The downlink streaming procedures follow the general high-level workflow depicted in Figure 5.1-1 below, starting from provisioning and ingest session preparation to the actual content streaming sessions. The Ingest Session refers to the time interval during which media content is uploaded to the 5GMSd AS. The Provisioning Session refers to the time interval during which the 5GMSd Client can access the media content and the 5GMSd Application Provider can control and monitor the media content and its delivery. Interactions between the 5GMSd AF and the 5GMSd Application Provider may occur at any time while the Provisioning Session is active.

The 5GMSd provisioning API at M1d allows selection of media session handling (M5d) and media streaming (M4d) options, including whether the media content is hosted on trusted 5GMSd AS instances. of provisioned 5GMSd features is captured in a Provisioning Session (see clause 5.3) that is uniquely identified in the 5GMS System by a Provisioning Session identifier. The Provisioning Session information may include Content Hosting Configurations, Content Preparation Templates, Server Certificates, Policy Templates, a Consumption Reporting Configuration, Metrics Reporting Configurations, Edge Resources Configurations and Event Data Processing Configurations. The Consumption Reporting and/or Metrics Reporting Configuration information provisioned over M1d and passed to the 5GMSd Client by the 5GMSd AF over M5d determines the UE data to be collected by the 5GMSd Client and subsequently reported to the 5GMSd AF. The 5GMSd Application Provider is additionally able to provision Event Data Processing Configurations that specify data processing instructions for subsequent manipulation by the 5GMSd AF of UE data, whether reported by the 5GMSd Client or otherwise obtained, and rules for restricting the subsequent exposure by the 5GMSd AF of UE data to event consumers including the NWDAF defined in TS 23.288 and/or the 5GMSd Application Provider. The 5GMSd AF selects the M5d interface features according to the provisioning option. The Media Session Handling interface exposed by the 5GMSd AF can be used for core session handling; configuring content consumption measurement, logging, collection and reporting; configuring QoE metrics measurement, logging collection and reporting; requesting different policy and charging treatments; or 5GMSd AF-based Network Assistance. When the media content is hosted by trusted 5GMSd AS instances, then the 5GMSd AF selects and configures the 5GMSd AS. Interactions between a 5GMSd AF and a 5GMSd AS (M3d interactions) take place for content hosting configuration, including 5GMS Ingest (M2d) and Media Streaming (M4d) resource reservations. The 5GMSd AS allocates M2d and M4d resources and communicates resource identifiers back to the 5GMSd AF. The 5GMSd AF provides information about the provisioned resources (in form of resource identifiers) for Media Session Handling (M5d), the 5GMSd Ingest (M2d) and the Media Streaming (M4d), to the 5GMSd Application Provider. The resource identifiers for Media Session Handling and Media Streaming are needed by the 5GMSd Client to access the 5GMSd functions. When Content Hosting is provided by a 5GMSd AS in the external DN, then the M3d interface is not used and the 5GMSd AF does not provide 5GMS Ingest (M2d) and Media Streaming (M4d) resource reservations. M3d procedures are not standardized. 5GMSd Clients can (in principle) start streaming media as soon as the corresponding content is ingested by activating a unicast downlink streaming session. However, it may take some time until the media content is available for Media Streaming (via the Media Streaming API) or the distribution availability might be based on a provisioned schedule. The unicast downlink streaming session for a given UE (or "for each UE") is active from the time at which the 5GMSd-Aware Application activates the reception of a streaming service until its termination. The 5GMSd-Aware Application receives application data from the 5GMSd Application Provider before receiving the downlink streaming media. The application data contains Service Access Information, which acts as an entry point for the 5GMSd Client to start the downlink streaming session. The 5GMSd Client may either receive a reference to that Service Access Information or the full Service Access Information from the 5GMSd Application Provider. Steps: