| TheTCP/IP model (RFC 1122) |
|---|
| Application Layer |
| Transport Layer |
| Internet Layer |
| Link Layer |
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) (formerly namedJabber[1]) is aprotocol forinstant messaging. It is inspired byXML.
It is different to most protocols because it is anopen standard. This means that anybody who has adomain name and an internet connection can run their own server. Most of the software and theclients areopen source.
Other software such asGoogle Talk and theGizmo5 use the XMPP protocol. It has been installed on thousands ofservers across theinternet. There are over five hundred million users who use software based on the protocol.[2] Clients includePidgin andiChat.
Jeremie Miller started the Jabber project in1998. The first major public release was inMay2000. This early software was the basis of XMPP. It was a competitor toSIMPLE, which was based on theSIP protocol.
InAugust2001, the Jabber Software Foundation (JSF) was started. The main role of the JSF was to manage the XML protocols for XMPP bydocumenting them. As well as this, the organisation was to co-ordinate the many companies that were using the XMPP technology.[3]
In2002, theInternet Engineering Task Force created a working group to formalize the protocol. The group was named theExtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol Working Group, orXMPP WG.
In2007, Jabber Software Foundation (JSF) becameXMPP Standards Foundation (XSF).[4]
XMPP can useHTTP to send data to the servers. This is useful when there are strictfirewalls in place, because data can be sent through theweb instead of through a differentport (port 5222 and 5223).[5]
There are also openpublic servers which use standard ports (port 80 and 443) so that users can connect from behind most firewalls.
