SIP Instant Message Sessions

Status: SIMPLE WG Item, draft -01. Long history.
Date of last update: June 30, 2003
Authors: B. Campbell, J. Rosenberg, R. Sparks, P. Kyzivat
Current Document: draft-ietf-simple-message-sessions-01.txt
Summary: The SIP MESSAGE method is used to send instant messages, where each message is independent of any other message. This is often called pager-mode messaging, due to the fact that this model is similar to that of most two-way pager devices. Another model is called session-mode. In session-mode, the instant messages are part of a media session that provides ordering, a security context, and other functions. This media session is established using a SIP INVITE, just as an audio or video session would be established. This document describes a The Message Session Relay Protocol (MSRP), a mechanism for transmitting session-mode messages with minimal relay support. Additionally, this document describes using the SDP offer/ answer model to initiate such sessions.
Archive of older drafts:
  1. The first proposal for IM sessions was July 13, 2001. It consisted of a draft on the general session concept, draft-ietf-simple-im-session-00.txt and an SDP extension for doing it, draft-ietf-simple-im-sdp-00.txt. The actual messages in the session were sent using the SIP MESSAGE request.
  2. There was pushback on using SIP MESSAGEs for IM sessions. So, along with Avshalom Houri (Lotus) and Christian Huitema (Microsoft), we wrote a proposal called the IM Transport Protocol (IMTP), draft-rosenberg-simple-im-transport-00.txt which was not SIP, but looked and behaved exactly like it, except for removal of a bunch of features that were in the way of MESSAGE being good for sessions.
  3. There was pushback on the IMTP concept. It felt like a hack. So, I went back and revisited the decision to use a separate protocol. Based on enhancements in RFC 3261, I argued that MESSAGE was a reasonable approach. This was documented in draft-rosenberg-simple-message-session-00.txt, which isued May 2, 2002.
  4. On October 25, 2002, two drafts were released, draft-campbell-simple-im-sessions-00.txt and draft-campbell-simple-cpimmsg-sessions-00.txt, which took a different tact. They defined baseline message transport using CPIM.
  5. The basic CPIM approach needed a bit more beef to satisfy requirements. Particularly, it needed mechanisms for error handling and dealing with intermediaries. So, it was expanded into a "shim" kind of protocol meant for carryign MIME e2e. That is draft-campbell-simple-im-sessions-01.txt, issued March 2003.

Last modified: Tue Jul 08 02:07:12 Eastern Daylight Time 2003