Dominique Carrega, Emmanuel Fournier, Hervé Muyal (Tecsi).

Transcription

1 Project Number: Project Title: Deliverable Type: (K/N)* AC343 MOVE K CEC Deliverable Number: AC343 / TEC / WP1 / DS / K / 1 / Contractual Date of Delivery to the CEC: July 1998 Actual Date of Delivery to the CEC: July 1998 Title of Deliverable: Workpackage contributing to the Deliverable: Nature of the Deliverable: (P/R/S/T/O)** Author(s): Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API W1D1 / D1 WP1 R Dominique Carrega, Emmanuel Fournier, Hervé Muyal (Tecsi). Abstract: This document defines requirements for services to be provided by the VE-MASE through the V/D API. Keyword list : MOVE, VE-MASE, V/D API, services, requirements, demonstrator. *Type: K-major deliverable, N-intermediate deliverable **Nature: P-Prototype, R-Report, S-Specification, T-Tool, O-Other AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 1

2 Document History Date Version Authors Status June 23, 1998 D1_01.DOC Dominique Carrega, Emmanuel Fournier, Hervé Muyal (Tecsi) July 20, 1998 D1_02.DOC Dominique Carrega, Emmanuel Fournier, Hervé Muyal (Tecsi) July 29, 1998 D1_03.DOC Dominique Carrega, Emmanuel Fournier, Hervé Muyal (Tecsi) July 31, 1998 D1_04.DOC Dominique Carrega, Emmanuel Fournier, Hervé Muyal (Tecsi) First draft delivered to the MOVE community. Second draft delivered to the MOVE community. Third draft delivered to the MOVE community. Final release delivered to the European Commission. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 2

3 Table of Contents 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION SCOPE OF THIS DOCUMENT RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER WORKPACKAGES REQUIREMENTS INTRODUCTION THE VE-MASE REQUIREMENTS GENERAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS DATA SCHEDULING REQUIREMENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT REQUIREMENTS HTTP DISPATCHING REQUIREMENTS CALL MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS PROFILE MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY REFERENCES ABBREVIATIONS...23 AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 3

4 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This deliverable documents the requirements identified by WP1 and issued on the VE-MASE services to be designed and developed by WP2. These requirements are discussed from a functional point of view, in the sense they state the functionality that the VE-MASE should provide and make available through the V/D API. WP1 role, as part of the MOVE project, is to implement an application package due to demonstrate the VE-MASE services and the relevance of the corresponding V/D API. The demonstration scenario, developed for this purpose, involves a mobile customer interacting with a Web service and exchanging multimedia information with a call center agent in the course of a voice conversation. The requirements listed in this document have however been expressed on a wider functional basis, assuming that: more than two users - customers or call center agents - could be involved, these users could be interacting with the system by the means of mobile devices or terminals located in the wired network, the Web demonstration service could be any type of client-server application, whose server component resides in an entity of the wired network referred to as the Information Server. The requirements described in this document correspond to a first series of requirements issued on the basis of generic functions identified for a middleware for mobile multimedia applications allowing the integration of voice and data streams. It might be the case that, as the functionality and the architecture of the demonstrator evolve and get more precise, some of the requirements listed in this document are further refined and that new requirements are added in order to cater for additional functionality. The changes to the requirements presented in this document will be documented in a separate chapter of deliverable D3 - Functional Content and Architecture of the Demonstration Service. As the VE-MASE architecture will be designed to extend the functionality provided by the OnTheMove MASE architecture, requirements relating to services already provided by MASE components - reused from the OnTheMove project or re-engineered on the basis of public OnTheMove concepts - have not be discussed in this document. Requirements on such services have already been documented in public OnTheMove deliverables - D09W1D, D20W1D, D20bW1D and D32W1D -, and have not been restated here. Only requirements not currently satisfied by MASE services catering for the functionality above mentioned have been documented. This document therefore focuses on additional functionality not currently supported by MASE components. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 4

5 2. INTRODUCTION The overall objective of the MOVE project is: To define and prototype a voice enabled mobile middleware architecture that integrates voice and data services for small user terminals and to derive a common interface for voice enabled mobility support as an enhancement of today s networks and part of the UMTS service.... The main project objectives are consequently derived from this overall objective: To design an architecture - called VE-MASE, for Voice-Enabled Mobile Application Support Environment - that supports strong integration of voice and data over UMTS for interactive mobile multimedia services and applications. To evaluate emerging mobile multimedia protocols integrating voice and data communication and architectural approaches well suited for interactive wireless multimedia communication. To offer an open voice-enabled application programming interface - called V/D API, for Voice/Data Application Programming Interface - to content and service providers for rapid and flexible deployment and operation of voice/data services, supporting on-line user contextual assistance. To specify and prototype a demonstration service that demonstrates the benefits of the V/D API. To define a demonstration on advanced personal digital assistants or laptops to demonstrate the V/D API and middleware architecture, and to show the value of the approach for service providers. To promote the adoption of the V/D API by the computer industry, application and service developers, and standardisation bodies. To increase commercial and public interest for mobile multimedia information services through publications and demonstrations. By achieving these objectives, MOVE will accelerate the use of voice enabled multimedia information services and assist the development of new applications and network embedded mobility support. This document provides the MOVE community with the description of preliminary requirements for the VE-MASE services, available through the V/D API. This document: defines the scope of the requirements definition, briefly outlines the impact and relationship with other workpackages, describes the rationale behind the approach taken to the requirements definition, introduces the detailed requirements, discusses system and architectural requirements for a large scale, distributed VE-MASE. These requirements will be used by WP2 as the basis upon which to design and develop the VE-MASE services and the corresponding V/D API. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 5

6 3. SCOPE OF THIS DOCUMENT The purpose of this deliverable is to document the requirements identified by WP1 in the context of the MOVE project and issued on the VE-MASE services to be designed and developed by WP2. These requirements are discussed from a functional point of view, in the sense they state the functionality that the VE-MASE should provide and make available through the V/D API. WP1 role, as part of the MOVE project, is to implement an application package due to demonstrate the VE-MASE services and the relevance of the corresponding V/D API. The demonstration scenario, developed for this purpose, involves a mobile customer interacting with a Web service and exchanging multimedia information with a call center agent in the course of a voice conversation. The requirements listed in this document have however been expressed on a wider functional basis, assuming that: more than two users - customers or call center agents - could be involved, these users could be interacting with the system by the means of mobile devices or terminals located in the wired network, the Web demonstration service could be any type of client-server application, whose server component resides in an entity of the wired network referred to as the Information Server. The basis upon which the requirements have been identified and discussed by WP1 in the context of this document is depicted by the following figure: Information Server (IS) Client 1 V / E MASE Client i Client 2 The requirements described in this document correspond to a first series of requirements issued on the basis of generic functions identified for a middleware for mobile multimedia applications allowing the integration of voice and data streams. It might be the case that, as the functionality and the architecture AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 6

7 of the demonstrator evolve and get more precise, some of the requirements listed in this document are further refined and that new requirements are added in order to cater for additional functionality. The changes to the requirements presented in this document will be documented in a separate chapter of deliverable D3 - Functional Content and Architecture of the Demonstration Service. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 7

8 4. RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER WORKPACKAGES The requirements discussed in this document are an important input to WP2. They will be used to design and develop the VE-MASE and V/D API, which will be delivered for demonstration purpose in the final year of the project. However, there are close links between WP1, 2 and 3 throughout the project in order to iteratively improve the VE-MASE and V/D API. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 8

9 5. REQUIREMENTS INTRODUCTION Lots of requirements on the VE-MASE correspond to requirements on a middleware enabling mobile multimedia applications, which are already satisfied by various components of the MASE architecture developed in the context of the OnTheMove project. Such requirements relate to: user management, profile management, session management, location management, multimedia conversion. As the VE-MASE architecture will be designed to extend the functionality provided by the MASE architecture, requirements relating to services already provided by MASE components - reused from the OnTheMove project or re-engineered on the basis of public OnTheMove concepts - will not be discussed in this document. Requirements on such services have already been documented in public OnTheMove deliverables - D09W1D, D20W1D, D20bW1D and D32W1D -, and will not be re-stated here. Only requirements not currently satisfied by MASE services catering for the functionality above mentioned will be documented. This document will therefore focus on additional functionality not currently supported by MASE components. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 9

10 6. THE VE-MASE REQUIREMENTS The requirements identified for the services to be provided by the VE-MASE are documented in the following sections of this chapter. Each section corresponds to one of the functional categories introduced in the previous chapter, or to some VE-MASE specific functions: general system requirements, data scheduling requirements, acknowledgement requirements, HTTP dispatching requirements, call management requirements, profile management requirements. Key terms and abbreviations used in the expression of the requirements are explained below: System The term system refers to the combination of the different hardware and software components of the VE-MASE physical and logical architecture. Mobile User (MU) The term mobile user refers to any person - mobile or not - interacting with the system. Mobile Device (MD) The term mobile device refers to any terminal - PDA, laptop - used by a mobile user. A mobile device may be used, at different times, by different mobile users, and a mobile user may be using different mobile devices at different times in order to interact with the system. Mobile Client (MC) The term mobile client refers to any device running the client components of the VE-MASE architecture. Mobility Gateway (MG) The term Mobility Gateway refers to the VE-MASE component acting as a gateway between the fixed and the mobile networks, performing non user-related VE-MASE functionality. Information Server (IS) The term Information Server refers to the entity of the wired network running the server components of the applications providing services to the users. The IS needs to be equipped with different VE- MASE components. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 10

11 Voice/Data Application Server (V/D AS) The term Voice/Data Application Server refers to the front-end component of the call center developed for demonstration purposes. The V/D AS needs to be equipped with different VE-MASE components to provide a MU with voice services. Voice/Data Application Client (V/D AC) The term Voice/Data Application Client refers to the client environment used, in the context of the demonstrator, by an agent in order to provide assistance to a mobile user. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 11

12 6.1 General system requirements This paragraph introduces VE-MASE requirements impacting the overall architecture. Requirement MOVE/R/1 : The VE-MASE shall support voice conversations between two users over low bandwidth networks. Rationale : Two users using a mobile client device equipped with a microphone and a speaker should be able to speak to and to hear each other simultaneously, as in a traditional telephone conversation, even over a GSM link (i.e. IP link over a GSM line). Requirement MOVE/R/2 : The VE-MASE shall be ready for UMTS environment services. Rationale : As one of the main project objectives is to design an architecture that supports strong integration of voice and data over UMTS networks for interactive mobile multimedia services and applications, the system shall support Internet conference services for networks such as UMTS and GSM, on which the VE-MASE will be demonstrated, meanwhile UMTS is being implemented. Requirement MOVE/R/3 : The VE-MASE shall support voice/data conferencing functionality. Rationale : The VE-MASE should include means for voice/data conference initiation, dropping and handling of busy tones. Requirement MOVE/R/4 : The VE-MASE shall provide the ability to end a voice/data conference from both ends. Rationale : As in a classic PSTN conversation, both users should be able to terminate the voice/data conference. The conference termination should therefore be intercepted and managed by the VE-MASE. Requirement MOVE/R/5 : The V/D API shall provide the application layer with the ability to end a voice/data conference. Rationale : For safety reasons, and for application specific reasons, the applications should be able to terminate a voice/data conference at any time. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 12

13 Requirement MOVE/R/6 : The VE-MASE shall inform the application layer when a voice/data conference ends. Rationale : As the applications behaviour will be closely linked with the voice/data conference status, applications will need to be informed about this status. Therefore, when a voice/data conference is terminated by an user, the VE-MASE shall inform the application layer that it is ended through the V/D API. Requirement MOVE/R/7 : The VE-MASE shall provide a MC with the ability to request a voice/data conference with some appropriate client, or with a specified client. Rationale : In the context of the demonstration scenario, the mobile customer presses a button located on a page of a voice-enabled web site, in order to initiate a voice/data conference with a call center agent. The call will be initiated by the VE-MASE, upon the request sent by the MC. The system will establish the connection with the V/D AC. The mobile client should not be able to directly call a specific call center agent. However, beyond the demonstration scenario, the VE-MASE should allow a MC to initiate a voice/data conference with a specified MC. Requirement MOVE/R/8 : The client part of the VE-MASE software should be automatically downloaded and installed on the MC at first connection. Rationale : In the mobility context, a component approach is more than ever required. Therefore, an automatic download and installation of the client part of the VE-MASE should be performed when a Mobile Client connects to the system for the first time. Requirement MOVE/R/9 : The client part of the VE-MASE software should be as thin as possible to be in accordance with mobility constraints. Rationale : This project deals with mobility aspects that are closely linked with bandwidth, storage, and CPU constraints. The client software should integrate all these aspects and therefore be as thin as possible, and use the processor as intelligently as possible. Furthermore, size constraints need to be taken into account to be compliant with the previous requirement. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 13

14 6.2 Data scheduling requirements This paragraph introduces the VE-MASE requirements concerning the scheduling of voice and data streams. Requirement MOVE/R/10 : The VE-MASE shall provide a MC with the ability to transfer multimedia data to another MC in the context of a voice conversation between two users, without disturbing the voice conversation. Rationale : The VE-MASE should provide some voice/data integration functionality. The voice stream should be considered as a real-time high-priority stream, whereas data should be considered as secondary information to be streamed along with the voice. Data should be transferred using the remaining bandwidth once the voice stream has used what was needed to provide the required quality and delay. Requirement MOVE/R/11 : The VE-MASE shall predict the time needed to transfer data. Rationale : As the time needed to transfer data on a wireless link could be long, the system should provide a mean to predict this transfer time. This functionality can allow an user sending data to a mobile user to estimate when those data will be received. This prediction should be made available to the application layer through the V/D API. Requirement MOVE/R/12 : The VE-MASE shall be able to inform the application layer that the data has/will not arrive. Rationale : In case of a broken link, for example, the sender needs to be informed that the data he has sent will never arrive, so that he does not have to wait for a too long time. Therefore, the VE-MASE shall provide the application layer with such a mechanism. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 14

15 6.3 Acknowledgement requirements This paragraph introduces the VE-MASE requirements concerning the acknowledgement fonctionality. Requirement MOVE/R/13 : The VE-MASE shall inform a MC when the data it has sent to another MC has been properly received. Rationale : In an asynchronous mode, a client that sends some piece of data to another client needs to know whether the data have been received by the other client. The VE-MASE should provide the MC with an acknowledgement mechanism so that the sender is informed when the data have arrived. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 15

16 6.4 HTTP dispatching requirements This paragraph introduces the VE-MASE requirements concerning the sharing of HTTP data between two users during a voice/data conference. Requirement MOVE/R/14 : The VE-MASE shall provide the MC with the ability to reflect the exact data received by the other MC. Rationale : In order to deal with low bandwidth constraints, some multimedia conversion shall be performed by the system on the data sent by a MC to another MC. Knowing that the data has arrived (see requirement MOVE/R/13) is not sufficient from a functional point of view, since the data may have been transformed (from color to black-and-white, for example). This requirement implies that the VE- MASE should provide some data dispatching functionality so that both MCs receive the same processed data. Requirement MOVE/R/15 : The V/D API shall allow to start/stop the HTTP Dispatcher. Rationale : The applications shall be able to have full control on the HTTP Dispatcher. Therefore, they should be able to start and stop it through the V/D API. Requirement MOVE/R/16 : The V/D API shall allow to define the behavior of the HTTP Dispatcher. Rationale : The V/D API shall allow to specify the linked users and the dispatching policies to be applied by the HTTP Dispatcher. Such policy shall be used to decide during a conversation whether the HTTP data currently browsed by a client has to be transmitted to the other client. Requirement MOVE/R/17 : The V/D API shall allow the application layer to send HTTP data to a MC through the VE- MASE. Rationale : In the demonstration context, the user shall be provided with some contextual HTTP data while waiting for an agent. The V/D API shall provide the applications with a way to send those data to a client, through the VE-MASE. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 16

17 6.5 Call management requirements This paragraph introduces the VE-MASE requirements concerning the call management functionality. Requirement MOVE/R/18 : The Call Manager shall automatically define the behaviour of the HTTP Dispatcher. Rationale : When the Call Manager initiates a conversation, it shall automatically define the parameters of the HTTP Dispatcher (see requirement MOVE/R/16). This allows the HTTP Dispatcher to be ready to distribute data, if the users request so, during the voice session. Requirement MOVE/R/19 : The VE-MASE shall stop the HTTP Dispatcher when a voice session is terminated. Rationale : When a voice session is terminated, the VE-MASE shall stop the HTTP Dispatcher responsible for transmitting data regarding this session in order to save CPU usage. Requirement MOVE/R/20 : The initiation of the voice session should be fast after the Mobile User asks for it. Rationale : As the VE-MASE takes charge of call handling and waiting (see requirement MOVE/R/3), the user shouldn t have to wait too long before these functions are active. A reasonnable delay for the call initiation would be less than five seconds. Requirement MOVE/R/21 : The V/D API shall allow to remotely launch the Call Manager with parameters concerning both ends. Rationale : The application layer should be able to tell the VE-MASE which users need to be linked in a voice/data session. Therefore, the V/D API should provide the ability to launch the call manager with all the necessary parameters (client references, reference of the waiting message to be streamed to the user ). AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 17

18 Requirement MOVE/R/22 : The V/D API shall allow the application layer to be informed about the Call Manager state (waiting process, start of a voice conversation ) Rationale : As the application layer may need to act in parallell with the VE-MASE to provide the mobile user with some useful information, it needs a feedback from the VE-MASE about the way the call has been processed. Therefore, if the VE-MASE is making the user wait while the person beeing called is not available, the application layer should know about it. When both users are finally connected, the application layer should also be informed to behave in an appropriate way. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 18

19 6.6 Profile management requirements This paragraph introduces the VE-MASE specific requirements concerning the profile management. Requirement MOVE/R/23 : The V/D API shall provide the facility to store some information associated to a MU in the user profile. Rationale : As long as a MU interacts with the system, contextual information should be stored by the system, so that it can be processed by applications. Requirement MOVE/R/24 : The V/D API shall allow the applications to create/remove fields in the user profile. Rationale : As the applications collect information concerning a MU, and that this information should be stored in accordance with the previous requirement, the V/D API shall provide the applications with means to dynamically manage - create and remove - fields in the user profile to store the information needed for processing purposes. In the context of the demonstration scenario, profile fields would be created to store the history of the URLs of the Web pages visited by the MU and the values of the various parameters specified in HTML forms. Requirement MOVE/R/25 : The V/D API shall provide the facility to retrieve specific information about a MC and MU from the profile. Rationale : Specific information regarding a MC should be available to the application layer through the V/D API. This information would allow applications to perform actions based upon this information. Requirement MOVE/R/26 : The V/D API shall provide the facility to define access rights to the profile information. Rationale : As profile information can contain sensitive parameters, it should not be available to all other Clients. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 19

20 AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 20

21 7. SUMMARY This deliverable provides a specification of the requirements for VE-MASE services available via the V/D API. This document will be used by WP2 to design and implement the final version of the VE-MASE and V/D API. AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 21

22 8. REFERENCES 1. D09W1D - Preliminary requirements for Mobile-API - OnTheMove deliverable AC034/BT/WP1/DS/P/009/a1, April D20bW1D - Revised requirements for Mobile-API - OnTheMove deliverable AC034/BT/WP1/DS/P/20B/a1, May D32W1D - Enhanced speficication for application A2 - OnTheMove deliverable AC034/TEC/WP1/DS/I/032/b1, September Improved scenario for MOVE demonstrator - MOVE internal document, May AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 22

23 9. ABBREVIATIONS A number of abbreviations and acronyms are used in this document. Expansions are provided below. API Application Programming Interface DECT Digitally Enhanced Cordless Telephony GPS Global Positioning System GSM Global System for Mobile communications ISO International Standardisation Organisation ITU International Telecommunications Union MASE Mobile Application Support Environment MD Mobile Device MG Mobility Gateway MU Mobile User PC Personal Computer PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association - now PC-Card PDA Personal Digital Assistant QoS Quality of Service SIM Subscriber Identification Module TCP Transmission Control Protocol UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System VE-MASE Voice-Enabled MASE V/D API Voice/Data Application Programming Interface WP1, WP2, WP3 MOVE workpackages 1, 2 or 3 WWW World Wide Web AC343 MOVE deliverable W1D1 Requirements for VE-MASE and V/D API Page 23