Virtual reality transfer protocol (VRTP) design rationale

The capabilities of the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) permit building large-scale virtual environments (LSVEs) using the Internet and the World Wide Web. However, the underlying network support provided by the hypertext transfer protocol (http) is insufficient for LSVEs. Additional capabilities for lightweight peer-to-peer communications and network monitoring need to be combined with the client-server capabilities of http. To accomplish this task, we present a detailed design rationale for the virtual reality transfer protocol (VRTP). VRTP is designed to support VRML in the same manner as http was designed to support HTML. Since VRTP must be highly optimized on individual desktops and across the Internet, a Cyberspace Backbone (CBone) is also needed for VRTP development and testing. VRTP appears to be a necessary next step in the deployment of all-encompassing interactive internetworked 3D worlds.