TIDM-TM4C129POEAUDIO: AOE feature.

Hi,

  This is the first time I'm hearing about AOE. Reading AOE on Wikipedia , I don't think TIDM-TM4C129POEAUDIO can support the features. It looks like AOE requires a different EMAC and also protocols on higher layer like layer-3 may be different than the TCP/IP protocol. 

Layer-1 protocols[edit]

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.

Layer-3 protocols[edit]

Layer-3 protocols encapsulate audio data in OSI model layer 3 (network layer) packets. By definition it does not limit the choice of protocol to be the most popular layer-3 protocol, the Internet Protocol (IP). In some implementations, the layer-3 audio data packets are further packaged inside OSI model layer-4 (transport layer) packets, most commonly User Datagram Protocol (UDP) or Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP). Use of UDP or RTP to carry audio data enables them to be distributed through standard computer routers, thus a large distribution audio network can be built economically using commercial off-the-shelf equipment.

Although IP packets can traverse the Internet, most layer-3 protocols cannot provide reliable transmission over the Internet due to the limited bandwidth, significant End-to-end delay and packet loss that can be encountered by data flow over the Internet. For similar reasons, transmission of layer-3 audio over wireless LAN are also not supported by most implementations.

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the feedback.We found the some products on Amazon website about AOE (Audio over ethernet ) and please see the link on Amazon.com : audio over ethernet. So the TIDM-TM4C129 can't support that feature,can it? 

Below figure is copied from TI website. It look like to there is this feature. 

Thanks 

Welson

Hi Welson,

  What I want to emphasize is that the EMAC on this MCU conforms to IEEE 802.3 specification. If your audio application requires a EMAC that requires additional features or beyond what the EMAC is specified to (IEEE802.3) then it will not be able to support on the layer-2 (data link layer). We also don't have any special software network stack that is specific to AoE. Perhaps, there is some confusion on the definition of AoE. If you meant AoE as in a general term whether Ethernet can carry audio then yes, I don't see why not. But if you refer to AoE as described in Wikipedia where a different frame format is required in the data link layer and a network stack that focuses and guarantees certain latency then we don't have support.