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IETF RFC 4585
Extended RTP Profile for Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP)-Based Feedback (RTP/AVPF)
Last modified on Tuesday, July 18th, 2006
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Network Working Group J. Ott
Request for Comments: 4585 Helsinki University of Technology
Category: Standards Track S. Wenger
Nokia
N. Sato
Oki
C. Burmeister
J. Rey
Matsushita
July 2006
Extended RTP Profile for
Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP)-Based Feedback (RTP/AVPF)
 Status of This Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright © The Internet Society (2006).
Abstract
Real-time media streams that use RTP are, to some degree, resilient
against packet losses. Receivers may use the base mechanisms of the
Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) to report packet
reception statistics and thus allow a sender to adapt its
transmission behavior in the mid-term. This is the sole means for
feedback and feedback-based error repair (besides a few codec-
specific mechanisms). This document defines an extension to the
Audio-visual Profile (AVP) that enables receivers to provide,
statistically, more immediate feedback to the senders and thus allows
for short-term adaptation and efficient feedback-based repair
mechanisms to be implemented. This early feedback profile (AVPF)
maintains the AVP bandwidth constraints for RTCP and preserves
scalability to large groups.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 1 
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................3
1.1. Definitions ................................................3
1.2. Terminology ................................................5
2. RTP and RTCP Packet Formats and Protocol Behavior ...............6
2.1. RTP ........................................................6
2.2. Underlying Transport Protocols .............................6
3. Rules for RTCP Feedback .........................................7
3.1. Compound RTCP Feedback Packets .............................7
3.2. Algorithm Outline ..........................................8
3.3. Modes of Operation .........................................9
3.4. Definitions and Algorithm Overview ........................11
3.5. AVPF RTCP Scheduling Algorithm ............................14
3.5.1. Initialization .....................................15
3.5.2. Early Feedback Transmission ........................15
3.5.3. Regular RTCP Transmission ..........................18
3.5.4. Other Considerations ...............................19
3.6. Considerations on the Group Size ..........................20
3.6.1. ACK Mode ...........................................20
3.6.2. NACK Mode ..........................................20
3.7. Summary of Decision Steps .................................22
3.7.1. General Hints ......................................22
3.7.2. Media Session Attributes ...........................22
4. SDP Definitions ................................................23
4.1. Profile Identification ....................................23
4.2. RTCP Feedback Capability Attribute ........................23
4.3. RTCP Bandwidth Modifiers ..................................27
4.4. Examples ..................................................27
5. Interworking and Coexistence of AVP and AVPF Entities ..........29
6. Format of RTCP Feedback Messages ...............................31
6.1. Common Packet Format for Feedback Messages ................32
6.2. Transport Layer Feedback Messages .........................34
6.2.1. Generic NACK .......................................34
6.3. Payload-Specific Feedback Messages ........................35
6.3.1. Picture Loss Indication (PLI) ......................36
6.3.2. Slice Loss Indication (SLI) ........................37
6.3.3. Reference Picture Selection Indication (RPSI) ......39
6.4. Application Layer Feedback Messages .......................41
7. Early Feedback and Congestion Control ..........................41
8. Security Considerations ........................................42
9. IANA Considerations ............................................43
10. Acknowledgements ..............................................47
11. References ....................................................48
11.1. Normative References .....................................48
11.2. Informative References ...................................48
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 2
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
1. Introduction
Real-time media streams that use RTP are, to some degree, resilient
against packet losses. RTP [1] provides all the necessary mechanisms
to restore ordering and timing present at the sender to properly
reproduce a media stream at a recipient. RTP also provides
continuous feedback about the overall reception quality from all
receivers -- thereby allowing the sender(s) in the mid-term (in the
order of several seconds to minutes) to adapt their coding scheme and
transmission behavior to the observed network quality of service
(QoS). However, except for a few payload-specific mechanisms [6],
RTP makes no provision for timely feedback that would allow a sender
to repair the media stream immediately: through retransmissions,
retroactive Forward Error Correction (FEC) control, or media-specific
mechanisms for some video codecs, such as reference picture
selection.
Current mechanisms available with RTP to improve error resilience
include audio redundancy coding [13], video redundancy coding [14],
RTP-level FEC [11], and general considerations on more robust media
streams transmission [12]. These mechanisms may be applied
proactively (thereby increasing the bandwidth of a given media
stream). Alternatively, in sufficiently small groups with small
round-trip times (RTTs), the senders may perform repair on-demand,
using the above mechanisms and/or media-encoding-specific approaches.
Note that "small group" and "sufficiently small RTT" are both highly
application dependent.
This document specifies a modified RTP profile for audio and video
conferences with minimal control based upon [1] and [2] by means of
two modifications/additions: Firstly, to achieve timely feedback, the
concept of Early RTCP messages as well as algorithms allowing for
low-delay feedback in small multicast groups (and preventing feedback
implosion in large ones) are introduced. Special consideration is
given to point-to-point scenarios. Secondly, a small number of
general-purpose feedback messages as well as a format for codec- and
application-specific feedback information are defined for
transmission in the RTCP payloads.
1.1. Definitions
The definitions from RTP/RTCP [1] and the "RTP Profile for Audio and
Video Conferences with Minimal Control" [2] apply. In addition, the
following definitions are used in this document:
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 3
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
Early RTCP mode:
The mode of operation in that a receiver of a media stream is
often (but not always) capable of reporting events of interest
back to the sender close to their occurrence. In Early RTCP mode,
RTCP packets are transmitted according to the timing rules defined
in this document.
Early RTCP packet:
An Early RTCP packet is a packet which is transmitted earlier than
would be allowed if following the scheduling algorithm of [1], the
reason being an "event" observed by a receiver. Early RTCP
packets may be sent in Immediate Feedback and in Early RTCP mode.
Sending an Early RTCP packet is also referred to as sending Early
Feedback in this document.
Event:
An observation made by the receiver of a media stream that is
(potentially) of interest to the sender -- such as a packet loss
or packet reception, frame loss, etc. -- and thus useful to be
reported back to the sender by means of a feedback message.
Feedback (FB) message:
An RTCP message as defined in this document is used to convey
information about events observed at a receiver -- in addition to
long-term receiver status information that is carried in RTCP
receiver reports (RRs) -- back to the sender of the media stream.
For the sake of clarity, feedback message is referred to as FB
message throughout this document.
Feedback (FB) threshold:
The FB threshold indicates the transition between Immediate
Feedback and Early RTCP mode. For a multiparty scenario, the FB
threshold indicates the maximum group size at which, on average,
each receiver is able to report each event back to the sender(s)
immediately, i.e., by means of an Early RTCP packet without having
to wait for its regularly scheduled RTCP interval. This threshold
is highly dependent on the type of feedback to be provided,
network QoS (e.g., packet loss probability and distribution),
codec and packetization scheme in use, the session bandwidth, and
application requirements. Note that the algorithms do not depend
on all senders and receivers agreeing on the same value for this
threshold. It is merely intended to provide conceptual guidance
to application designers and is not used in any calculations. For
the sake of clarity, the term feedback threshold is referred to as
FB threshold throughout this document.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 4
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
Immediate Feedback mode:
A mode of operation in which each receiver of a media stream is,
statistically, capable of reporting each event of interest
immediately back to the media stream sender. In Immediate
Feedback mode, RTCP FB messages are transmitted according to the
timing rules defined in this document.
Media packet:
A media packet is an RTP packet.
Regular RTCP mode:
Mode of operation in which no preferred transmission of FB
messages is allowed. Instead, RTCP messages are sent following
the rules of [1]. Nevertheless, such RTCP messages may contain
feedback information as defined in this document.
Regular RTCP packet:
An RTCP packet that is not sent as an Early RTCP packet.
RTP sender:
An RTP sender is an RTP entity that transmits media packets as
well as RTCP packets and receives Regular as well as Early RTCP
(i.e., feedback) packets. Note that the RTP sender is a logical
role and that the same RTP entity may at the same time act as an
RTP receiver.
RTP receiver:
An RTP receiver is an RTP entity that receives media packets as
well as RTCP packets and transmits Regular as well as Early RTCP
(i.e., feedback) packets. Note that the RTP receiver is a logical
role and that the same RTP entity may at the same time act as an
RTP sender.
1.2. Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [5].
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 5
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
2. RTP and RTCP Packet Formats and Protocol Behavior
2.1. RTP
The rules defined in [2] also apply to this profile except for those
rules mentioned in the following:
RTCP packet types:
Two additional RTCP packet types are registered and the
corresponding FB messages to convey feedback information are
defined in Section 6 of this memo.
RTCP report intervals:
This document describes three modes of operation that influence
the RTCP report intervals (see Section 3.2 of this memo). In
Regular RTCP mode, all rules from [1] apply except for the
recommended minimal interval of five seconds between two RTCP
reports from the same RTP entity. In both Immediate Feedback and
Early RTCP modes, the minimal interval of five seconds between two
RTCP reports is dropped and, additionally, the rules specified in
Section 3 of this memo apply if RTCP packets containing FB
messages (defined in Section 4 of this memo) are to be
transmitted.
The rules set forth in [1] may be overridden by session
descriptions specifying different parameters (e.g., for the
bandwidth share assigned to RTCP for senders and receivers,
respectively). For sessions defined using the Session Description
Protocol (SDP) [3], the rules of [4] apply.
Congestion control:
The same basic rules as detailed in [2] apply. Beyond this, in
Section 7, further consideration is given to the impact of
feedback and a sender's reaction to FB messages.
2.2. Underlying Transport Protocols
RTP is intended to be used on top of unreliable transport protocols,
including UDP and the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP).
This section briefly describes the specifics beyond plain RTP
operation introduced by RTCP feedback as specified in this memo.
UDP: UDP provides best-effort delivery of datagrams for point-to-
point as well as for multicast communications. UDP does not
support congestion control or error repair. The RTCP-based
feedback defined in this memo is able to provide minimal support
for limited error repair. As RTCP feedback is not guaranteed to
operate on sufficiently small timescales (in the order of RTT),
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 6
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
RTCP feedback is not suitable to support congestion control. This
memo addresses both unicast and multicast operation.
DCCP: DCCP [19] provides for congestion-controlled but unreliable
datagram flows for unicast communications. With TCP Friendly Rate
Control (TFRC)-based [20] congestion control (CCID 3), DCCP is
particularly suitable for audio and video communications. DCCP's
acknowledgement messages may provide detailed feedback reporting
about received and missed datagrams (and thus about congestion).
When running RTP over DCCP, congestion control is performed at the
DCCP layer and no additional mechanisms are required at the RTP
layer. Furthermore, an RTCP-feedback-capable sender may leverage
the more frequent DCCP-based feedback and thus a receiver may
refrain from using (additional) Generic Feedback messages where
appropriate.
3. Rules for RTCP Feedback
3.1. Compound RTCP Feedback Packets
Two components constitute RTCP-based feedback as described in this
document:
o Status reports are contained in sender report (SR)/received report
(RR) packets and are transmitted at regular intervals as part of
compound RTCP packets (which also include source description
(SDES) and possibly other messages); these status reports provide
an overall indication for the recent reception quality of a media
stream.
o FB messages as defined in this document that indicate loss or
reception of particular pieces of a media stream (or provide some
other form of rather immediate feedback on the data received).
Rules for the transmission of FB messages are newly introduced in
this document.
RTCP FB messages are just another RTCP packet type (see Section 4).
Therefore, multiple FB messages MAY be combined in a single compound
RTCP packet and they MAY also be sent combined with other RTCP
packets.
Compound RTCP packets containing FB messages as defined in this
document MUST contain RTCP packets in the order defined in [1]:
o OPTIONAL encryption prefix that MUST be present if the RTCP
packet(s) is to be encrypted according to Section 9.1 of [1].
o MANDATORY SR or RR.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 7
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
o MANDATORY SDES, which MUST contain the CNAME item; all other SDES
items are OPTIONAL.
o One or more FB messages.
The FB message(s) MUST be placed in the compound packet after RR and
SDES RTCP packets defined in [1]. The ordering with respect to other
RTCP extensions is not defined.
Two types of compound RTCP packets carrying feedback packets are used
in this document:
a) Minimal compound RTCP feedback packet
A minimal compound RTCP feedback packet MUST contain only the
mandatory information as listed above: encryption prefix if
necessary, exactly one RR or SR, exactly one SDES with only the
CNAME item present, and the FB message(s). This is to minimize
the size of the RTCP packet transmitted to convey feedback and
thus to maximize the frequency at which feedback can be provided
while still adhering to the RTCP bandwidth limitations.
This packet format SHOULD be used whenever an RTCP FB message is
sent as part of an Early RTCP packet. This packet type is
referred to as minimal compound RTCP packet in this document.
b) (Full) compound RTCP feedback packet
A (full) compound RTCP feedback packet MAY contain any additional
number of RTCP packets (additional RRs, further SDES items, etc.).
The above ordering rules MUST be adhered to.
This packet format MUST be used whenever an RTCP FB message is
sent as part of a Regular RTCP packet or in Regular RTCP mode. It
MAY also be used to send RTCP FB messages in Immediate Feedback or
Early RTCP mode. This packet type is referred to as full compound
RTCP packet in this document.
RTCP packets that do not contain FB messages are referred to as non-
FB RTCP packets. Such packets MUST follow the format rules in [1].
3.2. Algorithm Outline
FB messages are part of the RTCP control streams and thus subject to
the RTCP bandwidth constraints. This means, in particular, that it
may not be possible to report an event observed at a receiver
immediately back to the sender. However, the value of feedback
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 8
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
given to a sender typically decreases over time -- in terms of the
media quality as perceived by the user at the receiving end and/or
the cost required to achieve media stream repair.
RTP [1] and the commonly used RTP profile [2] specify rules when
compound RTCP packets should be sent. This document modifies those
rules in order to allow applications to timely report events (e.g.,
loss or reception of RTP packets) and to accommodate algorithms that
use FB messages.
The modified RTCP transmission algorithm can be outlined as follows:
As long as no FB messages have to be conveyed, compound RTCP packets
are sent following the rules of RTP [1] -- except that the five-
second minimum interval between RTCP reports is not enforced. Hence,
the interval between RTCP reports is only derived from the average
RTCP packet size and the RTCP bandwidth share available to the
RTP/RTCP entity. Optionally, a minimum interval between Regular RTCP
packets may be enforced.
If a receiver detects the need to send an FB message, it may do so
earlier than the next regular RTCP reporting interval (for which it
would be scheduled following the above regular RTCP algorithm).
Feedback suppression is used to avoid feedback implosion in
multiparty sessions: The receiver waits for a (short) random
dithering interval to check whether it sees a corresponding FB
message from any other receiver reporting the same event. Note that
for point-to-point sessions there is no such delay. If a
corresponding FB message from another member is received, this
receiver refrains from sending the FB message and continues to follow
the Regular RTCP transmission schedule. In case the receiver has not
yet seen a corresponding FB message from any other member, it checks
whether it is allowed to send Early feedback. If sending Early
feedback is permissible, the receiver sends the FB message as part of
a minimal compound RTCP packet. The permission to send Early
feedback depends on the type of the previous RTCP packet sent by this
receiver and the time the previous Early feedback message was sent.
FB messages may also be sent as part of full compound RTCP packets,
which are transmitted as per [1] (except for the five-second lower
bound) in regular intervals.
3.3. Modes of Operation
RTCP-based feedback may operate in one of three modes (Figure 1) as
described below. The mode of operation is just an indication of
whether or not the receiver will, on average, be able to report all
events to the sender in a timely fashion; the mode does not influence
the algorithm used for scheduling the transmission of FB messages.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 9
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
And, depending on the reception quality and the locally monitored
state of the RTP session, individual receivers may not (and do not
have to) agree on a common perception on the current mode of
operation.
a) Immediate Feedback mode: In this mode, the group size is below the
FB threshold, which gives each receiving party sufficient
bandwidth to transmit the RTCP feedback packets for the intended
purpose. This means that, for each receiver, there is enough
bandwidth to report each event by means of a virtually "immediate"
RTCP feedback packet.
The group size threshold is a function of a number of parameters
including (but not necessarily limited to): the type of feedback
used (e.g., ACK vs. NACK), bandwidth, packet rate, packet loss
probability and distribution, media type, codec, and the (worst
case or observed) frequency of events to report (e.g., frame
received, packet lost).
As a rough estimate, let N be the average number of events to be
reported per interval T by a receiver, B the RTCP bandwidth
fraction for this particular receiver, and R the average RTCP
packet size, then the receiver operates in Immediate Feedback mode
as long as N<=B*T/R.
b) Early RTCP mode: In this mode, the group size and other parameters
no longer allow each receiver to react to each event that would be
worth reporting (or that needed reporting). But feedback can
still be given sufficiently often so that it allows the sender to
adapt the media stream transmission accordingly and thereby
increase the overall media playback quality.
Using the above notation, Early RTCP mode can be roughly
characterized by N > B*T/R as "lower bound". An estimate for an
upper bound is more difficult. Setting N=1, we obtain for a given
R and B the interval T = R/B as average interval between events to
be reported. This information can be used as a hint to determine
whether or not early transmission of RTCP packets is useful.
c) Regular RTCP Mode: From some group size upwards, it is no longer
useful to provide feedback for individual events from receivers at
all -- because of the time scale in which the feedback could be
provided and/or because in large groups the sender(s) have no
chance to react to individual feedback anymore.
No precise group size threshold can be specified at which this
mode starts but, obviously, this boundary matches the upper bound
of the Early RTCP mode as specified in item b) above.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 10
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
As the feedback algorithm described in this document scales smoothly,
there is no need for an agreement among the participants on the
precise values of the respective FB thresholds within the group.
Hence, the borders between all these modes are soft.
ACK
feedback
V
:<- - - - NACK feedback - - - ->//
:
: Immediate ||
: Feedback mode ||Early RTCP mode Regular RTCP mode
:<=============>||<=============>//<=================>
: ||
-+---------------||---------------//------------------> group size
2 ||
Application-specific FB Threshold
= f(data rate, packet loss, codec, ...)
Figure 1: Modes of operation
As stated before, the respective FB thresholds depend on a number of
technical parameters (of the codec, the transport, the type of
feedback used, etc.) but also on the respective application
scenarios. Section 3.6 provides some useful hints (but no precise
calculations) on estimating these thresholds.
3.4. Definitions and Algorithm Overview
The following pieces of state information need to be maintained per
receiver (largely taken from [1]). Note that all variables (except
in item h) below) are calculated independently at each receiver.
Therefore, their local values may differ at any given point in time.
a) Let "senders" be the number of active senders in the RTP session.
b) Let "members" be the current estimate of the number of receivers
in the RTP session.
c) Let tn and tp be the time for the next (last) scheduled RTCP RR
transmission calculated prior to timer reconsideration.
d) Let Tmin be the minimal interval between RTCP packets as per [1].
Unlike in [1], the initial Tmin is set to 1 second to allow for
some group size sampling before sending the first RTCP packet.
After the first RTCP packet is sent, Tmin is set to 0.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 11
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
e) Let T_rr be the interval after which, having just sent a regularly
scheduled RTCP packet, a receiver would schedule the transmission
of its next Regular RTCP packet. This value is obtained following
the rules of [1] but with Tmin as defined in this document: T_rr =
T (the "calculated interval" as defined in [1]) with tn = tp + T.
T_rr always refers to the last value of T that has been computed
(because of reconsideration or to determine tn). T_rr is also
referred to as Regular RTCP interval in this document.
f) Let t0 be the time at which an event that is to be reported is
detected by a receiver.
g) Let T_dither_max be the maximum interval for which an RTCP
feedback packet MAY be additionally delayed to prevent implosions
in multiparty sessions; the value for T_dither_max is dynamically
calculated based upon T_rr (or may be derived by means of another
mechanism common across all RTP receivers to be specified in the
future). For point-to-point sessions (i.e., sessions with exactly
two members with no change in the group size expected, e.g.,
unicast streaming sessions), T_dither_max is set to 0.
h) Let T_max_fb_delay be the upper bound within which feedback to an
event needs to be reported back to the sender to be useful at all.
This value is application specific, and no values are defined in
this document.
i) Let te be the time for which a feedback packet is scheduled.
j) Let T_fd be the actual (randomized) delay for the transmission of
FB message in response to an event at time t0.
k) Let allow_early be a Boolean variable that indicates whether the
receiver currently may transmit FB messages prior to its next
regularly scheduled RTCP interval tn. This variable is used to
throttle the feedback sent by a single receiver. allow_early is
set to FALSE after Early feedback transmission and is set to TRUE
as soon as the next Regular RTCP transmission takes place.
l) Let avg_rtcp_size be the moving average on the RTCP packet size as
defined in [1].
m) Let T_rr_interval be an OPTIONAL minimal interval to be used
between Regular RTCP packets. If T_rr_interval == 0, then this
variable does not have any impact on the overall operation of the
RTCP feedback algorithm. If T_rr_interval != 0, then the next
Regular RTCP packet will not be scheduled T_rr after the last
Regular RTCP transmission (i.e., at tp+T_rr). Instead, the next
Regular RTCP packet will be delayed until at least T_rr_interval
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 12
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
after the last Regular RTCP transmission, i.e., it will be
scheduled at or later than tp+T_rr_interval. Note that
T_rr_interval does not affect the calculation of T_rr and tp;
instead, Regular RTCP packets scheduled for transmission before
tp+T_rr_interval will be suppressed if, for example, they do not
contain any FB messages. The T_rr_interval does not affect
transmission scheduling of Early RTCP packets.
Note: Providing T_rr_interval as an independent variable is meant
to minimize Regular RTCP feedback (and thus bandwidth consumption)
as needed by the application while additionally allowing the use
of more frequent Early RTCP packets to provide timely feedback.
This goal could not be achieved by reducing the overall RTCP
bandwidth as RTCP bandwidth reduction would also impact the
frequency of Early feedback.
n) Let t_rr_last be the point in time at which the last Regular RTCP
packet has been scheduled and sent, i.e., has not been suppressed
due to T_rr_interval.
o) Let T_retention be the time window for which past FB messages are
stored by an AVPF entity. This is to ensure that feedback
suppression also works for entities that have received FB messages
from other entities prior to noticing the feedback event itself.
T_retention MUST be set to at least 2 seconds.
p) Let M*Td be the timeout value for a receiver to be considered
inactive (as defined in [1]).
The feedback situation for an event to report at a receiver is
depicted in Figure 2 below. At time t0, such an event (e.g., a
packet loss) is detected at the receiver. The receiver decides --
based upon current bandwidth, group size, and other application-
specific parameters -- that an FB message needs to be sent back to
the sender.
To avoid an implosion of feedback packets in multiparty sessions, the
receiver MUST delay the transmission of the RTCP feedback packet by a
random amount of time T_fd (with the random number evenly distributed
in the interval [0, T_dither_max]). Transmission of the compound
RTCP packet MUST then be scheduled for te = t0 + T_fd.
The T_dither_max parameter is derived from the Regular RTCP interval,
T_rr, which, in turn, is based upon the group size. A future
document may also specify other calculations for T_dither_max (e.g.,
based upon RTT) if it can be assured that all RTP receivers will use
the same mechanism for calculating T_dither_max.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 13
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
For a certain application scenario, a receiver may determine an upper
bound for the acceptable local delay of FB messages: T_max_fb_delay.
If an a priori estimation or the actual calculation of T_dither_max
indicates that this upper bound MAY be violated (e.g., because
T_dither_max > T_max_fb_delay), the receiver MAY decide not to send
any feedback at all because the achievable gain is considered
insufficient.
If an Early RTCP packet is scheduled, the time slot for the next
Regular RTCP packet MUST be updated accordingly to have a new tn
(tn=tp+2*T_rr) and a new tp (tp=tp+T_rr) afterwards. This is to
ensure that the short-term average RTCP bandwidth used with Early
feedback does not exceed the bandwidth used without Early feedback.
event to
report
detected
|
| RTCP feedback range
| (T_max_fb_delay)
vXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ) )
|---+--------+-------------+-----+------------| |--------+--->
| | | | ( ( |
| t0 te |
tp tn
\_______ ________/
\/
T_dither_max
Figure 2: Event report and parameters for Early RTCP scheduling
3.5. AVPF RTCP Scheduling Algorithm
Let S0 be an active sender (out of S senders) and let N be the number
of receivers with R being one of these receivers.
Assume that R has verified that using feedback mechanisms is
reasonable at the current constellation (which is highly application
specific and hence not specified in this document).
Assume further that T_rr_interval is 0, if no minimal interval
between Regular RTCP packets is to be enforced, or T_rr_interval is
set to some meaningful value, as given by the application. This
value then denotes the minimal interval between Regular RTCP packets.
With this, a receiver R MUST use the following rules for transmitting
one or more FB messages as minimal or full compound RTCP packet.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 14
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
3.5.1. Initialization
Initially, R MUST set allow_early = TRUE and t_rr_last = NaN (Not-a-
Number, i.e., some invalid value that can be distinguished from a
valid time).
Furthermore, the initialization of the RTCP variables as per [1]
applies except for the initial value for Tmin. For a point-to-point
session, the initial Tmin is set to 0. For a multiparty session,
Tmin is initialized to 1.0 seconds.
3.5.2. Early Feedback Transmission
Assume that R had scheduled the last Regular RTCP RR packet for
transmission at tp (and sent or suppressed this packet at tp) and has
scheduled the next transmission (including possible reconsideration
as per [1]) for tn = tp + T_rr. Assume also that the last Regular
RTCP packet transmission has occurred at t_rr_last.
The Early Feedback algorithm then comprises the following steps:
1. At time t0, R detects the need to transmit one or more FB
messages, e.g., because media "units" need to be ACKed or NACKed,
and finds that providing the feedback information is potentially
useful for the sender.
2. R first checks whether there is already a compound RTCP packet
containing one or more FB messages scheduled for transmission
(either as Early or as Regular RTCP packet).
2a) If so, the new FB message MUST be included in the scheduled
packet; the scheduling of the waiting compound RTCP packet
MUST remain unchanged. When doing so, the available feedback
information SHOULD be merged to produce as few FB messages as
possible. This completes the course of immediate actions to
be taken.
2b) If no compound RTCP packet is already scheduled for
transmission, a new (minimal or full) compound RTCP packet
MUST be created and the minimal interval for T_dither_max MUST
be chosen as follows:
i) If the session is a point-to-point session, then
T_dither_max = 0.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 15
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
ii) If the session is a multiparty session, then
T_dither_max = l * T_rr
with l=0.5.
The value for T_dither_max MAY be calculated differently
(e.g., based upon RTT), which MUST then be specified in a
future document. Such a future specification MUST ensure that
all RTP receivers use the same mechanism to calculate
T_dither_max.
The values given above for T_dither_max are minimal values.
Application-specific feedback considerations may make it
worthwhile to increase T_dither_max beyond this value. This
is up to the discretion of the implementer.
3. Then, R MUST check whether its next Regular RTCP packet would be
within the time bounds for the Early RTCP packet triggered at t0,
i.e., if t0 + T_dither_max > tn.
3a) If so, an Early RTCP packet MUST NOT be scheduled; instead,
the FB message(s) MUST be stored to be included in the Regular
RTCP packet scheduled for tn. This completes the course of
immediate actions to be taken.
3b) Otherwise, the following steps are carried out.
4. R MUST check whether it is allowed to transmit an Early RTCP
packet, i.e., allow_early == TRUE, or not.
4a) If allow_early == FALSE, then R MUST check the time for the
next scheduled Regular RTCP packet:
1. If tn - t0 < T_max_fb_delay, then the feedback could still
be useful for the sender, despite the late reporting.
Hence, R MAY create an RTCP FB message to be included in
the Regular RTCP packet for transmission at tn.
2. Otherwise, R MUST discard the RTCP FB message.
This completes the immediate course of actions to be taken.
4b) If allow_early == TRUE, then R MUST schedule an Early RTCP
packet for te = t0 + RND * T_dither_max with RND being a
pseudo random function evenly distributed between 0 and 1.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 16
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
5. R MUST detect overlaps in FB messages received from other members
of the RTP session and the FB messages R wants to send.
Therefore, while a member of the RTP session, R MUST continuously
monitor the arrival of (minimal) compound RTCP packets and store
each FB message contained in these RTCP packets for at least
T_retention. When scheduling the transmission of its own FB
message following steps 1 through 4 above, R MUST check each of
the stored and newly received FB messages from the RTCP packets
received during the interval [t0 - T_retention ; te] and act as
follows:
5a) If R understands the received FB message's semantics and the
message contents is a superset of the feedback R wanted to
send, then R MUST discard its own FB message and MUST re-
schedule the next Regular RTCP packet transmission for tn (as
calculated before).
5b) If R understands the received FB message's semantics and the
message contents is not a superset of the feedback R wanted to
send, then R SHOULD transmit its own FB message as scheduled.
If there is an overlap between the feedback information to
send and the feedback information received, the amount of
feedback transmitted is up to R: R MAY leave its feedback
information to be sent unchanged, R MAY as well eliminate any
redundancy between its own feedback and the feedback received
so far from other session members.
5c) If R does not understand the received FB message's semantics,
R MAY keep its own FB message scheduled as an Early RTCP
packet, or R MAY re-schedule the next Regular RTCP packet
transmission for tn (as calculated before) and MAY append the
FB message to the now regularly scheduled RTCP message.
Note: With 5c), receiving unknown FB messages may not lead to
feedback suppression at a particular receiver. As a
consequence, a given event may cause M different types of FB
messages (which are all appropriate but not mutually
understood) to be scheduled, so that a "large" receiver group
may effectively be partitioned into at most M groups. Among
members of each of these M groups, feedback suppression will
occur following 5a and 5b but no suppression will happen
across groups. As a result, O(M) RTCP FB messages may be
received by the sender. Hence, there is a chance for a very
limited feedback implosion. However, as sender(s) and all
receivers make up the same application using the same (set of)
codecs in the same RTP session, only little divergence in
semantics for FB messages can safely be assumed and,
therefore, M is assumed to be small in the general case.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 17
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Given further that the O(M) FB messages are randomly
distributed over a time interval of T_dither_max, we find that
the resulting limited number of extra compound RTCP packets
(a) is assumed not to overwhelm the sender and (b) should be
conveyed as all contain complementary pieces of information.
6. If R's FB message(s) was not suppressed by other receiver FB
messages as per 5, when te is reached, R MUST transmit the
(minimal) compound RTCP packet containing its FB message(s). R
then MUST set allow_early = FALSE, MUST recalculate tn = tp +
2*T_rr, and MUST set tp to the previous tn. As soon as the newly
calculated tn is reached, regardless whether R sends its next
Regular RTCP packet or suppresses it because of T_rr_interval, it
MUST set allow_early = TRUE again.
3.5.3. Regular RTCP Transmission
Full compound RTCP packets MUST be sent in regular intervals. These
packets MAY also contain one or more FB messages. Transmission of
Regular RTCP packets is scheduled as follows:
If T_rr_interval == 0, then the transmission MUST follow the rules as
specified in Sections 3.2 and 3.4 of this document and MUST adhere to
the adjustments of tn specified in Section 3.5.2 (i.e., skip one
regular transmission if an Early RTCP packet transmission has
occurred). Timer reconsideration takes place when tn is reached as
per [1]. The Regular RTCP packet is transmitted after timer
reconsideration. Whenever a Regular RTCP packet is sent or
suppressed, allow_early MUST be set to TRUE and tp, tn MUST be
updated as per [1]. After the first transmission of a Regular RTCP
packet, Tmin MUST be set to 0.
If T_rr_interval != 0, then the calculation for the transmission
times MUST follow the rules as specified in Sections 3.2 and 3.4 of
this document and MUST adhere to the adjustments of tn specified in
Section 3.5.2 (i.e., skip one regular transmission if an Early RTCP
transmission has occurred). Timer reconsideration takes place when
tn is reached as per [1]. After timer reconsideration, the following
actions are taken:
1. If no Regular RTCP packet has been sent before (i.e., if t_rr_last
== NaN), then a Regular RTCP packet MUST be scheduled. Stored FB
messages MAY be included in the Regular RTCP packet. After the
scheduled packet has been sent, t_rr_last MUST be set to tn. Tmin
MUST be set to 0.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 18
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
2. Otherwise, a temporary value T_rr_current_interval is calculated
as follows:
T_rr_current_interval = RND*T_rr_interval
with RND being a pseudo random function evenly distributed between
0.5 and 1.5. This dithered value is used to determine one of the
following alternatives:
2a) If t_rr_last + T_rr_current_interval <= tn, then a Regular
RTCP packet MUST be scheduled. Stored RTCP FB messages MAY be
included in the Regular RTCP packet. After the scheduled
packet has been sent, t_rr_last MUST be set to tn.
2b) If t_rr_last + T_rr_current_interval > tn and RTCP FB messages
have been stored and are awaiting transmission, an RTCP packet
MUST be scheduled for transmission at tn. This RTCP packet
MAY be a minimal or a Regular RTCP packet (at the discretion
of the implementer), and the compound RTCP packet MUST include
the stored RTCP FB message(s). t_rr_last MUST remain
unchanged.
2c) Otherwise (if t_rr_last + T_rr_current_interval > tn but no
stored RTCP FB messages are awaiting transmission), the
compound RTCP packet MUST be suppressed (i.e., it MUST NOT be
scheduled). t_rr_last MUST remain unchanged.
In all the four cases above (1, 2a, 2b, and 2c), allow_early MUST be
set to TRUE (possibly after sending the Regular RTCP packet) and tp
and tn MUST be updated following the rules of [1] except for the five
second minimum.
3.5.4. Other Considerations
If T_rr_interval != 0, then the timeout calculation for RTP/AVPF
entities (Section 6.3.5 of [1]) MUST be modified to use T_rr_interval
instead of Tmin for computing Td and thus M*Td for timing out RTP
entities.
Whenever a compound RTCP packet is sent or received -- minimal or
full compound, Early or Regular -- the avg_rtcp_size variable MUST be
updated accordingly (see [1]) and subsequent computations of tn MUST
use the new avg_rtcp_size.
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3.6. Considerations on the Group Size
This section provides some guidelines to the group sizes at which the
various feedback modes may be used.
3.6.1. ACK Mode
The RTP session MUST have exactly two members and this group size
MUST NOT grow, i.e., it MUST be point-to-point communications.
Unicast addresses SHOULD be used in the session description.
For unidirectional as well as bi-directional communication between
two parties, 2.5% of the RTP session bandwidth is available for RTCP
traffic from the receivers including feedback. For a 64-kbit/s
stream this yields 1,600 bit/s for RTCP. If we assume an average of
96 bytes (=768 bits) per RTCP packet, a receiver can report 2 events
per second back to the sender. If acknowledgements for 10 events are
collected in each FB message, then 20 events can be acknowledged per
second. At 256 kbit/s, 8 events could be reported per second; thus,
the ACKs may be sent in a finer granularity (e.g., only combining
three ACKs per FB message).
From 1 Mbit/s upwards, a receiver would be able to acknowledge each
individual frame (not packet!) in a 30-fps video stream.
ACK strategies MUST be defined to work properly with these bandwidth
limitations. An indication whether or not ACKs are allowed for a
session and, if so, which ACK strategy should be used, MAY be
conveyed by out-of-band mechanisms, e.g., media-specific attributes
in a session description using SDP.
3.6.2. NACK Mode
Negative acknowledgements (and the other types of feedback exhibiting
similar reporting characteristics) MUST be used for all sessions with
a group size that may grow larger than two. Of course, NACKs MAY be
used for point-to-point communications as well.
Whether or not the use of Early RTCP packets should be considered
depends upon a number of parameters including session bandwidth,
codec, special type of feedback, and number of senders and receivers.
The most important parameters when determining the mode of operation
are the allowed minimal interval between two compound RTCP packets
(T_rr) and the average number of events that presumably need
reporting per time interval (plus their distribution over time, of
course). The minimum interval can be derived from the available RTCP
bandwidth and the expected average size of an RTCP packet. The
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 20
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
number of events to report (e.g., per second) may be derived from the
packet loss rate and sender's rate of transmitting packets. From
these two values, the allowable group size for the Immediate Feedback
mode can be calculated.
As stated in Section 3.3:
Let N be the average number of events to be reported per interval
T by a receiver, B the RTCP bandwidth fraction for this particular
receiver, and R the average RTCP packet size, then the receiver
operates in Immediate Feedback mode as long as N<=B*T/R.
The upper bound for the Early RTCP mode then solely depends on the
acceptable quality degradation, i.e., how many events per time
interval may go unreported.
As stated in Section 3.3:
Using the above notation, Early RTCP mode can be roughly
characterized by N > B*T/R as "lower bound". An estimate for an
upper bound is more difficult. Setting N=1, we obtain for a given
R and B the interval T = R/B as average interval between events to
be reported. This information can be used as a hint to determine
whether or not early transmission of RTCP packets is useful.
Example: If a 256-kbit/s video with 30 fps is transmitted through a
network with an MTU size of some 1,500 bytes, then, in most cases,
each frame would fit in into one packet leading to a packet rate of
30 packets per second. If 5% packet loss occurs in the network
(equally distributed, no inter-dependence between receivers), then
each receiver will, on average, have to report 3 packets lost each
two seconds. Assuming a single sender and more than three receivers,
this yields 3.75% of the RTCP bandwidth allocated to the receivers
and thus 9.6 kbit/s. Assuming further a size of 120 bytes for the
average compound RTCP packet allows 10 RTCP packets to be sent per
second or 20 in two seconds. If every receiver needs to report three
lost packets per two seconds, this yields a maximum group size of 6-7
receivers if all loss events are reported. The rules for
transmission of Early RTCP packets should provide sufficient
flexibility for most of this reporting to occur in a timely fashion.
Extending this example to determine the upper bound for Early RTCP
mode could lead to the following considerations: assume that the
underlying coding scheme and the application (as well as the tolerant
users) allow on the order of one loss without repair per two seconds.
Thus, the number of packets to be reported by each receiver decreases
to two per two seconds and increases the group size to 10. Assuming
further that some number of packet losses are correlated, feedback
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 21
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
traffic is further reduced and group sizes of some 12 to 16 (maybe
even 20) can be reasonably well supported using Early RTCP mode.
Note that all these considerations are based upon statistics and will
fail to hold in some cases.
3.7. Summary of Decision Steps
3.7.1. General Hints
Before even considering whether or not to send RTCP feedback
information, an application has to determine whether this mechanism
is applicable:
1) An application has to decide whether -- for the current ratio of
packet rate with the associated (application-specific) maximum
feedback delay and the currently observed round-trip time (if
available) -- feedback mechanisms can be applied at all.
This decision may be based upon (and dynamically revised
following) RTCP reception statistics as well as out-of-band
mechanisms.
2) The application has to decide -- for a certain observed error
rate, assigned bandwidth, frame/packet rate, and group size --
whether (and which) feedback mechanisms can be applied.
Regular RTCP reception statistics provide valuable input to this
step, too.
3) If the application decides to send feedback, the application has
to follow the rules for transmitting Early RTCP packets or Regular
RTCP packets containing FB messages.
4) The type of RTCP feedback sent should not duplicate information
available to the sender from a lower layer transport protocol.
That is, if the transport protocol provides negative or positive
acknowledgements about packet reception (such as DCCP), the
receiver should avoid repeating the same information at the RTCP
layer (i.e., abstain from sending Generic NACKs).
3.7.2. Media Session Attributes
Media sessions are typically described using out-of-band mechanisms
to convey transport addresses, codec information, etc., between
sender(s) and receiver(s). Such a mechanism is two-fold: a format
used to describe a media session and another mechanism for
transporting this description.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 22
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
In the IETF, the Session Description Protocol (SDP) is currently used
to describe media sessions while protocols such as SIP, Session
Announcement Protocol (SAP), Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), and
HTTP (among others) are used to convey the descriptions.
A media session description format MAY include parameters to indicate
that RTCP feedback mechanisms are supported in this session and which
of the feedback mechanisms MAY be applied.
To do so, the profile "AVPF" MUST be indicated instead of "AVP".
Further attributes may be defined to show which type(s) of feedback
are supported.
Section 4 contains the syntax specification to support RTCP feedback
with SDP. Similar specifications for other media session description
formats are outside the scope of this document.
4. SDP Definitions
This section defines a number of additional SDP parameters that are
used to describe a session. All of these are defined as media-level
attributes.
4.1. Profile Identification
The AV profile defined in [4] is referred to as "AVP" in the context
of, e.g., the Session Description Protocol (SDP) [3]. The profile
specified in this document is referred to as "AVPF".
Feedback information following the modified timing rules as specified
in this document MUST NOT be sent for a particular media session
unless the description for this session indicates the use of the
"AVPF" profile (exclusively or jointly with other AV profiles).
4.2. RTCP Feedback Capability Attribute
A new payload format-specific SDP attribute is defined to indicate
the capability of using RTCP feedback as specified in this document:
"a=rtcp-fb". The "rtcp-fb" attribute MUST only be used as an SDP
media attribute and MUST NOT be provided at the session level. The
"rtcp-fb" attribute MUST only be used in media sessions for which the
"AVPF" is specified.
The "rtcp-fb" attribute SHOULD be used to indicate which RTCP FB
messages MAY be used in this media session for the indicated payload
type. A wildcard payload type ("*") MAY be used to indicate that the
RTCP feedback attribute applies to all payload types. If several
types of feedback are supported and/or the same feedback shall be
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 23
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
specified for a subset of the payload types, several "a=rtcp-fb"
lines MUST be used.
If no "rtcp-fb" attribute is specified, the RTP receivers MAY send
feedback using other suitable RTCP feedback packets as defined for
the respective media type. The RTP receivers MUST NOT rely on the
RTP senders reacting to any of the FB messages. The RTP sender MAY
choose to ignore some feedback messages.
If one or more "rtcp-fb" attributes are present in a media session
description, the RTCP receivers for the media session(s) containing
the "rtcp-fb"
o MUST ignore all "rtcp-fb" attributes of which they do not fully
understand the semantics (i.e., where they do not understand the
meaning of all values in the "a=rtcp-fb" line);
o SHOULD provide feedback information as specified in this document
using any of the RTCP feedback packets as specified in one of the
"rtcp-fb" attributes for this media session; and
o MUST NOT use other FB messages than those listed in one of the
"rtcp-fb" attribute lines.
When used in conjunction with the offer/answer model [8], the offerer
MAY present a set of these AVPF attributes to its peer. The answerer
MUST remove all attributes it does not understand as well as those it
does not support in general or does not wish to use in this
particular media session. The answerer MUST NOT add feedback
parameters to the media description and MUST NOT alter values of such
parameters. The answer is binding for the media session, and both
offerer and answerer MUST only use feedback mechanisms negotiated in
this way. Both offerer and answerer MAY independently decide to send
RTCP FB messages of only a subset of the negotiated feedback
mechanisms, but they SHOULD react properly to all types of the
negotiated FB messages when received.
RTP senders MUST be prepared to receive any kind of RTCP FB messages
and MUST silently discard all those RTCP FB messages that they do not
understand.
The syntax of the "rtcp-fb" attribute is as follows (the feedback
types and optional parameters are all case sensitive):
(In the following ABNF, fmt, SP, and CRLF are used as defined in
[3].)
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 24
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
rtcp-fb-syntax = "a=rtcp-fb:" rtcp-fb-pt SP rtcp-fb-val CRLF
rtcp-fb-pt = "*" ; wildcard: applies to all formats
/ fmt ; as defined in SDP spec
rtcp-fb-val = "ack" rtcp-fb-ack-param
/ "nack" rtcp-fb-nack-param
/ "trr-int" SP 1*DIGIT
/ rtcp-fb-id rtcp-fb-param
rtcp-fb-id = 1*(alpha-numeric / "-" / "_")
rtcp-fb-param = SP "app" [SP byte-string]
/ SP token [SP byte-string]
/ ; empty
rtcp-fb-ack-param = SP "rpsi"
/ SP "app" [SP byte-string]
/ SP token [SP byte-string]
/ ; empty
rtcp-fb-nack-param = SP "pli"
/ SP "sli"
/ SP "rpsi"
/ SP "app" [SP byte-string]
/ SP token [SP byte-string]
/ ; empty
The literals of the above grammar have the following semantics:
Feedback type "ack":
This feedback type indicates that positive acknowledgements for
feedback are supported.
The feedback type "ack" MUST only be used if the media session is
allowed to operate in ACK mode as defined in Section 3.6.1.
Parameters MUST be provided to further distinguish different types
of positive acknowledgement feedback.
The parameter "rpsi" indicates the use of Reference Picture
Selection Indication feedback as defined in Section 6.3.3.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 25
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
If the parameter "app" is specified, this indicates the use of
application layer feedback. In this case, additional parameters
following "app" MAY be used to further differentiate various types
of application layer feedback. This document does not define any
parameters specific to "app".
Further parameters for "ack" MAY be defined in other documents.
Feedback type "nack":
This feedback type indicates that negative acknowledgements for
feedback are supported.
The feedback type "nack", without parameters, indicates use of the
Generic NACK feedback format as defined in Section 6.2.1.
The following three parameters are defined in this document for
use with "nack" in conjunction with the media type "video":
o "pli" indicates the use of Picture Loss Indication feedback as
defined in Section 6.3.1.
o "sli" indicates the use of Slice Loss Indication feedback as
defined in Section 6.3.2.
o "rpsi" indicates the use of Reference Picture Selection
Indication feedback as defined in Section 6.3.3.
"app" indicates the use of application layer feedback. Additional
parameters after "app" MAY be provided to differentiate different
types of application layer feedback. No parameters specific to
"app" are defined in this document.
Further parameters for "nack" MAY be defined in other documents.
Other feedback types <rtcp-fb-id>:
Other documents MAY define additional types of feedback; to keep
the grammar extensible for those cases, the rtcp-fb-id is
introduced as a placeholder. A new feedback scheme name MUST to
be unique (and thus MUST be registered with IANA). Along with a
new name, its semantics, packet formats (if necessary), and rules
for its operation MUST be specified.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 26
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
Regular RTCP minimum interval "trr-int":
The attribute "trr-int" is used to specify the minimum interval
T_rr_interval between two Regular (full compound) RTCP packets in
milliseconds for this media session. If "trr-int" is not
specified, a default value of 0 is assumed.
Note that it is assumed that more specific information about
application layer feedback (as defined in Section 6.4) will be
conveyed as feedback types and parameters defined elsewhere. Hence,
no further provision for any types and parameters is made in this
document.
Further types of feedback as well as further parameters may be
defined in other documents.
It is up to the recipients whether or not they send feedback
information and up to the sender(s) (how) to make use of feedback
provided.
4.3. RTCP Bandwidth Modifiers
The standard RTCP bandwidth assignments as defined in [1] and [2] MAY
be overridden by bandwidth modifiers that explicitly define the
maximum RTCP bandwidth. For use with SDP, such modifiers are
specified in [4]: "b=RS:<bw>" and "b=RR:<bw>" MAY be used to assign a
different bandwidth (measured in bits per second) to RTP senders and
receivers, respectively. The precedence rules of [4] apply to
determine the actual bandwidth to be used by senders and receivers.
Applications operating knowingly over highly asymmetric links (such
as satellite links) SHOULD use this mechanism to reduce the feedback
rate for high bandwidth streams to prevent deterministic congestion
of the feedback path(s).
4.4. Examples
Example 1: The following session description indicates a session made
up from audio and DTMF [18] for point-to-point communication in which
the DTMF stream uses Generic NACKs. This session description could
be contained in a SIP INVITE, 200 OK, or ACK message to indicate that
its sender is capable of and willing to receive feedback for the DTMF
stream it transmits.
v=0
o=alice 3203093520 3203093520 IN IP4 host.example.com
s=Media with feedback
t=0 0
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 27
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
c=IN IP4 host.example.com
m=audio 49170 RTP/AVPF 0 96
a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000
a=rtpmap:96 telephone-event/8000
a=fmtp:96 0-16
a=rtcp-fb:96 nack
This allows sender and receiver to provide reliable transmission of
DTMF events in an audio session. Assuming a 64-kbit/s audio stream
with one receiver, the receiver has 2.5% RTCP bandwidth available for
the negative acknowledgement stream, i.e., 250 bytes per second or
some 2 RTCP feedback messages every second. Hence, the receiver can
individually communicate up to two missing DTMF audio packets per
second.
Example 2: The following session description indicates a multicast
video-only session (using either H.261 or H.263+) with the video
source accepting Generic NACKs for both codecs and Reference Picture
Selection for H.263. Such a description may have been conveyed using
the Session Announcement Protocol (SAP).
v=0
o=alice 3203093520 3203093520 IN IP4 host.example.com
s=Multicast video with feedback
t=3203130148 3203137348
m=audio 49170 RTP/AVP 0
c=IN IP4 224.2.1.183
a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000
m=video 51372 RTP/AVPF 98 99
c=IN IP4 224.2.1.184
a=rtpmap:98 H263-1998/90000
a=rtpmap:99 H261/90000
a=rtcp-fb:* nack
a=rtcp-fb:98 nack rpsi
The sender may use an incoming Generic NACK as a hint to send a new
intra-frame as soon as possible (congestion control permitting).
Receipt of a Reference Picture Selection Indication (RPSI) message
allows the sender to avoid sending a large intra-frame; instead it
may continue to send inter-frames, however, choosing the indicated
frame as new encoding reference.
Example 3: The following session description defines the same media
session as example 2 but allows for mixed-mode operation of AVP and
AVPF RTP entities (see also next section). Note that both media
descriptions use the same addresses; however, two m= lines are needed
to convey information about both applicable RTP profiles.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 28
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
v=0
o=alice 3203093520 3203093520 IN IP4 host.example.com
s=Multicast video with feedback
t=3203130148 3203137348
m=audio 49170 RTP/AVP 0
c=IN IP4 224.2.1.183
a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000
m=video 51372 RTP/AVP 98 99
c=IN IP4 224.2.1.184
a=rtpmap:98 H263-1998/90000
a=rtpmap:99 H261/90000
m=video 51372 RTP/AVPF 98 99
c=IN IP4 224.2.1.184
a=rtpmap:98 H263-1998/90000
a=rtpmap:99 H261/90000
a=rtcp-fb:* nack
a=rtcp-fb:98 nack rpsi
Note that these two m= lines SHOULD be grouped by some appropriate
mechanism to indicate that both are alternatives actually conveying
the same contents. A sample framework by which this can be
achieved is defined in [10].
In this example, the RTCP feedback-enabled receivers will gain an
occasional advantage to report events earlier back to the sender
(which may benefit the entire group). On average, however, all RTP
receivers will provide the same amount of feedback. The
interworking between AVP and AVPF entities is discussed in depth in
the next section.
5. Interworking and Coexistence of AVP and AVPF Entities
The AVPF profile defined in this document is an extension of the
AVP profile as defined in [2]. Both profiles follow the same basic
rules (including the upper bandwidth limit for RTCP and the
bandwidth assignments to senders and receivers). Therefore,
senders and receivers using either of the two profiles can be
mixed in a single session (see Example 3 in Section 4.5).
AVP and AVPF are defined in a way that, from a robustness point of
view, the RTP entities do not need to be aware of entities of the
respective other profile: they will not disturb each other's
functioning. However, the quality of the media presented may
suffer.
The following considerations apply to senders and receivers when
used in a combined session.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 29
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
o AVP entities (senders and receivers)
AVP senders will receive RTCP feedback packets from AVPF
receivers and ignore these packets. They will see occasional
closer spacing of RTCP messages (e.g., violating the five-second
rule) by AVPF entities. As the overall bandwidth constraints
are adhered to by both types of entities, they will still get
their share of the RTCP bandwidth. However, while AVP entities
are bound by the five-second rule, depending on the group size
and session bandwidth, AVPF entities may provide more frequent
RTCP reports than AVP ones will. Also, the overall reporting
may decrease slightly as AVPF entities may send bigger compound
RTCP packets (due to the extra RTCP packets).
If T_rr_interval is used as lower bound between Regular RTCP
packets, T_rr_interval is sufficiently large (e.g., T_rr_interval
> M*Td as per Section 6.3.5 of [1]), and no Early RTCP packets
are sent by AVPF entities, AVP entities may accidentally time
out those AVPF group members and hence underestimate the group
size. Therefore, if AVP entities may be involved in a media
session, T_rr_interval SHOULD NOT be larger than five seconds.
o AVPF entities (senders and receivers)
If the dynamically calculated T_rr is sufficiently small (e.g.,
less than one second), AVPF entities may accidentally time out
AVP group members and hence underestimate the group size.
Therefore, if AVP entities may be involved in a media session,
T_rr_interval SHOULD be used and SHOULD be set to five seconds.
In conclusion, if AVP entities may be involved in a media
session and T_rr_interval is to be used, T_rr_interval SHOULD be
set to five seconds.
o AVPF senders
AVPF senders will receive feedback information only from AVPF
receivers. If they rely on feedback to provide the target media
quality, the quality achieved for AVP receivers may be suboptimal.
o AVPF receivers
AVPF receivers SHOULD send Early RTCP feedback packets only if
all sending entities in the media session support AVPF. AVPF
receivers MAY send feedback information as part of regularly
scheduled compound RTCP packets following the timing rules of
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 30
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
[1] and [2] also in media sessions operating in mixed mode.
However, the receiver providing feedback MUST NOT rely on the
sender reacting to the feedback at all.
6. Format of RTCP Feedback Messages
This section defines the format of the low-delay RTCP feedback
messages. These messages are classified into three categories as
follows:
- Transport layer FB messages
- Payload-specific FB messages
- Application layer FB messages
Transport layer FB messages are intended to transmit general purpose
feedback information, i.e., information independent of the particular
codec or the application in use. The information is expected to be
generated and processed at the transport/RTP layer. Currently, only
a generic negative acknowledgement (NACK) message is defined.
Payload-specific FB messages transport information that is specific
to a certain payload type and will be generated and acted upon at the
codec "layer". This document defines a common header to be used in
conjunction with all payload-specific FB messages. The definition of
specific messages is left either to RTP payload format specifications
or to additional feedback format documents.
Application layer FB messages provide a means to transparently convey
feedback from the receiver's to the sender's application. The
information contained in such a message is not expected to be acted
upon at the transport/RTP or the codec layer. The data to be
exchanged between two application instances is usually defined in the
application protocol specification and thus can be identified by the
application so that there is no need for additional external
information. Hence, this document defines only a common header to be
used along with all application layer FB messages. From a protocol
point of view, an application layer FB message is treated as a
special case of a payload-specific FB message.
Note: Proper processing of some FB messages at the media sender
side may require the sender to know which payload type the FB
message refers to. Most of the time, this knowledge can likely be
derived from a media stream using only a single payload type.
However, if several codecs are used simultaneously (e.g., with
audio and DTMF) or when codec changes occur, the payload type
information may need to be conveyed explicitly as part of the FB
message. This applies to all
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 31
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
payload-specific as well as application layer FB messages. It is
up to the specification of an FB message to define how payload
type information is transmitted.
This document defines two transport layer and three (video) payload-
specific FB messages as well as a single container for application
layer FB messages. Additional transport layer and payload-specific
FB messages MAY be defined in other documents and MUST be registered
through IANA (see Section 9, "IANA Considerations").
The general syntax and semantics for the above RTCP FB message types
are described in the following subsections.
6.1. Common Packet Format for Feedback Messages
All FB messages MUST use a common packet format that is depicted in
Figure 3:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|V=2|P| FMT | PT | length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| SSRC of packet sender |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| SSRC of media source |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
: Feedback Control Information (FCI) :
: :
Figure 3: Common Packet Format for Feedback Messages
The fields V, P, SSRC, and length are defined in the RTP
specification [2], the respective meaning being summarized below:
version (V): 2 bits
This field identifies the RTP version. The current version is 2.
padding (P): 1 bit
If set, the padding bit indicates that the packet contains
additional padding octets at the end that are not part of the
control information but are included in the length field.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 32
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Feedback message type (FMT): 5 bits
This field identifies the type of the FB message and is
interpreted relative to the type (transport layer, payload-
specific, or application layer feedback). The values for each of
the three feedback types are defined in the respective sections
below.
Payload type (PT): 8 bits
This is the RTCP packet type that identifies the packet as being
an RTCP FB message. Two values are defined by the IANA:
Name | Value | Brief Description
----------+-------+------------------------------------
RTPFB | 205 | Transport layer FB message
PSFB | 206 | Payload-specific FB message
Length: 16 bits
The length of this packet in 32-bit words minus one, including the
header and any padding. This is in line with the definition of
the length field used in RTCP sender and receiver reports [3].
SSRC of packet sender: 32 bits
The synchronization source identifier for the originator of this
packet.
SSRC of media source: 32 bits
The synchronization source identifier of the media source that
this piece of feedback information is related to.
Feedback Control Information (FCI): variable length
The following three sections define which additional information
MAY be included in the FB message for each type of feedback:
transport layer, payload-specific, or application layer feedback.
Note that further FCI contents MAY be specified in further
documents.
Each RTCP feedback packet MUST contain at least one FB message in the
FCI field. Sections 6.2 and 6.3 define for each FCI type, whether or
not multiple FB messages MAY be compressed into a single FCI field.
If this is the case, they MUST be of the same type, i.e., same FMT.
If multiple types of feedback messages, i.e., several FMTs, need to
be conveyed, then several RTCP FB messages MUST be generated and
SHOULD be concatenated in the same compound RTCP packet.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 33
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6.2. Transport Layer Feedback Messages
Transport layer FB messages are identified by the value RTPFB as RTCP
message type.
A single general purpose transport layer FB message is defined in
this document: Generic NACK. It is identified by means of the FMT
parameter as follows:
0: unassigned
1: Generic NACK
2-30: unassigned
31: reserved for future expansion of the identifier number space
The following subsection defines the formats of the FCI field for
this type of FB message. Further generic feedback messages MAY be
defined in the future.
6.2.1. Generic NACK
The Generic NACK message is identified by PT=RTPFB and FMT=1.
The FCI field MUST contain at least one and MAY contain more than one
Generic NACK.
The Generic NACK is used to indicate the loss of one or more RTP
packets. The lost packet(s) are identified by the means of a packet
identifier and a bit mask.
Generic NACK feedback SHOULD NOT be used if the underlying transport
protocol is capable of providing similar feedback information to the
sender (as may be the case, e.g., with DCCP).
The Feedback Control Information (FCI) field has the following Syntax
(Figure 4):
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| PID | BLP |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 4: Syntax for the Generic NACK message
Packet ID (PID): 16 bits
The PID field is used to specify a lost packet. The PID field
refers to the RTP sequence number of the lost packet.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 34
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
bitmask of following lost packets (BLP): 16 bits
The BLP allows for reporting losses of any of the 16 RTP packets
immediately following the RTP packet indicated by the PID. The
BLP's definition is identical to that given in [6]. Denoting the
BLP's least significant bit as bit 1, and its most significant bit
as bit 16, then bit i of the bit mask is set to 1 if the receiver
has not received RTP packet number (PID+i) (modulo 2^16) and
indicates this packet is lost; bit i is set to 0 otherwise. Note
that the sender MUST NOT assume that a receiver has received a
packet because its bit mask was set to 0. For example, the least
significant bit of the BLP would be set to 1 if the packet
corresponding to the PID and the following packet have been lost.
However, the sender cannot infer that packets PID+2 through PID+16
have been received simply because bits 2 through 15 of the BLP are
0; all the sender knows is that the receiver has not reported them
as lost at this time.
The length of the FB message MUST be set to 2+n, with n being the
number of Generic NACKs contained in the FCI field.
The Generic NACK message implicitly references the payload type
through the sequence number(s).
6.3. Payload-Specific Feedback Messages
Payload-Specific FB messages are identified by the value PT=PSFB as
RTCP message type.
Three payload-specific FB messages are defined so far plus an
application layer FB message. They are identified by means of the
FMT parameter as follows:
0: unassigned
1: Picture Loss Indication (PLI)
2: Slice Loss Indication (SLI)
3: Reference Picture Selection Indication (RPSI)
4-14: unassigned
15: Application layer FB (AFB) message
16-30: unassigned
31: reserved for future expansion of the sequence number space
The following subsections define the FCI formats for the payload-
specific FB messages, Section 6.4 defines FCI format for the
application layer FB message.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 35
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
6.3.1. Picture Loss Indication (PLI)
The PLI FB message is identified by PT=PSFB and FMT=1.
There MUST be exactly one PLI contained in the FCI field.
6.3.1.1. Semantics
With the Picture Loss Indication message, a decoder informs the
encoder about the loss of an undefined amount of coded video data
belonging to one or more pictures. When used in conjunction with any
video coding scheme that is based on inter-picture prediction, an
encoder that receives a PLI becomes aware that the prediction chain
may be broken. The sender MAY react to a PLI by transmitting an
intra-picture to achieve resynchronization (making this message
effectively similar to the FIR message as defined in [6]); however,
the sender MUST consider congestion control as outlined in Section 7,
which MAY restrict its ability to send an intra frame.
Other RTP payload specifications such as RFC 2032 [6] already define
a feedback mechanism for some for certain codecs. An application
supporting both schemes MUST use the feedback mechanism defined in
this specification when sending feedback. For backward compatibility
reasons, such an application SHOULD also be capable to receive and
react to the feedback scheme defined in the respective RTP payload
format, if this is required by that payload format.
6.3.1.2. Message Format
PLI does not require parameters. Therefore, the length field MUST be
2, and there MUST NOT be any Feedback Control Information.
The semantics of this FB message is independent of the payload type.
6.3.1.3. Timing Rules
The timing follows the rules outlined in Section 3. In systems that
employ both PLI and other types of feedback, it may be advisable to
follow the Regular RTCP RR timing rules for PLI, since PLI is not as
delay critical as other FB types.
6.3.1.4. Remarks
PLI messages typically trigger the sending of full intra-pictures.
Intra-pictures are several times larger then predicted (inter-)
pictures. Their size is independent of the time they are generated.
In most environments, especially when employing bandwidth-limited
links, the use of an intra-picture implies an allowed delay that is a
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 36
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
significant multitude of the typical frame duration. An example: If
the sending frame rate is 10 fps, and an intra-picture is assumed to
be 10 times as big as an inter-picture, then a full second of latency
has to be accepted. In such an environment, there is no need for a
particular short delay in sending the FB message. Hence, waiting for
the next possible time slot allowed by RTCP timing rules as per [2]
with Tmin=0 does not have a negative impact on the system
performance.
6.3.2. Slice Loss Indication (SLI)
The SLI FB message is identified by PT=PSFB and FMT=2.
The FCI field MUST contain at least one and MAY contain more than one
SLI.
6.3.2.1. Semantics
With the Slice Loss Indication, a decoder can inform an encoder that
it has detected the loss or corruption of one or several consecutive
macroblock(s) in scan order (see below). This FB message MUST NOT be
used for video codecs with non-uniform, dynamically changeable
macroblock sizes such as H.263 with enabled Annex Q. In such a case,
an encoder cannot always identify the corrupted spatial region.
6.3.2.2. Format
The Slice Loss Indication uses one additional FCI field, the content
of which is depicted in Figure 6. The length of the FB message MUST
be set to 2+n, with n being the number of SLIs contained in the FCI
field.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| First | Number | PictureID |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 6: Syntax of the Slice Loss Indication (SLI)
First: 13 bits
The macroblock (MB) address of the first lost macroblock. The MB
numbering is done such that the macroblock in the upper left
corner of the picture is considered macroblock number 1 and the
number for each macroblock increases from left to right and then
from top to bottom in raster-scan order (such that if there is a
total of N macroblocks in a picture, the bottom right macroblock
is considered macroblock number N).
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 37
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
Number: 13 bits
The number of lost macroblocks, in scan order as discussed above.
PictureID: 6 bits
The six least significant bits of the codec-specific identifier
that is used to reference the picture in which the loss of the
macroblock(s) has occurred. For many video codecs, the PictureID
is identical to the Temporal Reference.
The applicability of this FB message is limited to a small set of
video codecs; therefore, no explicit payload type information is
provided.
6.3.2.3. Timing Rules
The efficiency of algorithms using the Slice Loss Indication is
reduced greatly when the Indication is not transmitted in a timely
fashion. Motion compensation propagates corrupted pixels that are
not reported as being corrupted. Therefore, the use of the algorithm
discussed in Section 3 is highly recommended.
6.3.2.4. Remarks
The term Slice is defined and used here in the sense of MPEG-1 -- a
consecutive number of macroblocks in scan order. More recent video
coding standards sometimes have a different understanding of the term
Slice. In H.263 (1998), for example, a concept known as "rectangular
slice" exists. The loss of one rectangular slice may lead to the
necessity of sending more than one SLI in order to precisely identify
the region of lost/damaged MBs.
The first field of the FCI defines the first macroblock of a picture
as 1 and not, as one could suspect, as 0. This was done to align
this specification with the comparable mechanism available in ITU-T
Rec. H.245 [24]. The maximum number of macroblocks in a picture
(2**13 or 8192) corresponds to the maximum picture sizes of most of
the ITU-T and ISO/IEC video codecs. If future video codecs offer
larger picture sizes and/or smaller macroblock sizes, then an
additional FB message has to be defined. The six least significant
bits of the Temporal Reference field are deemed to be sufficient to
indicate the picture in which the loss occurred.
The reaction to an SLI is not part of this specification. One
typical way of reacting to an SLI is to use intra refresh for the
affected spatial region.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 38
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
Algorithms were reported that keep track of the regions affected by
motion compensation, in order to allow for a transmission of Intra
macroblocks to all those areas, regardless of the timing of the FB
(see H.263 (2000) Appendix I [17] and [15]). Although the timing of
the FB is less critical when those algorithms are used than if they
are not, it has to be observed that those algorithms correct large
parts of the picture and, therefore, have to transmit much higher
data volume in case of delayed FBs.
6.3.3. Reference Picture Selection Indication (RPSI)
The RPSI FB message is identified by PT=PSFB and FMT=3.
There MUST be exactly one RPSI contained in the FCI field.
6.3.3.1. Semantics
Modern video coding standards such as MPEG-4 visual version 2 [16] or
H.263 version 2 [17] allow using older reference pictures than the
most recent one for predictive coding. Typically, a first-in-first-
out queue of reference pictures is maintained. If an encoder has
learned about a loss of encoder-decoder synchronicity, a known-as-
correct reference picture can be used. As this reference picture is
temporally further away then usual, the resulting predictively coded
picture will use more bits.
Both MPEG-4 and H.263 define a binary format for the "payload" of an
RPSI message that includes information such as the temporal ID of the
damaged picture and the size of the damaged region. This bit string
is typically small (a couple of dozen bits), of variable length, and
self-contained, i.e., contains all information that is necessary to
perform reference picture selection.
Both MPEG-4 and H.263 allow the use of RPSI with positive feedback
information as well. That is, pictures (or Slices) are reported that
were decoded without error. Note that any form of positive feedback
MUST NOT be used when in a multiparty session (reporting positive
feedback about individual reference pictures at RTCP intervals is not
expected to be of much use anyway).
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 39
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
6.3.3.2. Format
The FCI for the RPSI message follows the format depicted in Figure 7:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| PB |0| Payload Type| Native RPSI bit string |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| defined per codec ... | Padding (0) |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Figure 7: Syntax of the Reference Picture Selection Indication (RPSI)
PB: 8 bits
The number of unused bits required to pad the length of the RPSI
message to a multiple of 32 bits.
0: 1 bit
MUST be set to zero upon transmission and ignored upon reception.
Payload Type: 7 bits
Indicates the RTP payload type in the context of which the native
RPSI bit string MUST be interpreted.
Native RPSI bit string: variable length
The RPSI information as natively defined by the video codec.
Padding: #PB bits
A number of bits set to zero to fill up the contents of the RPSI
message to the next 32-bit boundary. The number of padding bits
MUST be indicated by the PB field.
6.3.3.3. Timing Rules
RPSI is even more critical to delay than algorithms using SLI. This
is because the older the RPSI message is, the more bits the encoder
has to spend to re-establish encoder-decoder synchronicity. See [15]
for some information about the overhead of RPSI for certain bit
rate/frame rate/loss rate scenarios.
Therefore, RPSI messages should typically be sent as soon as
possible, employing the algorithm of Section 3.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 40
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
6.4. Application Layer Feedback Messages
Application layer FB messages are a special case of payload-specific
messages and are identified by PT=PSFB and FMT=15. There MUST be
exactly one application layer FB message contained in the FCI field,
unless the application layer FB message structure itself allows for
stacking (e.g., by means of a fixed size or explicit length
indicator).
These messages are used to transport application-defined data
directly from the receiver's to the sender's application. The data
that is transported is not identified by the FB message. Therefore,
the application MUST be able to identify the message payload.
Usually, applications define their own set of messages, e.g., NEWPRED
messages in MPEG-4 [16] (carried in RTP packets according to RFC 3016
[23]) or FB messages in H.263/Annex N, U [17] (packetized as per RFC
2429 [14]). These messages do not need any additional information
from the RTCP message. Thus, the application message is simply
placed into the FCI field as follows and the length field is set
accordingly.
Application Message (FCI): variable length
This field contains the original application message that should
be transported from the receiver to the source. The format is
application dependent. The length of this field is variable. If
the application data is not 32-bit aligned, padding bits and bytes
MUST be added to achieve 32-bit alignment. Identification of
padding is up to the application layer and not defined in this
specification.
The application layer FB message specification MUST define whether or
not the message needs to be interpreted specifically in the context
of a certain codec (identified by the RTP payload type). If a
reference to the payload type is required for proper processing, the
application layer FB message specification MUST define a way to
communicate the payload type information as part of the application
layer FB message itself.
7. Early Feedback and Congestion Control
In the previous sections, the FB messages were defined as well as the
timing rules according to which to send these messages. The way to
react to the feedback received depends on the application using the
feedback mechanisms and hence is beyond the scope of this document.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 41
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
However, across all applications, there is a common requirement for
(TCP-friendly) congestion control on the media stream as defined in
[1] and [2] when operating in a best-effort network environment.
It should be noted that RTCP feedback itself is insufficient for
congestion control purposes as it is likely to operate at much slower
timescales than other transport layer feedback mechanisms (that
usually operate in the order of RTT). Therefore, additional
mechanisms are required to perform proper congestion control.
A congestion control algorithm that shares the available bandwidth
reasonably fairly with competing TCP connections, e.g., TFRC [7],
MUST be used to determine the data rate for the media stream within
the bounds of the RTP sender's and the media session's capabilities
if the RTP/AVPF session is transmitted in a best-effort environment.
8. Security Considerations
RTP packets transporting information with the proposed payload format
are subject to the security considerations discussed in the RTP
specification [1] and in the RTP/AVP profile specification [2]. This
profile does not specify any additional security services.
This profile modifies the timing behavior of RTCP and eliminates the
minimum RTCP interval of five seconds and allows for earlier feedback
to be provided by receivers. Group members of the associated RTP
session (possibly pretending to represent a large number of entities)
may disturb the operation of RTCP by sending large numbers of RTCP
packets thereby reducing the RTCP bandwidth available for Regular
RTCP reporting as well as for Early FB messages. (Note that an
entity need not be a member of a multicast group to cause these
effects.) Similarly, malicious members may send very large RTCP
messages, thereby increasing the avg_rtcp_size variable and reducing
the effectively available RTCP bandwidth.
Feedback information may be suppressed if unknown RTCP feedback
packets are received. This introduces the risk of a malicious group
member reducing Early feedback by simply transmitting payload-
specific RTCP feedback packets with random contents that are not
recognized by any receiver (so they will suppress feedback) or by the
sender (so no repair actions will be taken).
A malicious group member can also report arbitrary high loss rates in
the feedback information to make the sender throttle the data
transmission and increase the amount of redundancy information or
take other action to deal with the pretended packet loss (e.g., send
fewer frames or decrease audio/video quality). This may result in a
degradation of the quality of the reproduced media stream.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 42
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Finally, a malicious group member can act as a large number of group
members and thereby obtain an artificially large share of the Early
feedback bandwidth and reduce the reactivity of the other group
members -- possibly even causing them to no longer operate in
Immediate or Early feedback mode and thus undermining the whole
purpose of this profile.
Senders as well as receivers SHOULD behave conservatively when
observing strange reporting behavior. For excessive failure
reporting from one or a few receivers, the sender MAY decide to no
longer consider this feedback when adapting its transmission behavior
for the media stream. In any case, senders and receivers SHOULD
still adhere to the maximum RTCP bandwidth but make sure that they
are capable of transmitting at least regularly scheduled RTCP
packets. Senders SHOULD carefully consider how to adjust their
transmission bandwidth when encountering strange reporting behavior;
they MUST NOT increase their transmission bandwidth even if ignoring
suspicious feedback.
Attacks using false RTCP packets (Regular as well as Early ones) can
be avoided by authenticating all RTCP messages. This can be achieved
by using the AVPF profile together with the Secure RTP profile as
defined in [22]; as a prerequisite, an appropriate combination of
those two profiles (an "SAVPF") is being specified [21]. Note that,
when employing group authentication (as opposed to source
authentication), the aforementioned attacks may be carried out by
malicious or malfunctioning group members in possession of the right
keying material.
9. IANA Considerations
The following contact information shall be used for all registrations
included here:
Contact: Joerg Ott
mailto:jo@acm.org
tel:+358-9-451-2460
The feedback profile as an extension to the profile for audio-visual
conferences with minimal control has been registered for the Session
Description Protocol (specifically the type "proto"): "RTP/AVPF".
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 43
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
SDP Protocol ("proto"):
Name: RTP/AVPF
Long form: Extended RTP Profile with RTCP-based Feedback
Type of name: proto
Type of attribute: Media level only
Purpose: RFC 4585
Reference: RFC 4585
SDP Attribute ("att-field"):
Attribute name: rtcp-fb
Long form: RTCP Feedback parameter
Type of name: att-field
Type of attribute: Media level only
Subject to charset: No
Purpose: RFC 4585
Reference: RFC 4585
Values: See this document and registrations below
A new registry has been set up for the "rtcp-fb" attribute, with the
following registrations created initially: "ack", "nack", "trr-int",
and "app" as defined in this document.
Initial value registration for the attribute "rtcp-fb"
Value name: ack
Long name: Positive acknowledgement
Reference: RFC 4585.
Value name: nack
Long name: Negative Acknowledgement
Reference: RFC 4585.
Value name: trr-int
Long name: Minimal receiver report interval
Reference: RFC 4585.
Value name: app
Long name: Application-defined parameter
Reference: RFC 4585.
Further entries may be registered on a first-come first-serve basis.
Each new registration needs to indicate the parameter name and the
syntax of possible additional arguments. For each new registration,
it is mandatory that a permanent, stable, and publicly accessible
document exists that specifies the semantics of the registered
parameter, the syntax and semantics of its parameters as well as
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 44
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
corresponding feedback packet formats (if needed). The general
registration procedures of [3] apply.
For use with both "ack" and "nack", a joint sub-registry has been set
up that initially registers the following values:
Initial value registration for the attribute values "ack" and "nack":
Value name: sli
Long name: Slice Loss Indication
Usable with: nack
Reference: RFC 4585.
Value name: pli
Long name: Picture Loss Indication
Usable with: nack
Reference: RFC 4585.
Value name: rpsi
Long name: Reference Picture Selection Indication
Usable with: ack, nack
Reference: RFC 4585.
Value name: app
Long name: Application layer feedback
Usable with: ack, nack
Reference: RFC 4585.
Further entries may be registered on a first-come first-serve basis.
Each registration needs to indicate the parameter name, the syntax of
possible additional arguments, and whether the parameter is
applicable to "ack" or "nack" feedback or both or some different
"rtcp-fb" attribute parameter. For each new registration, it is
mandatory that a permanent, stable, and publicly accessible document
exists that specifies the semantics of the registered parameter, the
syntax and semantics of its parameters as well as corresponding
feedback packet formats (if needed). The general registration
procedures of [3] apply.
Two RTCP Control Packet Types: for the class of transport layer FB
messages ("RTPFB") and for the class of payload-specific FB messages
("PSFB"). Per Section 6, RTPFB=205 and PSFB=206 have been added to
the RTCP registry.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 45
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
RTP RTCP Control Packet types (PT):
Name: RTPFB
Long name: Generic RTP Feedback
Value: 205
Reference: RFC 4585.
Name: PSFB
Long name: Payload-specific
Value: 206
Reference: RFC 4585.
As AVPF defines additional RTCP payload types, the corresponding
"reserved" RTP payload type space (72-76, as defined in [2]), has
been expanded accordingly.
A new sub-registry has been set up for the FMT values for both the
RTPFB payload type and the PSFB payload type, with the following
registrations created initially:
Within the RTPFB range, the following two format (FMT) values are
initially registered:
Name: Generic NACK
Long name: Generic negative acknowledgement
Value: 1
Reference: RFC 4585.
Name: Extension
Long name: Reserved for future extensions
Value: 31
Reference: RFC 4585.
Within the PSFB range, the following five format (FMT) values are
initially registered:
Name: PLI
Long name: Picture Loss Indication
Value: 1
Reference: RFC 4585.
Name: SLI
Long name: Slice Loss Indication
Value: 2
Reference: RFC 4585.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 46
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
Name: RPSI
Long name: Reference Picture Selection Indication
Value: 3
Reference: RFC 4585.
Name: AFB
Long name: Application Layer Feedback
Value: 15
Reference: RFC 4585.
Name: Extension
Long name: Reserved for future extensions.
Value: 31
Reference: RFC 4585.
Further entries may be registered following the "Specification
Required" rules as defined in RFC 2434 [9]. Each registration needs
to indicate the FMT value, if there is a specific FB message to go
into the FCI field, and whether or not multiple FB messages may be
stacked in a single FCI field. For each new registration, it is
mandatory that a permanent, stable, and publicly accessible document
exists that specifies the semantics of the registered parameter as
well as the syntax and semantics of the associated FB message (if
any). The general registration procedures of [3] apply.
10. Acknowledgements
This document is a product of the Audio-Visual Transport (AVT)
Working Group of the IETF. The authors would like to thank Steve
Casner and Colin Perkins for their comments and suggestions as well
as for their responsiveness to numerous questions. The authors would
also like to particularly thank Magnus Westerlund for his review and
his valuable suggestions and Shigeru Fukunaga for the contributions
on FB message formats and semantics.
We would also like to thank Andreas Buesching and people at Panasonic
for their simulations and the first independent implementations of
the feedback profile.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 47
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
11. References
11.1. Normative References
[1] Schulzrinne, H., Casner, S., Frederick, R., and V. Jacobson,
"RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications", STD 64,
RFC 3550, July 2003.
[2] Schulzrinne, H. and S. Casner, "RTP Profile for Audio and Video
Conferences with Minimal Control", STD 65, RFC 3551, July 2003.
[3] Handley, M., Jacobson, V., and C. Perkins, "SDP: Session
Description Protocol", RFC 4566, July 2006.
[4] Casner, S., "Session Description Protocol (SDP) Bandwidth
Modifiers for RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) Bandwidth", RFC 3556,
July 2003.
[5] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[6] Turletti, T. and C. Huitema, "RTP Payload Format for H.261 Video
Streams", RFC 2032, October 1996.
[7] Handley, M., Floyd, S., Padhye, J., and J. Widmer, "TCP Friendly
Rate Control (TFRC): Protocol Specification", RFC 3448, January
2003.
[8] Rosenberg, J. and H. Schulzrinne, "An Offer/Answer Model with
Session Description Protocol (SDP)", RFC 3264, June 2002.
[9] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA
Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 2434, October 1998.
11.2. Informative References
[10] Camarillo, G., Eriksson, G., Holler, J., and H. Schulzrinne,
"Grouping of Media Lines in the Session Description Protocol
(SDP)", RFC 3388, December 2002.
[11] Perkins, C. and O. Hodson, "Options for Repair of Streaming
Media", RFC 2354, June 1998.
[12] Rosenberg, J. and H. Schulzrinne, "An RTP Payload Format for
Generic Forward Error Correction", RFC 2733, December 1999.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 48
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
[13] Perkins, C., Kouvelas, I., Hodson, O., Hardman, V., Handley, M.,
Bolot, J., Vega-Garcia, A., and S. Fosse-Parisis, "RTP Payload
for Redundant Audio Data", RFC 2198, September 1997.
[14] Bormann, C., Cline, L., Deisher, G., Gardos, T., Maciocco, C.,
Newell, D., Ott, J., Sullivan, G., Wenger, S., and C. Zhu, "RTP
Payload Format for the 1998 Version of ITU-T Rec. H.263 Video
(H.263+)", RFC 2429, October 1998.
[15] B. Girod, N. Faerber, "Feedback-based error control for mobile
video transmission", Proceedings IEEE, Vol. 87, No. 10, pp.
1707 - 1723, October, 1999.
[16] ISO/IEC 14496-2:2001/Amd.1:2002, "Information technology -
Coding of audio-visual objects - Part2: Visual", 2001.
[17] ITU-T Recommendation H.263, "Video Coding for Low Bit Rate
Communication", November 2000.
[18] Schulzrinne, H. and S. Petrack, "RTP Payload for DTMF Digits,
Telephony Tones and Telephony Signals", RFC 2833, May 2000.
[19] Kohler, E., Handley, M., and S. Floyd, "Datagram Congestion
Control Protocol (DCCP)", RFC 4340, March 2006.
[20] Handley, M., Floyd, S., Padhye, J., and J. Widmer, "TCP Friendly
Rate Control (TFRC): Protocol Specification", RFC 3448, January
2003.
[21] Ott, J. and E. Carrara, "Extended Secure RTP Profile for RTCP-
based Feedback (RTP/SAVPF)", Work in Progress, December 2005.
[22] Baugher, M., McGrew, D., Naslund, M., Carrara, E., and K.
Norrman, "The Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP)", RFC
3711, March 2004.
[23] Kikuchi, Y., Nomura, T., Fukunaga, S., Matsui, Y., and H.
Kimata, "RTP Payload Format for MPEG-4 Audio/Visual Streams",
RFC 3016, November 2000.
[24] ITU-T Recommendation H.245, "Control protocol for multimedia
communication", May 2006.
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 49
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
Authors' Addresses
Joerg Ott
Helsinki University of Technology (TKK)
Networking Laboratory
PO Box 3000
FIN-02015 TKK
Finland
EMail: jo@acm.org
Stephan Wenger
Nokia Research Center
P.O. Box 100
33721 Tampere
Finland
EMail: stewe@stewe.org
Noriyuki Sato
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
1-16-8 Chuo, Warabi-city, Saitama 335-8510
Japan
Phone: +81 48 431 5932
Fax: +81 48 431 9115
EMail: sato652@oki.com
Carsten Burmeister
Panasonic R&D Center Germany GmbH
EMail: carsten.burmeister@eu.panasonic.com
Jose Rey
Panasonic R&D Center Germany GmbH
Monzastr. 4c
D-63225 Langen, Germany
EMail: jose.rey@eu.panasonic.com
Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 50
RFC 4585 RTP/AVPF July 2006
Full Copyright Statement
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contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
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Ott, et al. Standards Track PAGE 51
Extended RTP Profile for Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP)-Based Feedback (RTP/AVPF)
RFC TOTAL SIZE: 117762 bytes
PUBLICATION DATE: Tuesday, July 18th, 2006
LEGAL RIGHTS: The IETF Trust (see BCP 78)
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