[AVT] Draft minutes for the AVT meeting in Atlanta
Colin Perkins <csp@csperkins.org> Sat, 14 December 2002 00:18 UTC
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From: Colin Perkins <csp@csperkins.org>
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Subject: [AVT] Draft minutes for the AVT meeting in Atlanta
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Audio/Video Transport Working Group Minutes
Reported by Stephen Casner and Colin Perkins
The AVT working group met in two sessions at the 55th IETF meeting in
Atlanta. In the first session, the group discussed RTP payload
formats for MIDI, DTMF digits and tones, iLBC speech, ATRAC-X audio,
and uncompressed video. The session ended with an important
discussion of the issues to be resolved for IESG approval of Secure
RTP. In the second session, the discussion focused on RTP payload
formats for MPEG-4 and JVT video plus RTCP extensions for voice
quality reporting and for SSM sessions, and RTP retransmission. A
bonus topic on the RGL codec and payload format was squeezed in at the
end.
Introduction, Document Status, and Open Issues
This meeting began with an update by Steve Casner on document
publication status, including a few issues identified for documents in
the queue. One RFC was published since the last meeting (RFC 3389 on
Comfort Noise payload format), two are in the RFC editor queue (the
MIME registration for the payload formats in the RTP profile and the
SDP bandwidth modifiers for RTCP bandwidth, both blocked on the RTP
specification), and seven are with the IESG. Of the latter, two are
the RTP specification and A/V profile (revisions of RFC 1889 and 1890)
which have been "tentatively approved". Final approval is pending
preparation of a set of "RFC Editor notes" to be passed with the
drafts to the RFC Editor to implement the changes requested by the
IESG and the resolution of comments by the working group while the
documents have been under IESG review. Steve Casner will prepare
these notes for approval by the Area Directors.
Some of those RFC Editor notes implement the resolution of an issue
with the RTP A/V profile that was raised just before the previous
(54th) IETF meeting. This was a request to change the sample packing
order for G.726 audio encoding to be consistent with the packing order
for ATM AAL2 transport as specified in ITU-T Recommendation I.366.2
Annex E. A request for comments on the proposal to make this change
was sent to at least ten relevant mailing lists in IETF and ITU-T.
The number of comments was surprisingly small, which indicates that
there may not be many implementations of G.726 transport in RTP.
However, the comments did indicate that both packing orders are in use
and that there are parties opposed to making the change in addition to
the those who proposed the change.
The conclusion reached by the chairs in consultation with the Area
Directors is that we need to define MIME subtypes for two payload
formats reflecting the two packing orders. We generally prefer not to
have multiple choices because of the risk of incompatibility that
imposes, but we are forced into it in this case by an incompatibility
that already exists. Furthermore, both packing orders are specified
in separate areas of ITU-T (AAL2 and X.400 mail). In order to make
clear the incompatibility between the existing G726-* payload formats
and the AAL2 packing, we will add a note in the A/V profile section
that specifies those formats to note the incompatibility and say that
a second set of payload formats named AAL2-G726-* will be specified in
a separate document. Or, if the IESG agrees, the AAL2-G726-*
specification will be added as a new section in the profile. One
problem would be that the profile is to be published as a Draft
Standard, which means there should first be two interoperable
implementations. Alternatively, a separate draft can be produced
quickly to be published as a Proposed Standard.
Flemming Andreasen asked why not make the existing G726-* names
indicate the AAL2 packing and make up new names for the existing
payload formats for RTP. The primary justification for that approach
would be if most implementations used the existing name to indicate a
payload format with the same packing as ITU I366.2. That appears not
to be the case. The real issue is not the name but the interpretation
of static payload type 2 which is assigned to G726-32, since most
implementations are probably using the 32K rate and using the static
payload type rather than the MIME name. This incompatible
interpretation exists and can't be avoided. Consequently, we will
deprecate the use of static payload type 2. All systems should
negotiate a dynamic payload type using the MIME subtypes G726-32 or
AAL2-G726-32 depending upon which packetization they want to use. A
longer summary of the comments and the details of the conclusion was
posted by the chairs to the AVT mailing list on November 14, just
before this meeting.
Five other drafts have been submitted to the IESG but not yet accepted
for publication. These include enhanced CRTP and TCRTP, the secure
RTP profile, the payload format for EVRC/SMV speech, and the payload
format for distributed speech recognition. Our Area Director Allison
Mankin asked for some changes on ECRTP and TCRTP; revisions were
submitted. Discussion of the issues for the secure RTP profile is
covered later in these minutes.
Several drafts are in (extended) working group last call. The RTCP
feedback profile draft was updated for this meeting to address
comments from the last call, but the authors did not have time to
complete a "wording cleanup" pass they want to do, so we will wait for
that and give the WG a last chance to read it before passing it on to
the IESG. Steve Casner asked Carsten Burmeister to update and
resubmit the Informational feedback simulation draft so it can
accompany the feedback profile to help convince the IESG that
congestion control issues have been properly addressed. The MPEG-4
payload format has been revised to address comments regarding the
section on interleaving; those were discussed in the second AVT
session. Two drafts specify unequal error protection: the ULP and UXP
FEC mechanisms. At the previous AVT meeting, Steve Casner requested
that the ULP draft be changed to update and replace RFC 2733 FEC
rather than extend it. The motivation is to correct an unfortunate
design choice in RFC 2733 resulting in the X, P and CC bits in the RTP
header not following the usual rules (these bits are the XOR of the
bits in the protected packets instead) and thus requiring a special
case for header validation. A new draft-ietf-avt-ulp-07.txt was
submitted in response to this request, but the new design repeats all
of the RTP header in the FEC payload so the overhead is too large at 7
octets. It may be possible to just insert the problem bits into the
FEC header by reducing the mask size instead. This will be discussed
with the authors, and others are asked to comment as well. Finally,
the SMPTE 292 video draft completed last call in October but needed a
few tweaks to the security considerations and references.
Steve also mentioned one new document this is not otherwise on the
agenda: draft-kreuter-avt-rtp-clearmode-00.txt, a CLEARMODE payload
format that is just the same as PCMU (G.711) audio except that the
bits carry ISDN data rather than audio. A question is what media type
should be used in an SDP description since the bits are not
necessarily audio. There is also the possibility of charter overlap
with PWE3 working group. Comments are requested.
MIDI Wire Protocol Packetization (MWPP)
Colin Perkins, sitting in for John Lazzaro, gave an update on the MIDI
Wire Protocol Packetization (draft-ietf-avt-mwpp-midi-rtp-05.txt).
This revision incorporates many changes reflecting WG comments (the
change log itself is 2 pages). There are about 20 open issues
remaining, however; John plans a -06 revision early in the New Year to
list those issues and proposed resolutions, and then a -07 revision to
incorporate the consensus and be ready for working group last call.
This normative draft on the payload format is now accompanied by a new
informative draft intended as an implementers guide for MWPP. It
includes a walk-through of sample coding techniques intended to help
those in the MIDI community who are totally unfamiliar with RTP
applications. The new draft is not finished; comments are requested
on the approach and what should be added or removed.
In parallel with the document preparation, a reference implementation
of MWPP in the sfront program is tracking the spec for validation.
The MIDI Manufacturers Association has also provided comments and
positive feedback on the MWPP work. John has also been contacted by
an IEEE WG that is forming to develop transport of MIDI directly over
Ethernet (without IP). He asks whether there are any standards or
work on using RTP, SDP, RTSP, and SIP in that mode. Anyone with
information should let us know. One answer would be, "Don't do that."
RTP end-to-end liveness test
Henning Schulzrinne presented a topic resulting from a discussion on
the mailing list: Flemming Andreasen had asked whether the RFC 2833
tones payload format could be extended to include an active end-to-end
liveness test (an RTP "ping"). The purpose is to detect problems
above the IP level that might be induced by NATs or firewalls; some
risks are that the function could be used for DoS attacks or result in
multicast implosion. One solution, which doesn't require anything
new, is to just rely on RTCP reception reports. A dummy RTP packet,
perhaps with no payload, can be sent if no real traffic is being sent.
RTCP already accommodates multicast scaling, although the consequence
is that the RTCP response is not immediate. The delay is probably not
an unreasonable wait. Not all receivers implement RTCP, but you can
distinguish that case from a problem in the RTP forward path by
whether you don't get any RTCP at all or just don't get an RR
indicating receipt of the RTP packet. A second solution involves
signaling (e.g., in SDP) an RTP "ping" capability, then sending a
special type of RTP packet that would elicit a response packet sent to
a signaled address or to the source address/port of the request
packet. But this solution poses the potential for DoS and implosion
problems requiring complicated solutions some of which are already in
RTCP. That's likely a killer.
Flemming favors the RTCP solution, but wants faster response in the
case of success. Could the RTCP interval be reduced? Steve Casner
responded that the RTCP feedback timing rules would be appropriate.
Dave Oran asked why we need a dummy packet, why not just send comfort
noise? Magnus Westerlund pointed out that works fine for audio
sessions. For others, an empty payload may be needed. Flemming
confirmed this because in some SIP scenarios early media packets can
cut off ringback tone. Dave continued that this was all started by
people who don't do RTCP... they should just do it! Roni Even said
monitoring RTCP is important because if the other side dies, there may
be no other indication that the packets go into a black hole. Maybe
this just needs a hints-for-implementers document. Henning will put
the discussion on his RTP web page.
RTP Payload for DTMF Digits, Tones and Signals
Henning Schulzrinne discussed draft-ietf-avt-rfc2833bis-02.txt, which
updates the payload format for DTMF tones in RFC 2833. This payload
format transports DTMF and other tones in the form of named events as
an alternative encoding the tone waveform with low fidelity when a
high-compression codec is in use. There is also a second mode in
which tones are specified by their component frequencies. An amazing
amount of email has been received with comments and requests for
additions, so many people must be implementing and using this payload
format. The changes from the -00 revision are:
- Addition of a formal notion of state to clarify that signals such
as on/off-hook and the ABCD bits used on T1 trunks represent sets
of states out of which only one can be active. Also, the notion
of soft state was added for signals that reset to default value
after a period of time.
- Clarification that events longer than the maximum duration (about 8
seconds for 8 kHz RTP clock) can be expressed as the concatenation
of multiple events.
- Clarification of which tones can meaningfully have a volume
specified.
- Addition of a few data tones and clarification of the meaning and
naming of ANS signals.
Colin Perkins expressed concern that the state additions may be
introducing too much application semantics into the protocol. Henning
responded that the concern is understood, but that for the few cases
that exist the semantics are already fixed.
There are two open issues. The first is that some signals (in
particular MF R1 signals) have acquired different names or
descriptions over the decades, some of which are not even documented
well by the ITU, so help is requested to supply definitive references
for the complete and correct text. The second issue is more
significant. Some (potential) users of the payload format want to
pass the signals required for fax setup and negotiation, but this
involves a non-trivial number of bits sent as 300-baud V.21 modem
data. Sending these bits as a sequence of tones is very inefficient
at one symbol (tone) per packet. This could be improved in various
ways, but any significant improvement would require redefining the
fields of the payload format to be interpreted differently. There is
a real concern is that we're slipping down a dangerous slope of
mission creep: this is not a signaling protocol. The purpose of this
payload format is to convey tones with more fidelity than low-rate
codecs can provide, and to allow the receiver to avoid the need to
implement tone detection for some scenarios. Do we want to support a
full-featured fax negotiation as a sequence of named events? Or
should we say that if you want to do fax you should do T.38 or
whatever else might be appropriate, and deprecate what is in RFC 2833
for V.21 now. Either extend to do the whole job in a reasonable way,
or don't do it at all.
Jim Gerapredy (?), who has participated in IP-FAX standards work,
commented that T.38 has its pluses and minuses. A number of people
in ITU might be interested in an RTP-based alternative to T.38, but he
questioned whether it is worth doing at this point in time. Flemming
Andreasen agreed that this payload format shouldn't be a new way of
sending fax, but there is a strong need for it in the initial phases
of call establishment (V.8, V.8bis, V.25), and most of these signals
are sent using V.21. Steve Casner took off his chairman's hat to
express the opinion that we should do nothing more than provide for
the sending of tones. If it is feasible for some applications to send
each bit of V.21 data as a tone in one RFC 2833 packet, that's fine,
but we should do nothing to provide a higher-density representation.
Flemming asked for a review of the code points that are included; the
CI signal is there, but TM and JM are not, and might be useful.
Henning said the important point is to get this work completed, and
that requires interop testing to allow advancing to Draft Standard.
The number of points in the matrix is large, including features such
as redundancy; plus for each codepoint the matrix need to state what
it means to be supported. One attendee indicated that the tones
portion of the draft (specified by frequencies) has been implemented,
but a second would be needed for interop testing. Robert Sparks has
posted an initial draft of the matrix and others have volunteered to
help. They plan to gather as much interop input as possible at SIPit,
but for those who are not going to be there, please send interop input
to Robert Sparks (see draft-sparks-avt-2833-interop-00.txt).
An attendee asked if other forms of DTMF-represented coding can be
added, e.g. some signaling supplementary services as defined by
Telcordia related to voiceband data transmission. Henning replied
that there is more room to add tones that fit the design of the
payload format. If there is something that exists now, and
preferably is already implemented since we want to get to Draft
Standard, send the info: common name, succinct description, and
citable reference. However, the list is intended to be extendible
after the draft is published; there is an IANA registration mechanism.
Payload format for iLBC Speech
Alan Duric presented an update of two drafts on the iLBC speech codec
and its associated payload format, in draft-ietf-avt-ilbc-codec-00.txt
and draft-ietf-avt-rtp-ilbc-00.txt, respectively (each was preceded
by two revisions as individual submissions). Extensive changes were
made to the iLBC codec since last meeting. The number of bits per
frame was reduced from 416 to 399 bits to fit in 50 bytes while at the
same time the quality was improved and the complexity was significantly
reduced (to less than G.729a). A/B tests by the authors and by third
parties confirmed the quality improvement which derives from the
addition of a 57th sample in the quantized residual state and an
increase in the number of bits allocated to gain (utilizing bits freed
elsewhere). A demo SIP client with the iLBC codec is available by
request from alan.duric@globalipsound.com.
Steve Casner asked why the 400th bit should not be used for something
more than setting it to zero. Alan replied that several ideas have
been proposed and that these will be sent on the mailing list. Steve
also commented that the codec seems to be still changing a lot. We
don't want to progress this until the codec format has stabilized.
Alan responded that no further changes are expected on the codec
itself. This round of changes completes the work on reduction of
frame size and complexity as planned. Plans for a 20ms frame option
may be dropped because the need does not appear strong. Comments on
that are requested. Work on voice activity detection is ongoing; this
may be paired with the RFC 3389 Comfort Noise. That work is expected
to be completed in time for interop testing planned for the next SIPit
in February.
Steve asked whether the sorting of bits for ULP is intended to be
applied across frames, because the payload format draft is not clear
on this. The answer is yes. Steve said that is appropriate
(otherwise the sorting does no good), but it is a lot of work which
gives no advantage in environments without ULP at lower layers. It
may be necessary to allow both sorted and unsorted modes as in the AMR
codec. We'd like feedback from implementers about the cost and
utility of the ULP sorting.
Alan asked about the possibility of adding another document giving the
qualification criteria for the codec. Steve replied that this would
need to be standards track to be effective, but the status even of
standardizing the codec itself is still not entirely clear. Generally
IETF avoids conformance testing. Stephan Wenger asked when the
general issue of standardizing media codecs in IETF will be resolved.
Steve Casner replied that, although the Transport ADs were consulted
and were in favor of this work before it started, we won't know the
answer for sure until the work is submitted to the whole IESG for
approval.
RTP Payload Format for ATRAC-X
Matthew Romaine present a new payload format for ATRAC-X audio in
draft-hatanaka-avt-rtp-atracx-00.txt. Sony's ATRAC family of
perceptual codecs is used in MD's and solid-state recorders. The -X
version supports multiple channels in a wide range of data rates from
8kbps to 1.4Mbps. The payload format supports multiplexing of
multiple streams and metadata within a single session, redundant data
to mitigate packet loss, and fragmentation. The draft details the
segmentation of streams into segments and the association of segments
from different streams in the same time slot. Two open issues were
identified; the first was how to manage the allocation of metadata
identifiers. Some appropriate body could static identifiers, as is
done in MIDI, or the assignments could be a dynamic free-for-all.
There was no input on this. The second issue is the determination of
the RTP timestamp: the draft currently specifies transmit time, but it
has already been pointed out that a presentation (sampling) timestamp
is needed to allow synchronization with other streams. The problem is
that a single session might carry multiple sampling rates. Steve
Casner offered the example of MPEG audio in which the timestamp clock
rate is always 90kHz synchronized to the sampling clock, which may
vary in rate. Could a similar arrangement be used here? Magnus
Westerlund suggested that if different rates are needed, perhaps
different RTP sessions should be used.
Steve Casner asked why the multiplexing of streams built into the
payload format rather than using multiplexing at the UDP/RTP level.
Is the format derived from something already in use on MD or other
media and therefore hard to change, or is it a new design that is part
of the payload format and therefore open to discussion? Matthew
responded that the format was developed with streaming in mind; it is
supposed to be extensible. Multiple bit rates are supported for
scalable QoS, and they have specified multi-channel configurations up
to 7.1 but it could be expanded to 32 channels. The benefit is
payload overhead. Steve asked how this would be used for QoS: keep
some parts of the packet and throw away others? That does not work.
It might make sense for the file format to contain multiple rates for
scalability, but the packets should only contain the rate appropriate
for the receive or you have not achieved the goal of fitting the
available bandwidth. If you need to deliver different rates to
different receives, send different streams, or layered coding for
multicast. Roni Even echoed this concern; if the multiplexing of
streams is for redundancy, the draft needs to explain the relationship
between the fragments, redundant segments, etc.
Colin Perkins asked why redundancy was built into the payload format
rather than using RFC 2198. The authors were unaware of 2198. Steve
also pointed out that for redundancy to be useful the redundant copy
may need to be separated further in time than one slot. He also
suggested that it would be useful for the authors to review several of
the other payload formats since several of the architectural ideas
commonly used in AVT have been missed, such as separate streams for
separate needs.
Magnus asked if is it possible for fragments to be independently
decoded, or must a segment be fully reassembled to decode it. Matthew
said the answer depends on the encoder, and needs to look into this
further. In summary, this payload format may need quite a bit of
change from what is defined so far.
RTP Payload Format for Uncompressed Video
Ladan Gharai presented updates to draft-ietf-avt-uncomp-video-01.txt.
In addition to the correction of editorial nits and the inclusion of
an applicability statement and a comparison to RFC 2431 (BT.656
video), some new features were added: 12- and 16-bit sample sizes join
to the 8- and 10-bit sizes specified previously, and monochrome,
4:4:4:4 chrominance subsampling, and RGBA color representations were
added. The payload header was unchanged except that the 'M' bit was
renamed 'C' to avoid possible confusion with marker bit in RTP header.
The draft has established a list of mandatory SDP fmtp parameters and
a partial list of optional parameters. The authors are still working
on the representation of these parameters, but will complete this work
for the next draft.
Ladan identified a few open issues. Currently only packed sample
formats are provided; the authors are considering adding planar and
macro-blocked formats as well. The planar format, in which color
planes are sent separately, is straightforward; it would be identified
by an SDP parameter. However, it is unclear whether it makes sense to
have packed and macro-block formats in the same payload format. To
accommodate macro-blocks, width and length parameters would have to be
added to the payload header (there is room), and then the packed
format would be indicated by a macro-block size of 1. Stephan Wenger
would like to see the planar representation added, but has doubts
about a macro-block-based scheme. There are applications for which it
would be useful, but there are too many complications related to
interlacing. You can't assume that the shape of a macro-block will be
16x16 in a progressive scan or in one field. Sometimes a macro-block
is a different size with parts from both fields. It is also affected
by transcoding.
A second open issue is the transport of interlaced 4:2:0 color
subsampling. This has been discussed on the mailing list and work is
still in progress. Lastly, for interlaced video, there is a question
whether the two fields should have distinct timestamps. A problem is
that for the current 90kHz timestamp clock rate which increments at
3003 for 29.97fps NTSC video, a fractional increment of 1501.5 would
be needed for the intermediate field timestamp, but the RTP timestamp
is an integer. It should be possible instead to derive the timestamp
from header bits and the frame rate. Stephan explained that you need
to have a timestamp for every field in order to indicate the proper
mapping of fields between 24fps film content and 30fps video using
3-2-pulldown because an individual field may be repeated so they do
not always appear in even-odd pairs. However, we don't worry about
the exact timestamp value for this, it would be safe to round up to
the next integer.
Resolution of comments on draft-ietf-avt-srtp-05.txt
The first session ended with a discussion of IESG security concerns
regarding the Secure RTP profile (draft-ietf-avt-srtp-05.txt). For this
discussion, Allison Mankin introduced herself as the Transport AD for
this group, Eric Rescorla as security advisor to the Transport Area, and
Steve Bellovin who is one of the Security Area Directors.
Eric Rescorla started by noting that the SRTP profile has some unusual
design features: it uses AES in counter mode, rather than in CBC mode,
and it offers a choice of several message authentication codes (MACs),
including no authentication. These features, in particular the option
to use AES in counter mode with no authentication, don't make security
folks comfortable. Eric then summarized his understanding of the issues
that require SRTP to use these modes of operation. The first is latency,
since shorter packets mean less latency for voice and MACs consume
bandwidth. Secondly, wireless channels are noisy and packets often
contain bit errors. If integrity checks are used in this environment,
the bandwidth consumption will be excessive and the bit errors may lead
to unacceptable packet discard rates due to failure of the integrity
checks.
Eric moved on to explain that counter mode has no integrity protection
unless protected by a MAC. This is not obviously a problem for voice,
one of the key applications for SRTP, but may be a problem for other
types of content. From a security viewpoint, it is desirable to use SRTP
with a MAC, but the default MAC in SRTP is a weak 32-bit code and there
is the option to use SRTP without integrity protection (there is also a
strong MAC option). The choices lead to the threat of modified message
streams and forged traffic, unless the optional strong MAC is used. Two
solutions to this problem were proposed:
1) Make the MAC mandatory and add FEC after encryption to correct bit
errors so that the integrity check will work on somewhat corrupted
packets. There was considerable discussion of this in private email
with the authors, who were opposed on the grounds that it expands
packets and makes SRTP uneconomic cellular links, which already
employ link-layer FEC. Eric was not convinced by these arguments,
citing the qualitative nature of the concerns rather than hard
numbers giving performance impact.
2) Define a wireless voice profile for SRTP where the MAC protects only
the control data leaving the media data unprotected. The reduced MAC
caused limited packet expansion, but is less sensitive to bit-errors
than SRTP as currently specified. Other types of traffic will use a
mandatory 80 bit MAC.
Mark Baugher noted that SRTP has the ability to use strong integrity
protection now, but it's not the default. The question is whether the
vendors or the users should be able to make the determination, based on
their environment, their application, whether they want a strong MAC or
not. Steve Bellovin agreed with this formulation, but noted that the
IESG has a strong preference for protocols that are secure by default,
and a protocol won't be published unless it has strong mandatory to
implement security. If a protocol has weaker security options, it needs
a Security Considerations section that describes the environments where
the weaker options may be acceptable, and explains the consequences and
tradeoffs of selecting those options.
Eric Rescorla asked Steve Bellovin if it was acceptable for SRTP to have
the option of no authentication? Steve answered that it was permitted in
certain other situations, but would take detailed analysis to show where
it is safe and useful and where it isn't.
Mark Baugher asked if changing the default mandatory transforms, adding
CBC mode as an option, would satisfy concerns? Steve Bellovin answered
that, assuming you meet requirements for safely using counter mode,
there is no strong need for CBC mode; the MAC is much more critical.
Mark Baugher asked if the security folks are not happy with the default
32-bit HMAC-SHA1? Steve Bellovin replied that he needs to think more on
that, but the group needs to better analyse the environment before he
can make a good decision.
Allison Mankin reminded the group that SRTP is for all environments, and
expressed her preference for a specification where the MAC was mandatory
in all cases, with a possible exception for cellular telephony. Elisabetta
Carrara reminded Allison that SRTP includes a 32-bit MAC by default, and
that stronger options are specified. Eric Rescola again noted that it is
necessary to analyse individual threats and the environment, giving numbers
to characterize the impact of security on performance.
Elisabetta noted that the MAC cannot be used in cellular telephony, since
that environment cannot afford the bandwidth of the MAC. She reminded the
group that the requirements driving ROHC and UDPlite also apply to SRTP.
Steve Bellovin replied this is the sort of thing that has to go into the
security considerations section, explaining why the environment has these
requirements and how they affect security.
Allison commented that the draft is intended to be general purpose, but
is optimized for cellular use. The default transform needs to be suitable
for the general case, with a non-optional MAC if counter mode is used,
and justification why weaker options are present for cellular operation.
Steve Casner asked if there was a problem with changing the defaults
to be more general-purpose, signalling specific settings for telephony
applications, and clearly documenting the rationale in the security
consideration section? There were no objections.
Liaison statement from MPEG
Steve Casner started the second session by reading a liaison statement
the group has received from the MPEG committee, stating that they have
revised the RTP Payload Format for MPEG-4 taking into account comments
from the last AVT working-group last call, and requesting publication
of the draft as an RFC.
MIME Type Registration for MPEG-4
Jan van der Meer, sitting in for Young-Kwon Lim, outlined the MIME type
registrations for the MPEG-4 file formats (draft-lim-mpeg4-mime-01.txt)
and their relation to the MPEG4-on-IP framework (ISO/IEC 14496-8).
Steve Casner noted that this draft includes some discussion of RTP MIME
parameters, which needs to be moved to the payload format drafts. Steve
also expressed concern the previous versions of the framework, submitted
to the IETF, had problems which needed to be resolved but it's not clear
that these have been addressed. There is a need to address these issues
in future, especially if this MIME registration and the framework
conflict.
Mike Coleman asked about the difference between streams and files, in
this context, since MPEG-4 streams are not well defined. Steve Casner
and Colin Perkins clarified that this draft should cover only the MP4
file format, and that the RTP payload format drafts will contain MIME
types for use with RTP.
Stephan Wenger asked about the presumed existance of an informational
RFC, pointing to the MPEG4-on-IP framework. Colin Perkins and Steve
Casner explained that this was agreed in the AVT meeting at the 52nd
IETF (Salt Lake City).
RTP Payload Format for MPEG-4
Jan van der Meer discussed draft-ietf-avt-mpeg4-simple-05.txt, the RTP
Payload Format for MPEG-4. This document is in working group last call
and several comments, mostly editorial, have been received. The main
issues are the suggested replacement of the "Profile" parameter with
"InterleaveDelay", and whether RTP timestamps should be allowed to go
backwards when interleaving. These have been discussed in AVT, and in
MPEG and ISMA, and it has been agreed to allow both features. Current
discussion on the mailing list is on the exact meaning of interleave
delay and emission rules.
This discussion continued in the meeting with Steve Casner, Stephan
Wenger, Colin Perkins and Andrea Basso commenting on the RTP system
model and how it leaves much to the discretion of the receiver when
compared to the MPEG buffer model. They saw no need for the emission
rules, viewing them as implementation details that do not need to be
specified. In addition, they noted that the characteristics of an IP
network are such that the sender cannot control the buffering at the
receiver. This also led to the definition of the interleaving delay,
with concern being expressed that the attempt to precisely define the
delay being unnecessary, since what is really needed is a hint to the
receiver suggesting an starting estimate of the buffering delay. Much
of the complexity comes from trying to tightly bound the interleaving
delay, and a tight bound is not necessary.
Stephan Wenger asked what would be the impact of pulling interleaving
out of the payload format? Colin Perkins said that this is not possible,
but we may consider leaving the interleave delay parameter, and letting
the sender chose an appropriate value without saying how to do that.
Mike Coleman asked about the draft status, since it is not available in
the archives and because parts of the MPEG committee belive it complete,
but it clearly is not. Steve Casner noted that the draft will be in the
archives after the meeting. Steve and Colin also noted that the current
working group last call is not necessarily the end of the process. There
will be time to review any changes introduced before the draft is advanced.
RTP Payload Format for JVT Video
Stephan Wenger discussed draft-ietf-avt-rtp-h264-00.txt, the payload
format for JVT video. This updates draft-wenger-avt-rtp-jvt-01.txt to
align with the latest JVT specification and adds MTAPs with 8, 16, 24
and 32 bit timestamp offsets (as discussed at the previous AVT meeting).
Stephan is considering removing the 8 and 32 bit timestamp offsets,
since they are not believed to be useful.
The next open issue is the relation between this payload format and the
MPEG-4 payload format, since JVT video is referenced as part of MPEG-4.
Stephan believes that using the MPEG-4 format for JVT is not acceptable,
since MTAPs and STAPs cannot be sent efficiently with that format. He
also believes that full binary compatibility between the JVT payload
format and the MPEG-4 payload format is not achievable. However, it is
possible to define a common operation point, providing compatibility at
the expense of limited optimization.
Steve Casner noted that the draft specifies use of the latest timestamp
when doing AU aggregation, but that other payload formats use the oldest
timestamp. Stephan agreed that this is an issue, and should be changed.
Mike Coleman noted that section 3 says the draft is "not intended to be
used with MPEG-4 systems" and asked for clarification what is meant? It
is possible to use it with MPEG-4 systems, but there are some features
of this draft that are not compatible with the MPEG-4 payload format.
Jan van der Meer noted that some in MPEG will ask "what are the features
offered with this draft that cannot be supported by the MPEG-4 payload
format?". Stephan answered that the main reason is STAPs and aggregation
which cannot be supported efficiently, and multiple fragments of AUs are
vital but not supported in the MPEG-4 payload format. There was some
discussion of this, and it may be appropriate to clarify in a future
version of the draft.
RTCP Reporting Extensions
Alan Clark dicussed draft-ietf-avt-rtcp-report-extns-01.txt, on RTCP
reporting extensions. This is the combination of the various reporting
extensions drafts discussed in Yokohama, with the addition of loss RLE
encoding, updated VoIP metrics, and security and IANA considerations.
Colin Perkins noted that the IANA considerations section needs work to
specify the registration in detail, and will supply detailed comments
offline. Colin also asked if the jitter buffer metrics are useful and
match implementations? Have implementors looked at the draft to see if
the information is meaningful in their context? Alan Duric noted that
jitter buffer and PLC functions are separate in the draft, but these
sometimes combined in implementations. Alan Clark said that the broad
intent is to provide rough info for diagnostic purposes, not an exact
description of an implementation.
Alan Clark noted the need to be management friendly, even if SRTP is
used. Accordingly, he would like to add a note to the draft indicating
that the SRTP E bit can be used to send extended RTCP report frames in
plaintext, even if encryption has been selected as the default setting.
Colin agreed that this might be possible, but noted that the draft
shouldn't specify a security policy. Steve Casner also noted that the
draft should talk about this issue in the security considerations
section.
Steve Casner also highlighted that it is not necessarily possible to
derive the extended RTT report, since the information needed is only
available to a sender. The draft should clarify scenarios where it is
expected to be useful.
RTCP Extensions for SSM
Joerg Ott described changes to draft-ietf-avt-rtcpssm-02.txt, the RTCP
extensions for source-specific multicast. The main changes are to the
security considerations. In addition, SSRC distribution has been removed
from this version and cumulative values are now included in distribution.
There are "work-in-progress" changes to the IANA considerations section
and to use the XR packet formats (on this subject, Joerg noted that there
are several proposed RTCP extensions using packet type 205, and we need
to resolve this conflict).
The security considerations section has been significantly reworked, with
the assumptions that we need to maintain low overhead, that the session
parameters are distributed out of band, and that the security should
address the transport layer and above. The threats identified are denial
of service, packet forgery, session replay and eavesdropping. The draft
also categorises threats according to the direction of the traffic flow,
and discusses the trust models.
Colin Perkins approved of the security considerations section, but would
like discussion of specific applications and mandatory security behaviour
for those applications in this draft (e.g. how to use SSM with RTSP and
SIP).
Joerg highlighted the issue of relation to other I-Ds, since this uses
the features of the extended RTCP reporting draft. He asked on the time
schedule for the RTCP reporting extensions draft. Alan Clark would like
to get the RTCP Reporting Extensions draft done quickly, and was willing
to cooperate on the IANA issues, ensuring they're aligned.
Joerg asked if future drafts relating to RTCP should include a section on
SSM considerations? Steve Casner was not sure if we need to establish a
requirment, but noted that this draft should have a section giving advice
to authors of RTCP extensions that might be affected by SSM.
Open issues include cumulative BYE packets, a possible revision to the
message format, discussion of the relation to other RTP/RTCP extensions,
completion of IANA considerations, etc. A revised draft is expected by
the end of the year.
Retransmission
The RTP retransmission format (draft-ietf-avt-rtp-retransmission-03.txt)
was discussed by Jose Rey. This is the merger of the two previous drafts,
as was discussed in Yokohama. The new draft uses a dynamic payload format
to indicate the original payload type of the retransmission. It supports
session multiplexing, with streams associated using an a=fmtp parameter
and FID, and SSRC multiplexing using an a=fmtp parameter to associated
the retransmission with the original stream. Jose also outlined the RTSP
considerations regarding SSRC-multiplexing. There will be a minor
revision shortly, which is expected to be ready for last call.
Anders Klemets asked if one MUST NOT do session multiplexing and SSRC
multiplexing in the same session? It was clarified that this is correct.
RGL codec and payload format
The final presentation was a brief outline of the RGL lossless G.711
codec, by Michael Ramalho, which was presented as a possible future work
item. Steve Casner noted that standardizing codecs is not entirely within
scope of AVT, and will need discussion, as with iLBC. Drafts will be
submitted shortly after the meeting.
_______________________________________________
Audio/Video Transport Working Group
avt@ietf.org
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/avt
- [AVT] Draft minutes for the AVT meeting in Atlanta Colin Perkins
- [AVT] Final minutes for the AVT meeting in Atlanta Stephen Casner