The meaning of the reception of a "new" capability set

Pete Cordell pete at TECH-KNOW-WARE.COM
Tue Nov 2 06:44:07 EST 1999


I think H.245 covers the delta aspects, although it goes on more about how
to add caps and how to delete caps rather than explicitly saying that the
caps are a delta.

The definition of an empty cap set is defined in the revised text in the
"Third party pause..." section.  Basically its only seqNum and
protocolIdentifier.  I think the team I'm working with would have preferred
to have an empty cap set as one that explicitly removed all the existing
caps.  Even if you don't know about empty cap sets, as long as you can
re-cap, you get 90% of the functionality this way.  That was the originally
intended method when the text said something like "a cap set that indicates
that there are no more receive caps".  (It seemed obvious to me what it
was!!!)  However, it became clear that this wasn't clear to everybody and
hence consensus from the list moved to the revised text which adopts the
other definition.  The 'initial' method is also much more complex to
explain, which I felt could also lead to interoperability issues.  (Even if
you don't like the method chosen, you will probably prefer it to the other
solution we came up with which was for an endpoint to accept both
methods!!!)

And another note, you only have to comply with RequestMode when under
control of an MC.  Without an MC it's optional.  We assumed that that would
be a big enough excuse for implementors not to implement anything to do with
RequestMode!

Pete

=============================================
Pete Cordell
pete at tech-know-ware.com
=============================================

-----Original Message-----
From: frank.derks at PHILIPS.COM <frank.derks at PHILIPS.COM>
To: ITU-SG16 at MAILBAG.INTEL.COM <ITU-SG16 at MAILBAG.INTEL.COM>
Date: 02 November 1999 09:16
Subject: Re: The meaning of the reception of a "new" capability set


>Hi Paul,
>
>thanks for the reply. Is there any work going on to more clearly describe
that "delta" is the desired behaviour? The next question that this brings
is: "what is an "empty CS", because I can see several ways of achieving
this. Again I do not see a clear
>specification on what an empty CS looks like.
>
>I fully agree with your statement about the third-party initiated pause and
re-routing, but at the moment it is the only "lightweight" method of
achieving certain behaviours that would otherwise require H.450.
>
>Frank
>
>
>
>
>
>Mailing list for parties associated with ITU-T Study Group 16
<ITU-SG16 at MAILBAG.INTEL.COM> on 01/11/99 17:29:54
>Please respond to Mailing list for parties associated with ITU-T Study
Group 16 <ITU-SG16 at MAILBAG.INTEL.COM> @ SMTP
>To:     ITU-SG16 <ITU-SG16 at MAILBAG.INTEL.COM> @ SMTP
>cc:
>Subject:        Re: The meaning of the reception of a "new" capability set
>Classification: Restricted
>Ilya,
>
>No, no, no!!! :-) Each TCS message is a _delta_ to be applied to the remote
>EP's current capability set stored in the EP. This issue was discussed a
few
>months ago on the reflector. My reply follows my signature.
>
>BTW, the pause feature added to H.323v2 redefines the meaning of an empty
>TCS. In H.323v1, an empty TCS causes no change to the current cap set--a
>NO-OP, so to speak. As of v2, however, an empty TCS means close all
outgoing
>channels, assume that the remote EP has no receive or transmit caps (flush
>the current capapbility set for the remote EP), and upon receipt of the
next
>presumably non-empty TCS, re-open outgoing channels based on the possibly
>new set of receive caps. From what I've heard, though, many if not all v2
>EPs still exhibit v1 behavior in this regard. I doubt whether "pause" will
>ever be a dependable feature. IMO, overloading a message like this is just
>asking for trouble. The same thing could have been better accomplished with
>RequestMode.
>
>Paul Long
>Smith Micro Software, Inc.
>
>
>>>>>>>>>> My reply from July 1, 1999
>Ramana, Chris, et al.:
>
>An incoming terminalCapabilitySet message _modifies_ the current capability
>set in the receiving EP. The entire set is not necessarily transmitted
>within every message. This has been true since H.245v1. In fact, H.245 says
>that one should not transmit unchanged capabilities. One starts out with an
>empty set of descriptors. Incoming descriptors replace any extant ones with
>the same descriptor number. If one does not already exist with the same
>number, this adds a new descriptor; if one does exist, the new one replaces
>the old one; if the new descriptor does not contain
>simultaneousCapabilities, this removes any existing descriptor for the
given
>number. (This is the same scheme used to modify the capability table.) Here
>is an illustrative chronological scenario:
>
>        Current capability set:
>        <empty>
>
>Incoming termCapSet 1
>0: {{H.261qcif},{G.711}}
>1: {{H.261cif},{G.711}}
>
>        Current capability set:
>        0: {{H.261qcif},{G.711}}
>        1: {{H.261cif},{G.711}}
>
>Incoming termCapSet 2
>1: {}
>
>        Current capability set:
>        0: {{H.261qcif},{G.711}}
>
>Incoming termCapSet 3
>1: {{H.261cif},{G.711}}
>2: {{H.263sqcif&qcif&cif},{G.723,G.711}}
>
>        Current capability set:
>        0: {{H.261qcif},{G.711}}
>        1: {{H.261cif},{G.711}}
>        2: {{H.263sqcif&qcif&cif},{G.723,G.711}}
>
>Incoming termCapSet 4
>1: {}
>0: {{H.261qcif&cif},{G.723.1,G.711)}
>
>        Current capability set:
>        0: {{H.261qcif&cif},{G.723.1,G.711)}
>        2: {{H.263sqcif&qcif&cif},{G.723,G.711}}
>
>Paul Long
>Smith Micro Software, Inc.
><<<<<<<<<
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Ilya Freytsis [mailto:IFREYTSIS at VIDEOSERVER.COM]
>Sent: Monday, November 01, 1999 8:57 AM
>To: ITU-SG16 at MAILBAG.INTEL.COM
>Subject: Re: The meaning of the reception of a "new" capability set
>
>
>I believe every new capability set should be treated as a complete
>replacement for the previously received one.  Otherwise conferencing
>servers
>(MCS) and Gateways will not be able exercise enough control over the
>media
>modes of the multipoint conferences and gateway sessions.
>
>Ilya Freytsis
>
>
>                -----Original Message-----
>                From:   frank.derks at PHILIPS.COM
>[mailto:frank.derks at PHILIPS.COM]
>                Sent:   Monday, November 01, 1999 8:31 AM
>                To:     ITU-SG16 at mailbag.cps.intel.com
>                Subject:        The meaning of the reception of a "new"
>capability set
>
>                Neither H.323 nor H.245 are too clear about what it
>means
>when an endpoint receives another set of capabilities after having
>already
>received one. In previous E-mail messages on this list, I have read that
>capability sets are cumulative, i.e. anything
>                "new" received in a TCS message adds to the capabilities
>transmitted in a previous TCS message. I have, however, found nothing in
>the
>recommendations that backs this up.
>
>                So what is the intended procedure? Does a newly received
>set
>of capabilities replace the previously received set? Do capabilities
>received in a TCS message add to the already received capabilities? How
>are
>capabilities removed? What constitutes an "empty
>                capability set" etc.
>
>                I would appreciate it if somebody could point me in the
>right direction.
>
>                Regards,
>
>                Frank
>



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