ABSTRACT
This chapter (RFC 6917) describes media resource brokering. RFC 6230 (see Chapter 8), which specifies the Media Channel Control Framework (CFW) using SIP (RFC 3261 – also see Sections 1.2 and 1.5) protocol for inter-server communications at the application layer, has paved the way for decentralization of Media Servers and their resources. The session initiation protocol is used as a signaling protocol that provides many inherent capabilities for message routing. In addition to such signaling properties, a need exists for intelligent, application-level media service selection based on non-static signaling properties. This is especially true when considered in conjunction with deployment architectures that include 1:M and M:N combinations of Application Servers and Media Servers. This section (Chapter 11) introduces a Media Resource Broker (MRB) entity specified in RFC 6917, which manages the availability of Media Servers and the media resource demands of Application Servers. The specification includes potential deployment options for an MRB and appropriate interfaces to Application Servers and Media Servers.
