Subject: RTSP Terminology (again)

From: Eric Fleischman <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 17:45:14 -0800

The March 24th version of RTSP seems to have adopted many of the
terminology discussions which occurred on this list. However, the
current usage doesn't seem to be as clear as I had hoped.

In my mind, there are at least three terms which need to be
"standardized":
1)	The term for a single media stream. 
2)	The term for a grouping of media streams which are treated as a
unit
3)	The term for the global RTSP control experience itself.

In Section 1.3 the first entity is defined as a "(media) stream" and the
third entity is defined as a "session". (Please correct me if I have
misunderstood these definitions.) There doesn't appear to be any
definition for the second entity. However, the current text uses the
term "event" in several sections (e.g., Sect 3.5) and this use makes me
think that this term is indeed being used for the second entity. (If it
doesn't, then we really should have a definition as to what "event"
means in those contexts.)

Would it be possible to establish a term to refer to a "grouping of
media streams which are treated as a unit" and put that definition into
Section 1.3. Once that is done, I would like to see that document refer
to that "grouping" for all control over media issues. Perhaps, therefore
the definition can refer to "one or more media streams" so that we could
have one term to refer to all sets of streams which need to be
controlled by RTSP.

Regardless, please provide me with feedback concerning the current state
of our terminology discussions. They were going strong when I left for
vacation but I haven't heard anything new for the past two weeks. Did we
ever achieve consensus or did the discussions die of "battle fatigue"?

---

From: Henning Schulzrinne <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 08:42:49 -0500

I'm hoping to clean up the terminology before submitting the document,
but this takes a while in a 50-page document. Currently, based on the
Cupertino discussions, I'm using

Presentation - one or more streams, controlled together
media stream - audio/video/... (media instance does not fit here for
various reasons)
RTSP session - for an individual RTSP session (in the network protocol
sense), i.e., whatever RTSP actions are enclosed between SETUP and
TEARDOWN.

Hope this works.

There should be a new version by the time you read this.