The task REM3-29 switched the default protocol used within SASL from the default value of 'remote' to 'remoting' and added an option to allow the value used to be configured.

This is as the protocol portion is an essential part of configuring GSSAPI / Kerberos based authentication.

However since that point clients may also be using other protcocols such as http-remoting and https-remoting - for this reason we now need to consider dynamic selection of a protocol.