NCast N-Way Server - Manual (Page 4)

NCast N-Way Reference Manual
1.Introduction
1.1.P
URPOSE
The NCast N-Way Reference Manual is intended for the Network engineer who will be tasked with the job of
installing and setting up an N-Way Server. This guide is designed to cover topics in depth and assumes the
reader is familiar with network protocols such as multicast, topics such as webcasting and running of a Linux-
based web server.
1.2.D
OCUMENT
O
VERVIEW
This document is divided into three major sections: introduction to the operation and functionality of an N-Way
Server, instructions on how to configure the server for customer accounts, and configuration of a Telepresenter
for use with N-Way service.
1.3.T
ERMS AND
D
EFINITIONS
A complete discussion of network protocols, Internet streaming, webcasting and related topics is beyond the
scope of this document. Other sources cover this material in great detail. The following are brief definitions of
some of the terms used throughout this manual.
AAC – Advanced Audio Coding, a wideband audio encoding and compression algorithm.
IETF – Internet Engineering Task Force, the standards body for Internet protocols.
ISO – International Standards Organization
Latency – The end-to-end time delay between a change in the source image and the
corresponding change in the remotely displayed image.
Lip-sync – The synchronization of independent audio and video streams at a receiving decoder so
that the presentation is in the same time relationship as the source.
MPEG Compression – MPEG is an acronym for Motion Picture Experts Group, an industry-wide
committee that has defined a series of standards for the compression of audio and video source
material.
MTU – The maximum transmission unit is the maximum number of bytes permitted in a
transmitted packet.
Multicast – A family of computer transmission protocols where multiple receivers access a single
transmitted packet stream.
NCCP – NCast Conference Control Protocol provides coordination, control and identification of
participants in a multi-way collaborative conference session.
N-Way – An NCast proprietary service for multicast bridging and webcasting.
RFC – Request for Comments, an Internet protocol standard.
RTSP – Real-Time Streaming Protocol is an IETF approved protocol for control of real-time
streaming on the Internet.
Telnet – An IP network based protocol, which was originally used to connect remote consoles and
terminals to mainframes, but is now used as a general, bi-directional,
byte oriented
communications facility. See RFC’s 854 and 855.
Unicast – Refers to a point-to-point connection between two Internet host machines.
NCast Corporation Revision 1.3
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