Network Working Group M. Speer

Network Working Group M. Speer
Request for Comment: 2029 D. Hoffman
Category: Standards Track Sun Microsystems, Inc.
October 1996

RTP Payload Format of Sun's CellB Video Encoding

Status of this Memo

This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

This memo describes a packetization scheme for the CellB video
encoding. The scheme proposed allows applications to transport CellB
video flows over protocols used by RTP. This document is meant for
implementors of video applications that want to use RTP and CellB.

1. Introduction

The Cell image compression algorithm is a variable bit-rate video
coding scheme. It provides "high" quality, low bit-rate image
compression at low computational cost. The bytestream that is
produced by the Cell encoder consists of instructional codes and
information about the compressed image.

For futher information on Cell compression technology, refer to [1].
Currently, there are two versions of the Cell compression technology:
CellA and CellB. CellA is primarily designed for the encoding of
stored video intended for local display, and will not be discussed in
this memo.

CellB, derived from CellA, has been optimized for network-based video
applications. It is computationally symmetric in both encode and
decode. CellB utilizes a fixed colormap and vector quantization
techniques in the YUV color space to achieve compression.

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RFC 2029 RTP Payload Format October 1996

2. Network Packetization and Encapsulation

2.1 RTP Usage

The RTP timestamp is in units of 90KHz. The same timestamp value is
used for all packet payloads of a frame. The RTP maker bit denotes
the end of a frame.

2.2 CellB Header

The packetization of the CellB bytestream is designed to make the
resulting packet stream robust to packet loss. To achieve this goal,
an additional header is added to each RTP packet to uniquely identify
the location of the first cell of the packet within the current
frame. In addition, the width and height of the frame in pixels is
carried in each CellB packet header. Although the size can only
change between frames, it is carried in every packet to simplify the
packet encoding.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Cell X Location | Cell Y Location |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Width of Image | Height of Image |
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
| Compressed CellB Data |
| .... |
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

All fields are 16-bit unsigned integers in network byte order, and
are placed at the beginning of the payload for each RTP packet. The
Cell X and the Cell Y Location coordinates are expressed as cell
coordinates, not pixel coordinates. Since cells represent 4x4 blocks
of pixels, the X or Y dimension of the cell coordinates range in
value from 0 through 1/4 of the of the same dimension in pixel
coordinates.

2.3 Packetization Rules

A packet can be of any size chosen by the implementor, up to a full
frame. All multi-byte codes must be completely contained within a
packet. In general, the implementor should avoid packet sizes that
result in fragmentation by the network.

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RFC 2029 RTP Payload Format October 1996

3. References

1. "Cell Image Compression Byte Stream Description,"
ftp://playground.sun.com:/pub/multimedia/video/
cellbytestream.ps.Z

2. Turletti, T., and C. Huitema, "RTP Payload Format
for H.261 Video Streams", RFC 2032, October 1996.

3. Schulzrinne, H., Casner, S., Frederick, R., and
V. Jacobson, "RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time
Applications", RFC 1889, January 1996.

4. Schulzrinne, H., "RTP Profile for Audio and Video
Conferences with Minimal Control", RFC 1890,
January 1996.

4 Authors' Addresses

Michael F. Speer
Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation
2550 Garcia Ave MailStop UMPK14-305
Mountain View, CA 94043

Voice: +1 415 786 6368
Fax: +1 415 786 6445
EMail: [email protected]

Don Hoffman
Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation
2550 Garcia Ave MailStop UMPK14-305
Mountain View, CA 94043

Voice: +1 415 786 6370
Fax: +1 415 786 6445
EMail: [email protected]

Speer & Hoffman Standards Track [Page 3]

RFC 2029 RTP Payload Format October 1996

Appendix A - Structure of the CellB Video Stream

The CellB bytestream consists of cell codes, skip codes and
quantization-table specific codes. These are now described.

A.1 CellB Cell Code

Cell codes are 4 bytes in length, and describe a 4x4 pixel cell.
There are two possible luminance (Y) levels for each cell, but only
one pair of chrominance (UV) values. The CellB cell code is shown
below:

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
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|0 M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M|U V U V U V U V|Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
4x4 Bitmask U/V Code Y/Y Code

The first two bytes of the cell code are a bitmask. Each bit in the
mask represents a pixel in a 16-pixel cell. Bit 0 represents the
value of the upper right-hand pixel of the cell, and subsequent bits
represent the pixels in row-major order. If a pixel's bit is set in
the 4x4 Bitmask, then the pixel will be rendered with the pixel value
<Y(1), U, V>. If the pixel's bit is not set in the bitmask, then the
pixel's value will be rendered with the value <Y(0), U, V>. The
bitmask for the cell is normalized so that the most significant bit
is always 0 (i.e., corresponding to <Y(0), U, V>).

The U/V field of the cell code represents the chrominance component.
This code is in index into a table of vectors that represents two
independent components of chrominance.

The Y/Y field of the cell code represents two luminance values (Y(0)
and Y(1)). This code is an index into a table of two-compoment
luminance vectors.

The derivation of the U/V and Y/Y tables is outside the scope of this
memo. A complete discussion can be found in [1].

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RFC 2029 RTP Payload Format October 1996

A.2 CellB Skip Code

The single byte CellB skip code tells the CellB decoder to skip the
next S+1 cells in the current video frame being decoded. The maximum
number of cells that can be skipped is 32. The format of the skip
code is shown below.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|1 0 0 S S S S S|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

A.3 CellB Y/Y Table Code

The single byte "new Y/Y table" code is used to tell the decoder that
the next 512 bytes are a new Y/Y quantization table. The code and
the representation of the table are shown below. The sample
encoder/decoder pair in this document do not implement this feature
of the CellB compression. However, future CellB codecs may implement
this feature.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

The format of the new Y/Y table is:

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Y1_000 | Y2_000 | Y1_001 | Y2_001 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

.
.
.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Y1_254 | Y2_254 | Y1_255 | Y2_255 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

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RFC 2029 RTP Payload Format October 1996

A.4 CellB U/V Table Code

The single byte "new U/V table" code is used to tell the decoder that
the next 512 bytes represent a new U/V quantization table. The code
is shown below. The sample encoder/decoder pair provided in this
document do not implement this feature of the CellB compression.
However, future CellB codecs may implement this feature.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1|
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

The bytes of the new U/V quantization table are arranged as:

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| U_000 | V_000 | U_001 | V_001 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

.
.
.

0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| U_254 | V_254 | U_255 | V_255 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Appendix B - Availability of CellB

It is the viewpoint of Sun Microsystems, Inc, that CellB is
publically available for use without any license.

Speer & Hoffman Standards Track [Page 6]