Re: [linux-audio-dev] Audio over Ethernet?

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Audio over Ethernet?
From: Anders Torger (torger_AT_ludd.luth.se)
Date: Wed Apr 14 2004 - 10:47:22 EEST


On Tuesday 13 April 2004 19.17, Anders Torger wrote:
> Is there any work done for transporting digital audio over ethernet?
> For example a library, an open standard or something?
>
> /Anders Torger

Thanks for the replies. However, I should have specified in more detail
what I am after, I mean something like cobranet, but without the need
for special hardware.

I'm thinking about trying to transfer digital audio over ethernet, with
the goal of being able to build a convolver cluster. The idea is to
have one computer with say a 24 channel sound card, and to that connect
a set of other computers through ethernet (100 megabit or gigabit
depending on requirements).

The inputs taken from the sound card is broadcasted on the ethernet so
all other computers in the cluster get the inputs, and they send their
convolved outputs back to the sound card computer, whose only task is
to mix together the result, and put it to the sound card outputs.

One application when this type of design would be suitable is WFS (Wave
Front Synthesis), with moving sources in simulated reverb, something
which is extremely demanding (one 3 GHz Pentium 4 can handle only one
source for a 24 channel system).

Say if you build such a system with 10 cluster nodes plus the sound card
machine, you could render 10 dynamic WFS sources, but would have to
distribute 10 channels from the sound card machine, and get back 10 *
24, which would be ~20 megabits/s broadcasted from the sound card
machine to the cluster nodes, and ~400 megabits/s back. One channel is
48 kHz 32 bit floating point, that is ~1.5 megabit/s.

Thus, I think it is necessary to implement something operating on the
ethernet level to get best performance in terms of throughput and
latency.

/Anders Torger


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