RFC 6184 - RTP Payload Format for H.264 Video

Status: Standards Track
Published: May 2011
Obsoletes: RFC 3984

Abstract

This memo describes an RTP Payload format for the ITU-T Recommendation H.264 video codec and the technically identical ISO/IEC International Standard 14496-10 video codec, excluding the Scalable Video Coding (SVC) extension and the Multiview Video Coding extension, for which the RTP payload formats are defined elsewhere. The RTP payload format allows for packetization of one or more Network Abstraction Layer Units (NALUs), produced by an H.264 video encoder, in each RTP payload. The payload format has wide applicability, as it supports applications from simple low bitrate conversational usage, to Internet video streaming with interleaved transmission, to high bitrate video-on-demand.

This memo obsoletes RFC 3984. Changes from RFC 3984 are summarized in Section 14. Issues on backward compatibility to RFC 3984 are discussed in Section 15.

Status of This Memo

This is an Internet Standards Track document.

This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has received public review and has been approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6184.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.

Contents

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. The H.264 Codec
  • 1.2. Parameter Set Concept
  • 1.3. Network Abstraction Layer Unit Types
• 2. Conventions
• 3. Scope
• 4. Definitions and Abbreviations
  • 4.1. Definitions
  • 4.2. Abbreviations
• 5. RTP Payload Format
  • 5.1. RTP Header Usage
  • 5.2. Payload Structures
  • 5.3. NAL Unit Header Usage
  • 5.4. Packetization Modes
  • 5.5. Decoding Order Number (DON)
  • 5.6. Single NAL Unit Packet
  • 5.7. Aggregation Packets
    • 5.7.1. Single-Time Aggregation Packet (STAP)
    • 5.7.2. Multi-Time Aggregation Packets (MTAPs)
  • 5.8. Fragmentation Units (FUs)
• 6. Packetization Rules
  • 6.1. Common Packetization Rules
  • 6.2. Single NAL Unit Mode
  • 6.3. Non-Interleaved Mode
  • 6.4. Interleaved Mode
• 7. De-Packetization Process
  • 7.1. Single NAL Unit and Non-Interleaved Mode
  • 7.2. Interleaved Mode
    • 7.2.1. Size of the De-Interleaving Buffer
    • 7.2.2. De-Interleaving Process
  • 7.3. Additional De-Packetization Guidelines
• 8. Payload Format Parameters
  • 8.1. Media Type Registration
  • 8.2. SDP Parameters
    • 8.2.1. Mapping of Payload Type Parameters to SDP
    • 8.2.2. Usage with the SDP Offer/Answer Model
    • 8.2.3. Usage in Declarative Session Descriptions
  • 8.3. Examples
  • 8.4. Parameter Set Considerations
  • 8.5. Decoder Refresh Point Procedure Using In-Band Transport of Parameter Sets (Informative)
    • 8.5.1. IDR Procedure to Respond to a Request for a Decoder Refresh Point
    • 8.5.2. Gradual Recovery Procedure to Respond to a Request for a Decoder Refresh Point
• 9. Security Considerations
• 10. Congestion Control
• 11. IANA Considerations
• 12. Informative Appendix: Application Examples
  • 12.1. Video Telephony According to Annex A of ITU-T Recommendation H.241
  • 12.2. Video Telephony, No Slice Data Partitioning, No NAL Unit Aggregation
  • 12.3. Video Telephony, Interleaved Packetization Using NAL Unit Aggregation
  • 12.4. Video Telephony with Data Partitioning
  • 12.5. Video Telephony or Streaming with FUs and Forward Error Correction
  • 12.6. Low Bitrate Streaming
  • 12.7. Robust Packet Scheduling in Video Streaming
• 13. Informative Appendix: Rationale for Decoding Order Number
  • 13.1. Introduction
  • 13.2. Example of Multi-Picture Slice Interleaving
  • 13.3. Example of Robust Packet Scheduling
  • 13.4. Robust Transmission Scheduling of Redundant Coded Slices
  • 13.5. Remarks on Other Design Possibilities
• 14. Changes from RFC 3984
• 15. Backward Compatibility to RFC 3984
• 16. Acknowledgements
• 17. References
  • 17.1. Normative References
  • 17.2. Informative References