| Network Working Group | B. Burman |
| Internet-Draft | M. Westerlund |
| Intended status: Standards Track | Ericsson |
| Expires: January 21, 2018 | S. Nandakumar |
| M. Zanaty | |
| Cisco | |
| July 20, 2017 |
Using Simulcast in SDP and RTP Sessions
draft-ietf-mmusic-sdp-simulcast-10
In some application scenarios it may be desirable to send multiple differently encoded versions of the same media source in different RTP streams. This is called simulcast. This document describes how to accomplish simulcast in RTP and how to signal it in SDP. The described solution uses an RTP/RTCP identification method to identify RTP streams belonging to the same media source, and makes an extension to SDP to relate those RTP streams as being different simulcast formats of that media source. The SDP extension consists of a new media level SDP attribute that expresses capability to send and/or receive simulcast RTP streams.
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Most of today's multiparty video conference solutions make use of centralized servers to reduce the bandwidth and CPU consumption in the endpoints. Those servers receive RTP streams from each participant and send some suitable set of possibly modified RTP streams to the rest of the participants, which usually have heterogeneous capabilities (screen size, CPU, bandwidth, codec, etc). One of the biggest issues is how to perform RTP stream adaptation to different participants' constraints with the minimum possible impact on both video quality and server performance.
Simulcast is defined in this memo as the act of simultaneously sending multiple different encoded streams of the same media source, e.g. the same video source encoded with different video encoder types or image resolutions. This can be done in several ways and for different purposes. This document focuses on the case where it is desirable to provide a media source as multiple encoded streams over RTP towards an intermediary so that the intermediary can provide the wanted functionality by selecting which RTP stream(s) to forward to other participants in the session, and more specifically how the identification and grouping of the involved RTP streams are done.
The intended scope of the defined mechanism is to support negotiation and usage of simulcast when using SDP offer/answer and media transport over RTP. The media transport topologies considered are point to point RTP sessions as well as centralized multi-party RTP sessions, where a media sender will provide the simulcasted streams to an RTP middlebox or endpoint, and middleboxes may further distribute the simulcast streams to other middleboxes or endpoints. Usage of multicast or broadcast transport is out of scope and left for future extension.
This document describes a few scenarios where it is motivated to use simulcast, and also defines the needed RTP/RTCP and SDP signaling for it.
This document makes use of the terminology defined in RTP Taxonomy, and RTP Topologies. The following terms are especially noted or here defined:
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.
The use cases of simulcast described in this document relate to a multi-party communication session where one or more central nodes are used to adapt the view of the communication session towards individual participants, and facilitate the media transport between participants. Thus, these cases target the RTP Mixer type of topology.
There are two principle approaches for an RTP Mixer to provide this adapted view of the communication session to each receiving participant:
The use of simulcast relates to the latter approach, where it is more important to reduce the load on the RTP Mixer and/or minimize QoE impact than to achieve an optimal adaptation of resource usage.
The media sources provided by a sending participant potentially need to reach several receiving participants that differ in terms of available resources. The receiver resources that typically differ include, but are not limited to:
Letting the sending participant create a simulcast of a few differently configured RTP streams per media source can be a good tradeoff when using an RTP switch as middlebox, instead of sending a single RTP stream and using an RTP mixer to create individual transcodings to each receiving participant.
This requires that the receiving participants can be categorized in terms of available resources and that the sending participant can choose a matching configuration for a single RTP stream per category and media source. For example, a set of receiving participants differ only in screen resolution; some are able to display video with at most 360p resolution and some support 720p resolution. A sending participant can then reach all receivers with best possible resolution by creating a simulcast of RTP streams with 360p and 720p resolution for each sent video media source.
The maximum number of simulcasted RTP streams that can be sent is mainly limited by the amount of processing and uplink network resources available to the sending participant.
The application logic that controls the communication session may include special handling of some media sources. It is, for example, commonly the case that the media from a sending participant is not sent back to itself.
It is also common that a currently active speaker participant is shown in larger size or higher quality than other participants (the sampling or bitrate aspects of Section 3.1). Not sending the active speaker media back to itself means there is some other participant's media that instead has to receive special handling towards the active speaker; typically the previous active speaker. This way, the previously active speaker is needed both in larger size (to current active speaker) and in small size (to the rest of the participants), which can be solved with a simulcast from the previously active speaker to the RTP switch.
The application logic that controls the communication session may allow receiving participants to apply preferences to the characteristics of the RTP stream they receive, for example in terms of the aspects listed in Section 3.1. Sending a simulcast of RTP streams is one way of accommodating receivers with conflicting or otherwise incompatible preferences.
This memo defines SDP signaling that covers the above described simulcast use cases and functionalities. A number of requirements for such signaling are elaborated in Appendix A.
A new SDP media level attribute "a=simulcast" is defined. The attribute describes, independently for send and receive directions, the number of simulcast RTP streams as well as potential alternative formats for each simulcast RTP stream. Each simulcast RTP stream, including alternatives, is identified using the RID identifier (rid-id), defined in [I-D.ietf-mmusic-rid].
a=simulcast:send 1;2,3 recv 4
If the above line is included in an SDP offer, the "send" part indicates the offerer's capability and proposal to send two simulcast RTP streams. Each simulcast RTP stream identifier (rid-id) is separated by a semicolon (";"). When rid-ids are separated by a comma (","), they describe alternative representations for that particular simulcast RTP stream. Thus, the above "send" part is interpreted as an intention to send two simulcast RTP streams. The first simulcast RTP stream is identified and restricted according to rid-id 1. The second simulcast RTP stream can be sent as two alternatives, identified and restricted according to rid-ids 2 and 3. The "recv" part of the above line indicates that the offerer desires to receive a single RTP stream (no simulcast) according to rid-id 4.
The RID mechanism, as defined in [I-D.ietf-mmusic-rid], enables an SDP offerer or answerer to specify a number of different RTP stream restrictions for a rid-id by using the "a=rid" line. Examples of such restrictions are maximum bitrate, maximum spatial video resolution (width and height), maximum video framerate, etc. Each rid-id may also be restricted to use only a subset of the RTP payload types in the associated SDP media description. Those RTP payload types can have their own configurations and parameters affecting what can be sent or received, using the "a=fmtp" line as well as other SDP attributes.
A more complete example SDP offer media description is provided below:
m=video 49300 RTP/AVP 97 98 99 a=rtpmap:97 H264/90000 a=rtpmap:98 H264/90000 a=rtpmap:99 VP8/90000 a=fmtp:97 profile-level-id=42c01f;max-fs=3600;max-mbps=108000 a=fmtp:98 profile-level-id=42c00b;max-fs=240;max-mbps=3600 a=fmtp:99 max-fs=240;max-fr=30 a=imageattr:97 send [x=1280,y=720] recv [x=1280,y=720] a=imageattr:98 send [x=320,y=180] recv [x=320,y=180] a=imageattr:99 send [x=320,y=180] recv [x=320,y=180] a=rid:1 send pt=97 a=rid:2 send pt=98 a=rid:3 send pt=99 a=rid:4 recv pt=97 a=simulcast:send 1;2,3 recv 4 a=extmap:1 urn:ietf:params:rtp-hdrext:sdes:RtpStreamId
Figure 1: Example Simulcast Media Description in Offer
The above SDP media description can be interpreted on a high level to say that the offerer is capable of sending two simulcast RTP streams, one H.264 encoded stream in up to 720p resolution, and one additional stream encoded as either H.264 or VP8 with a maximum resolution of 320x180 pixels. The offerer can receive one H.264 stream with maximum 720p resolution.
The receiver of this SDP offer can generate an SDP answer that indicates what it accepts. It uses the "a=simulcast" attribute to indicate simulcast capability and specify what simulcast RTP streams and alternatives to receive and/or send. An example of such answering "a=simulcast" attribute, corresponding to the above offer, is:
a=simulcast:recv 1;2 send 4
With this SDP answer, the answerer indicates in the "recv" part that it wants to receive the two simulcast RTP streams. It has removed an alternative that it doesn't support (rid-id 3). The send part confirms to the offerer that it will receive one stream for this media source according to rid-id 4. The corresponding, more complete example SDP answer media description could look like:
m=video 49674 RTP/AVP 97 98 a=rtpmap:97 H264/90000 a=rtpmap:98 H264/90000 a=fmtp:97 profile-level-id=42c01f;max-fs=3600;max-mbps=108000 a=fmtp:98 profile-level-id=42c00b;max-fs=240;max-mbps=3600 a=imageattr:97 send [x=1280,y=720] recv [x=1280,y=720] a=imageattr:98 send [x=320,y=180] recv [x=320,y=180] a=rid:1 recv pt=97 a=rid:2 recv pt=98 a=rid:4 send pt=97 a=simulcast:recv 1;2 send 4 a=extmap:1 urn:ietf:params:rtp-hdrext:sdes:RtpStreamId
Figure 2: Example Simulcast Media Description in Answer
It is assumed that a single SDP media description is used to describe a single media source. This is aligned with the concepts defined in [RFC7656] and will work in a WebRTC context, both with and without BUNDLE grouping of media descriptions.
The "a=simulcast" line describes send and receive direction simulcast streams separately. Each direction can in turn describe one or more simulcast streams, separated by semicolon. The identifiers describing simulcast streams on the "a=simulcast" line are rid-id, as defined by "a=rid" lines in [I-D.ietf-mmusic-rid]. Each simulcast stream can be offered as a list of alternative rid-id, with each alternative separated by comma (not in the examples above). A detailed specification can be found in Section 5 and more detailed examples are outlined in Section 5.6.
This section further details the overview above. First, formal syntax is provided, followed by the rest of the SDP attribute definition in Section 5.2. Relating Simulcast Streams provides the definition of the RTP/RTCP mechanisms used. The section is concluded with a number of examples.
This document defines a new SDP media-level "a=simulcast" attribute, with value according to the following ABNF syntax:
sc-value = ( sc-send [SP sc-recv] ) / ( sc-recv [SP sc-send] ) sc-send = "send" SP sc-str-list sc-recv = "recv" SP sc-str-list sc-str-list = sc-alt-list *( ";" sc-alt-list ) sc-alt-list = sc-id *( "," sc-id ) sc-id-paused = "~" sc-id = [sc-id-paused] rid-id ; SP defined in [RFC5234] ; rid-id defined in [I-D.ietf-mmusic-rid]
Figure 3: ABNF for Simulcast Value
The "a=simulcast" attribute has a parameter in the form of one or two simulcast stream descriptions, each consisting of a direction ("send" or "recv"), followed by a list of one or more simulcast streams. Each simulcast stream consists of one or more alternative simulcast formats. Each simulcast format is identified by a simulcast stream identifier (rid-id). The rid-id MUST have the form of an RTP stream identifier, as described by RTP Payload Format Restrictions.
In the list of simulcast streams, each simulcast stream is separated by a semicolon (";"). Each simulcast stream can in turn be offered in one or more alternative formats, represented by rid-ids, separated by a comma (","). Each rid-id can also be specified as initially paused, indicated by prepending a "~" to the rid-id. The reason to allow separate initial pause states for each rid-id is that pause capability can be specified individually for each RTP payload type referenced by an rid-id. Since pause capability specified via the "a=rtcp-fb" attribute and rid-id specified by "a=rid" can refer to common payload types, it is unfeasible to pause streams with rid-id where any of the related RTP payload type(s) do not have pause capability.
It is possible to use source-specific signaling with "a=simulcast", but it is only in certain cases possible to learn from that signaling which SSRC will belong to a particular simulcast stream.
Simulcast capability is expressed through a new media level SDP attribute, "a=simulcast". The meaning of the attribute on SDP session level is undefined, MUST NOT be used by implementations of this specification and MUST be ignored if received on session level. Extensions to this specification MAY define such session level usage. Each SDP media description MUST contain at most one "a=simulcast" line.
There are separate and independent sets of simulcast streams in send and receive directions. When listing multiple directions, each direction MUST NOT occur more than once on the same line.
Simulcast streams using undefined rid-id MUST NOT be used as valid simulcast streams by an RTP stream receiver. The direction for an rid-id MUST be aligned with the direction specified for the corresponding RTP stream identifier on the "a=rid" line.
The listed number of simulcast streams for a direction sets a limit to the number of supported simulcast streams in that direction. The order of the listed simulcast streams in the "send" direction suggests a proposed order of preference, in decreasing order: the rid-id listed first is the most preferred and subsequent streams have progressively lower preference. The order of the listed rid-id in the "recv" direction expresses which simulcast streams that are preferred, with the leftmost being most preferred. This can be of importance if the number of actually sent simulcast streams have to be reduced for some reason.
rid-id that have explicit dependencies [I-D.ietf-mmusic-rid] to other rid-id (even in the same media description) MAY be used.
Use of more than a single, alternative simulcast format for a simulcast stream MAY be specified as part of the attribute parameters by expressing the simulcast stream as a comma-separated list of alternative rid-id. In this case, it is not possible to align what alternative rid-id that are used across different simulcast streams, like requiring all simulcast streams to use rid-id alternatives referring to the same codec format. The order of the rid-id alternatives within a simulcast stream is significant; the rid-id alternatives are listed from (left) most preferred to (right) least preferred. For the use of simulcast, this overrides the normal codec preference as expressed by format type ordering on the "m=" line, using regular SDP rules. This is to enable a separation of general codec preferences and simulcast stream configuration preferences.
A simulcast stream can use a codec defined such that the same RTP SSRC can change RTP payload type multiple times during a session, possibly even on a per-packet basis. A typical example can be a speech codec that makes use of Comfort Noise and/or DTMF formats. In those cases, such "related" formats MUST NOT be defined as having their own rid-id listed explicitly in the attribute parameters, since they are not strictly simulcast streams of the media source, but rather a specific way of generating the RTP stream of a single simulcast stream with varying RTP payload type.
If RTP stream pause/resume is supported, any rid-id MAY be prefixed by a "~" character to indicate that the corresponding simulcast stream is initially paused already from start of the RTP session. In this case, support for RTP stream pause/resume MUST also be included under the same "m=" line where "a=simulcast" is included. All RTP payload types related to such initially paused simulcast stream MUST be listed in the SDP as pause/resume capable as specified by [RFC7728], e.g. by using the "*" wildcard format for "a=rtcp-fb".
An initially paused simulcast stream in "send" direction for the part sending the SDP MUST be considered equivalent to an unsolicited locally paused stream, and be handled accordingly. Initially paused simulcast streams are resumed as described by the RTP pause/resume specification. An RTP stream receiver that wishes to resume an unsolicited locally paused stream needs to know the SSRC of that stream. The SSRC of an initially paused simulcast stream can be obtained from an RTP stream sender RTCP Sender Report (SR) including both the desired SSRC as "SSRC of sender", and the rid-id value in an RtpStreamId RTCP SDES item.
Including an initially paused simulcast stream in "recv" direction for the part sending the SDP, sent towards an RTP sender, SHOULD cause the remote RTP sender to put the stream as unsolicited locally paused, unless there are other RTP stream receivers that do not mark the simulcast stream as initially paused. The reason to require an initially paused "recv" stream to be considered locally paused by the remote RTP sender, instead of making it equivalent to implicitly sending a pause request, is because the pausing RTP sender cannot know which receiving SSRC owns the restriction when TMMBR/TMMBN are used for pause/resume signaling (Section 5.6 of) since the RTP receiver's SSRC in send direction is sometimes not yet known.
Use of the redundant audio data format could be seen as a form of simulcast for loss protection purposes, but is not considered conflicting with the mechanisms described in this memo and MAY therefore be used as any other format. In this case the "red" format, rather than the carried formats, SHOULD be the one to list as a simulcast stream on the "a=simulcast" line.
The media formats and corresponding characteristics of simulcast streams SHOULD be chosen such that they are different, e.g. as different SDP formats with differing "a=rtpmap" and/or "a=fmtp" lines, or as differently defined RTP payload format restrictions. If this difference is not required, RTP duplication procedures SHOULD be considered instead of simulcast. To avoid complications in implementations, a single rid-id MUST NOT occur more than once per "a=simulcast" line. Note that this does not eliminate use of simulcast as an RTP duplication mechanism, since it is possible to define multiple different rid-id that are effectively equivalent.
An offerer wanting to use simulcast for a media description SHALL include one "a=simulcast" attribute in that media description in the offer. An offerer listing a set of receive simulcast streams and/or alternative formats as rid-id in the offer MUST be prepared to receive RTP streams for any of those simulcast streams and/or alternative formats from the answerer.
An answerer that does not understand the concept of simulcast will also not know the attribute and will remove it in the SDP answer, as defined in existing SDP Offer/Answer procedures. Since SDP session level simulcast is undefined in this memo, an answerer that receives an offer with the "a=simulcast" attribute on SDP session level SHALL remove it in the answer. An answerer that understands the attribute but receives multiple "a=simulcast" attributes in the same media description SHALL disable use of simulcast by removing all "a=simulcast" lines for that media description in the answer.
An answerer that does understand the attribute and that wants to support simulcast in an indicated direction SHALL reverse directionality of the unidirectional direction parameters; "send" becomes "recv" and vice versa, and include it in the answer.
An answerer that receives an offer with simulcast containing an "a=simulcast" attribute listing alternative rid-id MAY keep all the alternative rid-id in the answer, but it MAY also choose to remove any non-desirable alternative rid-id in the answer. The answerer MUST NOT add any alternative rid-id in send direction in the answer that were not present in the offer receive direction. The answerer MUST be prepared to receive any of the receive direction rid-id alternatives, and MAY send any of the send direction alternatives that are kept in the answer.
An answerer that receives an offer with simulcast that lists a number of simulcast streams, MAY reduce the number of simulcast streams in the answer, but MUST NOT add simulcast streams.
An answerer that receives an offer without RTP stream pause/resume capability MUST NOT mark any simulcast streams as initially paused in the answer.
An RTP stream pause/resume capable answerer that receives an offer with RTP stream pause/resume capability MAY mark any rid-id that refer to pause/resume capable formats as initially paused in the answer.
An answerer that receives indication in an offer of an rid-id being initially paused SHOULD mark that rid-id as initially paused also in the answer, regardless of direction, unless it has good reason for the rid-id not being initially paused. One reason to remove an initial pause in the answer compared to the offer could, for example, be that all receive direction simulcast streams for a media source the answerer accepts in the answer would otherwise be paused.
An offerer that receives an answer without "a=simulcast" MUST NOT use simulcast towards the answerer. An offerer that receives an answer with "a=simulcast" without any rid-id in a specified direction MUST NOT use simulcast in that direction.
An offerer that receives an answer where some rid-id alternatives are kept MUST be prepared to receive any of the kept send direction rid-id alternatives, and MAY send any of the kept receive direction rid-id alternatives.
An offerer that receives an answer where some of the rid-id are removed compared to the offer MAY release the corresponding resources (codec, transport, etc) in its receive direction and MUST NOT send any RTP packets corresponding to the removed rid-id.
An offerer that offered some of its rid-id as initially paused and that receives an answer that does not indicate RTP stream pause/resume capability, MUST NOT initially pause any simulcast streams.
An offerer with RTP stream pause/resume capability that receives an answer where some rid-id are marked as initially paused, SHOULD initially pause those RTP streams regardless if they were marked as initially paused also in the offer, unless it has good reason for those RTP streams not being initially paused. One such reason could, for example, be that the answerer would otherwise initially not receive any media of that type at all.
Offers inside an existing session follow the same rules as for initial SDP offer, with these additions:
Creation of SDP answers and processing of SDP answers inside an existing session follow the same rules as described above for initial SDP offer/answer.
Session modification restrictions in section 6.5 of RTP payload format restrictions also apply.
This document does not define the use of "a=simulcast" in declarative SDP, partly motivated by use of the simulcast format identification not being defined for use in declarative SDP. If concrete use cases for simulcast in declarative SDP are identified in the future, the authors of this memo expect that additional specifications will address such use.
Simulcast RTP streams MUST be related on RTP level through RtpStreamId, as specified in the SDP "a=simulcast" attribute parameters. This is sufficient as long as there is only a single media source per SDP media description. When using BUNDLE, where multiple SDP media descriptions jointly specify a single RTP session, the SDES MID identification mechanism in BUNDLE allows relating RTP streams back to individual media descriptions, after which the above described RtpStreamId relations can be used. Use of the RTP header extension for both MID and RtpStreamId identifications can be important to ensure rapid initial reception, required to correctly interpret and process the RTP streams. Implementers of this specification MUST support the RTCP source description (SDES) item method and SHOULD support RTP header extension method to signal RtpStreamId on RTP level.
RTP streams MUST only use a single alternative rid-id at a time (based on RTP timestamps), but MAY change format (and rid-id) on a per-RTP packet basis. This corresponds to the existing (non-simulcast) SDP offer/answer case when multiple formats are included on the "m=" line in the SDP answer, enabling per-RTP packet change of RTP payload type.
These examples describe a client to video conference service, using a centralized media topology with an RTP mixer.
+---+ +-----------+ +---+
| A |<---->| |<---->| B |
+---+ | | +---+
| Mixer |
+---+ | | +---+
| F |<---->| |<---->| J |
+---+ +-----------+ +---+
Figure 4: Four-party Mixer-based Conference
Alice is calling in to the mixer with a simulcast-enabled client capable of a single media source per media type. The client can send a simulcast of 2 video resolutions and frame rates: HD 1280x720p 30fps and thumbnail 320x180p 15fps. This is defined below using the "imageattr". In this example, only the "pt" "a=rid" parameter is used, effectively achieving a 1:1 mapping between RtpStreamId and media formats (RTP payload types), to describe simulcast stream formats. Alice's Offer:
v=0 o=alice 2362969037 2362969040 IN IP4 192.0.2.156 s=Simulcast Enabled Client t=0 0 c=IN IP4 192.0.2.156 m=audio 49200 RTP/AVP 0 a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000 m=video 49300 RTP/AVP 97 98 a=rtpmap:97 H264/90000 a=rtpmap:98 H264/90000 a=fmtp:97 profile-level-id=42c01f; max-fs=3600; max-mbps=108000 a=fmtp:98 profile-level-id=42c00b; max-fs=240; max-mbps=3600 a=imageattr:97 send [x=1280,y=720] recv [x=1280,y=720] a=imageattr:98 send [x=320,y=180] recv [x=320,y=180] a=rid:1 send pt=97 a=rid:2 send pt=98 a=rid:3 recv pt=97 a=simulcast:send 1;2 recv 3 a=extmap:1 urn:ietf:params:rtp-hdrext:sdes:RtpStreamId
Figure 5: Single-Source Simulcast Offer
The only thing in the SDP that indicates simulcast capability is the line in the video media description containing the "simulcast" attribute. The included "a=fmtp" and "a=imageattr" parameters indicates that sent simulcast streams can differ in video resolution. The RTP header extension for RtpStreamId is offered to avoid issues with the initial binding between RTP streams (SSRCs) and the RtpStreamId identifying the simulcast stream and its format.
The Answer from the server indicates that it too is simulcast capable. Should it not have been simulcast capable, the "a=simulcast" line would not have been present and communication would have started with the media negotiated in the SDP. Also the usage of the RtpStreamId RTP header extension is accepted.
v=0 o=server 823479283 1209384938 IN IP4 192.0.2.2 s=Answer to Simulcast Enabled Client t=0 0 c=IN IP4 192.0.2.43 m=audio 49672 RTP/AVP 0 a=rtpmap:0 PCMU/8000 m=video 49674 RTP/AVP 97 98 a=rtpmap:97 H264/90000 a=rtpmap:98 H264/90000 a=fmtp:97 profile-level-id=42c01f; max-fs=3600; max-mbps=108000 a=fmtp:98 profile-level-id=42c00b; max-fs=240; max-mbps=3600 a=imageattr:97 send [x=1280,y=720] recv [x=1280,y=720] a=imageattr:98 send [x=320,y=180] recv [x=320,y=180] a=rid:1 recv pt=97 a=rid:2 recv pt=98 a=rid:3 send pt=97 a=simulcast:recv 1;2 send 3 a=extmap:1 urn:ietf:params:rtp-hdrext:sdes:RtpStreamId
Figure 6: Single-Source Simulcast Answer
Since the server is the simulcast media receiver, it reverses the direction of the "simulcast" and "rid" attribute parameters.
Fred is calling in to the same conference as in the example above with a two-camera, two-display system, thus capable of handling two separate media sources in each direction, where each media source is simulcast-enabled in the send direction. Fred's client is restricted to a single media source per media description.
The first two simulcast streams for the first media source use different codecs, H264-SVC and H264. These two simulcast streams also have a temporal dependency. Two different video codecs, VP8 and H264, are offered as alternatives for the third simulcast stream for the first media source. Only the highest fidelity simulcast stream is sent from start, the lower fidelity streams being initially paused.
The second media source is offered with three different simulcast streams. All video streams of this second media source are loss protected by RTP retransmission. Also here, all but the highest fidelity simulcast stream are initially paused.
Fred's client is also using BUNDLE to send all RTP streams from all media descriptions in the same RTP session on a single media transport. Although using many different simulcast streams in this example, the use of RtpStreamId as simulcast stream identification enables use of a low number of RTP payload types. Note that the use of both BUNDLE and "a=rid" recommends using the RTP header extension for carrying these RTP stream identification fields, which is consequently also included in the SDP. Note also that for "a=rid", the corresponding SDES attribute is named RtpStreamId.
v=0
o=fred 238947129 823479223 IN IP6 2001:db8::c000:27d
s=Offer from Simulcast Enabled Multi-Source Client
t=0 0
c=IN IP6 2001:db8::c000:27d
a=group:BUNDLE foo bar zen
m=audio 49200 RTP/AVP 99
a=mid:foo
a=rtpmap:99 G722/8000
m=video 49600 RTP/AVPF 100 101 103
a=mid:bar
a=rtpmap:100 H264-SVC/90000
a=rtpmap:101 H264/90000
a=rtpmap:103 VP8/90000
a=fmtp:100 profile-level-id=42400d; max-fs=3600; max-mbps=108000; \
mst-mode=NI-TC
a=fmtp:101 profile-level-id=42c00d; max-fs=3600; max-mbps=54000
a=fmtp:103 max-fs=900; max-fr=30
a=rid:1 send pt=100;max-width=1280;max-height=720;max-fps=60;depend=2
a=rid:2 send pt=101;max-width=1280;max-height=720;max-fps=30
a=rid:3 send pt=101;max-width=640;max-height=360
a=rid:4 send pt=103;max-width=640;max-height=360
a=depend:100 lay bar:101
a=extmap:1 urn:ietf:params:rtp-hdrext:sdes:mid
a=extmap:2 urn:ietf:params:rtp-hdrext:sdes:RtpStreamId
a=rtcp-fb:* ccm pause nowait
a=simulcast:send 1;2;~4,3
m=video 49602 RTP/AVPF 96 104
a=mid:zen
a=rtpmap:96 VP8/90000
a=fmtp:96 max-fs=3600; max-fr=30
a=rtpmap:104 rtx/90000
a=fmtp:104 apt=96;rtx-time=200
a=rid:1 send pt=96;max-fs=921600;max-fps=30
a=rid:2 send pt=96;max-fs=614400;max-fps=15
a=rid:3 send pt=96;max-fs=230400;max-fps=30
a=extmap:1 urn:ietf:params:rtp-hdrext:sdes:mid
a=extmap:2 urn:ietf:params:rtp-hdrext:sdes:RtpStreamId
a=rtcp-fb:* ccm pause nowait
a=simulcast:send 1;~2;~3
Figure 7: Fred's Multi-Source Simulcast Offer
This section discusses what the different entities in a simulcast media path can expect to happen on RTP level. This is explored from source to sink by starting in an endpoint with a media source that is simulcasted to an RTP middlebox. That RTP middlebox sends media sources both to other RTP middleboxes (cascaded middleboxes), as well as selecting some simulcast format of the media source and sending it to receiving endpoints. Different types of RTP middleboxes and their usage of the different simulcast formats results in several different behaviors.
The most straightforward simulcast case is the RTP streams being emitted from the endpoint that originates a media source. When simulcast has been negotiated in the sending direction, the endpoint can transmit up to the number of RTP streams needed for the negotiated simulcast streams for that media source. Each RTP stream (SSRC) is identified by associating it with an RtpStreamId SDES item, transmitted in RTCP and possibly also as an RTP header extension. In cases where multiple media sources have been negotiated for the same RTP session and thus BUNDLE is used, also the MID SDES item will be sent similarly to the RtpStreamId.
Each RTP stream may not be continuously transmitted due to any of the following reasons; temporarily paused using Pause/Resume, sender side application logic temporarily pausing it, or lack of network resources to transmit this simulcast stream. However, all simulcast streams that have been negotiated have active and maintained SSRC (at least in regular RTCP reports), even if no RTP packets are currently transmitted. The relation between an RTP Stream (SSRC) and a particular simulcast stream is not expected to change, except in exceptional situations such as SSRC collisions. At SSRC changes, the usage of MID and RtpStreamId should enable the receiver to correctly identify the RTP streams even after an SSRC change.
RTP streams in a multi-party RTP session can be used in multiple different ways, when the session utilizes simulcast at least on the media source to middlebox legs. This is to a large degree due to the different RTP middlebox behaviors, but also the needs of the application. This text assumes that the RTP middlebox will select a media source and choose which simulcast stream for that media source to deliver to a specific receiver. In many cases, at most one simulcast stream per media source will be forwarded to a particular receiver at any instant in time, even if the selected simulcast stream may vary. For cases where this does not hold due to application needs, then the RTP stream aspects will fall under the middlebox to middlebox case Section 6.3.
The selection of which simulcast streams to forward towards the receiver, is application specific. However, in conferencing applications, active speaker selection is common. In case the number of media sources possible to forward, N, is less than the total amount of media sources available in an multi-media session, the current and previous speakers (up to N in total) are often the ones forwarded. To avoid the need for media specific processing to determine the current speaker(s) in the RTP middlebox, the endpoint providing a media source may include meta data, such as the RTP Header Extension for Client-to-Mixer Audio Level Indication.
The possibilities for stream switching are media type specific, but for media types with significant interframe dependencies in the encoding, like most video coding, the switching needs to be made at suitable switching points in the media stream that breaks or otherwise deals with the dependency structure. Even if switching points can be included periodically, it is common to use mechanisms like Full Intra Requests to request switching points from the endpoint performing the encoding of the media source.
Inclusion of the RtpStreamId SDES item for an SSRC in the middlebox to receiver direction should only occur when use of RtpStreamId has been negotiated in that direction. It is worth noting that one can signal multiple RtpStreamIds when simulcast signalling indicates only a single simulcast stream, allowing one to use all of the RtpStreamIds as alternatives for that simulcast stream. One reason for including the RtpStreamId in the middlebox to receiver direction for an RTP stream is to let the receiver know which restrictions apply to the currently delivered RTP stream. In case the RtpStreamId is negotiated to be used, it is important to remember that the used identifiers will be specific to each signalling session. Even if the central entity can attempt to coordinate, it is likely that the RtpStreamIds need to be translated to the leg specific values. The below cases will have as base line that RtpStreamId is not used in the mixer to receiver direction.
This section discusses the behavior in cases where the RTP middlebox behaves like the Media-Switching Mixer (Section 3.6.2) in RTP Topologies. The fundamental aspect here is that the media sources delivered from the middlebox will be the mixer's conceptual or functional ones. For example, one media source may be the main speaker in high resolution video, while a number of other media sources are thumbnails of each participant.
The above results in that the RTP stream produced by the mixer is one that switches between a number of received incoming RTP streams for different media sources and in different simulcast versions. The mixer selects the media source to be sent as one of the RTP streams, and then selects among the available simulcast streams for the most appropriate one. The selection criteria include available bandwidth on the mixer to receiver path and restrictions based on the functional usage of the RTP stream delivered to the receiver. As an example of the latter, it is unnecessary to forward a full HD video to a receiver if the display area is just a thumbnail. Thus, restrictions may exist to not allow some simulcast streams to be forwarded for some of the mixer's media sources.
This will result in a single RTP stream being used for each of the RTP mixer's media sources. This RTP stream is at any point in time a selection of one particular RTP stream arriving to the mixer, where the RTP header field values are rewritten to provide a consistent, single RTP stream. If the RTP mixer doesn't receive any incoming stream matched to this media source, the SSRC will not transmit, but be kept alive using RTCP. The SSRC and thus RTP stream for the mixer's media source is expected to be long term stable. It will only be changed by signalling or other disruptive events. Note that although the above talks about a single RTP stream, there can in some cases be multiple RTP streams carrying the selected simulcast stream for the originating media source, including redundancy or other auxiliary RTP streams.
The mixer may communicate the identity of the originating media source to the receiver by including the CSRC field with the originating media source's SSRC value. Note that due to the possibility that the RTP mixer switches between simulcast versions of the media source, the CSRC value may change, even if the media source is kept the same.
It is important to note that any MID SDES item from the originating media source needs to be removed and not be associated with the RTP stream's SSRC. That is, there is nothing in the signalling between the mixer and the receiver that is structured around the originating media sources, only the mixer's media sources. If they would be associated with the SSRC, the receiver would likely believe that there has been an SSRC collision, and that the RTP stream is spurious as it doesn't carry the identifiers used to relate it to the correct context. However, this is not true for CSRC values, as long as they are never used as SSRC. In these cases one could provide CNAME and MID as SDES items. A receiver could use this to determine which CSRC values that are associated with the same originating media source.
If RtpStreamIds are used in the scenario described by this section, it should be noted that the RtpStreamId on a particular SSRC will change based on the actual simulcast stream selected for switching. These RtpStreamId identifiers will be local to this leg's signalling context. In addition, the defined RtpStreamIds and their parameters need to cover all the media sources and simulcast streams received by the RTP mixer that can be switched into this media source, sent by the RTP mixer.
This section discusses the behavior in cases where the RTP middlebox behaves like the Selective Forwarding Middlebox (Section 3.7) in RTP Topologies. Applications for this type of RTP middlebox results in that each originating media source will have a corresponding media source on the leg between the middlebox and the receiver. A Selective Forwarding Middlebox (SFM) could go as far as exposing all the simulcast streams for an media source, however this section will focus on having a single simulcast stream that can contain any of the simulcast formats. This section will assume that the SFM projection mechanism works on media source level, and maps one of the media source's simulcast streams onto one RTP stream from the SFM to the receiver.
This usage will result in that the individual RTP stream(s) for one media source can switch between being active to paused, based on the subset of media sources the SFM wants to provide the receiver for the moment. With SFMs there exist no reasons to use CSRC to indicate the originating stream, as there is a one to one media source mapping. If the application requires knowing the simulcast version received to function well, then RtpStreamId should be negotiated on the SFM to receiver leg. Which simulcast stream that is being forwarded is not made explicit unless RtpStreamId is used on the leg.
Any MID SDES items being sent by the SFM to the receiver are only those agreed between the SFM and the receiver, and no MID values from the originating side of the SFM are to be forwarded.
A SFM could expose corresponding RTP streams for all the media sources and their simulcast streams, and then for any media source that is to be provided forward one selected simulcast stream. However, this is not recommended as it would unnecessarily increase the number of RTP streams and require the receiver to timely detect switching between simulcast streams. The above usage requires the same SFM functionality for switching, while avoiding the uncertainties of timely detecting that a RTP stream ends. The benefit would be that the received simulcast stream would be implicitly provided by which RTP stream would be active for a media source. However, using RtpStreamId to make this explicit also exposes which alternative format is used. The conclusion is that using one RTP stream per simulcast stream is unnecessary. The issue with timely detecting end of streams, independent if they are stopped temporarily or long term, is that there is no explicit indication that the transmission has intentionally been stopped. The RTCP based Pause and Resume mechanism includes a PAUSED indication that provides the last RTP sequence number transmitted prior to the pause. Due to usage, the timeliness of this solution depends on when delivery using RTCP can occur in relation to the transmission of the last RTP packet. If no explicit information is provided at all, then detection based on non increasing RTCP SR field values and timers need to be used to determine pause in RTP packet delivery. This results in that one can usually not determine when the last RTP packet arrives (if it arrives) that this will be the last. That it was the last is something that one learns later.
This relates to the transmission of simulcast streams between RTP middleboxes or other usages where one wants to enable the delivery of multiple simultaneous simulcast streams per media source, but the transmitting entity is not the originating endpoint. For a particular direction between middlebox A and B, this looks very similar to the originating to middlebox case on a media source basis. However, in this case there is usually multiple media sources, originating from multiple endpoints. This can create situations where limitations in the number of simultaneously received media streams can arise, for example due to limitation in network bandwidth. In this case, a subset of not only the simulcast streams, but also media sources can be selected. This results in that individual RTP streams can be become paused at any point and later being resumed based on various criteria.
The MIDs used between A and B are the ones agreed between these two identities in signalling. The RtpStreamId values will also be provided to ensure explicit information about which simulcast stream they are. The RTP stream to MID and RtpStreamId associations should here be long term stable.
Simulcast is in this memo defined as the act of sending multiple alternative encoded streams of the same underlying media source. When transmitting multiple independent streams that originate from the same source, it could potentially be done in several different ways using RTP. A general discussion on considerations for use of the different RTP multiplexing alternatives can be found in Guidelines for Multiplexing in RTP. Discussion and clarification on how to handle multiple streams in an RTP session can be found in [RFC8108].
The network aspects that are relevant for simulcast are:
Use of multiple simulcast streams can require a significant amount of network resources. If the amount of available network resources varies during an RTP session such that it does not match what is negotiated in SDP, the bitrate used by the different simulcast streams may have to be reduced dynamically. What simulcast streams to prioritize when allocating available bitrate among the simulcast streams in such adaptation SHOULD be taken from the simulcast stream order on the "a=simulcast" line and ordering of alternative simulcast formats Section 5.2. Simulcast streams that have pause/resume capability and that would be given such low bitrate by the adaptation process that they are considered not really useful can be temporarily paused until the limiting condition clears.
The chosen approach has a limitation that relates to the use of a single RTP session for all simulcast formats of a media source, which comes from sending all simulcast streams related to a media source under the same SDP media description.
It is not possible to use different simulcast streams on different media transports, limiting the possibilities to apply different QoS to different simulcast streams. When using unicast, QoS mechanisms based on individual packet marking are feasible, since they do not require separation of simulcast streams into different RTP sessions to apply different QoS.
It is also not possible to separate different simulcast streams into different multicast groups to allow a multicast receiver to pick the stream it wants, rather than receive all of them. In this case, the only reasonable implementation is to use different RTP sessions for each multicast group so that reporting and other RTCP functions operate as intended. Such simulcast usage in multicast context is out of scope for the current document and would require additional specification.
This document requests to register a new media-level SDP attribute, "simulcast", in the "att-field (media level only)" registry within the SDP parameters registry, according to the procedures of [RFC4566] and [I-D.ietf-mmusic-sdp-mux-attributes].
Note to RFC Editor: Please replace "RFC XXXX" with the assigned number of this RFC.
The simulcast capability, configuration attributes, and parameters are vulnerable to attacks in signaling.
A false inclusion of the "a=simulcast" attribute may result in simultaneous transmission of multiple RTP streams that would otherwise not be generated. The impact is limited by the media description joint bandwidth, shared by all simulcast streams irrespective of their number. There may however be a large number of unwanted RTP streams that will impact the share of bandwidth allocated for the originally wanted RTP stream.
A hostile removal of the "a=simulcast" attribute will result in simulcast not being used.
Neither of the above will likely have any major consequences and can be mitigated by signaling that is at least integrity and source authenticated to prevent an attacker to change it.
Security considerations related to the use of "a=rid" and the RtpStreamId SDES item is covered in [I-D.ietf-mmusic-rid] and [I-D.ietf-avtext-rid]. There are no additional security concerns related to their use in this specification.
Morgan Lindqvist and Fredrik Jansson, both from Ericsson, have contributed with important material to the first versions of this document. Robert Hansen and Cullen Jennings, from Cisco, Peter Thatcher, from Google, and Adam Roach, from Mozilla, contributed significantly to subsequent versions.
The authors would like to thank Bernard Aboba, Thomas Belling, Roni Even, Adam Roach, Inaki Baz Castillo, Paul Kyzivat, and Arun Arunachalam for the feedback they provided during the development of this document.
| [I-D.ietf-avtext-rid] | Roach, A., Nandakumar, S. and P. Thatcher, "RTP Stream Identifier Source Description (SDES)", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-avtext-rid-09, October 2016. |
| [I-D.ietf-mmusic-rid] | Thatcher, P., Zanaty, M., Nandakumar, S., Burman, B., Roach, A. and B. Campen, "RTP Payload Format Restrictions", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-mmusic-rid-11, July 2017. |
| [I-D.ietf-mmusic-sdp-bundle-negotiation] | Holmberg, C., Alvestrand, H. and C. Jennings, "Negotiating Media Multiplexing Using the Session Description Protocol (SDP)", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-mmusic-sdp-bundle-negotiation-38, April 2017. |
| [I-D.ietf-mmusic-sdp-mux-attributes] | Nandakumar, S., "A Framework for SDP Attributes when Multiplexing", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-mmusic-sdp-mux-attributes-16, December 2016. |
| [RFC2119] | Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997. |
| [RFC3550] | Schulzrinne, H., Casner, S., Frederick, R. and V. Jacobson, "RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications", STD 64, RFC 3550, DOI 10.17487/RFC3550, July 2003. |
| [RFC4566] | Handley, M., Jacobson, V. and C. Perkins, "SDP: Session Description Protocol", RFC 4566, DOI 10.17487/RFC4566, July 2006. |
| [RFC5234] | Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, DOI 10.17487/RFC5234, January 2008. |
| [RFC7728] | Burman, B., Akram, A., Even, R. and M. Westerlund, "RTP Stream Pause and Resume", RFC 7728, DOI 10.17487/RFC7728, February 2016. |
The following requirements have to be met to support the use cases:
NOTE TO RFC EDITOR: Please remove this section prior to publication.