MCMP: a transport/session level distributed protocol for desktop conference setup

The multiparty conference management protocol (MCMP) is an end-to-end distributed session/transport level protocol intended for group management of desktop conferencing applications. This paper describes the MCMP conference setup algorithms and proves that they meet specified correctness properties. MCMP sets up control channels for use in exchanging control information while the conference is in progress. The logical topology used is a completely interconnected mesh, MCMP always provides best effort services in cases of failures. Correctness properties guaranteed upon termination of the protocol include connectivity, validity, uniqueness, and consistency of local views. Application control information that can be exchanged using the control channels include resource negotiation and subconferencing.