TABLE OF CONTENTS Now that we have looked at video, video compression, and the basics of IP, we are ready to look at the process of creating IP packets out of a digital video stream. This chapter will begin by covering the process of chopping up the video stream so that it will fit into IP packets, known as encapsulation. Then, we will discuss the ways that MPEG formats data for transport. We'll examine the different protocols that run on top of IP to control the flow of packets, and we'll look at a few techniques that are used to make video transport more reliable.
By the end of this chapter, readers should have a good understanding of the different forms of MPEG video streams and have developed a solid foundation in the UDP, TCP, and RTP transport protocols. Readers should also gain some insight into the trade-offs that happen in the encapsulation and stream formation process.
Encapsulation is the process of taking a data stream, formatting it into packets, and adding the headers and other data required to comply with a specific protocol. In our case, we will be doing IP encapsulation, so we must take data and break it up into packets that will comply with the IP protocol that we discussed in Chapter 5. As we shall see, this is not simply a matter of taking a well-established formula and applying it. Rather, the process of encapsulation can be tuned to meet the performance requirements of different applications...
