The Internet Protocol (IP) provides a comprehensive set of tools to implement video transport systems over communications networks. Obviously, very first applications of video over IP appeared on the Internet and "streaming video" has become a household word in a very short time. As IP becomes the dominant protocol for wireless systems, another application of video over IP is emerging in this significant area.

This tutorial will start with a discussion of the basic types and applications of the Internet video. After a brief outline of the Internet architecture with an emphasis on video transport related issues, a review of video delivery impairments and state-of-the-art remedies will be presented. The factors that make a compressed video stream easy to transport over the Internet will be discussed next. These are important in designing new codecs and in determining the proper usage of the existing ones. After a review of the "lower" (IP, UDP, TCP) and "higher" (RTSP, SDP, SIP) layer Internet protocols that make the design of a complete communications system possible, the tutorial will focus on the "transport" layer. The current techniques for effective video transport over IP will be reviewed in detail through an investigation of selected video payload formats for the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) including H.261, MJPEG, MPEG 1&2, H.263+ and MPEG-4. Finally, real-life case studies and the current state of related industrial activities will be outlined.

Table of Contents

1. Video over IP
     a. Applications & basic types of the Internet video
     b. The Internet architecture overview
2. Video delivery impairments and remedies
     a. Delay
     b. Packet loss & loss resilience
     c. Quality-of-service
     d. Avoiding congestion
3. Overview of the Internet Protocol (IP) Suite
     a. Protocols
     b. Protocol stacks
     c. Functions of "lower" and "upper" layers
4. Transport Layer
     a. Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP)
     b. Real-time Control Protocol (RTCP)
     c. RTP/RTCP usage details
5. RTP Payload Format Examples
     a. H.261
     b. MJPEG
     c. MPEG 1&2
     d. H.263+
     e. MPEG 4
6. Applications
     a. Proprietary vs open solutions
     b. Industry consortiums - ISMA, 3GPP
     c. An example: "SALSA - System for Audio/Visual Live Services and Applications"

M. Reha Civanlar received his B.S., M.S. from Middle East Tech. Univ., Turkey, and Ph.D. from NCSU, all in EE. From 1984 to 1987, he was a researcher in the Center for Comm. and Signal Proc. where he worked on image restoration, coding and communications systems. In 1988, he joined Pixel Machines in Bell Labs. Since 1991, he is a member of Visual Comm. Research Dept. of AT&T Labs, where he became a department head in 1999. He is recipient of the ASSP Senior Award in 1995. He is an editor for IEEE Trans. on Comm., Trans. on Multimedia, and EURASIP Image Comm. and a member of IMDSP and MMSP technical committees. Dr. Civanlar's current interests include networked video and multimedia with particular emphasis on the Internet applications and video coding.