I think that setting up this new area is a great idea,
and shows that we are adapting the structure of the IETF
to the applications people now want to use on the Internet.
A few more detailed comments follow.
The Real-Time Applications and Infrastructure Area develops protocols
and architectures for delay-sensitive interpersonal communications.
Delay sensitivity impacts communications in several ways.
For setup protocols you want to minimize the number of
round-trips until the user has positive feedback of connectivity status.
For voice and interactive video, delay sensitivity rules out
retransmissions,
and so raises the issue of packet loss concealment.
This in general involves DSP and/or image processing treatments.
For more general data, this means forward error correction
and maximum likelihood estimation of missing data.
These mathematically sophisticated subjects have previously been avoided
in the IETF
(and are awfully hard to present in ASCII ID format).
Is it now proposed to treat these subjects in the IETF,
and to attempt to draw in audiences interested in so doing?
Work in this area serves an emerging industry whose applications and
services include voice and video over IP, instant messaging and
presence. These applications and services are "real-time" in the
sense
that delay impedes human participation in the associated systems.
This is a good characterization of the delay sensitivity problem,
but an unusual definition of "real-time".
Perhaps DSI (delay-sensitive infrastructure) or ISI (Interactive
Services Infrastructure)
more aptly captures the intent.
The RAI Area is seeded with existing working groups from the Transport
and Applications Area: SIP, SIPPING, XCON, SIMPLE, GEOPRIV, ECRIT,
ENUM, IPTEL, MEGACO, MMUSIC, IEPREP, SPEECHSC, and SIGTRAN.
I don't really see how GEOPRIV and ECRIT fit in,
based on the delay sensitivity criterion, although they may
somewhat satisfy the rule of thumb.
My real question is whether the rule of thumb was invented
in order to aid the "seeding" and thus more equitably divide
WGs among areas.
Y(J)S
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