Skip to main content

RTP Payload Format for JPEG-compressed Video
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01

The information below is for an old version of the document that is already published as an RFC.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 2435.
Authors Paul Stewart , Steven McCanne , Bill Fenner (ˢˣˠ) , Lance Berc , Ron Frederick
Last updated 2020-07-29 (Latest revision 1998-04-07)
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Intended RFC status Proposed Standard
Formats
Additional resources Mailing list discussion
Stream WG state (None)
Document shepherd (None)
IESG IESG state Became RFC 2435 (Proposed Standard)
Consensus boilerplate Unknown
Telechat date (None)
Responsible AD (None)
Send notices to (None)
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01
Internet Engineering Task Force      Audio-Video Transport Working Group
INTERNET-DRAFT                                                   L. Berc
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txt             Digital Equipment Corporation
                                                               W. Fenner
                                                              Xerox PARC
                                                            R. Frederick
                                                              Xerox PARC
                                                              S. McCanne
                                            Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
                                                              P. Stewart
                                                              Xerox PARC
                                                           March 6, 1998
                                                  Expires September 1998

              RTP Payload Format for JPEG-compressed Video

Status of this Memo

This document is an Internet Draft.  Internet Drafts are working
documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its Areas, and
its Working Groups.  Note that other groups may also distribute working
documents as Internet Drafts.

Internet Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months.
Internet Drafts may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other
documents at any time.  It is not appropriate to use Internet Drafts as
reference material or to cite them other than as a "working draft" or
"work in progress."

To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check the
"1id-abstracts.txt" listing contained in the Internet-Drafts Shadow
Directories on ftp.is.co.za (Africa), nic.nordu.net (Europe),
munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim), ds.internic.net (US East Coast), or
ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast).

Distribution of this document is unlimited.

                                Abstract

     This memo describes the RTP payload format for JPEG video streams.
     The packet format is optimized for real-time video streams where
     codec parameters change rarely from frame to frame.

This document is a product of the Audio-Video Transport working group
within the Internet Engineering Task Force.  Comments are solicited and
should be addressed to the working group's mailing list at rem-

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                 [Page 1]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

conf@es.net and/or the author(s).

Changes from RFC 2035

Most of this draft is identical to RFC 2035.  The changes made to the
protocol are summarized in Appendix D.

1.  Introduction

The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) standard [1,2,3] defines a
family of compression algorithms for continuous-tone, still images.
This still image compression standard can be applied to video by
compressing each frame of video as an independent still image and
transmitting them in series.  Video coded in this fashion is often
called Motion-JPEG.

We first give an overview of JPEG and then describe the specific subset
of JPEG that is supported in RTP and the mechanism by which JPEG frames
are carried as RTP payloads.

The JPEG standard defines four modes of operation: the sequential DCT
mode, the progressive DCT mode, the lossless mode, and the hierarchical
mode.  Depending on the mode, the image is represented in one or more
passes.  Each pass (called a frame in the JPEG standard) is further
broken down into one or more scans.  Within each scan, there are one to
four components, which represent the three components of a color signal
(e.g., "red, green, and blue", or a luminance signal and two chrominance
signals).  These components can be encoded as separate scans or
interleaved into a single scan.

Each frame and scan is preceded with a header containing optional
definitions for compression parameters like quantization tables and
Huffman coding tables.  The headers and optional parameters are
identified with "markers" and comprise a marker segment; each scan
appears as an entropy-coded bit stream within two marker segments.
Markers are aligned to byte boundaries and (in general) cannot appear in
the entropy-coded segment, allowing scan boundaries to be determined
without parsing the bit stream.

Compressed data is represented in one of three formats: the interchange
format, the abbreviated format, or the table-specification format.  The
interchange format contains definitions for all the tables used by the
entropy-coded segments, while the abbreviated format might omit some
assuming they were defined out-of-band or by a "previous" image.

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                 [Page 2]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

The JPEG standard does not define the meaning or format of the
components that comprise the image.  Attributes like the color space and
pixel aspect ratio must be specified out-of-band with respect to the
JPEG bit stream.  The JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF) [4] is a de-
facto standard that provides this extra information using an application
marker segment (APP0).  Note that a JFIF file is simply a JPEG
interchange format image along with the APP0 segment.  In the case of
video, additional parameters must be defined out-of-band (e.g., frame
rate, interlaced vs. non-interlaced, etc.).

While the JPEG standard provides a rich set of algorithms for flexible
compression, cost-effective hardware implementations of the full
standard have not appeared.  Instead, most hardware JPEG video codecs
implement only a subset of the sequential DCT mode of operation.
Typically, marker segments are interpreted in software (which "re-
programs" the hardware) and the hardware is presented with a single,
interleaved entropy-coded scan represented in the YUV color space.

The scan contains an ordered sequence of Minimum Coded Units, or MCUs,
which are the smallest group of image data coded in a JPEG bit stream.
Each MCU defines the image data for a small rectangular block of the
output image.

Restart markers in the JPEG data denote a point where the decoder should
reset its state.  As defined by JPEG, restart markers are the only type
of marker that may appear embedded in the entropy-coded segment, and
they may only appear on an MCU boundary.  A "restart interval" is
defined to be a block of data containing a restart marker followed by
some fixed number of MCUs.  When these markers are used, each frame is
composed of some fixed number of back-to-back restart intervals.

2.  JPEG Over RTP

To maximize interoperability among hardware-based codecs, we assume the
sequential DCT operating mode [1,Annex F] and restrict the set of
predefined RTP/JPEG "type codes" (defined below) to single-scan,
interleaved images.  While this is more restrictive than even baseline
JPEG, many hardware implementation fall short of the baseline
specification (e.g., most hardware cannot decode non-interleaved scans).

In practice, most of the table-specification data rarely changes from
frame to frame within a single video stream.  Therefore RTP/JPEG data is
represented in abbreviated format, with all of the tables omitted from
the bit stream where possible.  Each frame begins immediately with the
(single) entropy-coded scan.  The information that would otherwise be in
both the frame and scan headers is represented entirely within the
RTP/JPEG header (defined below) that lies between the RTP header and the
JPEG payload.

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                 [Page 3]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

While parameters like Huffman tables and color space are likely to
remain fixed for the lifetime of the video stream, other parameters
should be allowed to vary, notably the quantization tables and image
size (e.g., to implement rate-adaptive transmission or allow a user to
adjust the "quality level" or resolution manually).  Thus explicit
fields in the RTP/JPEG header are allocated to represent this
information.  Since only a small set of quantization tables are
typically used, we encode the entire set of quantization tables in a
small integer field.  Customized quantization tables are accommodated by
using a special range of values in this field, and then placing the
table before the beginning of the JPEG payload.  The image width and
height are encoded explicitly.

Because JPEG frames are typically larger than the underlying network's
maximum packet size, frames must often be fragmented into several
packets.  One approach is to allow the network layer below RTP (e.g.,
IP) to perform the fragmentation.  However, this precludes rate-
controlling the resulting packet stream or partial delivery in the
presence of loss.  For example, IP will not deliver a fragmented
datagram to the application if one or more fragments is lost, or IP
might fragment an 8000 byte frame into a burst of 8 back-to-back
packets.  Instead, RTP/JPEG defines a simple fragmentation and
reassembly scheme at the RTP level.

3.  RTP/JPEG Packet Format

The RTP timestamp is in units of 90000Hz.  The same timestamp must
appear in each fragment of a given frame.  The RTP marker bit is set in
the last packet of a frame.

3.1.  JPEG header

Each packet contains a special JPEG header which immediately follows the
RTP  header.   The  first  8 bytes of this header, called the "main JPEG
header", are as follows:

 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
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type-specific |              Fragment Offset                  |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|      Type     |       Q       |     Width     |     Height    |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

A Restart Marker header and/or Quantization Table header may follow this
header, depending on the values of the Type and Q fields.

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                 [Page 4]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

3.1.1.  Type-specific: 8 bits

Interpretation depends on the value of the type field.  If no
interpretation is specified, this field must be zeroed on transmission
and ignored on reception.

3.1.2.  Fragment Offset: 24 bits

The Fragment Offset is the offset in bytes of the current packet in the
JPEG frame data.

3.1.3.  Type: 8 bits

The type field specifies the information that would otherwise be present
in a JPEG abbreviated table-specification as well as the additional
JFIF-style parameters not defined by JPEG.  Types 0-63 are reserved as
fixed, well-known mappings to be defined by this document and future
revisions of this document.  Types 64-127 are the same as types 0-63,
except that restart markers are present in the JPEG data and a Restart
Marker header appears immediately following the main JPEG header.  Types
128-255 are free to be dynamically defined by a session setup protocol
(which is beyond the scope of this document).

3.1.4.  Q: 8 bits

The Q field defines the quantization tables for this frame.  Q values
0-127 indicate the quantization tables are computed using an algorithm
determined by the Type field (see below).  Q values 128-255 indicate
that a Quantization Table header appears after the main JPEG header (and
the Restart Marker header, if present) in the first packet of the frame
(fragment offset 0).  This header can be used to explicitly specify the
quantization tables in-band.

3.1.5.  Width: 8 bits

This field encodes the width of the image in 8-pixel multiples (e.g., a
width of 40 denotes an image 320 pixels wide).  The maximum width is
2040 pixels.

3.1.6.  Height: 8 bits

This field encodes the height of the image in 8-pixel multiples (e.g., a
height of 30 denotes an image 240 pixels tall).  The maximum height is
2040 pixels.

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                 [Page 5]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

3.1.7.  Restart Marker header

This header must be present immediately after the main JPEG header  when
using  types 64-127.  It provides the additional information required to
properly decode a data stream containing restart markers.

 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
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|       Restart Interval        |F|L|       Restart Count       |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

The Restart Interval field specifies the number of MCUs that appear
between restart markers.  It is identical to the 16 bit value that
appears in the DRI marker segment in JFIF headers.  This value must not
be zero.

If the restart intervals in a frame are not guaranteed to be aligned
with packet boundaries, the F and L bits must be set to 1 and the
Restart Count must be set to 0x3FFF.  This indicates that a receiver
must reassemble the entire frame before decoding it.

To support partial frame decoding, the frame is broken into "chunks"
each containing an integral number of restart intervals. The Restart
Count field contains the position of the first restart interval in the
current "chunk" so that receivers know which part of the frame this data
corresponds to.  Generally, a Restart Interval value should be chosen to
allow a "chunk" to completely fit within a single packet.  In this case,
both the F and L bits of the packet are set to 1.  However, if a chunk
needs to be spread across multiple packets, the F bit will be set to 1
in the first packet of the chunk (and only that one) and the L bit will
be set to 1 in the last packet of the chunk (and only that one).

3.1.8.  Quantization Table header

This header must be present after the main JPEG header (and after the
Restart Marker header, if present) when using Q values 128-255.  It
provides a way to specify the quantization tables associated with this Q
value in-band.

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                 [Page 6]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

 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
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|      MBZ      |   Precision   |             Length            |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                    Quantization Table Data                    |
|                              ...                              |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

The Length field is set to the length in bytes of the quantization table
data to follow.  The length field may be set to zero to indicate that no
quantization table data is included in this frame.

When table data is included, the number of tables present depends on the
JPEG type field.  For example, type 0 uses two tables (one for the
luminance component and one shared by the chrominance components).  Each
table is an array of 64 values given in zig-zag order, identical to the
format used in a JFIF DQT marker segment.

For each quantization table present, a bit in the Precision field
specifies the size of the coefficients in that table.  If the bit is
zero, the coefficients are 8 bits yielding a table length of 64 bytes.
If the bit is one, the coefficients are 16 bits for a table length of
128 bytes.  For 16 bit tables, the coefficients are presented in network
byte order.  The rightmost bit in the Precision field corresponds to the
first table and each additional table uses the next bit to the left.
Bits beyond those corresponding to the tables needed by the type in use
must be ignored.

For Q values from 128 to 254, the Q value to quantization table data
mapping must be static, i.e., the receivers are guaranteed that they
only need to read the table data once in order to correctly decode
frames sent with that Q value.  A Q value of 255 denotes that the
quantization table mapping is dynamic and can change on every frame.
Decoders cannot depend on any previous version of the tables, and need
to reload these tables on every frame.  It is illegal to set Q = 255 and
Length = 0.

3.1.9.  JPEG Payload

The data following the RTP/JPEG headers is an entropy-coded segment
consisting of a single scan.  The scan header is not present and is
inferred from the RTP/JPEG header.  The scan is terminated either
implicitly (i.e., the point at which the image is fully parsed), or
explicitly with an EOI marker.  The scan may be padded to arbitrary

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                 [Page 7]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

length with undefined bytes.  (Some existing hardware codecs generate
extra lines at the bottom of a video frame and removal of these lines
would require a Huffman-decoding pass over the data.)

The type code determines whether restart markers are present.  The
restart count in the Restart Marker header determines if the restart
intervals will be aligned with RTP packets, allowing for partial
decoding of frames. Restart Markers markers appear explicitly on byte
aligned boundaries beginning with an 0xFF, between MCUs at the defined
restart interval. A "stuffed" 0x00 byte follows any 0xFF byte generated
by the entropy coder [1, Sec. B.1.1.5].

4.  Discussion

4.1.  The Type Field

The Type field defines the abbreviated table-specification and
additional JFIF-style parameters not defined by JPEG, since they are not
present in the body of the transmitted JPEG data.

Three ranges of the type field are currently defined. Types 0-63 are
reserved as fixed, well-known mappings to be defined by this document
and future revisions of this document. Types 64-127 are the same as
types 0-63, except that restart markers are present in the JPEG data and
a Restart Marker header appears immediately following the main JPEG
header. Types 128-255 are free to be dynamically defined by a session
setup protocol (which is beyond the scope of this document).

Of the first group of fixed mappings, types 0 and 1 are currently
defined, along with the corresponding types 64 and 65 that indicate the
presence of restart markers.  They correspond to an abbreviated table-
specification indicating the "Baseline DCT sequential" mode, 8-bit
samples, square pixels, three components in the YUV color space,
standard Huffman tables as defined in [1, Annex K.3], and a single
interleaved scan with a scan component selector indicating components 1,
2, and 3 in that order.  The Y, U, and V color planes correspond to
component numbers 1, 2, and 3, respectively.  Component 1 (i.e., the
luminance plane) uses Huffman table number 0 and quantization table
number 0 (defined below) and components 2 and 3 (i.e., the chrominance
planes) use Huffman table number 1 and quantization table number 1
(defined below).

Type numbers 2-5 are reserved and should not be used.  Applications
based on previous versions of this document (RFC 2035) should be updated
to indicate the presence of restart markers with type 64 or 65 and the
Restart Marker header.

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                 [Page 8]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

The two RTP/JPEG types currently defined are described below:

                             horizontal   vertical   Quantization
            types  component samp. fact. samp. fact. table number
          +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
          |       |  1 (Y)  |     2     |     1     |     0     |
          | 0, 64 |  2 (U)  |     1     |     1     |     1     |
          |       |  3 (V)  |     1     |     1     |     1     |
          +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
          |       |  1 (Y)  |     2     |     2     |     0     |
          | 1, 65 |  2 (U)  |     1     |     1     |     1     |
          |       |  3 (V)  |     1     |     1     |     1     |
          +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

These sampling factors indicate that the chrominance components of type
0 video is downsampled horizontally by 2 (often called 4:2:2) while the
chrominance components of type 1 video are downsampled both horizontally
and vertically by 2 (often called 4:2:0).

Types 0 and 1 can be used to carry both progressively scanned and
interlaced image data.  This is encoded using the Type-specific field in
the main JPEG header.  The following values are defined:

     0 : Image is progressively scanned.  On a computer monitor, it can
         be displayed as-is at the specified width and height.

     1 : Image is an odd field of an interlaced video signal.  The
         height specified in the main JPEG header is half of the height
         of the entire displayed image.  This field should be de-
         interlaced with the even field following it such that lines
         from each of the images alternate.  Corresponding lines from
         the even field should appear just above those same lines from
         the odd field.

     2 : Image is an even field of an interlaced video signal.

     3 : Image is a single field from an interlaced video signal, but it
         should be displayed full frame as if it were received as both
         the odd & even fields of the frame.  On a computer monitor,
         each line in the image should be displayed twice, doubling the
         height of the image.

Appendix B contains C source code for transforming the RTP/JPEG header
parameters into the JPEG frame and scan headers that are absent from the
data payload.

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                 [Page 9]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

4.2.  The Q Field

For JPEG types 0 and 1 (and their corresponding types 64 and 65), Q
values between 1 and 99 inclusive are defined as follows.  Other values
less than 128 are reserved.  Additional types are encouraged to use this
definition if applicable.

Both type 0 and type 1 JPEG  require  two  quantization  tables.   These
tables  are  calculated  as  follows.  For 1 <= Q <= 99, the Independent
JPEG Group's formula [5] is used to produce a scale factor S as:

        S = 5000 / Q          for  1 <= Q <= 50
          = 200 - 2 * Q       for 51 <= Q <= 99

This value is then used to scale Tables K.1 and K.2 from [1] (saturating
each value to 8 bits) to give quantization table numbers 0 and 1,
respectively.  C source code is provided in Appendix A to compute these
tables.

For Q values 128-255, dynamically defined quantization tables are used.
These tables may be specified either in-band or out of band by something
like a session setup protocol, but the Quantization Table header must
always be present in the first packet of every frame.  When the tables
are specified out of band, they may be omitted from the packet by
setting the Length field in this header to 0.

When the quantization tables are sent in-band, they need not be sent
with every frame.  Like the out of band case, frames which do not
contain tables will have a Quantization Table header with a Length field
of 0.  While this does decrease the overhead of including the tables,
new receivers will be unable to properly decode frames from the time
they start up until they receive the tables.

4.3.  Fragmentation and Reassembly

Since JPEG frames can be large, they must often be fragmented.  Frames
should be fragmented into packets in a manner avoiding fragmentation at
a lower level.  If support for partial frame decoding is desired, frames
should be fragmented such that each packet contains an integral number
of restart intervals (see below).

Each packet that makes up a single frame has the same timestamp.  The
fragment offset field is set to the byte offset of this packet within
the original frame.  The RTP marker bit is set on the last packet in a
frame.

An entire frame can be identified as a sequence of packets beginning

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 10]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

with a packet having a zero fragment offset and ending with a packet
having the RTP marker bit set.  Missing packets can be detected either
with RTP sequence numbers or with the fragment offset and lengths of
each packet.  Reassembly could be carried out without the offset field
(i.e., using only the RTP marker bit and sequence numbers), but an
efficient single-copy implementation would not otherwise be possible in
the presence of misordered packets.  Moreover, if the last packet of the
previous frame (containing the marker bit) were dropped, then a receiver
could not always detect that the current frame is entirely intact.

4.4.  Restart Markers

Restart markers indicate a point in the JPEG stream at which the Huffman
decoder and DC predictors are reset, allowing partial decoding starting
at that point.  To fully take advantage of this, however, a decoder must
know which MCUs of a frame a particular restart interval encodes.  While
the original JPEG specification does provide a small sequence number
field in the restart markers for this purpose, it is not large enough to
properly cope with the loss of an entire packet's worth of data at a
typical network MTU size.  The RTP/JPEG Restart Marker header contains
the additional information needed to accomplish this.

Ideally, the size of restart intervals should be chosen to always allow
an integral number of restart intervals to fit within a single packet.
This will guarantee that packets can be decoded independently from one
another.  If a restart interval ends up being larger than a packet, the
F and L bits in the Restart Marker header can be used to fragment it,
but the resulting set of packets must all be received by a decoder for
that restart interval to be decoded properly.

Once a decoder has received either a single packet with both the F and L
bits set on or a contiguous sequence of packets (based on the RTP
sequence number) which begin with an F bit and end with an L bit, it can
begin decoding.  The position of the MCU at the beginning of the data
can be determined by multiplying the Restart Count value by the Restart
Interval value.  A packet (or group of packets as identified by the F
and L bits) may contain any number of consecutive restart intervals.

To accommodate encoders which generate frames with restart markers in
them but cannot fragment the data in this manner, the Restart Count
field may be set to 0x3FFF with the F and L bits both set to 1.  This
indicates to decoders that the entire frame must be reassembled before
decoding it.

5.  Security Considerations

RTP packets using the payload format defined in this specification are
subject to the security considerations discussed in the RTP

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 11]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

specification [6], and any appropriate RTP profile (for example [7]).
This implies that confidentiality of the media streams is achieved by
encryption. Because the data compression used with this payload format
is applied end-to-end, encryption may be performed after compression so
there is no conflict between the two operations.

A potential denial-of-service threat exists for data encodings using
compression techniques that have non-uniform receiver-end computational
load.  The attacker can inject pathological datagrams into the stream
which are complex to decode and cause the receiver to be overloaded.
However, this encoding does not exhibit any significant non-uniformity.

As with any IP-based protocol, in some circumstances a receiver may be
overloaded simply by the receipt of too many packets, either desired or
undesired.  Network-layer authentication may be used to discard packets
from undesired sources, but the processing cost of the authentication
itself may be too high.  In a multicast environment, pruning of specific
sources may be implemented in future versions of IGMP [8] and in
multicast routing protocols to allow a receiver to select which sources
are allowed to reach it.

A security review of this payload format found no additional
considerations beyond those in the RTP specification.

6.  Authors' Addresses

   Lance M. Berc
   Systems Research Center
   Digital Equipment Corporation
   130 Lytton Ave
   Palo Alto CA 94301

   Phone: +1 650 853 2100
   EMail: berc@pa.dec.com

   William C. Fenner
   Xerox PARC
   3333 Coyote Hill Road
   Palo Alto, CA 94304

   Phone: +1 650 812 4816
   EMail: fenner@parc.xerox.com

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 12]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

   Ron Frederick
   Xerox PARC
   3333 Coyote Hill Road
   Palo Alto, CA 94304

   Phone: +1 650 812 4459
   EMail: frederick@parc.xerox.com

   Steven McCanne
   Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
   M/S 46A-1123
   One Cyclotron Road
   Berkeley, CA 94720

   Phone: +1 510 486 7520
   EMail: mccanne@ee.lbl.gov

   Paul Stewart
   Xerox PARC
   3333 Coyote Hill Road
   Palo Alto, CA 94304

   Phone: +1 650 812 4821
   EMail: stewart@parc.xerox.com

7.  References

[1] ISO DIS 10918-1. Digital Compression and Coding of Continuous-tone
    Still Images (JPEG), CCITT Recommendation T.81.

[2] William B. Pennebaker, Joan L. Mitchell, JPEG: Still Image Data
    Compression Standard, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993.

[3] Gregory K. Wallace, The JPEG Sill Picture Compression Standard,
    Communications of the ACM, April 1991, Vol 34, No. 1, pp. 31-44.

[4] The JPEG File Interchange Format.  Maintained by C-Cube
    Microsystems, Inc., and available in
    ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/jfif.ps.gz.

[5] Tom Lane et. al., The Independent JPEG Group software JPEG codec.
    Source code available in
    ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz.

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 13]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

[6] H. Schulzrinne, S. Casner, R. Frederick, V. Jacobson, RTP: A
    Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications, RFC1889, Audio-Video
    Transport Working Group

[7] H. Schulzrinne, RTP Profile for Audio and Video Conferences with
    Minimal Control, RFC1890, GMD Fokus

[8] W. Fenner, Internet Group Management Protocol Version 2, RFCxxxx
    (currently draft-ietf-idmr-igmp-v2-08.txt, in rfc-editor queue),
    Xerox PARC

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 14]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

Appendix A

The following code can be used to create a quantization table from a Q
factor:

/*
 * Table K.1 from JPEG spec.
 */
static const int jpeg_luma_quantizer[64] = {
        16, 11, 10, 16, 24, 40, 51, 61,
        12, 12, 14, 19, 26, 58, 60, 55,
        14, 13, 16, 24, 40, 57, 69, 56,
        14, 17, 22, 29, 51, 87, 80, 62,
        18, 22, 37, 56, 68, 109, 103, 77,
        24, 35, 55, 64, 81, 104, 113, 92,
        49, 64, 78, 87, 103, 121, 120, 101,
        72, 92, 95, 98, 112, 100, 103, 99
};

/*
 * Table K.2 from JPEG spec.
 */
static const int jpeg_chroma_quantizer[64] = {
        17, 18, 24, 47, 99, 99, 99, 99,
        18, 21, 26, 66, 99, 99, 99, 99,
        24, 26, 56, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99,
        47, 66, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99,
        99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99,
        99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99,
        99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99,
        99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99, 99
};

/*
 * Call MakeTables with the Q factor and two int[64] return arrays
 */
void
MakeTables(int q, u_char *lum_q, u_char *chr_q)
{
  int i;
  int factor = q;

  if (q < 1) factor = 1;
  if (q > 99) factor = 99;
  if (q < 50)
    q = 5000 / factor;
  else
    q = 200 - factor*2;

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 15]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

  for (i=0; i < 64; i++) {
    int lq = ( jpeg_luma_quantizer[i] * q + 50) / 100;
    int cq = ( jpeg_chroma_quantizer[i] * q + 50) / 100;

    /* Limit the quantizers to 1 <= q <= 255 */
    if ( lq < 1) lq = 1;
    else if ( lq > 255) lq = 255;
    lum_q[i] = lq;

    if ( cq < 1) cq = 1;
    else if ( cq > 255) cq = 255;
    chr_q[i] = cq;
  }
}

Appendix B

The following routines can be used to create the JPEG marker segments
corresponding to the table-specification data that is absent from the
RTP/JPEG body.

u_char lum_dc_codelens[] = {
        0, 1, 5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
};

u_char lum_dc_symbols[] = {
        0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
};

u_char lum_ac_codelens[] = {
        0, 2, 1, 3, 3, 2, 4, 3, 5, 5, 4, 4, 0, 0, 1, 0x7d,
};

u_char lum_ac_symbols[] = {
        0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x00, 0x04, 0x11, 0x05, 0x12,
        0x21, 0x31, 0x41, 0x06, 0x13, 0x51, 0x61, 0x07,
        0x22, 0x71, 0x14, 0x32, 0x81, 0x91, 0xa1, 0x08,
        0x23, 0x42, 0xb1, 0xc1, 0x15, 0x52, 0xd1, 0xf0,
        0x24, 0x33, 0x62, 0x72, 0x82, 0x09, 0x0a, 0x16,
        0x17, 0x18, 0x19, 0x1a, 0x25, 0x26, 0x27, 0x28,
        0x29, 0x2a, 0x34, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38, 0x39,
        0x3a, 0x43, 0x44, 0x45, 0x46, 0x47, 0x48, 0x49,
        0x4a, 0x53, 0x54, 0x55, 0x56, 0x57, 0x58, 0x59,
        0x5a, 0x63, 0x64, 0x65, 0x66, 0x67, 0x68, 0x69,
        0x6a, 0x73, 0x74, 0x75, 0x76, 0x77, 0x78, 0x79,
        0x7a, 0x83, 0x84, 0x85, 0x86, 0x87, 0x88, 0x89,
        0x8a, 0x92, 0x93, 0x94, 0x95, 0x96, 0x97, 0x98,

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 16]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

        0x99, 0x9a, 0xa2, 0xa3, 0xa4, 0xa5, 0xa6, 0xa7,
        0xa8, 0xa9, 0xaa, 0xb2, 0xb3, 0xb4, 0xb5, 0xb6,
        0xb7, 0xb8, 0xb9, 0xba, 0xc2, 0xc3, 0xc4, 0xc5,
        0xc6, 0xc7, 0xc8, 0xc9, 0xca, 0xd2, 0xd3, 0xd4,
        0xd5, 0xd6, 0xd7, 0xd8, 0xd9, 0xda, 0xe1, 0xe2,
        0xe3, 0xe4, 0xe5, 0xe6, 0xe7, 0xe8, 0xe9, 0xea,
        0xf1, 0xf2, 0xf3, 0xf4, 0xf5, 0xf6, 0xf7, 0xf8,
        0xf9, 0xfa,
};

u_char chm_dc_codelens[] = {
        0, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
};

u_char chm_dc_symbols[] = {
        0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
};

u_char chm_ac_codelens[] = {
        0, 2, 1, 2, 4, 4, 3, 4, 7, 5, 4, 4, 0, 1, 2, 0x77,
};

u_char chm_ac_symbols[] = {
        0x00, 0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x11, 0x04, 0x05, 0x21,
        0x31, 0x06, 0x12, 0x41, 0x51, 0x07, 0x61, 0x71,
        0x13, 0x22, 0x32, 0x81, 0x08, 0x14, 0x42, 0x91,
        0xa1, 0xb1, 0xc1, 0x09, 0x23, 0x33, 0x52, 0xf0,
        0x15, 0x62, 0x72, 0xd1, 0x0a, 0x16, 0x24, 0x34,
        0xe1, 0x25, 0xf1, 0x17, 0x18, 0x19, 0x1a, 0x26,
        0x27, 0x28, 0x29, 0x2a, 0x35, 0x36, 0x37, 0x38,
        0x39, 0x3a, 0x43, 0x44, 0x45, 0x46, 0x47, 0x48,
        0x49, 0x4a, 0x53, 0x54, 0x55, 0x56, 0x57, 0x58,
        0x59, 0x5a, 0x63, 0x64, 0x65, 0x66, 0x67, 0x68,
        0x69, 0x6a, 0x73, 0x74, 0x75, 0x76, 0x77, 0x78,
        0x79, 0x7a, 0x82, 0x83, 0x84, 0x85, 0x86, 0x87,
        0x88, 0x89, 0x8a, 0x92, 0x93, 0x94, 0x95, 0x96,
        0x97, 0x98, 0x99, 0x9a, 0xa2, 0xa3, 0xa4, 0xa5,
        0xa6, 0xa7, 0xa8, 0xa9, 0xaa, 0xb2, 0xb3, 0xb4,
        0xb5, 0xb6, 0xb7, 0xb8, 0xb9, 0xba, 0xc2, 0xc3,
        0xc4, 0xc5, 0xc6, 0xc7, 0xc8, 0xc9, 0xca, 0xd2,
        0xd3, 0xd4, 0xd5, 0xd6, 0xd7, 0xd8, 0xd9, 0xda,
        0xe2, 0xe3, 0xe4, 0xe5, 0xe6, 0xe7, 0xe8, 0xe9,
        0xea, 0xf2, 0xf3, 0xf4, 0xf5, 0xf6, 0xf7, 0xf8,
        0xf9, 0xfa,
};

u_char *
MakeQuantHeader(u_char *p, u_char *qt, int tableNo)

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 17]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

{
        *p++ = 0xff;
        *p++ = 0xdb;            /* DQT */
        *p++ = 0;               /* length msb */
        *p++ = 67;              /* length lsb */
        *p++ = tableNo;
        memcpy(p, qt, 64);
        return (p + 64);
}

u_char *
MakeHuffmanHeader(u_char *p, u_char *codelens, int ncodes, u_char *symbols,
                  int nsymbols, int tableNo, int tableClass)
{
        *p++ = 0xff;
        *p++ = 0xc4;            /* DHT */
        *p++ = 0;               /* length msb */
        *p++ = 3 + ncodes + nsymbols; /* length lsb */
        *p++ = tableClass << 4 | tableNo;
        memcpy(p, codelens, ncodes);
        p += ncodes;
        memcpy(p, symbols, nsymbols);
        p += nsymbols;
        return (p);
}

u_char *
MakeDRIHeader(u_char *p, u_short dri) {
        *p++ = 0xff;
        *p++ = 0xdd;            /* DRI */
        *p++ = 0x0;             /* length msb */
        *p++ = 4;               /* length lsb */
        *p++ = dri >> 8;        /* dri msb */
        *p++ = dri & 0xff;      /* dri lsb */
        return (p);
}

/*
 *  Arguments:
 *    type, width, height: as supplied in RTP/JPEG header
 *    lqt, cqt: quantization tables as either derived from
 *         the Q field using MakeTables() or as specified
 *         in section 4.2.
 *    dri: restart interval in MCUs, or 0 if no restarts.
 *
 *    p: pointer to return area
 *
 *  Return value:

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 18]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

 *    The length of the generated headers.
 *
 *    Generate a frame and scan headers that can be prepended to the
 *    RTP/JPEG data payload to produce a JPEG compressed image in
 *    interchange format (except for possible trailing garbage and
 *    absence of an EOI marker to terminate the scan).
 */
int MakeHeaders(u_char *p, int type, int w, int h, u_char *lqt, u_char *cqt,
                u_short dri)
{
        u_char *start = p;
        u_char lqt[64];
        u_char cqt[64];

        /* convert from blocks to pixels */
        w <<= 3;
        h <<= 3;

        *p++ = 0xff;
        *p++ = 0xd8;            /* SOI */

        p = MakeQuantHeader(p, lqt, 0);
        p = MakeQuantHeader(p, cqt, 1);

        if (dri != 0)
                p = MakeDRIHeader(p, dri);

        *p++ = 0xff;
        *p++ = 0xc0;            /* SOF */
        *p++ = 0;               /* length msb */
        *p++ = 17;              /* length lsb */
        *p++ = 8;               /* 8-bit precision */
        *p++ = h >> 8;          /* height msb */
        *p++ = h;               /* height lsb */
        *p++ = w >> 8;          /* width msb */
        *p++ = w;               /* wudth lsb */
        *p++ = 3;               /* number of components */
        *p++ = 0;               /* comp 0 */
        if (type == 0)
                *p++ = 0x21;    /* hsamp = 2, vsamp = 1 */
        else
                *p++ = 0x22;    /* hsamp = 2, vsamp = 2 */
        *p++ = 0;               /* quant table 0 */
        *p++ = 1;               /* comp 1 */
        *p++ = 0x11;            /* hsamp = 1, vsamp = 1 */
        *p++ = 1;               /* quant table 1 */
        *p++ = 2;               /* comp 2 */
        *p++ = 0x11;            /* hsamp = 1, vsamp = 1 */

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 19]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

        *p++ = 1;               /* quant table 1 */

        p = MakeHuffmanHeader(p, lum_dc_codelens,
                              sizeof(lum_dc_codelens),
                              lum_dc_symbols,
                              sizeof(lum_dc_symbols), 0, 0);
        p = MakeHuffmanHeader(p, lum_ac_codelens,
                              sizeof(lum_ac_codelens),
                              lum_ac_symbols,
                              sizeof(lum_ac_symbols), 0, 1);
        p = MakeHuffmanHeader(p, chm_dc_codelens,
                              sizeof(chm_dc_codelens),
                              chm_dc_symbols,
                              sizeof(chm_dc_symbols), 1, 0);
        p = MakeHuffmanHeader(p, chm_ac_codelens,
                              sizeof(chm_ac_codelens),
                              chm_ac_symbols,
                              sizeof(chm_ac_symbols), 1, 1);

        *p++ = 0xff;
        *p++ = 0xda;            /* SOS */
        *p++ = 0;               /* length msb */
        *p++ = 12;              /* length lsb */
        *p++ = 3;               /* 3 components */
        *p++ = 0;               /* comp 0 */
        *p++ = 0;               /* huffman table 0 */
        *p++ = 1;               /* comp 1 */
        *p++ = 0x11;            /* huffman table 1 */
        *p++ = 2;               /* comp 2 */
        *p++ = 0x11;            /* huffman table 1 */
        *p++ = 0;               /* first DCT coeff */
        *p++ = 63;              /* last DCT coeff */
        *p++ = 0;               /* sucessive approx. */

        return (p - start);
};

Appendix C

The following routine is used to illustrate the RTP/JPEG packet
fragmentation and header creation.

For clarity and brevity, the structure definitions are only valid for
32-bit big- endian (most significant octet first) architectures. Bit
fields are assumed to be packed tightly in big-endian bit order, with no
additional padding. Modifications would be required to construct a
portable implementation.

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 20]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

/*
 * RTP data header from RFC1889
 */
typedef struct {
        unsigned int version:2;   /* protocol version */
        unsigned int p:1;         /* padding flag */
        unsigned int x:1;         /* header extension flag */
        unsigned int cc:4;        /* CSRC count */
        unsigned int m:1;         /* marker bit */
        unsigned int pt:7;        /* payload type */
        u_int16 seq;              /* sequence number */
        u_int32 ts;               /* timestamp */
        u_int32 ssrc;             /* synchronization source */
        u_int32 csrc[1];          /* optional CSRC list */
} rtp_hdr_t;

#define RTP_HDR_SZ 12

/* The following definition is from RFC1890 */
#define RTP_PT_JPEG             26

struct jpeghdr {
        unsigned int tspec:8;   /* type-specific field */
        unsigned int off:24;    /* fragment byte offset */
        u_int8 type;            /* id of jpeg decoder params */
        u_int8 q;               /* quantization factor (or table id) */
        u_int8 width;           /* frame width in 8 pixel blocks */
        u_int8 height;          /* frame height in 8 pixel blocks */
};

struct jpeghdr_rst {
        u_int16 dri;
        unsigned int f:1;
        unsigned int l:1;
        unsigned int count:14;
};

struct jpeghdr_qtable {
        u_int8  mbz;
        u_int8  precision;
        u_int16 length;
};

#define RTP_JPEG_RESTART           0x40

/* Procedure SendFrame:
 *
 *  Arguments:

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 21]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

 *    start_seq: The sequence number for the first packet of the current frame.
 *    ts: RTP timestamp for the current frame
 *    ssrc: RTP SSRC value
 *    jpeg_data: Huffman encoded JPEG scan data
 *    len: Length of the JPEG scan data
 *    type: The value the RTP/JPEG type field should be set to
 *    typespec: The value the RTP/JPEG type-specific field should be set to
 *    width: The width in pixels of the JPEG image
 *    height: The height in pixels of the JPEG image
 *    dri: The number of MCUs between restart markers (or 0 if ther are no
 *         restart markers in the data
 *    q: The Q factor of the data, to be specified using the Independent
 *       JPEG group's algorithm if 1 <= q <= 99, specified explicitly with
 *       lqt and cqt if q >= 128, or undefined otherwise.
 *    lqt: The quantization table for the luminance channel if q >= 128
 *    cqt: The quantization table for the chrominance channels if q >= 128
 *
 *  Return value:
 *    the sequence number to be sent for the first packet of the next frame.
 *
 * The following are assumed to be defined:
 *
 * PACKET_SIZE                         -  The size of the outgoing packet
 * send_packet(u_int8 *data, int len)  -  Sends the packet to the network
 */

u_int16 SendFrame(u_int16 start_seq, u_int32 ts, u_int32 ssrc,
                   u_int8 *jpeg_data, int len, u_int8 type, u_int8 typespec,
                   int width, int height, int dri,
                   u_int8 q, u_int8 *lqt, u_int8 *cqt) {
        rtp_hdr_t rtphdr;
        struct jpeghdr jpghdr;
        struct jpeghdr_rst rsthdr;
        struct jpeghdr_qtable qtblhdr;
        u_int8 packet_buf[PACKET_SIZE];
        u_int8 *ptr;
        int bytes_left = len;
        int seq = start_seq;
        int pkt_len, data_len;

        /* Initialize RTP header
         */
        rtphdr.version = 2;
        rtphdr.p = 0;
        rtphdr.x = 0;
        rtphdr.cc = 0;
        rtphdr.m = 0;
        rtphdr.pt = RTP_PT_JPEG;

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 22]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

        rtphdr.seq = start_seq;
        rtphdr.ts = ts;
        rtphdr.ssrc = ssrc;

        /* Initialize JPEG header
         */
        jpghdr.tspec = typespec;
        jpghdr.off = 0;
        jpghdr.type = type | ((dri != 0) ? RTP_JPEG_RESTART : 0);
        jpghdr.q = q;
        jpghdr.width = width / 8;
        jpghdr.height = height / 8;

        /* Initialize DRI header
         */
        if (dri != 0) {
                rsthdr.dri = dri;
                rsthdr.f = 1;           /* This code does not align RIs */
                rsthdr.l = 1;
                rsthdr.count = 0x3fff;
        }

        /* Initialize quantization table header
         */
        if (q >= 128) {
                qtblhdr.mbz = 0;
                qtblhdr.precision = 0;  /* This code uses 8 bit tables only */
                qtblhdr.length = 128;   /* 2 64-byte tables */
        }

        while (bytes_left > 0) {
                ptr = packet_buf + RTP_HDR_SZ;
                memcpy(ptr, &jpghdr, sizeof(jpghdr));
                ptr += sizeof(jpghdr);

                if (dri != 0) {
                        memcpy(ptr, &rsthdr, sizeof(rsthdr));
                        ptr += sizeof(rsthdr);
                }

                if (q >= 128 && jpghdr.off == 0) {
                        memcpy(ptr, &qtblhdr, sizeof(qtblhdr));
                        ptr += sizeof(qtblhdr);
                        memcpy(ptr, lqt, 64);
                        ptr += 64;
                        memcpy(ptr, cqt, 64);
                        ptr += 64;
                }

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 23]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

                data_len = PACKET_SIZE - (ptr - packet_buf);
                if (data_len >= bytes_left) {
                        data_len = bytes_left;
                        rtphdr.m = 1;
                }

                memcpy(packet_buf, &rtphdr, RTP_HDR_SZ);
                memcpy(ptr, jpeg_data + jpghdr.off, data_len);

                send_packet(packet_buf, (ptr - packet_buf) + data_len);

                jpghdr.off += data_len;
                bytes_left -= data_len;
                rtphdr.seq++;
        }
        return rtphdr.seq;
}

Appendix D

This section outlines the changes between this document and its
precdecessor, RFC 2035.  The changes to the protocol were made with an
eye towards causing as few interoperability problems between
implementations based on the older text and newer implementations, and
indeed, many of the obsolete conventions can still be unambiguously
decoded by a newer implementation.  However, use of the older
conventions in newer implementations is strongly discouraged.

 o   Types 0 and 1 have been augmented to allow for the encoding of
     interlaced video images, using 2 bits of the type-specific field.
     See section 4.1 for details.

 o   There has been discussion in the working group arguing for more
     flexibility in specifying the JPEG quantization tables.  This draft
     allows table coefficients to be specified explicitly through the
     use of an optional Quantization Table header, discussed in sections
     3.1.8 and 4.2.

 o   In RFC 2035, the encoding of restart marker information in the Type
     field made it difficult to add new types. Additionally, the type-
     specific field was used for the restart count, making it
     unavailable for other type-specific purposes.  This draft moves the
     restart marker indication to a particular bit in the Type field,
     and adds an optional header to hold the additional information
     required, leaving the type-specific field free for its intended
     purpose.  The handling of partial frame decoding was also made more

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 24]
draft-ietf-avt-jpeg-new-01.txtJPEG over RTP                March 6, 1998

     robust against packet loss.  See sections 3.1.7 and 4.4 for
     details.

Berc, et. al.            Expires September 1998                [Page 25]