Comparison of audio network protocols
{{Short description|None}}
The following is a comparison of audio over Ethernet and audio over IP audio network protocols and systems.
| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Audio network technology matrix !Technology !Development date !Transport !Transmission scheme !Mixed use networking !Control communications !Topology !Fault tolerance !Distance !Diameter !Network capacity !Latency !Maximum available sampling rate |
| AES47
|2002{{citation |url=http://www.aes.org/publications/standards/search.cfm?docID=42 |title=AES47-2006 (r2011): AES standard for digital audio - Digital input-output interfacing - Transmission of digital audio over asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks |publisher=Audio Engineering Society}} |ATM |Isochronous |Coexists with ATM |Any IP or ATM protocol, {{nowrap|IEC 62379}} |Mesh |Provided by ATM |Cat5=100 m, MM=2 km, SM=70 km |Unlimited |Unlimited |125 μs per hop |192 kHz |
| id="AES50"
| |Ethernet physical layer{{efn|Ethernet transport is combined with a proprietary audio clock transport. AES50 and HyperMAC are point-to-point audio connections, but they bridge a limited bandwidth of regular Ethernet for the purpose of control communications. An AES50/HyperMAC router contains a crosspoint matrix (or similar) for audio routing, and an Ethernet switch for control routing. The system topology may therefore follow any valid Ethernet topology, but the audio routers need a priori knowledge of the topology. While there are no limits to the number of AES50 routing devices that can be interconnected, each hop adds another link's worth of latency, and each router device needs to be controlled individually.}} |Isochronous or synchronous |dedicated Cat5 |5 Mbit/s Ethernet |FEC, redundant link |Cat5=100 m |Unlimited |48 channels |63 μs |384 kHz and DSD |
| AES67
|2013-09{{citation |url=http://www.aes.org/publications/standards/search.cfm?docID=96 |title=AES67-2013: AES standard for audio applications of networks - High-performance streaming audio-over-IP interoperability |publisher=Audio Engineering Society |date=2013-09-11 |accessdate=2018-04-15}} |Any IP medium |Isochronous |Coexists with other traffic using DiffServ QoS |IP, SIP |Any L2 or IP network |Provided by IP |Medium dependent |Unlimited |Unlimited |4, 1, {{frac|1|3}}, {{frac|1|4}} and {{frac|1|8}} ms packet times{{efn|AES67 devices are required to implement the 1 ms packet time. Minimum theoretical latency is two times packet time. Typical implementations achieve latencies of three times the packet time.}} |96 kHz |
| AudioRail{{efn|Technology retired February 2014{{cite web |url=http://www.audiorail.com/ |accessdate=2015-12-13 |title=AudioRail product line retired (February, 2014)}}}}
| |Synchronous |Cat5 or fiber |Proprietary |None |Cat5=100 m, MM=2 km, SM=70 km |Unlimited |32 channels |4.5 μs + 0.25 μs per hop |48 kHz (32 channels), 96 kHz (16 channels) |
| AVB (using IEEE 1722 transport)
|2011-09 |Enhanced Ethernet |Isochronous |Coexists with other traffic using IEEE 802.1p QoS and admission control |IEEE 1722.1 |Provided by IEEE 802.1 |Cat5=100 m, MM=2 km, SM=70 km |Dependent on latency class and network speed{{cn|date=August 2020}} |Dependent on latency class and network speed{{cn|date=August 2020}} |2 ms or less |192 kHz |
| Aviom Pro64
| |Synchronous |Dedicated Cat5 and fiber |Proprietary |Daisy chain (bidirectional) |Redundant links |Cat5e=120 m, MM=2 km, SM=70 km |9520 km{{efn|The network diameter figure is the largest conceivable network using fiber and 138 Pro64 merger units; derived from maximum allowed response time between control master and furthest slave device.}} |64 channels |322 μs + 1.34 μs per hop |208 kHz{{efn|Pro64 supports a wide variation range from the nominal sample rate values (e.g., 158.8 kHz - 208 kHz).}} |
| CobraNet
|1996 |Ethernet data link layer |Isochronous |coexists with Ethernet |Ethernet, SNMP, MIDI |Provided by IEEE 802.1{{efn|Network redundancy is provided by 802.1 Ethernet: STP, Link aggregation; redundant network connections (DualLink) and redundant devices (BuddyLink) are supported.}} |Cat5=100 m, MM=2 km, SM=70 km |7 hops, 10 km{{efn|Indicated diameter is for {{frac|5|1|3}} ms latency mode. CobraNet has more stringent design rules for its lower latency modes. Requirements are documented in terms of maximum delay and delay variation. A downloadable CAD tool can be used to validate a network design for a given operating mode.}} |Unlimited |{{frac|1|1|3}}, {{frac|2|2|3}} and {{frac|5|1|3}} ms |96 kHz |
| Dante
|2006 |Any IP medium |Isochronous |Coexists with other traffic using DiffServ QoS |Proprietary Control Protocol based on IP, Bonjour |Any L2 or single IP subnet |Provided by IEEE 802.1 and redundant link |Cat5=100 m, MM=2 km, SM=70 km |Dependent on latency |Unlimited |84 μs or greater{{efn|The 84 μs latency value is based on 4 audio samples with this configuration. Note that latency is dependent on topology and bandwidth constraints of the underlying hardware, for example, 800 μs on a 100 Mbit/s Dolby Lake Processor.}} |192 kHz |
| EtherSound {{nowrap|ES-100}}
|2001 |Ethernet data link layer |Isochronous |Dedicated Ethernet |Proprietary |Star, daisy chain, ring |Fault tolerant ring |Cat5=140 m, MM=2 km, SM=70 km |Unlimited |64{{efn|EtherSound allows channels to be dropped and added at each node along the daisy-chain or ring. Although the number of channels between any two locations is limited to 64, depending on routing requirements, the total number of channels on the network may be significantly higher.}} |84–125 μs + 1.4 μs/node |96 kHz |
| EtherSound {{nowrap|ES-Giga}}
| |Ethernet data-link layer |Isochronous |Coexists with Ethernet |Proprietary |Star, Daisy chain, ring |Fault tolerant ring |Cat5=140 m, MM=600 m, SM=70 km |Unlimited |512{{efn|EtherSound allows channels to be dropped and added at each node along the daisy-chain or ring. Although the number of channels between any two locations is limited to 512, depending on routing requirements, the total number of channels on the network may be significantly higher.}} |84–125 μs + 0.5 μs/node |96 kHz |
| Gibson MaGIC
|Ethernet data-link layer |Isochronous | |Proprietary, MIDI | |Cat5=100 m |32 channels | |290 μs or less{{citation |url = http://archive.gibson.com/files/_audio/magic/magic3_0c.pdf |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304224230/http://archive.gibson.com/files/_audio/magic/magic3_0c.pdf |archivedate = 2016-03-04 |url-status = dead |title = Media-accelerated Global Information Carrier Engineering Specification Revision 3.0c }} |192 kHz |
| HyperMAC
| |Isochronous |Dedicated Cat5, Cat6, or fiber |100 Mbit/s+ Ethernet |Point-to-point |Redundant link |Cat6=100 m, MM=500 m, SM=10 km |Unlimited |384+ channels |63 μs |384 kHz and DSD |
| Livewire
|2003 |Any IP medium |Isochronous |Coexists with Ethernet |Ethernet, HTTP, XML |Any L2 or IP network |Provided by IEEE 802.1{{efn|Network redundancy is provided by 802.1 Ethernet: STP, Link aggregation.}} |Cat5=100 m, MM=2 km, SM=70 km |Unlimited |32760 channels |0.75 ms |48 kHz |
| Milan
|2018 |Ethernet |Isochronous |Coexist with other protocols in converged networks |IEEE 1722.1 |Redundant links |Cat5=100 m, MM=2 km, SM=70 km |Dependent on latency class and network speed{{cn|date=August 2020}} |Unlimited |2 ms or less |192 kHz |
| mLAN
|Isochronous |Coexists with IEEE 1394 |IEEE 1394, MIDI |Tree |Provided by IEEE 1394b |IEEE 1394 cable (2 power, 4 signal): 4.5 m |100 m |63 devices (800 Mbit/s) |354.17 μs |192 kHz{{efn|Many mLAN devices have a maximum sampling rate of 96 kHz, but this is a constraint of the stream extraction chips used rather than the core mLAN technology.}} |
| Optocore{{efn|These entries refer to the classic fiber-based Optocore system; no information has yet been obtained regarding the Cat5e version. Confirmation is being sought for the figure of 110 km max distance.}}
| |Dedicated fiber |Synchronous |Dedicated Cat5/fiber |Proprietary |Ring |Redundant ring |MM=700 m, SM=110 km |Unlimited |1008 channels at 48 kHz |96 kHz |
| Q-LAN
|2009 |IP over Gigabit Ethernet |Isochronous |Coexists with other traffic using DiffServ QoS |IP, HTTP, XML |Any L2 or IP network |IEEE 802.1, redundant link, IP routing |Cat5=100 m, MM=550 m, SM=10 km |7 hops or 35 km |Unlimited |1 ms |48 kHz |
| RAVENNA
|2010 |Any IP medium |Isochronous |Coexists with other traffic using DiffServ QoS |IP, RTSP, Bonjour |Any L2 or IP network |Provided by IP and redundant link |Medium dependent |Unlimited |Unlimited |variable{{efn|Latency depends on frame size (packet time), network topology and chosen link offset, with. min. frame size {{=}} 1 sample.}} |384 kHz and DSD |
| Riedel Rocknet
| |Isochronous |Dedicated Cat5/fiber |Proprietary |Ring |Redundant ring |Cat5e=150 m, MM=2 km, SM=20 km |10 km max, 99 devices |400 μs at 48 kHz |96 kHz |
| SoundGrid
| |Ethernet data link layer |Isochronous |Dedicated Ethernet |Proprietary |Star, daisy chain |Device redundancy |Cat5/Cat5e/Cat6/Cat7 =100m, |3 hops |Unlimited |166 μs or greater |96kHz |
| Symetrix SymLink
| |Synchronous |Dedicated Ethernet |Proprietary |Ring |None |Cat5=10 m |16 devices |64 channels |83 μs per hop |48 kHz |
| UMAN
| |IEEE 1394 and Ethernet AVB{{efn|Transport is listed for media streaming and control. Ethernet is also for control.}} |Isochronous and asynchronous |Coexists with Ethernet |IP-based XFN |Daisy chain in ring, tree, or star (with hubs) |fault tolerant ring, device redundancy |Cat5e=50 m, Cat6=75 m, MM=1 km, SM=>2 km |Unlimited |400 channels (48 kHz/24 bit){{efn|UMAN also supports up to 25 channels of H.264 video.}} |354 μs + 125 μs per hop{{efn|Base latency measurement is provided for up to 16 daisy-chained devices.}} |192 kHz |
Notes
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