Colin Perkins : Standards Contributions

Standards Contributions

I've been a long-time participant in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) where I played a key role in developing globally deployed multimedia transport and signalling protocol standards (RTP, SDP) that underpin globally deployed video conferencing and telephony platforms, and contributed to the development of the Transport Services Framework.

I previously co-chaired the RTP Media Congestion Avoidance Techniques (2016-2023), Audio/Video Transport (1998-2008), and Multiparty Multimedia Session Control (2000-2007) working groups. I was a member of the Transport Area Directorate (2006-2015), and I'm a member of the Transport Area Review Team (2015-).

I have been Chair of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) since 2019. The IRTF is a parallel organisation to the IETF that promotes research of importance to the evolution of the Internet protocols, applications, architecture and technology. In this role, I led the process of chartering the Usable Formal Methods and Research and Analysis of Standard-Setting Processes research groups, promoting a principled approach to protocol specification and a deeper understanding of Internet governance in the IETF. I also managed the IRTF response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As IRTF Chair, I serve as an ex-officio member of the Internet Architecture Board and the RFC Series Approval Board.

I previously contributed to MPEG-4 Systems in the Moving Picture Experts Group of the International Standards Organisation.

I'm author of RTP: Audio and Video for the Internet (Addison-Wesley, 2003). This book describes protocols and algorithms for transport of real-time multimedia over IP networks. It combines standards and research experience to explain the basics of RTP-based telephony, conferencing and streaming media applications.

Standards News

24 November 2024 standards Notes from IETF 121 in Dublin
4 July 2024 standards What does the IRTF Chair do?
1 July 2024 standards Some Thoughts on Internet Governance and the Global Digital Compact
3 April 2023 standards IRTF activities co-located with IETF 116 in Yokohama
2 December 2020 standards Talk at AFRICOMM 2020
23 November 2020 standards Keynote at VII Workshop Pré-IETF
20 November 2020 standards Keynote at IEEE LATINCOM '2020
30 October 2020 standards OFCOM Technology Discovery Programme on Future Internet 2020
3 August 2020 standards IRTF activities co-located with IETF 108
7 July 2020 standards Evolving the Internet Through COVID-19 and Beyond
30 March 2020 standards IRTF activities co-located with IETF 107
2 December 2019 standards IRTF activities co-located with IETF 106
29 November 2019 standards UN Internet Governance Forum 2019
1 September 2019 standards IRTF activities co-located with IETF 105
4 July 2019 standards Talk about IRTF at 31st Multi-Service Networks workshop
3 July 2019 standards Talk about Developments in Internet Standards at Future Networks Workshop
27 May 2019 standards Attended IAB Retreat in Reykjavik
31 March 2019 standards Appointed IRTF chair
16 September 2018 standards Standards development support from StandICT.eu
25 April 2017 standards Workshop on Decision Making in Internet Standards
1 November 2016 standards Appointed IETF RMCAT co-chair
21 March 2016 standards Joined IETF Transport Area Review Team
23 September 2015 standards The Impact Made by UK Academic CS Research
13 August 2008 standards Stepping down as IETF AVT co-chair
24 September 2007 standards Stepping down as IETF MMUSIC co-chair
15 September 2006 standards Joined IETF Transport Area Directorate
31 July 2000 standards Appointed IETF MMUSIC co-chair
14 August 1998 standards Appointed IETF AVT co-chair

IETF Contributions by Meeting

I contributed to the following IETF meetings:

IETF 122: March 15-21, 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand
IETF 121: November 2-8, 2024 in Dublin, Ireland
IETF 120: July 20-26, 2024 in Vancouver, BC, Canada
IETF 119: March 16-22, 2024 in Brisbane, Australia
IETF 118: November 4-10, 2023 in Prague, Czech Republic
Earlier meetings...

IETF Contributions by Name

I'm an author of the following active Internet-drafts:

A complete list of the Internet-drafts that I've worked on is also available.

Published Internet Standards and Other IETF RFCs

I authored the following IETF RFCs:

Jari Arkko, Colin Perkins, and Suresh Krishnan, Report from the IAB Workshop on Environmental Impact of Internet Applications and Systems, 2022, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 9547, February 2024. DOI:10.17487/RFC9547
Bernard Aboba, Gonzalo Salgueiro, and Colin Perkins, Multiplexing Scheme Updates for QUIC, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 9443, July 2023. DOI:10.17487/RFC9443
Colin Perkins, Sending RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) Feedback for Congestion Control in Interactive Multimedia Conferences, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 9392, April 2023. DOI:10.17487/RFC9392
Niels ten Oever, Corinne Cath, Mirja Kühlewind, and Colin Perkins, Report from the IAB Workshop on Analyzing IETF Data (AID) 2021, Internet Architecture Board, RFC 9307, September 2022. DOI:10.17487/RFC9307
Jari Arkko, Stephen Farrell, Mirja Kühlewind, and Colin Perkins, Report from the IAB COVID-19 Network Impacts Workshop 2020, Internet Architecture Board, RFC 9075, July 2021. DOI:10.17487/RFC9075
Gorry Fairhurst and Colin Perkins, Considerations around Transport Header Confidentiality, Network Operations, and the Evolution of Internet Transport Protocols, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 9065, July 2021. DOI:10.17487/RFC9065
Zaheduzzaman Sarker, Colin Perkins, Varun Singh, and Michael A. Ramalho, RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) Feedback for Congestion Control, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 8888, January 2021. DOI:10.17487/RFC8888
Magnus Westerlund, Bo Burman, Colin Perkins, Harald Alvestrand, and Roni Even, Guidelines for Using the Multiplexing Features of RTP to Support Multiple Media Streams, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 8872, January 2021. DOI:10.17487/RFC8872
Ali Begen, Paul Kyzivat, Colin Perkins, and Mark Handley, SDP: Session Description Protocol, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 8866, January 2021. DOI:10.17487/RFC8866
Jonathan Lennox, Magnus Westerlund, Qin Wu, and Colin Perkins, Sending Multiple RTP Streams in a Single RTP Session: Grouping RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) Reception Statistics and Other Feedback, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 8861, January 2021. DOI:10.17487/RFC8861
Magnus Westerlund. Colin Perkins, and Jonathan Lennox, Sending Multiple Types of Media in a Single RTP Session, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 8860, January 2021. DOI:10.17487/RFC8860
Colin Perkins, Magnus Westerlund, and Jörg Ott, Media Transport and Use of RTP in WebRTC, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 8834, January 2021. DOI:10.17487/RFC8834
Theresa Enghardt, Tommy Pauly, Colin Perkins, Kyle Rose, and Christopher A. Wood, A Survey of the Interaction between Security Protocols and Transport Services, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 8922, October 2020. DOI:10.17487/RFC8922
Jonathan Lennox, Magnus Westerlund, Qin Wu, and Colin Perkins, Sending Multiple RTP Streams in a Single RTP Session, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 8108, March 2017. DOI:10.17487/RFC8108
Colin Perkins and Varun Singh, Multimedia Congestion Control: Circuit Breakers for Unicast RTP Sessions, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 8083, March 2017. DOI:10.17487/RFC8083
Varun Singh, Colin Perkins, Alan Clark, and Rachel Huang, RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) Extended Report (XR) Block for Independent Reporting of Burst/Gap Discard Metrics, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 8015, November 2016. DOI:10.17487/RFC8015
Colin Perkins and Magnus Westerlund, Securing the RTP Framework: Why RTP Does Not Mandate a Single Media Security Solution, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 7202, April 2014. DOI:10.17487/RFC7202
Magnus Westerlund and Colin Perkins, Options for Securing RTP Sessions, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 7201, April 2014. DOI:10.17487/RFC7201
Ali Begen and Colin Perkins, Duplicating RTP Streams, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 7198, April 2014. DOI:10.17487/RFC7198
Ali Begen, Colin Perkins, Dan Wing, and Eric Rescorla, Guidelines for Choosing RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) Canonical Names (CNAMEs), Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 7022, September 2013. DOI:10.17487/RFC7022
Tom Phelan, Gorry Fairhurst, and Colin Perkins, DCCP-UDP: A Datagram Congestion Control Protocol UDP Encapsulation for NAT Traversal, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 6773, November 2012. DOI:10.17487/RFC6773
Magnus Westerlund, Ingemar Johansson, Colin Perkins, Piers O'Hanlon, and Ken Carlberg, Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) for RTP over UDP, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 6679, August 2012. DOI:10.17487/RFC6679
Colin Perkins and Jean-Marc Valin, Guidelines for the use of Variable Bit Rate Audio with Secure RTP, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 6562, March 2012. DOI:10.17487/RFC6562
Magnus Westerlund and Colin Perkins, IANA Registry for Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) Options, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 6336, July 2011. DOI:10.17487/RFC6336
Ali C. Begen, Colin Perkins, and Dan Wing, Guidelines for Choosing RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) Canonical Names (CNAMEs), Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 6222, April 2011. DOI:10.17487/RFC6222
Colin Perkins and Thomas Schierl, Rapid Synchronisation of RTP Flows, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 6051, November 2010. DOI:10.17487/RFC6051
Jörg Ott and Colin Perkins, Guidelines for Extending the RTP Control Protocol (RTCP), Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 5968, September 2010. DOI:10.17487/RFC5968
Colin Perkins, RTP and the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP), Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 5762, April 2010. DOI:10.17487/RFC5762
Colin Perkins and Magnus Westerlund, Multiplexing RTP Data and Control Packets on a Single Port, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 5761, April 2010. DOI:10.17487/RFC5761
Mark Handley, Van Jacobson, and Colin Perkins, SDP: Session Description Protocol, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 4566, July 2006. DOI:10.17487/RFC4566
Colin Perkins, RTP Payload Format for Uncompressed Video: Additional Colour Sampling Modes, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 4421, February 2006. DOI:10.17487/RFC4421
Ladan Gharai and Colin Perkins, RTP Payload Format for Uncompressed Video, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 4175, September 2005. DOI:10.17487/RFC4175
Ladan Gharai, Colin Perkins, Gary Goncher, and Allison Mankin, RTP Payload Format for Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) 292M Video, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 3497, March 2003. DOI:10.17487/RFC3497
Jörg Ott, Colin Perkins, and Dirk Kutscher, A Message Bus for Local Coordination, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 3259, May 2002. DOI:10.17487/RFC3259
Colin Perkins, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Henning Schulzrinne, RTP Testing Strategies, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 3158, August 2001. DOI:10.17487/RFC3158
Mark Handley, Colin Perkins, and Edmund Whelan, Session Announcement Protocol, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 2974, October 2000. DOI:10.17487/RFC2974
Mark Handley and Colin Perkins, Guidelines for Writers of RTP Payload Format Specifications, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 2736, December 1999. DOI:10.17487/RFC2736
Colin Perkins and Orion Hodson, Options for Repair of Streaming Media, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 2354, June 1998. DOI:10.17487/RFC2354
Colin Perkins, Isidor Kouvelas, Orion Hodson, Vicky Hardman, Mark Handley, Jean-Chrysostome Bolot, Andres Vega-Garcia, and Sacha Fosse-Parisis, RTP Payload for Redundant Audio Data, Internet Engineering Task Force, RFC 2198, September 1997. DOI:10.17487/RFC2198

Funding

My participation in the IETF and IRTF has been funded by the following organisations: Rakuten Mobile (2020-2025), EPSRC EP/S036075/1 (2020-2024), EPSRC EP/R04144X/1 (2018-2020), Huawei (2010-2017, 2019-2020), EU StandICT (2018-2019), Ericsson (2009,2012-2014), Cisco (2007-2012), UK National e-Science Centre (2003-2007), NSF #0230738 (2002-2003), DARPA (2000-2003), EU FP4 MERCI and MECCANO (1996-2000).