Note • AVB is not supported on stacked systems. • AVB is not supported on EtherChannel interfaces. • AVB is supported only on STP-enabled network. Audio Video Bridging License Level Audio video bridging is supported on the Network Advantage license. Benefits of Audio Video Bridging AVB is a mechanism to enable Ethernet based audio-video transmission which has the following benefits: • Guaranteed max latency • Time synchronized • Bandwidth guaranteed • Professional grade Components of Auio Video Bridging Network AVB protocols operate only in domains where every device is AVB capable. The AVB network comprises of AVB talkers, AVB listeners, AVB switches and the grandmaster clock source.
• AVB Talker - An AVB end station that is the source or producer of a stream, i.e. microphones, video camera, and so on. • AVB Listener - An AVB end station that is the destination or consumer of a stream, i.e. speaker, video screen, and so on. • AVB Switch - An Ethernet switch that complies with IEEE802.1 AVB standards. • AVB stream: A data stream associated with a stream reservation compliant with the Stream Reservation Protocol (SRP). In some instances, the word “bridge” is used. In this context, it references to a switch. Note The IEEE 802.1BA specification requires that an AVB talker must be grandmaster capable.
In a typical deployment a network node can also be the grandmaster, provided it can either source or derive timing from a grandmaster capable device and provide the timing to the AVB network using IEEE 802.1AS. Figure 1: AVB Network shows a simple illustration of AVB network with different components. Configuring Audio Video Bridging Audio Video Bridging License Level Configuring Audio Video Bridging 2