MOPS

IETF 125 Session Minutes

Date: March 2025 (IETF 125) Chairs: Leslie Daigle, Janna Iyengar (absent) Technical Advisor: Glenn Deen Secretary/Note-taker: Magnus Westerlund

Summary

The Media Operations (MOPS) working group met at IETF 125 to discuss the progress of its primary working group document regarding network overlays, evaluate a proposal for dynamic internet multicast tunneling, and receive industry updates from the Streaming Video Technology Alliance (SVTA) and MPEG Systems. The session focused on the technical impacts of privacy-enhancing technologies on video streaming and the potential for AI to accelerate the development of technical specifications.

Key Discussion Points

1. Working Group Documents

Network Overlays IETF125 Presented by Glenn Deen (on behalf of Sanjay Mishra)

Discussion regarding draft-ietf-mops-network-overlay-impacts:

The draft is currently at version 03. Recent feedback was incorporated from David Schinazi regarding the design and intent of network overlays.
Problem Statement vs. Remediation: The authors clarified that this document is intended strictly as a problem statement. Remediation and architectural solutions will be handled in a subsequent follow-on document.
Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs): A core tension was identified between PETs (like MASK) and video playout efficiency. Many IETF-designed PETs are intentionally hidden from applications to prevent malicious apps from disabling privacy features. However, video players benefit from awareness of the network transport stack to optimize playback.
VPN vs. Modern PETs: Glenn Deen noted a distinction between traditional VPNs and modern PETs. VPNs are generally visible to the application (via IP discovery or traceroute), whereas newer technologies aim for total transparency/hidden operation. The authors argued against treating these as the same in the draft.
Proposed Remediation (Feedback): Suggestions were made regarding streaming operators implementing their own encryption to potentially bypass certain PETs, though this is not a universal solution.

2. Technical Presentations

Dynamic Internet Multicast Tunneling Presented by Lenny Giuliano

Problem: Multicast requires every L3 hop to be enabled, which is rare on the public internet. Current solutions like AMT (Automatic Multicast Tunneling) lack routing protocol traversal, making it difficult for gateways to select the correct relay for specific sources.
Proposal: Utilize BGP extended communities to encode AMT relay information within the BGP route to the source. This allows "middle-mile" tunneling between multicast islands.
Implications: Routers could serve as both AMT gateways and relays simultaneously. This architecture extends the "TreeDN" model to support router-to-router tunnels without the manual configuration overhead of GRE.
Working Group Placement: While presented at MOPS for industry feedback, Lenny Giuliano indicated that MBONED is likely the appropriate venue for adoption.

3. Industry Updates

SVTA Update to IETF MOPS at IETF125 Presented by Glenn Deen

Edge Caching: SVTA is developing a "Foundations" document for edge caching that integrates more deeply with network topology awareness and BGP than traditional caches.
L4S and Measurement: There is a need for standardized "apples-to-apples" measurement mechanisms that correlate IP-layer statistics (L4S) with application-layer video metrics (bitrate, buffer state).
AI in Standards Development: SVTA is experimenting with using LLMs to accelerate the drafting of technical specifications. The goal is to reduce the cycle from conception to publication from 11 months to 6 months by using AI for initial drafting and terminology cross-referencing.

MPEG Systems update Presented by Young-Gon Choi

AI and Media: MPEG is exploring how to distinguish between human-captured and AI-generated content within the ISO-based media file format. Additionally, they are researching the delivery of AI models themselves to clients for local content generation.
Network-Friendly Containers: Investigation is underway for a new media format optimized specifically for streaming and network delivery, potentially moving away from the storage-centric legacy of ISO-BMFF.
Emerging Topics: Other active areas include energy consumption metrics for media and spatial computing (VR/AR) data access patterns.

Decisions and Action Items

Draft Update: The authors of draft-ietf-mops-network-overlay-impacts will rev the document to version 04 to incorporate feedback from David Schinazi and include more detailed diagrams.
Correction: A typo in RFC references (swapping 2 and 6) in the network overlay draft was noted for correction.

Next Steps

Working Group Last Call (WGLC): The chairs and authors aim to progress draft-ietf-mops-network-overlay-impacts to WGLC by the Vienna meeting.
Community Feedback: Participants are encouraged to provide feedback on the list regarding the distinction between VPNs and PETs in the overlay impacts draft.
MPEG Workshop: An industry workshop is scheduled for July 10th and 14th in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss new topics in media systems.

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