XEP-xxxx: Jingle Content Category

Abstract
This specification defines an XMPP extension to negotiate the use of Session Description Protocol (SDP) media- level attribute 'content' as defined by RFC 4796 with Jingle RTP sessions
Author
Timothée Jaussoin
Copyright
© 2025 – 2025 XMPP Standards Foundation. SEE LEGAL NOTICES.
Status

ProtoXEP

WARNING: This document has not yet been accepted for consideration or approved in any official manner by the XMPP Standards Foundation, and this document is not yet an XMPP Extension Protocol (XEP). If this document is accepted as a XEP by the XMPP Council, it will be published at <https://xmpp.org/extensions/> and announced on the <standards@xmpp.org> mailing list.
Type
Standards Track
Version
0.0.1 (2025-09-19)
Document Lifecycle
  1. Experimental
  2. Proposed
  3. Stable
  4. Final

1. Introduction

The Jingle RTP Sessions (XEP-0167) [1] already defines a way to map SDP medias to Jingle RTP sessions. This mapping is also defined through several other XEPs. Jingle allows several medias to be negotiated through 'content' elements, each content is mapped to one specific SDP media. When negotiating a Jingle sessions some of its content can be similar in the sense that their medias cannot be distinguished just by examining their description lines (e.g., two video streams).

This document defines a new element 'category', based on the RFC 4796 [2] SDP 'content' attribute, that allows applications to treat each of those contents differently.

2. Protocol

When an entity wishes to negotiate a new Jingle 'content' in a session it may want to categorize that content to help the other entities to understand how they should display it and adapt their interface in an appropriate manner.

For example, if a user wants to share simultaneously its webcam and screen with a contact the applications involved may want to automatically adapt their interface to display those different types of content accordingly, e.g., putting the screencast in full-screen and displaying the contact's webcam in the corner.

To categorize accordingly those different kinds of contents each entity SHOULD add one or several <category/> elements in the <description/> section qualified by the 'urn:xmpp:jingle:apps:category:0' having a 'name' attribute that MUST map to the RFC 4796 [2] SDP 'content' attribute.

Table 1: The category 'name' attribute values as defined from the RFC 4796
Name Description
slides The media stream includes presentation slides
speaker The media stream contains the image of the speaker
sl The media stream contains sign language
main The media stream is taken from the main source
alt The media stream is taken from the alternative source

3. Mapping to Session Description Protocol

The SDP extract bellow.

v=0
o=Stuart 292742730 29277831 IN IP4 138.143.71.89
s=Showing of my skills
c=IN IP4 138.143.71.2
t=0 0
m=video 52886 RTP/AVP 31
a=rtpmap:31 H261/9000
a=content:slides,alt
m=video 53334 RTP/AVP 31
a=rtpmap:31 H261/9000
a=content:speaker
m=video 54132 RTP/AVP 31
a=rtpmap:31 H261/9000
a=content:sl

Should then map to:

Example 1. Server return the list of bookmarks
<iq from='stuart@studio.org/main'
    id='rg6s5134'
    to='noodle@home.tld/living'
    type='set'>
  <jingle xmlns='urn:xmpp:jingle:1'
          action='session-initiate'
          initiator='stuart@studio.org/main'
          sid='a73sjjvkla37jfea'>
    <content creator="initiator" name='video0'>
        <transport xmlns="urn:xmpp:jingle:transports:ice-udp:1"/>
        <description xmlns="urn:xmpp:jingle:apps:rtp:1" media="video">
            <category xmlns='urn:xmpp:jingle:apps:category:0' name='slides'/>
            <category xmlns='urn:xmpp:jingle:apps:category:0' name='alt'/>
            <payload-type id="31" name="H261" clockrate="9000"/>
        </description>
    </content>
    <content creator="initiator" name='video1'>
        <transport xmlns="urn:xmpp:jingle:transports:ice-udp:1"/>
        <description xmlns="urn:xmpp:jingle:apps:rtp:1" media="video">
            <category xmlns='urn:xmpp:jingle:apps:category:0' name='speaker'/>
            <payload-type id="31" name="H261" clockrate="9000"/>
        </description>
    </content>
    <content creator="initiator" name='video2'>
        <transport xmlns="urn:xmpp:jingle:transports:ice-udp:1"/>
        <description xmlns="urn:xmpp:jingle:apps:rtp:1" media="video">
            <category xmlns='urn:xmpp:jingle:apps:category:0' name='sl'/>
            <payload-type id="31" name="H261" clockrate="9000"/>
        </description>
    </content>
  </jingle>
</iq>

4. Requirements

The motivations for this document are to:

5. Security Considerations

Related to the XEPs using this document.

6. IANA Considerations

This document requires no interaction with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) [3].

7. XMPP Registrar Considerations

The XMPP Registrar [4] is requested to issue an initial namespace of "urn:xmpp:jingle:apps:category:0".

8. XML Schema

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<xs:schema
    xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'
    targetNamespace='urn:xmpp:jingle:apps:category:0'
    xmlns='urn:xmpp:jingle:apps:category:0'
    elementFormDefault='qualified'>

  <xs:element name='category'>
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:attribute name='name'>
        <xs:restriction base='xs:NCName'>
          <xs:enumeration value='slides'/>
          <xs:enumeration value='speaker'/>
          <xs:enumeration value='sl'/>
          <xs:enumeration value='main'/>
          <xs:enumeration value='alt'/>
        </xs:restriction>
      </xs:attribute>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

Appendices

Appendix A: Document Information

Series
XEP
Number
xxxx
Publisher
XMPP Standards Foundation
Status
ProtoXEP
Type
Standards Track
Version
0.0.1
Last Updated
2025-09-19
Approving Body
XMPP Council
Dependencies
XMPP Core, XEP-0001, XEP-0166, XEP-0167, RFC 4796
Supersedes
None
Superseded By
None
Short Name
NOT_YET_ASSIGNED

This document in other formats: XML  PDF

Appendix B: Author Information

Timothée Jaussoin
Email
edhelas@movim.eu
JabberID
edhelas@movim.eu
URI
https://edhelas.movim.eu

Copyright

This XMPP Extension Protocol is copyright © 1999 – 2024 by the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF).

Permissions

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this specification (the "Specification"), to make use of the Specification without restriction, including without limitation the rights to implement the Specification in a software program, deploy the Specification in a network service, and copy, modify, merge, publish, translate, distribute, sublicense, or sell copies of the Specification, and to permit persons to whom the Specification is furnished to do so, subject to the condition that the foregoing copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Specification. Unless separate permission is granted, modified works that are redistributed shall not contain misleading information regarding the authors, title, number, or publisher of the Specification, and shall not claim endorsement of the modified works by the authors, any organization or project to which the authors belong, or the XMPP Standards Foundation.

Disclaimer of Warranty

## NOTE WELL: This Specification is provided on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, express or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ##

Limitation of Liability

In no event and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall the XMPP Standards Foundation or any author of this Specification be liable for damages, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising from, out of, or in connection with the Specification or the implementation, deployment, or other use of the Specification (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses), even if the XMPP Standards Foundation or such author has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

IPR Conformance

This XMPP Extension Protocol has been contributed in full conformance with the XSF's Intellectual Property Rights Policy (a copy of which can be found at <https://xmpp.org/about/xsf/ipr-policy> or obtained by writing to XMPP Standards Foundation, P.O. Box 787, Parker, CO 80134 USA).

Visual Presentation

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Appendix D: Relation to XMPP

The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is defined in the XMPP Core (RFC 6120) and XMPP IM (RFC 6121) specifications contributed by the XMPP Standards Foundation to the Internet Standards Process, which is managed by the Internet Engineering Task Force in accordance with RFC 2026. Any protocol defined in this document has been developed outside the Internet Standards Process and is to be understood as an extension to XMPP rather than as an evolution, development, or modification of XMPP itself.

Appendix E: Discussion Venue

The primary venue for discussion of XMPP Extension Protocols is the <standards@xmpp.org> discussion list.

Discussion on other xmpp.org discussion lists might also be appropriate; see <https://xmpp.org/community/> for a complete list.

Given that this XMPP Extension Protocol normatively references IETF technologies, discussion on the <xsf-ietf@xmpp.org> list might also be appropriate.

Errata can be sent to <editor@xmpp.org>.

Appendix F: Requirements Conformance

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

Appendix G: Notes

1. XEP-0167: Jingle RTP Sessions <https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0167.html>.

2. RFC 4796: The Session Description Protocol (SDP) Content Attribute <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4796>.

3. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the central coordinator for the assignment of unique parameter values for Internet protocols, such as port numbers and URI schemes. For further information, see <http://www.iana.org/>.

4. The XMPP Registrar maintains a list of reserved protocol namespaces as well as registries of parameters used in the context of XMPP extension protocols approved by the XMPP Standards Foundation. For further information, see <https://xmpp.org/registrar/>.

Appendix H: Revision History

Note: Older versions of this specification might be available at https://xmpp.org/extensions/attic/

  1. Version 0.0.1 (2025-09-19)

    First draft.

    psa

Appendix I: Bib(La)TeX Entry

@report{jaussoin2025xepxxxx,
  title = {Jingle Content Category},
  author = {Jaussoin, Timothée},
  type = {XEP},
  number = {xxxx},
  version = {0.0.1},
  institution = {XMPP Standards Foundation},
  url = {https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-xxxx.html},
  date = {2025-09-19/2025-09-19},
}

END