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Concept
Audio over Ethernet
Summary
In audio and broadcast engineering, Audio over Ethernet (sometimes AoE—not to be confused with ATA over Ethernet) is the use of an Ethernet-based network to distribute real-time digital audio. AoE replaces bulky snake cables or audio-specific installed low-voltage wiring with standard network structured cabling in a facility. AoE provides a reliable backbone for any audio application, such as for large-scale sound reinforcement in stadiums, airports and convention centers, multiple studios or stages.
While AoE bears a resemblance to voice over IP (VoIP) and audio over IP (AoIP), AoE is intended for high-fidelity, low-latency professional audio. Because of the fidelity and latency constraints, AoE systems generally do not utilize audio data compression. AoE systems use a much higher bit rate (typically 1 Mbit/s per channel) and much lower latency (typically less than 10 milliseconds) than VoIP. AoE requires a high-performance network. Performance requirements may be met through use of a dedicated local area network (LAN) or virtual LAN (VLAN), overprovisioning or quality of service features.
Some AoE systems use proprietary protocols (at the lower OSI layers) which create Ethernet frames that are transmitted directly onto the Ethernet (layer 2) for efficiency and reduced overhead. The word clock may be provided by broadcast packets.
There are several different and incompatible protocols for audio over Ethernet. Protocols can be broadly categorized into layer-1, layer-2 and layer-3 systems based on the layer in the OSI model where the protocol exists.
Layer-1 protocols use Ethernet wiring and signaling components but do not use the Ethernet frame structure. Layer-1 protocols often use their own media access control (MAC) rather than the one native to Ethernet, which generally creates compatibility issues and thus requires a dedicated network for the protocol.
AES50 (SuperMAC) by Klark Teknik, a point-to-point interconnect for bidirectional digital audio and sync clock
MaGIC by Gibson
HyperMAC, a gigabit Ethernet variant of SuperMAC
A-Net by Aviom
AudioRail
ULTRANET By Behringer
Layer-2 protocols encapsulate audio data in standard Ethernet packets.
Official source
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