Audio Video Transport WG                                  Sassan Ahmadi
INTERNET-DRAFT                                               Nokia Inc.
Expires: August 2, 2005                                February 2, 2005


      Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) Payload Format for the
        Variable-Rate Multimode Wideband (VMR-WB) Audio Codec
                <draft-ietf-avt-rtp-vmr-wb-10.txt>


Status of this Memo

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   patent or other IPR claims of which I am aware have been disclosed,
   and any of which I become aware will be disclosed, in accordance
   with RFC 3668.

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Abstract

   This document specifies a real-time transport protocol (RTP) payload
   format to be used for the Variable-Rate Multimode Wideband (VMR-WB)
   speech codec. The payload format is designed to be able to
   interoperate with existing VMR-WB transport formats on non-IP
   networks. A media type registration is included for VMR-WB RTP
   payload format.

   VMR-WB is a variable-rate multimode wideband speech codec that has a
   number of operating modes, one of which is interoperable with AMR-WB
   (i.e., RFC 3267) audio codec at certain rates. Therefore, provisions
   have been made in this draft to facilitate and simplify data packet
   exchange between VMR-WB and AMR-WB in the interoperable mode with no
   transcoding function involved.



Sassan Ahmadi                                                  [page 1]


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Table of Contents

1.Introduction.................................................2
2.Conventions and Acronyms.....................................3
3.The Variable-Rate Multimode Wideband (VMR-WB) Speech Codec...4
   3.1. Narrowband Speech Processing...........................5
   3.2. Continuous vs. Discontinuous Transmission..............5
   3.3. Support for Multi-Channel Session......................6
4. Robustness against Packet Loss..............................6
   4.1. Forward Error Correction (FEC).........................6
   4.2. Frame Interleaving and Multi-Frame Encapsulation.......7
5. VMR-WB Voice over IP scenarios..............................8
   5.1. IP Terminal to IP Terminal.............................8
   5.2. GW to IP Terminal......................................9
   5.3. GW to GW (Between VMR-WB and AMR-WB Enabled Terminals).9
   5.4. GW to GW (Between two VMR-WB Enabled Terminals).......10
6. VMR-WB RTP Payload Formats.................................11
   6.1. RTP Header Usage.............................. .......11
   6.2. Header-Free Payload Format............................12
   6.3. Octet-Aligned Payload Format..........................13
      6.3.1. Payload Structure................................13
      6.3.2. The Payload Header...............................13
      6.3.3. The Payload Table of Contents....................17
      6.3.4. Speech Data......................................18
      6.3.5. Payload Example..................................19
      Basic Single Channel Payload Carrying Multiple Frames
   6.4. Implementation Considerations.........................19
7. Congestion Control.........................................20
8. Security Considerations....................................20
   8.1. Confidentiality.......................................21
   8.2. Authentication........................................21
   8.3. Decoding Validation and Provision for Lost or Late
        Packets...............................................21
9. Payload Format Parameters..................................22
   9.1. VMR-WB RTP Payload MIME Registration..................22
   9.2. Mapping MIME Parameters into SDP......................24
   9.3. Offer-Answer Model Considerations.....................25
10. IANA Considerations.......................................26
11. Acknowledgements..........................................26
References....................................................27
   Normative References.......................................27
   Informative References.....................................27
Author's Address..............................................28
IPR Notice....................................................28
Copyright Notice..............................................29


1. Introduction

   This document specifies the payload format for packetization
   of VMR-WB encoded speech signals into the Real-time Transport
   Protocol (RTP) [3]. The VMR-WB payload formats support
   transmission of single and multiple channels, frame interleaving,

Sassan Ahmadi                                                  [page 2]


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   multiple frames per payload, header-free payload, the use of mode
   switching, and interoperation with existing VMR-WB transport formats
   on non-IP networks, as described in Section 3.

   The payload format is described in Section 6. The VMR-WB file
   format; i.e., for transport of VMR-WB speech data in storage mode
   applications such as email, is specified in [7]. In Section 9, a
   media type registration for VMR-WB RTP payload format is provided.

   Since VMR-WB is interoperable with AMR-WB at certain rates,
   an attempt has been made throughout this document to maximize
   the similarities with RFC 3267 while optimizing the payload
   format for the non-interoperable modes of the VMR-WB codec.


2. Conventions and Acronyms

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL
   NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as
   described in RFC2119 [2].

   The following acronyms are used in this document:

    3GPP   - The Third Generation Partnership Project
    3GPP2  - The Third Generation Partnership Project 2
    CDMA   - Code Division Multiple Access
    WCDMA  - Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
    GSM    - Global System for Mobile Communications
    AMR-WB - Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband Codec
    VMR-WB - Variable-Rate Multimode Wideband Codec
    CMR    - Codec Mode Request
    GW     - Gateway
    DTX    - Discontinuous Transmission
    FEC    - Forward Error Correction
    SID    - Silence Descriptor
    TrFO   - Transcoder-Free Operation
    UDP    - User Datagram Protocol
    RTP    - Real-Time Transport Protocol
    RTCP   - RTP Control Protocol
    MIME   - Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension
    SDP    - Session Description Protocol
    VoIP   - Voice-over-IP

   The term "interoperable mode" in this document refers to VMR-WB
   mode 3, which is interoperable with AMR-WB codec modes 0, 1, and 2.

   The term "non-interoperable modes" in this document refers to
   VMR-WB modes 0, 1, and 2.

   The term "frame-block" is used in this document to describe
   the time-synchronized set of speech frames in a multi-channel


Sassan Ahmadi                                                  [page 3]


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   VMR-WB session. In particular, in an N-channel session, a
   frame-block will contain N speech frames, one from each of the
   channels, and all N speech frames represent exactly the same time
   period.


3. The Variable-Rate Multimode Wideband (VMR-WB) Speech Codec

   VMR-WB is the wideband speech-coding standard developed by
   Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) for
   encoding/decoding wideband/narrowband speech content in
   multimedia services in 3G CDMA cellular systems [1]. VMR-WB is a
   source-controlled variable-rate multimode wideband speech
   codec. It has a number of operating modes, where each mode is
   a tradeoff between voice quality and average data rate. The
   operating mode in VMR-WB (as shown in Table 2) is chosen based on
   the traffic condition of the network and the desired quality of
   service. The desired average data rate (ADR) in each mode
   is obtained by encoding speech frames at permissible rates (as shown
   in Tables 1 and 3) compliant with CDMA2000 system depending on the
   instantaneous characteristics of input speech and the maximum and
   minimum rate constraints imposed by the network operator.

   While VMR-WB is a native CDMA codec complying with
   all CDMA system requirements, it is further interoperable
   with AMR-WB [4,12] at 12.65, 8.85, and 6.60 kbps. This is due to
   the fact that VMR-WB and AMR-WB share the same core technology. This
   feature enables Transcoder Free (TrFO) interconnections between
   VMR-WB and AMR-WB across different wireless/wireline systems (e.g.,
   GSM/WCDMA and CDMA2000) without use of unnecessary complex media
   format conversion.

   Note that the concept of mode in VMR-WB is different from that of
   AMR-WB where each fixed-rate AMR-WB codec mode is adapted to
   prevailing channel conditions by a tradeoff between total number of
   source-coding and channel-coding bits.

   VMR-WB is able to transition between various modes with no
   degradation in voice quality that is attributable to the mode
   switching itself. The operating mode of the VMR-WB encoder
   may be switched seamlessly without prior knowledge of the
   decoder. Any non-interoperable mode (i.e., VMR-WB modes 0, 1, or 2)
   can be chosen depending on the traffic conditions (e.g.,
   network congestion) and the desired quality of service.

   While in the interoperable mode (i.e., VMR-WB mode 3), mode
   switching between VMR-WB modes is not allowed because there is only
   one AMR-WB interoperable mode in VMR-WB. Since the AMR-WB codec
   may request a mode change, depending on channel conditions,
   in-band data included in VMR-WB frame structure (see Section
   8 of [1] for more details), is used during an interoperable
   interconnection to switch between VMR-WB frame types 0, 1, and 2 in
   VMR-WB mode 3 (corresponding to AMR-WB codec modes 0, 1, or 2).

Sassan Ahmadi                                                  [page 4]


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   As mentioned earlier, VMR-WB is compliant with CDMA2000 system
   with the permissible encoding rates shown in Table 1.

   +---------------------------+-----------------+---------------+
   |        Frame Type         | Bits per Packet | Encoding Rate |
   |                           |   (Frame Size)  |     (kbps)    |
   +---------------------------+-----------------+---------------+
   | Full-Rate                 |      266        |     13.3      |
   | Half-Rate                 |      124        |      6.2      |
   | Quarter-Rate              |       54        |      2.7      |
   | Eighth-Rate               |       20        |      1.0      |
   | Blank                     |        0        |       0       |
   | Erasure                   |        0        |       0       |
   +---------------------------+-----------------+---------------+
   Table 1: CDMA2000 system permissible frame types and their
   associated encoding rates

   VMR-WB is robust to high percentage of frame loss and frames with
   corrupted rate information. The reception of an Erasure
   (SPEECH_LOST) frame type at decoder invokes the built-in frame error
   concealment mechanism. The built-in frame error concealment
   mechanism in VMR-WB conceals the effect of lost frames by exploiting
   in-band data and the information available in the previous frames.


3.1. Narrowband Speech Processing

   VMR-WB has the capability to operate with either 16000 Hz or 8000 Hz
   sampled input/output speech signals in all modes of operation [1].
   The VMR-WB decoder does not require a priori knowledge about the
   sampling rate of the original media (i.e., speech/audio signals
   sampled at 8 or 16 kHz) at the input of the encoder. The VMR-WB
   decoder, by default, generates 16000 Hz wideband output regardless
   of the encoder input sampling frequency. Depending on the
   application, the decoder can be configured to generate 8000 Hz
   output, as well.

   Therefore, while this specification defines a 16000 Hz RTP clock
   rate for VMR-WB codec, the injection and processing of 8000 Hz
   narrowband media during a session is also allowed; however, a
   16000 Hz RTP clock rate MUST always be used.

   The choice of VMR-WB output sampling frequency depends on the
   implementation and the audio acoustic capabilities of the receiving
   side.


3.2. Continuous vs. Discontinuous Transmission

   The circuit-switched operation of VMR-WB within a CDMA
   network requires continuous transmission of the speech data
   during a conversation. The intrinsic source-controlled
   variable-rate feature of the CDMA speech codecs is required

Sassan Ahmadi                                                  [page 5]


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   for optimal operation of the CDMA system and interference
   control. However, VMR-WB has the capability to operate in a
   discontinuous transmission mode for some packet-switched
   applications over IP networks (e.g., VoIP), where the number of
   transmitted bits and packets during silence period are
   reduced to a minimum. The VMR-WB DTX operation is similar to
   that of AMR-WB [4,12].


3.3 Support for Multi-Channel Session

   The octet-aligned RTP payload format defined in this document
   supports multi-channel audio content (e.g., a stereophonic speech
   session). Although VMR-WB codec itself does not support encoding of
   multi-channel audio content into a single bit stream, it can be used
   to separately encode and decode each of the individual channels.

   To transport the separately encoded multi-channel content, the
   speech frames for all channels that are framed and encoded for the
   same 20 ms periods are logically collected in a frame-block.

   At the session setup, out-of-band signaling must be used to
   indicate the number of channels in the session and the order
   of the speech frames from different channels in each frame-block.
   When using SDP for signaling (see Section 9.2 for more
   details), the number of channels is specified in the rtpmap
   attribute and the order of channels carried in each frame-block
   is implied by the number of channels as specified in Section
   4.1 in [6].


4. Robustness against Packet Loss

   The octet-aligned payload format described in this document
   (see Section 6 for more details) supports several features
   including forward error correction (FEC) and frame interleaving
   in order to increase robustness against lost packets.


4.1. Forward Error Correction (FEC)

   The simple scheme of repetition of previously sent data is
   one way of achieving FEC. Another possible scheme, which is
   more bandwidth efficient is to use payload external FEC; e.g.,
   RFC2733 [8], which generates extra packets containing repair data.

   The repetition method involves the simple retransmission of
   previously transmitted frame-blocks together with the current
   frame-block(s). This is done by using a sliding window to
   group the speech frame-blocks to send in each payload. Figure
   1 illustrates an example.

   In this example each frame-block is retransmitted one time in

Sassan Ahmadi                                                  [page 6]


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   the following RTP payload packet.  Here, f(n-2)..f(n+4)
   denotes a sequence of speech frame-blocks and p(n-1)..p(n+4)
   a sequence of payload packets.

   The use of this approach does not require signaling at the
   session setup. In other words, the speech sender can choose
   to use this scheme without consulting the receiver. This is
   because a packet containing redundant frames will not look
   different from a packet with only new frames.  The receiver
   may receive multiple copies or versions of a frame for a

--+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--
  | f(n-2) | f(n-1) |  f(n)  | f(n+1) | f(n+2) | f(n+3) | f(n+4) |
--+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--

  <---- p(n-1) ---->
           <----- p(n) ----->
                    <---- p(n+1) ---->
                             <---- p(n+2) ---->
                                      <---- p(n+3) ---->
                                               <---- p(n+4) ---->

           Figure 1: An example of redundant transmission.

   certain timestamp if no packet is lost.  If multiple versions
   of the same speech frame are received, it is RECOMMENDED that
   the highest rate be used by the speech decoder.

   This redundancy scheme provides the same functionality as the
   one described in RFC 2198 "RTP Payload for Redundant Audio
   Data" [10]. In most cases the mechanism in this payload
   format is more efficient and simpler than requiring both
   endpoints to support RFC 2198. If the spread in time required
   between the primary and redundant encodings is larger than 5
   frame times, the bandwidth overhead of RFC 2198 will be lower.

   The sender is responsible for selecting an appropriate amount
   of redundancy based on feedback about the channel, e.g., in
   RTCP receiver reports, or network traffic. A sender SHOULD NOT
   base selection of FEC on the CMR, as this parameter most probably
   was set based on non-IP information. The sender is also responsible
   for avoiding congestion, which may be aggravated by redundant
   transmission (see Section 7).


4.2. Frame Interleaving and Multi-Frame Encapsulation

   To decrease protocol overhead, the octet-aligned payload format,
   described in Section 6, allows several speech frame-blocks to be
   encapsulated into a single RTP packet. One of the drawbacks of such
   approach is that in case of packet loss this means loss of several
   consecutive speech frame-blocks, which usually causes clearly
   audible distortion in the reconstructed speech.

Sassan Ahmadi                                                  [page 7]


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   Interleaving of frame-blocks can improve the speech quality
   in such cases by distributing the consecutive losses into a
   series of single frame-block losses. However, interleaving
   and bundling several frame-blocks per payload will also
   increase end-to-end delay and is therefore not appropriate
   for all types of applications. Streaming applications will
   most likely be able to exploit interleaving to improve speech
   quality in lossy transmission conditions.

   The octet-aligned payload format supports the use of frame
   interleaving as an option. For the encoder (speech sender) to
   use frame interleaving in its outbound RTP packets for a
   given session, the decoder (speech receiver) needs to
   indicate its support via out-of-band means (see Section 9).


5. VMR-WB Voice over IP Scenarios

5.1 IP Terminal to IP Terminal

   The primary scenario for this payload format is IP end-to-end
   between two terminals incorporating VMR-WB codec, as shown in
   Figure 2. Nevertheless, this scenario can be generalized to an
   interoperable interconnection between VMR-WB and AMR-WB enabled IP
   terminals using the offer-answer model described in Section 9.3.
   This payload format is expected to be useful for both conversational
   and streaming services.

       +----------+                         +----------+
       |          |                         |          |
       | TERMINAL |<----------------------->| TERMINAL |
       |          |    VMR-WB/RTP/UDP/IP    |          |
       +----------+                         +----------+
                     (or AMR-WB/RTP/UDP/IP)

          Figure 2: IP terminal to IP terminal

   A conversational service puts requirements on the payload
   format. Low delay is a very important factor, i.e. fewer
   speech frame-blocks per payload packet. Low overhead is also
   required when the payload format traverses across low bandwidth
   links, especially if the frequency of packets will be high.

   Streaming service has less strict real-time requirements and
   therefore can use a larger number of frame-blocks per packet
   than conversational service. This reduces the overhead from
   IP, UDP, and RTP headers. However, including several
   frame-blocks per packet makes the transmission more vulnerable to
   packet loss, so interleaving may be used to reduce the effect
   of packet loss on speech quality. A streaming server handling
   a large number of clients also needs a payload format that
   requires as few resources as possible when doing packetization.


Sassan Ahmadi                                                  [page 8]


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   For VMR-WB enabled IP terminals at both ends, depending on the
   implementation, all modes of the VMR-WB codec can be used in this
   scenario. Also both header-free and octet-aligned payload
   formats, see Section 6 for details, can be utilized. For the
   interoperable interconnection between VMR-WB and AMR-WB, only VMR-WB
   mode 3 is used and all restrictions described in Section 9.3 apply.


5.2 GW to IP Terminal

   Another scenario occurs when VMR-WB encoded speech will be
   transmitted from a non-IP system (e.g., 3GPP2/CDMA2000 network) to
   an IP terminal, and/or vice versa, as depicted in Figure 3.

    VMR-WB over
3GPP2/CDMA2000 network
                   +------+                        +----------+
                   |      |                        |          |
   <-------------->|  GW  |<---------------------->| TERMINAL |
                   |      |   VMR-WB/RTP/UDP/IP    |          |
                   +------+                        +----------+
                       |
                       |           IP network
                       |

                Figure 3: GW to VoIP terminal scenario

   VMR-WB's capability to seamlessly switch between operational
   modes is exploited in CDMA (non-IP) networks to optimize
   speech quality for a given traffic condition. To preserve
   this functionality in scenarios including a gateway to an IP
   network using the octet-aligned payload format, a codec mode
   request (CMR) field is considered. The gateway will be
   responsible for forwarding the CMR between the non-IP and IP
   parts in both directions. The IP terminal SHOULD follow the
   CMR forwarded by the gateway to optimize speech quality going
   to the non-IP decoder. The mode control algorithm in the
   gateway SHOULD accommodate the delay imposed by the IP
   network on the response to CMR by the IP terminal.

   The IP terminal SHOULD NOT set the CMR (see Section 6.3.2),
   but the gateway can set the CMR value on frames going toward
   the encoder in the non-IP part to optimize speech quality
   from that encoder to the gateway and to perform congestion control
   on the IP network.


5.3 GW to GW (Between VMR-WB and AMR-WB Enabled Terminals)

   A third likely scenario is that RTP/UDP/IP is used as
   transport between two non-IP systems, i.e., IP is originated
   and terminated in gateways on both sides of the IP transport,
   as illustrated in Figure 4. This is the most likely scenario

Sassan Ahmadi                                                  [page 9]


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   for an interoperable interconnection between 3GPP/(GSM-WCDMA)/AMR-WB
   and 3GPP2/CDMA2000/VMR-WB enabled mobile stations. In this scenario,
   the VMR-WB enabled terminal also declares itself capable of AMR-WB
   with restricted mode set as described in Section 9.3. The CMR value
   may be set in packets received by the gateways on the IP network
   side.  The gateway should forward to the non-IP side a CMR value
   that is the minimum of three values (1) the CMR value it receives on
   the IP side; (2) a CMR value it may choose for congestion control of
   transmission on the IP side; and (3) the CMR value based on its
   estimate of reception quality on the non-IP side. The details of the
   traffic control algorithm are left to the implementation.

   VMR-WB over                                          AMR-WB over
3GPP2/CDMA2000 network                         3GPP/(GSM-WCDMA) network

                  +------+                   +------+
 (AMR-WB Payload) |      | AMR-WB/RTP/UDP/IP |      | (AMR-WB Payload)
<---------------->|  GW  |<----------------->|  GW  |<---------------->
                  |      |                   |      |
                  +------+                   +------+
                     |        IP network        |
                     |                          |

            Figure 4: GW to GW scenario (AMR-WB <-> VMR-WB
                   interoperable interconnection)

   During and upon initiation of an interoperable interconnection
   between VMR-WB and AMR-WB, only VMR-WB mode 3 can be used. There are
   three Frame Types (i.e., FT=0, 1, or 2 see Table 3) within this mode
   that are compatible with AMR-WB codec modes 0, 1, and 2,
   respectively. If the AMR-WB codec is engaged in an interoperable
   interconnection with VMR-WB, the active AMR-WB codec mode set needs
   to be limited to 0, 1, and 2.


5.4 GW to GW (Between two VMR-WB Enabled Terminals)

   The fourth example VoIP scenario comprises a RTP/UDP/IP transport

     VMR-WB over                                       VMR-WB over
3GPP2/CDMA2000 network                           3GPP2/CDMA2000 network

                   +------+                   +------+
                   |      |                   |      |
     <------------>|  GW  |<----------------->|  GW  |<------------>
                   |      | VMR-WB/RTP/UDP/IP |      |
                   +------+                   +------+
                       |         IP network       |
                       |                          |

     Figure 5: GW to GW scenario (a CDMA2000 MS-to-MS VoIP scenario)

   between two non-IP systems, i.e., IP is originated and terminated in

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 10]


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   gateways on both sides of the IP transport, as illustrated in Figure
   5. This is the most likely scenario for Mobile Station-to-Mobile
   Station (MS-to-MS) Transcoder-Free (TrFO) interconnection between
   two 3GPP2/CDMA2000 terminals that both use VMR-WB codec.


6. VMR-WB RTP Payload Formats

   For a given session, the payload format can be either header-free or
   octet-aligned, depending on the mode of operation that is
   established for the session via out-of-band means and the
   application.

   The header-free payload format is designed for maximum
   bandwidth efficiency, simplicity, and low latency. Only one
   codec data frame can be sent in each header-free payload
   format packet. None of the payload header fields or ToC entries is
   present (same consideration is also made in [11]).

   In the octet-aligned payload format, all the fields in a
   payload, including payload header, table of contents entries,
   and speech frames themselves, are individually aligned to
   octet boundaries to make implementations efficient.

   Note that octet alignment of a field or payload means that
   the last octet is padded with zeroes in the least significant
   bits to fill the octet. Also note that this padding is
   separate from padding indicated by the P bit in the RTP header.

   Between the two payload formats, only the octet-aligned
   format has the capability to use the interleaving to make the
   speech transport robust to packet loss.

   The VMR-WB octet-aligned payload format in the interoperable
   mode is identical to that of AMR-WB (i.e., RFC 3267).


6.1. RTP Header Usage

   The format of the RTP header is specified in [3]. This
   payload format uses the fields of the header in a manner
   consistent with that specification.

   The RTP timestamp corresponds to the sampling instant of the
   first sample encoded for the first frame-block in the packet.
   The timestamp clock frequency is the same as the default sampling
   frequency (i.e., 16 kHz), so the timestamp unit is in samples.

   The duration of one speech frame-block is 20 ms for VMR-WB.
   For normal wideband operation of VMR-WB, the input/output media
   sampling frequency is 16 kHz, corresponding to 320 samples
   per frame from each channel. Thus, the timestamp is increased
   by 320 for VMR-WB for each consecutive frame-block.

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 11]


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   The VMR-WB codec is capable of processing speech/audio signals
   sampled at 8 kHz. By default, the VMR-WB decoder output sampling
   frequency is 16 kHz. Depending on the application, the decoder can
   be configured to generate 8 kHz output sampling frequency, as well.
   Since the VMR-WB RTP payload formats for the 8 and 16 kHz sampled
   media are identical and the VMR-WB decoder does not need a priori
   knowledge about the encoder input sampling frequency, a fixed RTP
   clock rate of 16000 Hz is defined for VMR-WB codec. This would allow
   injection or processing of 8 kHz sampled speech/audio media without
   having to change the RTP clock rate during a session. Note that the
   timestamp is incremented by 320 per frame-block for 8 kHz sampled
   media, as well.

   A packet may contain multiple frame-blocks of encoded speech or
   comfort noise parameters. If interleaving is employed, the
   frame-blocks encapsulated into a payload are picked according
   to the interleaving rules as defined in Section 6.3.2. Otherwise,
   each packet covers a period of one or more contiguous 20 ms
   frame-block intervals. In case the data from all the channels for a
   particular frame-block in the period is missing, for example at a
   gateway from some other transport format, it is possible to indicate
   that no data is present for that frame-block rather than breaking a
   multi-frame-block packet into two, as explained in Section 6.3.2.

   No matter which payload format is used, the RTP payload is always
   made an integral number of octets long by padding with zero bits
   if necessary. If additional padding is required to bring the payload
   length to a larger multiple of octets or for some other purpose,
   then the P bit in the RTP header MAY be set and padding appended as
   specified in [3].

   The RTP header marker bit (M) SHALL be always set to 0 if the
   VMR-WB codec operates in continuous transmission. When operating in
   discontinuous transmission (DTX), the RTP header marker bit SHALL be
   set to 1 if the first frame-block carried in the packet contains a
   speech frame, which is the first in a talkspurt.  For all other
   packets the marker bit SHALL be set to zero (M=0).

   The assignment of an RTP payload type for this payload
   format is outside the scope of this document, and will not be
   specified here. It is expected that the RTP profile under
   which this payload format is being used will assign a payload
   type for this encoding or specify that the payload type is to
   be bound dynamically (see Section 9).


6.2. Header-Free Payload Format

   The header-free payload format is designed for maximum
   bandwidth efficiency, simplicity, and minimum delay. Only one
   speech data frame presents in each header-free payload format
   packet. None of the payload header fields or ToC entries is present.
   The encoding rate for the speech frame can be determined from the

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 12]


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   length of the speech data frame, since there is only one speech data
   frame in each header-free payload format.

   The use of the RTP header fields for header-free payload format
   is the same as the corresponding one for the octet-aligned
   payload format.  The detailed bit mapping of speech data
   packets permissible for this payload format is described in
   Section 8 of [1]. Since the header-free payload format is not
   compatible with AMR-WB RTP payload, only non-interoperable modes of
   VMR-WB SHALL be used with this payload format. That is FT=0,1,2, and
   9 SHALL NOT be used with header-free payload format.

    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
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                      RTP Header [3]                           |
   +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
   |                                                               |
   +          ONLY one speech data frame           +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                                               |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Note that the mode of operation, using this payload format,
   is decided by the transmitting (encoder) site. The default
   mode of operation for VMR-WB encoder is mode 0 [1]. The mode
   change request MAY also be sent through non-RTP means, which
   is out of the scope of this specification.


6.3. Octet-Aligned Payload Format

6.3.1 Payload Structure

   The complete payload consists of a payload header, a payload table
   of contents, and speech data representing one or more speech
   frame-blocks. The following diagram shows the general payload format
   layout:

   +----------------+-------------------+----------------
   | Payload header | Table of contents | Speech data ...
   +----------------+-------------------+----------------

6.3.2. The Payload Header

   In octet-aligned payload format the payload header consists
   of a 4-bit CMR, 4 reserved bits, and optionally, an 8 bit
   interleaving header, as shown below

    0                   1
    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- - - - - - - -
   |  CMR  |R|R|R|R|  ILL  |  ILP  |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- - - - - - - -

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 13]


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   CMR (4 bits): Indicates a codec mode request sent to the speech
   encoder at the site of the receiver of this payload. CMR value 15
   indicates that no mode request is present, and other unused values
   are reserved for future use.

   The value of the CMR field is set according to the following Table:

   +-------+----------------------------------------------------------+
   | CMR   |                 VMR-WB Operating Modes                   |
   +-------+----------------------------------------------------------+
   |   0   | VMR-WB mode 3 (AMR-WB interoperable mode at 6.60 kbps)   |
   |   1   | VMR-WB mode 3 (AMR-WB interoperable mode at 8.85 kbps)   |
   |   2   | VMR-WB mode 3 (AMR-WB interoperable mode at 12.65 kbps)  |
   |   3   | VMR-WB mode 2                                            |
   |   4   | VMR-WB mode 1                                            |
   |   5   | VMR-WB mode 0                                            |
   |   6   | VMR-WB mode 2 with maximum half-rate encoding            |
   | 7-14  | (reserved)                                               |
   |  15   | No Preference (no mode request is present)               |
   +-------+----------------------------------------------------------+
   Table 2: List of valid CMR values and their associated VMR-WB
   operating modes.

   R: is a reserved bit that MUST be set to zero. The receiver
   MUST ignore all R bits.

   ILL (4 bits, unsigned integer): This is an OPTIONAL field
   that is present only if interleaving is signaled out-of-band
   for the session. ILL=L indicates to the receiver that the
   interleaving length is L+1, in number of frame-blocks.

   ILP (4 bits, unsigned integer): This is an OPTIONAL field
   that is present only if interleaving is signaled. ILP MUST
   take a value between 0 and ILL, inclusive, indicating the
   interleaving index for frame-blocks in this payload in the
   interleave group. If the value of ILP is found greater than
   ILL, the payload SHOULD be discarded.

   ILL and ILP fields MUST be present in each packet in a
   session if interleaving is signaled for the session.

   The mode request received in the CMR field is valid until the
   next CMR is received, i.e. a newly received CMR value
   overrides the previous one. Therefore, if a terminal
   continuously wishes to receive frames in the same mode x, it
   needs to set CMR=x for all its outbound payloads, and if a
   terminal has no preference in which mode to receive, it
   SHOULD set CMR=15 in all its outbound payloads.

   If receiving a payload with a CMR value, which is not valid,
   the CMR MUST be ignored by the receiver.

   In a multi-channel session, CMR SHOULD be interpreted by the

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 14]


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   receiver of the payload as the desired encoding mode for all
   the channels in the session, if the network allows.

   There are two factors that affect the VMR-WB mode selection, (i) the
   performance of any CDMA link connected via a gateway (e.g., in a GW
   to IP terminal scenario), and (ii) the congestion state of an IP
   network. The CDMA link performance is signaled via the CMR field,
   which is not used by IP-only end-points. The IP network state is
   monitored using, for example, RTCP. A sender needs to select the
   operating mode to satisfy both these constraints (see Section 7).

   The encoder SHOULD follow a received mode request, but MAY
   change to a different mode if the network necessitates it,
   for example to control congestion.

   The CMR field MUST be set to 15 for packets sent to a
   multicast group. The encoder in the speech sender SHOULD
   ignore mode requests when sending speech to a multicast
   session but MAY use RTCP feedback information as a hint that
   a mode change is needed.

   If interleaving option is utilized, interleaving MUST be performed
   on a frame-block basis as opposed to a frame basis in a
   multi-channel session.

   The following example illustrates the arrangement of speech
   frame-blocks in an interleave group during an interleave
   session. Here we assume ILL=L for the interleave group that starts
   at speech frame-block n. We also assume that the first payload
   packet of the interleave group is s and the number of speech
   frame-blocks carried in each payload is N. Then we will have

    Payload s (the first packet of this interleave group):
      ILL=L, ILP=0,

    Carry frame-blocks: n, n+(L+1), n+2*(L+1),..., n+(N-1)*(L+1)

    Payload s+1 (the second packet of this interleave group):
      ILL=L, ILP=1,
      Carry frame-blocks: n+1, n+1+(L+1), n+1+2*(L+1),..., n+1+
      (N-1)*(L+1)

        ...

    Payload s+L (the last packet of this interleave group):
      ILL=L, ILP=L,
      Carry frame-blocks: n+L, n+L+(L+1), n+L+2*(L+1), ..., n+L+
      (N-1)*(L+1)

   The next interleave group will start at frame-block n+N*(L+1).
   There will be no interleaving effect unless the number of
   frame-blocks per packet (N) is at least 2. Moreover, the
   number of frame-blocks per payload (N) and the value of ILL

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 15]


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   MUST NOT be changed inside an interleave group. In other
   words, all payloads in an interleave group MUST have the same
   ILL and MUST contain the same number of speech frame-blocks.

   The sender of the payload MUST only apply interleaving if the
   receiver has signaled its use through out-of-band means. Since
   interleaving will increase buffering requirements at the receiver,
   the receiver uses MIME parameter "interleaving=I" to set the maximum
   number of frame-blocks allowed in an interleaving group to I.

   When performing interleaving the sender MUST use a proper number of
   frame-blocks per payload (N) and ILL so that the resulting size of
   an interleave group is less than or equal to I, i.e., N*(L+1)<=I.

   The following example shows the ToC of three consecutive
   packets, each carrying 3 frame-blocks, in an interleaved two
   channel session. Here, the two channels are left (L) and right (R)
   with L coming before R, and the interleaving length is 3 (i.e.,
   ILL=2). This makes the interleave group 9 frame-blocks large.

   Packet #1
   ---------

   ILL=2, ILP=0:
   +----+----+----+----+----+----+
   | 1L | 1R | 4L | 4R | 7L | 7R |
   +----+----+----+----+----+----+
   |<------->|<------->|<------->|
      Frame     Frame     Frame
     Block 1   Block 4   Block 7

   Packet #2
   ---------

   ILL=2, ILP=1:

   +----+----+----+----+----+----+
   | 2L | 2R | 5L | 5R | 8L | 8R |
   +----+----+----+----+----+----+
   |<------->|<------->|<------->|
      Frame     Frame     Frame
     Block 2   Block 5   Block 8

   Packet #3
   ---------

   ILL=2, ILP=2:
   +----+----+----+----+----+----+
   | 3L | 3R | 6L | 6R | 9L | 9R |
   +----+----+----+----+----+----+
   |<------->|<------->|<------->|
      Frame     Frame     Frame
     Block 3   Block 6   Block 9

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 16]


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6.3.3. The Payload Table of Contents

   The table of contents (ToC) in octet-aligned payload format
   consists of a list of ToC entries where each entry
   corresponds to a speech frame carried in the payload, i.e.,
   when interleaving is used, the frame-blocks in the ToC will
   almost never be placed consecutive in time. Instead, the
   presence and order of the frame-blocks in a packet will follow the
   pattern described in 6.3.2.

   +---------------------+
   | list of ToC entries |
   +---------------------+

   A ToC entry for the octet-aligned payload format is as follows:

    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |F|  FT   |Q|P|P|
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   The table of contents (ToC) consists of a list of ToC
   entries, each representing a speech frame.

   F (1 bit): If set to 1, indicates that this frame is followed
   by another speech frame in this payload; if set to 0,
   indicates that this frame is the last frame in this payload.

   FT (4 bits): Frame type index whose value is chosen according
   to Table 3.

   During the interoperable mode, FT=14 (SPEECH_LOST) and FT=15
   (NO_DATA) are used to indicate frames that are either lost or
   not being transmitted in this payload, respectively. FT=14 or
   15 MAY be used in the non-interoperable modes to indicate
   frame erasure or blank frame, respectively (see Section 2.1
   of [1]).

   If a payload with an invalid FT value is received, the payload MUST
   be discarded. Note that for ToC entries with FT=14 or 15, there will
   be no corresponding speech frame in the payload.

   Depending on the application and the mode of operation of VMR-WB,
   any combination of the permissible frame types (FT) shown in Table 3
   MAY be used.

   Q (1 bit): Frame quality indicator. If set to 0, indicates
   the corresponding frame is corrupted. During the
   interoperable mode, the receiver side (with AMR-WB codec)
   should set the RX_TYPE to either SPEECH_BAD or SID_BAD
   depending on the frame type (FT), if Q=0. The VMR-WB encoder
   always sets Q bit to 1. The VMR-WB decoder may ignore the Q bit.


Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 17]


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   P bits: Padding bits MUST be set to zero and MUST be ignored by
   a receiver.

+----+--------------------------------------------+-------------------+
| FT |                Encoding Rate               | Frame Size (Bits) |
+----+--------------------------------------------+-------------------+
| 0  | Interoperable Full-Rate (AMR-WB 6.60 kbps) |       132         |
| 1  | Interoperable Full-Rate (AMR-WB 8.85 kbps) |       177         |
| 2  | Interoperable Full-Rate (AMR-WB 12.65 kbps)|       253         |
| 3  | Full-Rate 13.3 kbps                        |       266         |
| 4  | Half-Rate 6.2 kbps                         |       124         |
| 5  | Quarter-Rate 2.7 kbps                      |        54         |
| 6  | Eighth-Rate 1.0 kbps                       |        20         |
| 7  | (reserved)                                 |         -         |
| 8  | (reserved)                                 |         -         |
| 9  | CNG (AMR-WB SID)                           |        40         |
| 10 | (reserved)                                 |         -         |
| 11 | (reserved)                                 |         -         |
| 12 | (reserved)                                 |         -         |
| 13 | (reserved)                                 |         -         |
| 14 | Erasure (AMR-WB SPEECH_LOST)               |         0         |
| 15 | Blank (AMR-WB NO_DATA)                     |         0         |
+----+--------------------------------------------+-------------------+
   Table 3:VMR-WB payload frame types for real-time transport

   For multi-channel sessions, the ToC entries of all frames
   from a frame-block are placed in the ToC in consecutive order.
   Therefore, with N channels and K speech frame-blocks in a
   packet, there MUST be N*K entries in the ToC, and the first N
   entries will be from the first frame-block, the second N
   entries will be from the second frame-block, and so on.


6.3.4. Speech Data

   Speech data of a payload contains one or more speech frames as
   described in the ToC of the payload.

   Each speech frame represents 20 ms of speech encoded in one
   of the available encoding rates depending on the operation
   mode. The length of the speech frame is defined by the frame
   type in the FT field with the following considerations:

     - The last octet of each speech frame MUST be padded with
       zeroes at the end if not all bits in the octet are used.
       In other words, each speech frame MUST be octet-aligned.

     - When multiple speech frames are present in the speech
       data, the speech frames MUST be arranged one whole frame
       after another.

   The order and numbering notation of the speech data bits are
   as specified in the VMR-WB standard specification [1].

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 18]


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   The payload begins with the payload header of one octet or two if
   frame interleaving is selected.  The payload header is followed by
   the table of contents consisting of a list of one-octet ToC entries.

   The speech data follows the table of contents. For the purpose of
   packetization, all of the octets comprising a speech frame are
   appended to the payload as a unit. The speech frames are packed in
   the same order as their corresponding ToC entries are arranged in
   the ToC list, with the exception that if a given frame has a ToC
   entry with FT=14 or 15, there will be no data octets present for
   that frame.


6.3.5. Payload Example: Basic Single Channel Payload Carrying Multiple
       Frames

   The following diagram shows an octet-aligned payload format
   from a single channel session that carries two VMR-WB Full-Rate
   frames (FT=3). In the payload, a codec mode request is
   sent (e.g., CMR=4), requesting the encoder at the receiver's

    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
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   | CMR=4 |R|R|R|R|1|FT#1=3 |Q|P|P|0|FT#2=3 |Q|P|P|   f1(0..7)    |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |   f1(8..15)   |  f1(16..23)   |  ...                          |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   : ...                                                           :
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   | r |P|P|P|P|P|P|  f2(0..7)     |   f2(8..15)   |  f2(16..23)   |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   : ...                                                           :
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                        ...    | l |P|P|P|P|P|P|
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   r= f1(264,265)
   l= f2(264,265)

   side to use VMR-WB mode 1. No interleaving is used. Note, in above
   example the last octet in both speech frames is padded with zeros to
   make them octet-aligned.

6.4. Implementation Considerations

   An application implementing this payload format MUST
   understand all the payload parameters in the out-of-band
   signaling used. For example, if an application uses SDP, all
   the SDP and MIME parameters in this document MUST be
   understood. This requirement ensures that an implementation
   always can decide if it is capable or not of communicating.

   To enable efficient interoperable interconnection with AMR-WB

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 19]


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   and to ensure that a VMR-WB terminal appropriately declares itself
   as AMR-WB capable terminal (see Section 9.3), it is also
   RECOMMENDED that a VMR-WB RTP payload implementation understand
   relevant AMR-WB signaling.

   To further ensure interoperability between various implementations
   of VMR-WB, implementations SHALL support both header-free and
   octet-aligned payload formats. Support of interleaving is optional.


7. Congestion Control

   The general congestion control considerations for transporting RTP
   data apply to VMR-WB speech over RTP as well. However, the multimode
   capability of VMR-WB speech codec may provide an advantage over
   other payload formats for controlling congestion since the bandwidth
   demand can be adjusted by selecting a different operating mode.

   Another parameter that may impact the bandwidth demand for
   VMR-WB is the number of frame-blocks that are encapsulated in
   each RTP payload. Packing more frame-blocks in each RTP
   payload can reduce the number of packets sent and hence the
   overhead from RTP/UDP/IP headers, at the expense of increased delay.

   If forward error correction (FEC) is used to alleviate the
   packet loss, the amount of redundancy added by FEC will need
   to be regulated so that the use of FEC itself does not cause
   a congestion problem.

   Congestion control for RTP SHALL be used in accordance with RFC 3550
   [3] and any applicable RTP profile, for example RFC 3551 [6]. This
   means that congestion control is required for any transmission over
   unmanaged best-effort networks.

   Congestion on the IP network is managed by the IP sender. Feedback
   about congestion SHOULD be provided to that IP sender through RTCP
   or other means, and then the sender can choose to avoid congestion
   using the most appropriate mechanism. That may include selecting an
   appropriate operating mode, but also includes adjusting the level of
   redundancy or number of frames per packet.


8. Security Considerations

   RTP packets using the payload format defined in this specification
   are subject to the security considerations discussed in the RTP
   specification [3], and any appropriate profile (for example [6]).

   As this format transports encoded speech, the main security
   issues include confidentiality and authentication of the
   speech itself. The payload format itself does not have any
   built-in security mechanisms. External mechanisms, such as
   SRTP [9], MAY be used.

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 20]


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   This payload format does not exhibit any significant non-uniformity
   in the receiver side computational complexity for packet processing
   and thus is unlikely to pose a denial-of-service threat due to the
   receipt of pathological/corrupted data.


8.1. Confidentiality

   The confidentiality of the media streams is achieved by encryption.
   Because the data compression used with this payload format is
   applied end-to-end, any encryption is performed after
   compression so there is no conflict between the two operations.

   Interleaving may affect data protection through encryption of RTP
   packet or payload. Encryption initiation, discontinuation, or key
   changes, particular for access control, may need to be restricted
   to boundaries of interleave groups. Otherwise the entire interleave
   group data may leak where the change occurs.


8.2. Authentication

   To authenticate the sender of the speech, an external mechanism MUST
   be used. It is RECOMMENDED that such a mechanism protect all speech
   data bits.

   Data tampering by a man-in-the-middle attacker could result in
   erroneous depacketization/decoding that could lower the speech
   quality. For example, tampering with the CMR field may result in
   speech in a different quality than desired.

   To prevent a man-in-the-middle attacker from tampering with the
   payload packets, some additional information besides the speech bits
   SHOULD be protected. This may include the payload header, ToC, RTP
   timestamp, RTP sequence number, SSRC, RTP payload type, and the RTP
   marker bit.


8.3. Decoding Validation and Provision for Lost or Late Packets

   When processing a received payload packet, if the receiver finds
   that the calculated payload length, based on the information of the
   session and the values found in the payload header fields, do not
   match the size of the received packet, the receiver SHOULD discard
   the packet to avoid potential degradation of speech quality and to
   invoke the VMR-WB built-in frame error concealment mechanism.
   Therefore, invalid packets SHALL be treated as lost packets.

   Late packets (i.e., unavailability of a packet when needed
   for decoding at the receiver) should be treated as lost
   packets. Furthermore, if the late packet is part of an
   interleave group, depending upon the availability of the
   other packets in that interleave group, decoding must be

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 21]


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   resumed from the next (sequential order) available frame. In
   other words, the unavailability of a packet in an interleave
   group at certain time should not invalidate the other
   packets within that interleave group that may arrive later.


9. Payload Format Parameters

   This section defines the parameters that may be used to
   select optional features in the VMR-WB RTP payload formats.

   The parameters are defined here as part of the MIME subtype
   registration for the VMR-WB speech codec. A mapping of the
   parameters into the Session Description Protocol (SDP) [5] is
   also provided for those applications that use SDP. In control
   protocols that do not use MIME or SDP, the media type parameters
   must be mapped to the appropriate format used with that control
   protocol.


9.1. VMR-WB RTP Payload MIME Registration

   The MIME subtype for the Variable-Rate Multimode Wideband
   (VMR-WB) audio codec is allocated from the IETF tree since
   VMR-WB is expected to be a widely used speech codec in
   multimedia streaming and messaging as well as VoIP
   applications. This MIME registration only covers real-time
   transfers via RTP.

   Note, the receiver MUST ignore any unspecified parameter and
   use the default values instead. Also note that if no input
   parameters are defined, the default values will be used.

     Media Type name:      audio

     Media subtype name:   VMR-WB

     Required parameters:  none

   Furthermore, if the interleaving parameter is present, the
   parameter "octet-align=1" MUST also be present.

   OPTIONAL parameters:

     mode-set:       Requested VMR-WB operating mode set. Restricts
                     the active operating modes to a subset of all
                     modes. Possible values are a comma separated
                     list of integer values. Currently, this list
                     includes modes 0,1,2, and 3 [1] but MAY be
                     extended in the future. If such mode-set is
                     specified during session initiation, the encoder
                     MUST NOT use modes outside of the subset. If not
                     present, all operating modes in the set 0 to 3 are

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 22]


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                     allowed for the session.

     channels:       The number of audio channels. The possible
                     values and their respective channel order
                     is specified in Section 4.1 in [6]. If
                     omitted it has the default value of 1.

     octet-align:    RTP payload format, permissible values are 0 and
                     1. If 1, octet-aligned payload format SHALL be
                     used. If 0 or if not present, header-free payload
                     format is employed (default).

     maxptime:       See RFC 3267 [4]

     interleaving:   Indicates that frame-block level
                     interleaving SHALL be used for the session
                     and its value defines the maximum number of
                     frame-blocks allowed in an interleaving
                     group (see Section 6.3.1). If this
                     parameter is not present, interleaving
                     SHALL NOT be used. The presence of this
                     parameter also implies automatically that
                     octet-aligned operation SHALL be used.

     ptime:          see RFC2327 [5]. It SHALL be at least one
                     frame size for VMR-WB.

     dtx:            Permissible values are 0 and 1. The default
                     is 0 (i.e., No DTX) where VMR-WB normally
                     operates as a continuous variable-rate
                     codec. If dtx=1, the VMR-WB codec will
                     operate in discontinuous transmission mode
                     where silence descriptor (SID) frames are
                     sent by the VMR-WB encoder during silence
                     intervals with an adjustable update
                     frequency. The selection of the SID update-rate
                     depends on the implementation and
                     other network considerations that are
                     beyond the scope of this specification.

   Encoding considerations:

          This type is only defined for transfer of VMR-WB encoded data
          via RTP (RFC 3550) using the payload formats specified in
          Section 6 of RFC XXXX.

   Security considerations:

          See Section 8 of RFC XXXX.

   Public specification:

          The VMR-WB speech codec is specified in following

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 23]


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          3GPP2 specifications C.S0052-0 version 1.0.
          Transfer methods are specified in RFC XXXX.

   Additional information:

   Person & email address to contact for further information:

                 Sassan Ahmadi, Ph.D.   Nokia Inc. USA
                 sassan.ahmadi@nokia.com

   Intended usage: COMMON.

     It is expected that many VoIP, multimedia messaging and
     streaming applications (as well as mobile applications)
     will use this type.

   Author/Change controller:

     IETF Audio/Video Transport working group delegated from the IESG


9.2. Mapping MIME Parameters into SDP

   The information carried in the MIME media type specification
   has a specific mapping to fields in the Session Description
   Protocol (SDP) [5], which is commonly used to describe RTP
   sessions.  When SDP is used to specify sessions employing the
   VMR-WB codec, the mapping is as follows:

    - The media type ("audio") goes in SDP "m=" as the media name.

    - The media subtype (payload format name) goes in SDP
      "a=rtpmap" as the encoding name.  The RTP clock rate in
      "a=rtpmap" MUST be 16000 for VMR-WB.

    - The parameter "channels" (number of channels) MUST
      either be explicitly set to N or omitted, implying a
      default value of 1. The values of N that are allowed is
      specified in Section 4.1 in [6]. The parameter "channels", if
      present, is specified subsequent to the MIME subtype and
      RTP clock rate as an encoding parameter in the "a=rtpmap"
      attribute.

    - The parameters "ptime" and "maxptime" go in the SDP "a=ptime" and
      "a=maxptime" attributes, respectively.

    - Any remaining parameters go in the SDP "a=fmtp" attribute
      by copying them directly from the MIME media type string
      as a semicolon separated list of parameter=value pairs.

   Some example SDP session descriptions utilizing VMR-WB
   encodings follow.


Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 24]


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   Example of usage of VMR-WB in a possible VoIP scenario
   (wideband audio):

     m=audio 49120 RTP/AVP 98
     a=rtpmap:98 VMR-WB/16000
     a=fmtp:98 octet-align=1

   Example of usage of VMR-WB in a possible streaming scenario
   (two channel stereo):

     m=audio 49120 RTP/AVP 99
     a=rtpmap:99 VMR-WB/16000/2
     a=fmtp:99 octet-align=1; interleaving=30
     a=maxptime:100


9.3. Offer-Answer Model Considerations

   To achieve good interoperability for the VMR-WB RTP payload in an
   Offer-Answer negotiation usage in SDP [13] the following
   considerations are made:

    -  The rate, channel, and payload configuration parameters
       (octet-align and interleaving) SHALL be used symmetric, i.e.
       offer and answer must use the same values. The maximum size of
       the interleaving buffer is, however, declarative, and each agent
       specifies the value it supports to receive for recvonly and
       sendrecv streams. For sendonly streams the value indicates what
      the agent desires to use.

    -  To maintain interoperability among all implementations of VMR-WB
       that may or may not support all the codec's modes of operation,
       the operational modes that are supported by an implementation
       MAY be identified at session initiation. The mode-set parameter
       is declarative, and only operating modes that has been indicated
       to be supported by both ends SHALL be used. If the answerer is
       not supporting any of the operating modes provided in the offer,
       the complete payload type declaration SHOULD be rejected by
       removing it in the answer.

    -  The remaining parameters are all declarative; i.e. for sendonly
       streams they provide parameters that the agent desires to use,
       while for recvonly and sendrecv streams they declare the
       parameters that it accepts to receive. The dtx parameter is used
       to indicate support and capability of using DTX, while the media
       sender is only RECOMMENDED to send using the DTX in these cases.
       If DTX is not supported by the media sender, it will send media
       without DTX, this will not affect interoperability only the
       resource consumption.

    -  Both header-free and octet-aligned payload format configurations
       MAY be offered by a VMR-WB enabled terminal. However, for an
       interoperable interconnection with AMR-WB only octet-aligned

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 25]


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       payload format SHALL be used.

    -  The parameters "maxptime" and "ptime" should in most cases not
       affect the interoperability, however the setting of the
       parameters can affect the performance of the application.

    -  To maintain interoperability with AMR-WB in cases where
       negotiation is possible using the VMR-WB interoperable mode, a
       VMR-WB enabled terminal SHOULD also declare itself capable of
       AMR-WB with limited mode set (i.e., only AMR-WB codec modes 0,
       1, and 2 are allowed) and octet-align mode of operation.

   Example:

                m=audio 49120 RTP/AVP 98 99
                a=rtpmap:98 VMR-WB/16000
                a=rtpmap:99 AMR-WB/16000
                a=fmtp:99 octet-align=1; mode-set=0,1,2

   An example of offer-answer exchange for the VoIP scenario described
   in Section 5.3 is as follows:

       CDMA2000 terminal -> WCDMA terminal Offer:
                m=audio 49120 RTP/AVP 98 97
                a=rtpmap:98 VMR-WB/16000
                a=fmtp:98 octet-align=1
                a=rtpmap:97 AMR-WB/16000
                a=fmtp:97 mode-set=0,1,2; octet-align=1

       WCDMA terminal -> CDMA2000 terminal Answer:
                m=audio 49120 RTP/AVP 97
                a=rtpmap:97 AMR-WB/16000
                a=fmtp:97 mode-set=0,1,2; octet-align=1;

   For declarative use of SDP such as in SAP [14] and RTSP [15], all
   parameters are declarative and provides the parameters that SHALL be
   used when receiving and/or sending the configured stream.


10. IANA Considerations

   It is requested that one new MIME subtype (audio/VMR-WB) is
   registered by IANA, see Section 9.


11. Acknowledgements

   The author would like to thank Redwan Salami of VoiceAge
   Corporation, Ari Lakaniemi of Nokia Inc., and IETF/AVT chairs Colin
   Perkins and Magnus Westerlund for their technical comments
   to improve this document.

   Also, the author would like to acknowledge that some parts of

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 26]


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   RFC 3267 [4] and RFC 3558 [11] have been used in this document.


References

Normative References

   [1]  3GPP2 C.S0052-0 v1.0 "Source-Controlled Variable-Rate
        Multimode Wideband Speech Codec (VMR-WB) Service Option
        62 for Spread Spectrum Systems", 3GPP2 Technical Specification,
        July 2004.

   [2]  S. Bradner, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
        Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, Internet Engineering
        Task Force, March 1997.

   [3]  H. Schulzrinne, S. Casner, R. Frederick, and V.
        Jacobson, "RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time
        Applications", STD 64, RFC 3550, Internet Engineering Task
        Force, Sept. 2003.

   [4]  J. Sjoberg, et al., "Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP)
        Payload Format and File Storage Format for the Adaptive
        Multi-Rate (AMR) and Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband
        (AMR-WB) Audio Codecs", RFC 3267, Internet
        Engineering Task Force, June 2002.

   [5]  M. Handley and V. Jacobson, "SDP: Session Description
        Protocol", RFC 2327, Internet Engineering Task Force, April
        1998.

   [6]  H. Schulzrinne, "RTP Profile for Audio and Video
        Conferences with Minimal Control" STD 65, RFC 3551, Internet
        Engineering Task Force, July 2003.

Informative References

   [7]  3GPP2 C.S0050-A v1.0 "3GPP2 File Formats for Multimedia
        Services", 3GPP2 Technical Specification, April 2005.

   [8]  J. Rosenberg, and H. Schulzrinne, "An RTP Payload Format
        for Generic Forward Error Correction", RFC 2733, Internet
        Engineering Task Force, December 1999.

   [9]  Baugher, et. al., "The Secure Real Time Transport Protocol",
        RFC 3711, Internet Engineering Task Force, March 2004.

   [10] C. Perkins, et al., "RTP Payload for Redundant Audio
        Data", RFC 2198, Internet Engineering Task Force, September
        1997.

   [11] A. Li, "RTP Payload Format for Enhanced Variable Rate
     Codecs (EVRC) and Selectable Mode Vocoders (SMV)", RFC 3558,

Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 27]


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        Internet Engineering Task Force, Sept. 2003.

   [12] 3GPP TS 26.193 "AMR Wideband Speech Codec; Source
        Controlled Rate operation", version 5.0.0 (2001-03), 3rd
        Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

   [13] J. Rosenberg, and H. Schulzrinne, "An Offer/Answer Model with
        the Session Description Protocol (SDP)", RFC 3264, Internet
        Engineering Task Force, June 2002.

   [14] M. Handley, C. Perkins, and E. Whelan, "Session Announcement
        Protocol (SAP)", RFC 2974, Internet Engineering Task Force,
        Oct. 2000.

   [15] H. Schulzrinne, A. Rao, and R. Lanphier, "Real Time Streaming
        Protocol (RTSP)", RFC 2326, Internet Engineering Task Force,
        April 1998.


   Any 3GPP2 document can be downloaded from the 3GPP2 web
   server, "http://www.3gpp2.org/", see specifications.


Author's Address

   The editor will serve as the point of contact for all
   technical matters related to this document.

    Dr. Sassan Ahmadi             Phone: 1 (858) 831-5916
                                  Fax:   1 (858) 831-4174
    Nokia Inc.                    Email: sassan.ahmadi@nokia.com
    12278 Scripps Summit Dr.
    San Diego, CA 92131 USA

    This Internet-Draft expires in six months from February 1, 2005.


RFC Editor Considerations

    The RFC editor is requested to replace all occurrences of XXXX with
    the RFC number that this document will receive.


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Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 28]


INTERNET-DRAFT          VMR-WB RTP Payload Format         February 2005


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Sassan Ahmadi                                                 [page 29]