Telos user manual Introduction, Welcome to the iPort

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1 Introduction

Welcome to the iPort

The Telos iPort is designed to help you achieve one of two objectives:

♦♦ Connect two Livewire-equipped facilities over a wide-area network, such that they appear to be local to each other. As many as 8 bi-directional channels are possible. In the simplest case, a single Livewire 8x8 interface Node and an iPort at each end provide 8x bi-directional codec links over an IP channel.

♦♦ Encode streams for Internet transmission to the public or for internal distribution systems. These are normally sent to a SHOUTcast or compatible server to generate the many streams needed to support individual listeners. As many as 16 encode-only streams are possible.

It uses state-of-the-art MPEG codec technology to conserve network bandwidth, while preserving high audio quality. A range of codec types and bitrates are supported.

Codec

Bitrates

Notes

AAC	24 - 320kbps	Standard AAC
AAC-HE	24 - 320kbps	High-efficiency AAC, also called AAC+
AAC-HEv2	24 - 320kbps	Latest generation AAC-HE with parametric stereo enhancements
AAC-LD	24 - 320kbps	Low-delay AAC
Layer 3 (MP3)	24 - 320kbps	Standard MP3

The codecs are all licensed from Fraunhofer IIS, the inventor of MP3 and co-inventor of AAC. They are the highest-possible quality implementations, running on a powerful Intel floating-point processor.

All audio is connected via a single RJ-45 jack. Because it uses Livewire for the local audio inputs/outputs, it does not need expensive and space-consuming onboard converters and connectors.

Configuration is via a web interface. A front-panel LCD offers a simple and immediate local display of basic operation status and parameters such as the assigned IP number.

There are two Ethernet jacks, one for connection to the local network and the other to the wide-area network.

In the link operating mode, the iPort is intended to be used over IP connections that have reasonably good Quality of Service (QoS), with controlled packet loss, jitter, and bandwidth. The AAC codec has a conceal- ment mechanism to deal with occasional packet loss, but it is not intended for conditions where packet