The draft standard is a suite of protocols offering needed services in network management, device management, device description, and device control with reliable multi-cast transport on data networks that use the common Internet Protocols. There are 21 documents that describe various aspects of the suite of protocols, and they are all contained in the approximately 2.5 megabyte compressed file ACN.zip. Reviewers should also read the Readme.pdf file. It is not part of the draft standard, but it explains the structure of ACN and the changes that were made since the last public review. All the public review materials are at http://www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php.
There are several small changes that have been made to BSR E1.17 since the last public review, but the most important one--the one that made this public review essential - was the change to the SLP (Service Location Protocol) templates. These have been reworked to be fully compatible with OpenSLP source code. The previous templates were valid SLP, but didn't work with OpenSLP, so implementers of E1.17 would have had to develop their own code rather than use the popular, open-source, OpenSLP.
In addition to being asked to review the documents to see if they offer adequate advice, reviewers are asked to look for protected intellectual property in the draft standards. ESTA does not warrant that its standards contain no protected intellectual property, but it also does not intend to adopt any standard that requires the use of protected intellectual property, unless that property is necessary for technical reasons and can be licensed and used by anyone without prejudice or preference for a reasonable fee. Any protected intellectual property in the document should be pointed out in the comments.
For more information, please contact Karl G. Ruling at the e-mail address below.
(Lee Baldock)
