Transport and Signaling of SVC in IP Networks

The transport of scalable media, and in particular of scalable video conforming to the forthcoming Scalable Video Coding (SVC) technology, presents challenges not only in the video compression technology, but also in transport and signaling. This paper discusses the current status of standardization of the support for scalable media, and SVC in particular, over IP based networks. Both the transport of SVC over the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), and the signaling support-namely the additional mechanisms in the Session Description Protocol (SDP)-are covered. As it turns out, the support of SVC over RTP is not quite as straightforward as that of nonscalable video bit streams. Specifically, the signaling architecture requires an almost complete overhaul, and new protocol mechanisms need to be introduced into the packetization.