Contents

• Overview
• Principal URLs
• Articles, Papers, News

Overview

[June 2003] A Presence Information Data Format (PIDF) Internet Draft was published through the IETF Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol Working Group (IMPP) within the IETF Applications Area (APP). The IMPP WG was chartered to "define protocols and data formats necessary to build an internet-scale end-user presence awareness, notification and instant messaging system." As of February 2004, this IMPP Working Group has also published several other key RFCs and Internet drafts, including: A Model for Presence and Instant Messaging (RFC 2778); Instant Messaging / Presence Protocol Requirements (RFC 2779); Date and Time on the Internet: Timestamps (RFC 3339); Common Presence and Instant Messaging: Message Format; Address Resolution for Instant Messaging and Presence; Common Profile for Presence (CPP); Common Profile for Instant Messaging (CPIM).

[October 31, 2003]   IETF Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol Specifications Approved.    A public message from the Internet Engineering Steering Group announces the approval of five proposed standard IETF Working Drafts from the Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol (IMPP) WG. These documents include Presence Information Data Format (PIDF), Common Profile for Instant Messaging (CPIM), Common Presence and Instant Messaging: Message Format, Address Resolution for Instant Messaging and Presence, and Common Profile for Presence (CPP). Two key RFCs on instant messaging were published by the IMPP WG earlier: A Model for Presence and Instant Messaging (RFC 2778) and Instant Messaging / Presence Protocol Requirements (RFC 2779). The IMPP WG specifications "form the basis for a mechanism by which multiple distinct Instant Messaging applications may pass messages among the different systems while retaining the ability to use end-to-end encryption, integrity protection, and a shared framework for presence information. The work on PIDF (Presence Information Data Format) is already in widespread usage by the SIP-based instant messaging community, as is the message format described." The IMPP working group, now in the process of concluding its work program, is one of three IETF working groups chartered to develop architectuural, protocol, and data format specifications supporting internet-scale end-user presence awareness, notification, and instant messaging systems. The IETF Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) WG is extending current XMPP protocols "to provide finished support for RFC 2779-compliant security mechanisms, including authentication, privacy, access control and end-to-end as well as hop-by-hop message security. XMPP is an open, XML-based protocol for near real-time extensible messaging and presence and is the core protocol of the Jabber Instant Messaging and Presence technology." The SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) WG has produced a number of SIP-related specifications in parallel with the IMPP WG efforts.

The Presence Information Data Format (PIDF) memo [Internet Draft 'draft-ietf-impp-cpim-pidf-08.txt'] "defines the Presence Information Data Format (PIDF) as a common presence data format for CPP-compliant presence protocols, allowing presence information to be transferred across CPP-compliant protocol boundaries without modification, with attendant benefits for security and performance. The draft defines an XML-encoded presence information data format (PIDF) for use with CPP compliant systems." Section 4.4 "XML Schema Definitions" documents the XML Schema Definition of the application/pidf+xml format, presented as a formal definition for this format. Appendix A "Document Type Definitions" provides a corresponding (informative) XML Document Type Definition for the application/pidf+xml format. As of 2003-06-24, this version .08 I-D was classified as a "Document in Last Call" for a Proposed Standard, set to expire as of 2003-06-27. Ted Hardie was listed as contact.

Excerpts from the Version 08 (May 2003) IETF Internet Draft "Presence Information Data Format (PIDF)":

"The Common Profiles for Instant Messaging (CPIM) and Presence (CPP) specifications define a set of operations and parameters to achieve interoperability between different Instant Messaging and Presence protocols which meet Instant Messaging / Presence Protocol Requirements (RFC 2779)."

"This memo further defines the Presence Information Data Format (PIDF) as a common presence data format for CPP-compliant presence protocols, allowing presence information to be transferred across CPP-compliant protocol boundaries without modification, with attendant benefits for security and performance... It also defines a new media type 'application/pidf+xml' to represent the XML MIME entity for PIDF."

"The format specified in this memo defines the base presence format and extensibility required by RFC 2779. It defines a minimal set of presence status values defined by the IMPP Model document A Model for Presence and Instant Messaging (RFC 2778). However, a presence application is able to define its own status values using the extensibility framework provided by this memo. Defining such extended status values is beyond the scope of this memo."

"Note also that this memo defines only the format for a presence data payload and the extensibility framework for it. How the presence data is transferred within a specific protocol frame would be defined separately in a protocol specification."

Section 4 'XML-encoded Presence Data Format' "defines an XML-encoded presence information data format (PIDF) for use with CPP compliant systems. A presence payload in this format is expected to be produced by the PRESENTITY (the source of the PRESENCE INFORMATION) and transported to the WATCHERS by the presence servers or gateways without any interpretation or modification. A PIDF object is a well formed XML document. It must have the XML declaration and it should contain an encoding declaration in the XML declaration, e.g., <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>. If the charset parameter of the MIME content type declaration is present and it is different from the encoding declaration, the charset parameter takes precedence. Every application conformant to this specification MUST accept the UTF-8 character encoding to ensure the minimal interoperability."

XML Encoding Decision: "The Presence Information Data Format encodes presence information in XML (eXtensible Markup Language). Regarding the features of PRESENCE INFORMATION discussed above, such that it has a hierarchical structure and it should be fully extensible, XML is considered as the most desirable framework over other candidates such as vCard (vCard MIME Directory Profile, RFC 2426)."

The 'application/pidf+xml' Content Type: "This memo defines a new content type application/pidf+xml for an XML MIME entity that contains presence information. This specification follows the recommendations and conventions described in XML Media Types (RFC 3023), including the naming convention of the type ('+xml' suffix) and the usage of the 'charset' parameter. Although it is defined as optional, use of the 'charset' parameter is RECOMMENDED. If the 'charset' parameter is not specified, conforming XML processors must follow the requirements in section 4.3.3 of the XML Recommendation."

Principal URLs

• [April 20, 2004] Presence Information Data format (PIDF) Extension for Partial Presence." By Mikko Lonnfors, Eva Leppanen, and Hisham Khartabil (Nokia). IETF SIMPLE Working Group. Internet Draft. Reference: 'draft-ietf-simple-partial-pidf-format-01'. April 20, 2004, expires October 19, 2004. "The presence Information Document Format (PIDF) specifies the baseline XML based format for describing presence information. One of the characteristic of the PIDF is that document always needs to carry all presence information available for the presentity. In some environments where low bandwidth and high latency links can exist it is often beneficial to limit the amount of information that is transported over the network. This document introduces a new MIME type which enables transporting of only changed parts of the PIDF based presence information..."

• Presence Information Data Format (PIDF). By Hiroyasu Sugano (Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd), Shingo Fujimoto (Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd), Graham Klyne (Nine by Nine), Adrian Bateman (VisionTech Limited), Wayne Carr (Intel Corporation), Jon Peterson (NeuStar, Inc). IETF Network Working Group, Internet Draft. Reference: 'draft-ietf-impp-cpim-pidf-08.txt'. May 2003, expires November 2003. 27 pages. IETF Source: draft-ietf-impp-cpim-pidf-08.txt.

• [September 02, 2003] "A Presence-based GEOPRIV Location Object Format." By Jon Peterson (NeuStar, Inc). IETF GEOPRIV Working Group, Internet Draft. Reference: 'draft-peterson-geopriv-pidf-lo-01'. September 2, 2003, expires March 2, 2004. 16 pages. "This document extends the XML-based Presence Information Data Format (PIDF) to allow the encapsulation of location information within a presence document." [cache]

• [February 2004] "RPID - Rich Presence Information Data Format." By Henning Schulzrinne (Columbia University), Vijay Gurbani (Lucent), Paul Kyzivat (Cisco Systems), and Jonathan Rosenberg (dynamicsoft). February 9, 2004, expires August 9, 2004. 24 pages. Section 6 (pages 13-16 ) documents the XML Schema Definitions. Updates version -00. See the announcement.

• [September 02, 2003] See previous entry. "RPID: Rich Presence Information Data Format." Edited by Henning Schulzrinne (Department of Computer Science, Columbia University). With Vijay Gurbani (Lucent), Paul Kyzivat (Cisco Systems), and Jonathan Rosenberg (dynamicsoft). Internet Engineering Task Force, Internet Draft. Reference: 'draft-ietf-simple-rpid-00.txt'. July 31, 2003, expires: January 2004. 20 pages. Section 8 provides XML Schema Definitions. "The Rich Presence Information Data Format (RPID) adds elements to the Presence Information Data Format (PIDF) that provide additional information about the presentity and its contacts..." [cache]

• IETF Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol Working Group (IMPP)

• IMPP Reference website

Articles, Papers, News

• [June 23, 2007] "SIMPLE made Simple: An Overview of the IETF Specifications for Instant Messaging and Presence using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)." Edited by Jonathan Rosenberg [WWW] (Cisco). June 23, 2007, expires December 25, 2007. Intended status: Informational. From: source; see the I-D Tracker, SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) Working Group Charter, and IETF SIMPLE WG Status Pages. The IETF has produced many specifications related to Presence and Instant Messaging with the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Collectively, these specifications are known as 'SIMPLE: SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions'. This document serves as a guide to the SIMPLE suite of specifications. It breaks them up into categories and explains what each is for and how they relate to each other. Each specification also includes a letter that designates its category in the standards track: [S]: Standards Track (Proposed Standard, Draft Standard, or Standard); [E]: Experimental; [B]: Best Current Practice; [I]: Informational. SIMPLE provides for both presence and IM capabilities. Though both of these fit underneath the broad SIMPLE umbrella, they are well separated from each other and are supported by different sets of specifications. That is a key part of the SIMPLE story; presence is much broader than just IM, and it enables communications using voice and video along with IM. The SIMPLE presence specifications can be broken up into: (1) The core protocol machinery, which provides the actual SIP extensions for subscriptions, notifications and publications; (2) Presence documents, which are XML documents that provide for rich presence and are carried by the core protocol machinery; (3) Privacy and policy, which are documents for expressing privacy preferences about how those presence documents are to be shown or not shown to other users; (4) Provisioning, which describes how users manage their privacy policies, buddy lists and other pieces of information required for SIMPLE presence to work; (5) Optimizations, which are improvements in the core protocol machinery that were defined to improve the performance of SIMPLE, particularly on wireless links..."