The multi-media telephone: directory service and session control for multi-media communications

Multi-media communication tools now exist which have support for group communication using multicast protocols. The same tools can be used in unicast mode for one-to-one communication. The focus of development so far has been on group-working and conference support. As a result, there is a session directory tool that allows users to advertise conferences and to join the ones that interest them. On the other hand, the support for setting up one-to-one sessions and closed-group conferences is rather limited. A new set of session-control facilities is needed to create a 'multi-media telephone' from the components now available. This paper lists some requirements and proposes mechanisms to address them.