Re: [AVTCORE] RFC4566 - understanding maxptime

[Alan Clark <[e-mail]>]

Hi Harry

We have definitely seen implementations in the field that dynamically 
varied the media time encoded within an RTP packet during a single 
session and the associate inter-arrival times; we've also built systems 
that do this for network test purposes.

One example we saw in a mobile network varied the number of 10ms encoded 
voice frames that were contained within a single RTP packet to between 1 
and 4.  I don't recall the SDP that was used to negotiate this however 
the receiver had to process variable duration frames.

Regards

Alan


On 1/5/15 9:20 AM, Harald Radke wrote:
> Hi all,
> I have slight troubles to understand the RFC4566 definition of the 
> maxptime attribute
> (if this mailing list is not the right place to ask questions to 
> understand RFCs, just to discuss them, I  am sorry, just tell me and I 
> wont bother you any further).
> RFC4566 states:
> a=maxptime:<maximum packet time>
> This gives the maximum amount of media that can be encapsulated
> in each packet, expressed as time in milliseconds. The time
> SHALL be calculated as the sum of the time the media present in
> the packet represents. [...]
> 1) I kinda get the first sentence, but what does that second sentence 
> actually mean? I kinda have problems understanding the SUM
> statement. Does that "only" mean that in case of multiple frames in 
> one packet that all frame durations are summed up? I wonder because 
> the ptime definition does not contain a similar statement.
> 2) Actually somebody already asked a similar question some time 
> (actually years) ago, actually the difference between ptime and 
> maxptime, the answer was:
> >The "a=ptime:" attribute is a hint to the encoder on the preferred 
> packetisation interval for the media. The encoder may follow the hint, 
> or it may vary the packetisation >interval up to the value indicated 
> by "a=maxptime:". The receiver is expected to be able to decode any 
> reasonable packetisation.
> a)is the receiver expected to decode ANY packetisation? (e.g. 
> ptime=20, maxptime=40 -> incoming RTP packets of the stream might 
> contain payloads worth of any length between 20 and 40ms, in case of 
> sample based codecs with sample duration granularity?)
> b) must the receiver be able to handle varying packetisation during a 
> session? that is receiving RTP packets with different payload lengths 
> and different interarrival times or does "vary" just mean  that the 
> sender "selects" one packetisation interval between ptime and maxptime 
> at the beginningbut keeps it constant during the session?
> Thank you very much and regards,
> Harry
>
>
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