The Media Server Markup Language (MSML) is used to control and invoke many different types of services on IP

Media Servers Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

and is described in RFC 5707. Clients can use it to define how multimedia sessions interact on a Media Server and to apply services to individuals or groups of users. MSML can be used, for example, to control Media Server conferencing features such as video layout and audio mixing, create sidebar conferences or personal mixes, and set the properties of media streams. As well, clients can use MSML to define media processing dialogs, which may be used as parts of application interactions with users or conferences. Transformation of media streams to and from users or conferences as well as

IVR Interactive voice response (IVR) is a technology that allows telephone users to interact with a computer-operated telephone system through the use of voice and DTMF tones input with a keypad. In telecommunications, IVR allows customers to interac ...

dialogs are examples of such interactions, which are specified using MSML. MSML clients may also invoke dialogs with individual users or with groups of conference participants using

VoiceXML VoiceXML (VXML) is a digital document standard for specifying interactive media and voice dialogs between humans and computers. It is used for developing audio and voice response applications, such as banking systems and automated customer service ...

. The fundamental model with MSML is that the Media Server is an appliance that is specialized in controlling/manipulating media streams (usually RTP), and the application server is a separate unit that deals with making and breaking call connections, and controlling the application (or business) logic, so for example the application server would deal with the billing engine and logging systems. The application server establishes a control 'tunnel' (through SIP or IP), which it uses to exchange requests/responses with the media server. In the case of MSML media servers, the messages are coded in MSML, which is a control language using the syntax of

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...

. MSML is designed so that an application server can interact with a number of different media servers at the same time, and of course these can be distributed across a wide geography, as long as they are reachable via IP. The converse is true, that a media server can have more than one application server talking to it, so this allows for resilience to failure. MSML was originally created by Convedia (now part of

RadiSys Radisys Corporation is an American technology company located in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States that makes technology used by telecommunications companies in mobile networks. Founded in 1987 in Oregon by former employees of Intel, the compan ...

), and is an open standard, meaning that companies can use the technology without licensing intellectual property. A number of companies have adopted MSML including

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

(now

Dialogic Dialogic refers to the use of conversation or shared dialogue to explore the meaning of something. (This is as opposed to monologic which refers to one entity with all the information simply giving it to others without exploration and clarificatio ...

), NMS and Audiocodes. MSML covers some of the same ground as the earlier

MSCML The Media Server Control Markup Language (MSCML) is a protocol used in conjunction with the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to enable the delivery of advanced multimedia conferencing services over IP networks. The MSCML specification has been pub ...

markup language (originally from Snowshore), and both languages are important references for the IETF MediaCTRL (media control) working group, that aims to standardize control of media servers. MSML creator Adnan Saleem acknowledged the MSCML had "shown the way" for driving media servers via scripting, and so a family line can be seen from MSCML through MSML to today's MediaCTRLMediaCTRL charter, Burger, Dawkins
working group at the

IETF The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a standards organization for the Internet and is responsible for the technical standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership roster or requirements and a ...

References

{{reflist Markup languages