MIDI and AVB

For the past several years, the IEEE 802.1 Working Group, which develops Ethernet networking standards, has been developing a set of services for low-latency audio and video transport. The objective is known as Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) and provides precision time synchronization and stream bandwidth reservation at the network level.

The AVB services provide the foundation for time-sensitive delivery of data by the network, but do not specify the means for interoperable communication of the data by applications. The IEEE-1722 AVB Transport Protocol (AVBTP) and IEEE-1733 L3 Transport Protocol specifications define how data is carried ("payloads") on AVB networks.

IEEE-1722 supports IEEE-1394/IEC-61883 (FireWire) format data (audio, video, and MIDI), which is popular in consumer and professional A/V devices, and allows bridging between FireWire and Ethernet networks. IEEE-1722 also includes definitions for other payload types, including "MMA Payloads" which are defined by MMA, rather than by IEEE, and will appear here in the near future.

IEEE-1733 defines the means to transport MIDI using IETF's Realtime Transport Protocol (RTP) -- including RTP-MIDI -- with the improved timing services of AVB.