4.2. Duplicate RLE Report Block

This block type permits per-sequence-number reports on duplicates in a source's RTP packet stream. Such information can be used for network diagnosis, and provide an alternative to packet losses as a basis for multicast tree topology inference.

The Duplicate RLE Report Block format is identical to the Loss RLE Report Block format. Only the interpretation is different, in that the information concerns packet duplicates rather than packet losses. The trace to be encoded in this case also consists of zeros and ones, but a zero here indicates the presence of duplicate packets for a given sequence number, whereas a one indicates that no duplicates were received.

The existence of a duplicate for a given sequence number is determined over the entire reporting period. For example, if packet number 12,593 arrives, followed by other packets with other sequence numbers, the arrival later in the reporting period of another packet numbered 12,593 counts as a duplicate for that sequence number. The duplicate does not need to follow immediately upon the first packet of that number. Care must be taken that a report does not cover a range of 65,534 or greater in the sequence number space.

No distinction is made between the existence of a single duplicate packet and multiple duplicate packets for a given sequence number. Note also that since there is no duplicate for a lost packet, a loss is encoded as a one in a Duplicate RLE Report Block.

The Duplicate RLE Report Block has the following format:

 0                   1                   2                   3
 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|     BT=2      | rsvd. |   T   |         block length          |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                        SSRC of source                         |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|          begin_seq            |             end_seq           |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|          chunk 1              |             chunk 2           |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
:                              ...                              :
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|          chunk n-1            |             chunk n           |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

block type (BT): 8 bits A Duplicate RLE Report Block is identified by the constant 2.

rsvd.: 4 bits This field is reserved for future definition. In the absence of such a definition, the bits in this field MUST be set to zero and MUST be ignored by the receiver.

thinning (T): 4 bits As defined in Section 4.1.

block length: 16 bits Defined in Section 3.

SSRC of source: 32 bits As defined in Section 4.1.

begin_seq: 16 bits As defined in Section 4.1.

end_seq: 16 bits As defined in Section 4.1.

chunk i: 16 bits As defined in Section 4.1.

4.2. Duplicate RLE Report Block​

4.2. Duplicate RLE Report Block