What is it?
In an ideal world, all video and audio would just hop onto the nearest network, to be pulled accessed anywhere that network goes, bandwidth permitting. With network bandwidth increasing by the day, why not?
Because IEEE 802.1 standards are needed to make this happen. See, data networks typically give you the data when they can, and A/V requires non-stop delivery, very low latency (delay) and near perfect sync. The purpose of an audio video bridge, or switch, is to do that, which requires a whole set of standards based equipment that guarantees bandwidth reservation.
How? AVB is single network transmission of audio, video, and other forms of data using switches that can process AVB traffic without compromising network integrity. That means an AV/IT administrator can even have a mixed data network, allowing them to manage their AV systems way more efficiently. For example, no more segmenting traffic onto VLANs. BUT big shift in design philosophy for most system administrators.
These are the IEEE standards:
- 802.1AS: Timing and Synchronization for Time-Sensitive Applications
- 802.1Qat: Stream Reservation Protocol (SRP)
- 802.1Qav: Forwarding and Queuing for Time-Sensitive Streams
- 802.1BA: Audio Video Bridging Systems
- 1722 is a Layer 2 transport protocol for time sensitive applications in bridged LANs. Relates to media talker and listener endpoints only.
- 1733 is a Layer 3 transport protocol for time sensitive applications in LANs that leverage Real-Time Transport Protocols (RTP) and RTP Control Protocols (RTCP), two protocols commonly used in VoIP.
- P1722.1 is responsible for AVB device discovery, enumeration, connection management and control for 1722-based devices. It is currently going through the balloting process prior to acceptance.
In short, the promise is AVB = end-to-end digital networks that are simple to design and easy to manage.
Stay tuned; www.pakedge.com is promising a reasonably priced, high performance AVB switch in Q4.