard.

Network FAX Working Group (NETFAX)

The Working Group finished work on the image format to be used for
transporting FAX on the Internet.  The Document has been submitted for
approval as a Proposed Standard.  This completes the chartered work and
the Working Group will go dormant.

Network News Transport Protocol Working Group (NNTP)

The Working Group met three times in San Diego to walk through the
existing NNTP v2 draft.  After final editing changes the document will
be submitted to be a Proposed Standard.  The Working Group will go on to
look at a possible News Reader Protocol.


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Teleconferencing Architecture BOF (TELARCH)

The BOF explored how a Working Group could define an overall
architecture to cover all aspects of remote conferencing.  This included
things such as session management and groupware.  Separate working
groups may be generated to work on specific protocols specified by the
architecture.  Jack Drescher (MCNC) and Ari Ollikainen (LLNL) will
co-Chair the new Working Group.

TELNET Working Group (TELNET)

The TELNET Working Group made further progress on authentication and
decided that the document should be put forth as an Experimental
Protocol.  Dave Borman presented an extension to remote flow control
that the group reviewed and will be submitted to be a Proposed Standard.
The Working Group reviewed the Environment Option and will put it
forward to become a Proposed Standard.



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