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Glossary

Multimedia

  • Packet

    It is a formatted unit of data transmitted over the network. To send data over the network it has to be fragmented into packets, which size is limited by MTU(Maximum Transfer Unit) - 1500 bytes when using Ethernet.

  • Frame

    'Frame' can refer to either network frame or media frame, which is a basic data unit used by media coding formats. In particular, one media frame can represent a single image in a video.

  • Track

    A media track is equivalent to a single audio or video stream.

  • Simulcast

    It is the technique of broadcasting multiple versions of the same content simultaneously, typically at different resolutions or quality levels, to accommodate diverse network conditions and user devices.

  • PTS and DTS

    PTS (Presentation Timestamp) is a value in a video or audio stream that indicates the precise time a specific frame or sample should be displayed or played back, ensuring proper synchronization of media content during playback. DTS (Decoding Timestamp) is a value in a video or audio stream that specifies the exact moment a particular frame or sample should be decoded by the decoder, ensuring the correct decoding order and maintaining the integrity of media content during playback.

  • Web protocols:

    • UDP

      User Datagram Protocol. A transport layer protocol using connectionless communication. See here for more details.

    • TCP

      Transmission Control Protocol. A transport layer protocol using connection-oriented communication. See this explanation on how TCP works.

    • RTP

      Real-time Transport Protocol. An application layer protocol for delivering real-time audio and video over IP networks. RTP packet structure is described here. There is an extension of RTP - SRTP (Secure RTP), which adds security features and is used by WebRTC.

    • RTSP

      RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) is a network control protocol designed for controlling media streaming sessions, enabling efficient delivery and playback of multimedia content over IP networks. It's commonly used by IP cameras.

    • RTMP

      RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol) is a proprietary protocol developed by Adobe Systems for low-latency streaming of audio, video, and data between a server and Flash player.

    • HLS

      HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) is an adaptive streaming protocol developed by Apple for efficiently delivering live and on-demand multimedia content over the internet by breaking the media files into chunks and serving them over HTTP.

    • MPEG-DASH

      MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) is a standardized adaptive bitrate streaming protocol that dynamically adjusts media quality to fit the viewer's network conditions and device capabilities, seamlessly delivering multimedia content over the internet using HTTP.

    • HTTP

      Hypertext Transfer Protocol. An application layer protocol for fetching data from a server by a client. It is used by HLS and MPEG-DASH for media streaming.

    • Long Polling

      HTTP Long Polling is a technique of keeping an open connection after the client's request for as long as new data is not available. This is more efficient than naive repeated polling by a client until new data is received.

    • WebRTC

      WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) is a free and open-source project providing web browsers and mobile applications with real-time communication (RTC). WebRTC implements three APIs: MediaStream used for acquiring media from the browser, RTCPeerConnection handling stable and efficient communication of streaming data between peers, and RTCDataChannel enabling a peer-to-peer exchange of arbitrary data with low latency and high throughput. Learn more about WebRTC here.

    • Signaling

      In WebRTC it's a process of discovery, establishing, controlling, and terminating a connection between two devices.

    • SDP

      Session Description Protocol. A protocol used for describing multimedia communication sessions for announcement and invitation. It is used in the WebRTC signaling process for describing a session.

    • WebSocket

      An application layer communication protocol works allowing for communication between client and server in near real-time. It is based on TCP and, in contrast to HTTP, it provides full-duplex communication. Today it is supported by most web browsers and web servers.

    • ICE

      Interactive Connectivity Establishment. It's a technique for establishing the most direct connection between two computers, which is used in P2P communication.

    • STUN

      Session Traversal Utilities for NAT. Protocol used in interactive communications with hosts hidden behind a NAT. Its goal is to find public addresses of the peers that they can use to directly communicate with each other.

    • TURN

      Traversal Using Relays around NAT. Protocol utilizing the TURN server which relays data between peers in the case when direct connection cannot be established. However, this comes with an overhead since all the media must be sent through this server.

    • DTLS

      Datagram Transport Layer Security. Protocol used for providing security to datagram-based applications. It is based on TLS and guarantees a similar level of security. All of the WebRTC-related protocols are required to encrypt their communications using DTLS, this includes SCTP, SRTP and STUN.

  • NAT

    Network address translation. A technique of sharing one public IP address by multiple computers.

  • Container format

    A file format that allows multiple data streams to be embedded into a single file, e.g. MP4 format can contain video, audio, and subtitles streams inside of it.

  • CMAF

    CMAF (Common Media Application Format) is a standardized media file format for adaptive bitrate streaming over the internet. It enhances the interoperability between different streaming protocols, such as HLS and MPEG-DASH, by using a single set of media files and encryption methods. CMAF simplifies content delivery to various devices and platforms, reducing the need for multiple file formats and enabling more efficient media streaming.

  • YUV

    Color space that defines one luminance and two chrominance components. By reducing the resolution of the chrominance components it is possible to compress an image with a minuscule effect on human perception of the image. That encoding is commonly used for analog video processing.

  • YCbCr

    Color space that defines one luminance and two chrominance difference components: blue-difference and red-difference. In contrast to YUV it's more often used in digital video processing. It happens that YCbCr is often mistakenly called YUV.

  • Encoding

    A process of converting media from raw format to encoded format. The main purpose is to reduce media size - the raw format is uncompressed and takes up a lot of space. Examples of encoded formats are MP3 and AAC for audio and AVC and MPEG-4 Part 2 for video.

  • Decoding

    A process of converting media from encoded format to raw format, e.g. to play it on the end device.

  • Encryption

    A way of modifying a message, so that only authorized parties can interpret it.

  • Decryption

    A process of retrieving data from an encrypted message.

  • Muxing

    Abbr. from multiplexing. A method of combining multiple streams into a single container, e.g. muxing video and audio into an MP4 container.

  • Demuxing

    Abbr. from demultiplexing. A method of separating streams from one combined container, e.g. retrieving audio and video from MP4.

  • Types of transmission in computer networks:

    • unicast

    Unicast is a communication method in which a single sender transmits packets to a single recipient.

    • multicast

    Multicast is a communication method where a single sender transmits packets to multiple recipients in a specific group simultaneously.

    • broadcast

    Broadcast is a communication method in which a single sender transmits packets to all the recipients connected to the network.

    • anycast

    Anycast is a communication method that involves a single sender transmitting packets to the topologically nearest recipient among a group of potential recipients.

  • Server's architecture

    Here is a short article to get you started

    • SFU

      Selective Forwarding Unit. A video conferencing architecture that consists of a single server, which receives incoming streams from all participants and forwards each participant's stream to all other conference participants.

    • MCU

      Multipoint Control Unit. An architecture consisting of a single server, which receives incoming streams from all participants, mixes the streams and sends them to each of the participants.

    • P2P

      Peer to Peer. An architecture in which each participant is directly connected to all other participants, which eliminates the need for MCU or SFU. This architecture is also commonly referred to as a "mesh".

  • Codecs

    A codec (short for coder-decoder or compressor-decompressor) is an algorithm or software that processes audio or video data, either compressing it for more efficient storage and transmission or decompressing it for playback and editing purposes. Codecs enable efficient management of digital media by reducing file sizes without significantly compromising quality.

    • Access unit

    An access unit is a complete and self-contained data element in a video or audio stream, representing the smallest unit that can be independently processed for decoding and presentation purposes. In the case of video, it typically consists of one video frame or a group of frames, along with any associated metadata needed for decoding and synchronization during playback.

    • NAL unit

    A NAL (Network Abstraction Layer) unit is a data packet in H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC video coding standards, encapsulating video information such as compressed video slices or other related metadata. NAL units enable efficient storage and transmission of compressed video data over a variety of networks.

    • Bitrate

    Bitrate is a measure of the amount of data that is transmitted through a network or stored over a certain period. Specifically, it refers to the number of bits that are transmitted per second. Bitrate is typically used to describe the quality of audio or video recordings, where a higher bitrate means better quality and a lower bitrate usually means lower quality.

    • SPS and PPS

    SPS (Sequence Parameter Set) is a data structure (namely NAL unit) in H.264/AVC video coding standard that contains information about the properties and configurations of video sequences, such as resolution, frame rate, and bit depth. PPS (Picture Parameter Set) is another NAL unit type in H.264/AVC that specifies information relevant to individual frame decodings, such as macroblock configurations, slice types, and reference frame indices.

    • NAL and VCL

    NAL (Network Abstraction Layer) is a component within the H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC video coding standards that encapsulates and delivers compressed video data, enabling efficient storage and transmission over various networks while maintaining video quality and synchronization. NAL operates by defining data packets called NAL units. VCL (Video Coding Layer) is another component in the H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC video coding standards responsible for the actual compression process. The VCL efficiently represents the video content by applying various compression techniques, such as motion compensation, spatial prediction, and transform coding. The compressed video data is then packetized into NAL units for transmission and storage.

    • DCT

    DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) is a mathematical transformation widely used in image and video compression algorithms to efficiently represent data in the frequency domain. By converting spatial data (pixels) into frequency coefficients, DCT helps identify redundant or visually less-important information, which can be compressed or discarded to reduce the file size while maintaining an acceptable level of an image or video quality.

    • H.264/AVC

    H.264, also known as AVC (Advanced Video Coding), is a widely used video compression standard that provides efficient video encoding and transmission, delivering high-quality video with reduced bandwidth requirements and lower storage needs, making it suitable for various applications such as online streaming, video conferencing, and video storage.

    • H.264 profiles

    H.264 profiles are predefined sets of constraints and features within the H.264/AVC video coding standard, designed to cater to different use cases and performance requirements. These profiles ensure compatibility among various devices and applications while maintaining efficient video compression and quality.

    • Annex B and AVCC

    Annex B and AVCC are two different formats for representing encoded video data in the context of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video compression. Annex B specifies how the compressed video data is packetized for transmission over IP networks, including the format of the start codes that allow identifying the position of particular NAL units in the stream. Annex B is defined in the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC specification (MPEG-4 part 10), which can be found at the following link. Annex B is a good choice when the video is about to be live-streamed. The AVCC format is defined in the ISO/IEC 14496-15:2010 specification (MPEG-4 part 15), which can be found at the following link. Compared to the Annex B format, AVCC is better suited for storing the video stream in a file. In colloquial terms, the AVCC format is sometimes referred to as "length-prefix", since the information about the position of NAL units in the stream is stored in the form of a length of particular NAL units. This makes it easier to work with the stream in a file format, as the decoder can read ahead to determine the length of each NAL unit and parse it accordingly.

  • Frame types:

    In video codecs, e.g. H.264, there is a concept of distinguishing different video frames, depending on their role in the intra-frame prediction compression process.

    • I frame

    An I-frame (Intra frame) is a self-contained frame in a video stream that serves as a reference for encoding and decoding other frames, storing the entire picture without relying on any other frames for information.

    • P frame

    A P frame (Predictive frame) is a video compression frame that depends on the preceding I frame or P frame for data, using the motion differences between the two frames to reduce the amount of stored information and make the file size smaller.

    • B frame

    A B frame (Bidirectional predictive frame) is a video compression frame that relies on both the preceding and following I or P frames for data, using the motion differences between these frames to further reduce the stored information, resulting in even smaller file sizes and better compression efficiency.

Membrane Framework

  • Buffer

    A fundamental structure in Membrane that is used to send data between elements.

  • Element

    The most basic entity that is responsible for processing multimedia.

  • Bin

    A container for elements, which allows for creating reusable groups of elements. Bin can incorporate elements and other bins as well.

  • Pad

    An input or output of an elements or a bin. Output pads of one element or a bin are connected to input pads of another element or a bin.

  • Stream format, formerly: caps

    It defines pads specification, allowing us to determine whether two elements are compatible with each other. The formerly used name "caps" is an abbreviation of "capabilities".

  • Pipeline

    A chain of linked elements or bins which together accomplish some media processing task.

  • Callback

    A callback is a function defined by a user, that gets called once a particular event happens. Exemplary callbacks in the Membrane Framework are: handle_end_of_stream/3 being called once the end of stream event is received on some pad or handle_init/2 called on initialization of an element.

  • Action

    An action can be returned from callback and it is a way of element interaction with other elements and parts of the framework. An exemplary action might be :buffer action, that sends buffers through a pad, or :terminate action, that terminates element with given reason.

  • ChildrenSpec

    In Membrane Framework, ChildrenSpec is a way of describing the topology of a pipeline or a bin. You can read more about ChildrenSpec here.

Each element is created to solve one problem. Elements can be divided into four categories:

  • Source

    An element with only output pads, the first element of each pipeline. It is responsible for fetching the data and transmitting it through the output pad.

  • Filter

    An element with both input and output pads, which is responsible for transforming data.

  • Sink

    An element with only input pads, the last element of a pipeline. It might be responsible, i.e. for writing the output to the file or playing the incoming media stream.

  • Endpoint

    An element with both input and output pads, responsible for receiving and consuming data (e.g., writing to a soundcard, sending via TCP, etc.) as well as producing data (e.g., reading from a soundcard, downloading via HTTP, etc.) and sending it through the corresponding pads. It can be thought of as an element merging all the functionalities of previously mentioned element categories: source, filter, and sink.

Types of elements:

  • Payloader and Depayloader

    Payloader is responsible for preparing the data stream to be put in some specific format, typically a network-friendly format or a container format. This preparation may include the addition of headers or various metadata. Depayloader does the reverse operation - it allows to receive the original data stream from a specific format.

  • Encoder and Decoder

    Elements responsible for encoding and decoding.

  • Encryptor and Decryptor

    Elements responsible for encryption and decryption.

  • Muxer and Demuxer

    Elements responsible for muxing and demuxing.

  • Mixer

    An element responsible for mixing multiple media streams into a single stream. Unlike multiplexing, mixing is an irreversible operation.

  • Jitter buffer / Ordering buffer

    An element that is responsible for ordering packets incoming from the network as their order can be disrupted during transmission due to network unreliability. The name "jitter buffer" comes from the "packet jitter" term used in computer network terminology. "Packet jitter" refers to the variation in latency between consecutive packets in a network, which can lead to disruptions in audio or video streaming quality.

  • Tee

    An element that allows for copying a single input stream to multiple output streams. A possible implementation of Tee can be found here.

  • Funnel

    An element that allows for merging multiple input streams into a single output stream. A possible implementation of Funnel can be found here.

Demands mechanism

  • Demands, Demanding

    Demanding is a name for the Membrane Framework backpressure mechanism. Elements are allowed to send "demands" to the preceding element, in which they describe the amount of data they want to receive.

  • Redemands

    In Membrane it's an element's action that lets the programmer handle just one buffer at a time. When redemanding, the handle_demand/5 callback is synchronously called. You can read more about redemands here.

General Elixir/Erlang concepts