SOLUTION BRIEF

Testing Audio Video (AVB)

As technology moves forward, the landscape of audio and • Consumer – Consumers today own more video (AV) interoperation and connections continues to devices than ever and have shifted their consumption grow more complex. We expect higher and higher quality from physical to digital content. Home networks have in more and more venues: home, mobile, and automotive. become nearly ubiquitous. The convergence of these AV connections are historically analog one-way, single- trends has created a desire for many consumers to not purpose, and point-to-point. This model resulted in large only use their networks to connect to the Internet and confusing masses of cables, especially in professional and exchange data, but also to distribute digital content high-end consumer applications. among their many devices. With emergence of Internet of Things, AVB enables IP address-enabled devices to Many of the specialized professional, home, and automotive connect and interact simply and with high quality over protocols did not interoperate. Adapting standard networks a single network. could use commodity technology, but tight control was difficult.

One of the more recent attempts to address AV technology Satellite Receiver TIVO AVB Switch issues is (AVB). AVB uses Ethernet cabling and protocols as a means to address the various Audio Receiver DVD Player technical issues and needs inherent in AV equipment. AVB is a standard that builds on the Ethernet protocol standards Speakers to assist in synchronizing and simplifying AV connections and interaction. Keypad Amplifier There are three main venues for AVB: Laptop Wif-Fi • Automotive – Previously, it was sufficient that the automobile merely conveyed passengers safely and comfortably from Point A to Point B—but not any Solution Highlights longer. While high quality audio has long been a default expectation, video and data services are increasingly AVB equipment and network installations must in-demand as manufacturers transform the car into an undergo pre-deployment testing to ensure quality infotainment center. AVB enables ADAS, infotainment, performance and end-user satisfaction--before hitting Internet, and control traffic to be transmitted over same the market. Ixia helps customers to: shard media, while meeting delivery and timeliness constraints of different domains. • Obtain a comprehensive, single-device test solution for validating all AVB protocols • Professional Audio/Video – Ethernet and Wi-Fi have become the most dominant of all networking • Verify the accurate and synchronized delivery of technologies. Over time, these technologies have time-sensitive streams through AVB networks continuously pushed the boundaries of speed—with the • Confirm that the guarantees for AVB system current state-of-the-art Ethernet moving to 100Gbps. bandwidth, QoS, priority remapping, and latency Given the enormous cost savings in cabling and other are met infrastructure over analog cable, it is natural that Test for prioritization, preemption, and ranking of networked AV would be widespread in the professional • time-sensitive streams in AVB networks world. AVB is a breakthrough technology for Pro- AV, enabling higher bandwidth (10, 40, 100GbE) for • Confirm that both AVB and best-effort traffic are broadcasting media and sports events, enabling correctly handled in the same network multiple channels over single and all pervasive • Validate AVB network boundaries in time-sensitive Ethernet media. networks • Scale AVB device test setups at Ethernet speeds up to 100GbE

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Market Issues Ixia Solution

In the past, audio and video systems employed custom Ixia has worked very closely with its customers to develop networks designed to provide a good end user experience. the right product that is designed to meets industry’s test These networks coexisted with LAN networks and required requirements. Ixia’s AVB solution in IxNetwork can not special skills and maintenance. To make things worse, only help prepare for AVnu certification, it can be used to these custom networks did not use standard technologies, prepare AVB implementations for production use. and users had to pay for the costly upgrades when they moved to higher speeds or when more elements were IxNetwork works with Ixia's test platforms to exchange added. control-plane and data-plane traffic with the device under test. Ixia's chassis are populated with hot-swappable load One of the fundamental issue is synchronization of Audio modules that implement a wide variety of interface types. Video traffic. Without the synchronization, the audio and Each test port is equipped with an independent processor video aspects of traffic are not lip-synced. Synchronizing and substantial memory in addition to specialized traffic Ethernet to ensure proper audio and video transmission is stream generation and capture hardware – providing the an issue. Ethernet is inherently an asynchronous protocol, speed and intelligence needed for large-scale protocol and operates without timing. Ethernet networks were built emulation. for the best-effort delivery traffic, and lacked support to deliver time-sensitive traffic. Ixia's AVB solution can be used for sizing production network load handling and time synchronization AVB provides a way for these custom networks to migrate capabilities and for qualifying deploying actual network to Ethernet Networks. The IEEE standard 802.1AS provides components: a method for Ethernet systems to synchronize with each other. The standards IEEE 802.1Qat and IEEE 802.1Qav Functionality provide a mechanism for ensuring Quality of Service and bounded latency for AVB traffic. • Test compliance to the AVB standards 802.1AS, 802.1Qat, 802.1Qav and IEEE 1722 This time synchronization on an AVB system must be • Emulate gPTP Master/Slave and provide peer- verified for accuracy before hitting the market. What's to-peer latency measurement using the in-built more, is that both AVB and non-AVB traffic can coexist on Stratum-3 Clock existing Ethernet networks today. So it is imperative that both kind of traffic must be properly forwarded through the • Extensive MSRP Talker and Listener control plane network to provide the desired quality of service. statistics and learned information to help debug issues down to each MSRP/MVRP state machine, The AVnu Alliance is an industry forum dedicated to messages and stream reservation the advancement of professional-quality audio video by • Scale test setup for number of Talkers and promoting the adoption of the IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Listeners on the same port using the user-friendly Bridging (AVB), and related standards, over various Next Generation Framework networking link-layers. The organization creates extensive • Measure the traffic latency, throughput, priority test procedures and processes that ensure interoperability remapping and data integrity for each MSRP of networked AV devices, helping to provide the highest reserved stream to verify credit-based shaper quality streaming AV experience. algorithm forwarding and queuing functionality Although AVnu Alliance provides a test methodology • Test AVB 1722 encapsulation, AVB raw, and non- specification for interoperability certification of AVB AVB traffic all on the same port with simple wizard equipment, there are no AVB test equipment in the • Support for Ethernet speeds of 100MB, market which can be used for proper qualification 1/10/40/100GbE of interoperability, time-synchronization, low latency streaming capabilities of AVB devices. Until now. See www.ixiacom.com for more information.

Ixia Worldwide Headquarters Ixia European Headquarters Ixia Asia Pacifi c Headquarters 26601 Agoura Rd. Ixia Technologies Europe Ltd 21 Serangoon North Avenue 5 Calabasas, CA 91302 Clarion House, Norreys Drive #04-01 (Toll Free North America) Maidenhead SL6 4FL Singapore 554864 United Kingdom 1.877.367.4942 Sales +65.6332.0125 (Outside North America) Sales +44 1628 408750 Fax +65.6332.0127 +1.818.871.1800 (Fax) +44 1628 639916 (Fax) 818.871.1805 www.ixiacom.com

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