The IETF announced the creation of a Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (beep) working group to "develop a standards-track application protocol framework for connection-oriented, asynchronous request/response interactions."

While apparently shunning the XML-style abbreviation of Extensible as X, used in the original BXXP work, the beep work looks like it will provide an infrastructure that may be easily used for XML exchanges.

"At the core of the BXXP framework is a framing mechanism that allows for peer-to-peer exchanges of requests and responses. The framing mechanism permits multiplexing multiple, simultaneous, and independent exchanges over a single transport connection with flow control and segmentation. Requests and responses are either textual (structured using XML[3]) or arbitrary (structured using MIME[4])."

BXXP (or beep) seems to be flexible enough to replace either HTTP or HTTP-based protocols as a means of exchanging XML-based information, though it isn't yet clear what impact it will have on the controversies surrounding such protocols.

A general article article on BXXP is available from NetworkWorldFusion.