NAME
rat - unicast and multicast audio conferencing tool
SYNOPSIS
rat [options] address/port
DESCRIPTION
RAT is a network audio conferencing and streaming application with
support for multiple sampling rates, error concealment, and redundant
audio encoding. Transmissions can be between two participants directly
(unicast) or between a group of participants on a common multicast
address.
To initiate a unicast conference the user specifies the address of the
destination host name or IP address and a port number. To participate
in a multicast conference a Class D group address should be specified
together with a port number. The application uses the greatest even
integer less than or equal to the port specified for data (RTP) and the
port above for control messages (RTCP). The protocols RTP and RTCP
used are specified in RFC 1889.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-agc 1|0
Enable automatic gain control (AGC).
-allowloopback
Causes rtp packets to be loopbacked during multicast sessions.
-crypt key
Enable encryption, with the specified key. Encryption is done
using DES, and is believed compatible with encrypting versions
of vat.
-C name
Sets the RAT window title to name.
-E email
Sets the email address transmitted to remote participants.
-f codec
Specifies the primary encoding used when transmitting audio.
-L location
Sets the location description transmitted to remote
participants.
-N username
Sets the username transmitted to remote participants.
-P phone
Sets the phone number transmitted to remote participants.
-pt type/codec
Specifies the payload type to be used for codec.
-r codec/offset
Specifies the coding used for the redundant encoder and the
offset of the redundant encoding relative to the primary in
audio frames.
-repair method
Specifies the use of receiver based repair technique based on
method. This can currently be none or repeat.
-t ttl Specifies the TTL (time to live) value set in the packet
headers. This limits the scope of the packets. The following
values are generally considered appropriate:
4 campus/organization
16 country
64 continent
127 planet
-silence 1|0
Turns silence suppression on or off.
-version
Displays the version number.
USER INTERFACE
Main Window
The main window of RAT is split into three sections. At the top of the
window are the audio device port and volume selectors, and the mutes
for incoming and outgoing audio. In the middle the list of
participants shows local and remote conference members. Active
speakers are highlighted. Clicking the left mouse button on the name of
a remote participant will display a user information panel, giving
various reception statistics for that user. Individuals can be
selectively muted by clicking on them with the middle mouse button on
three button systems, or moving the mouse to the individual and
pressing the m. At the bottom of the window are buttons for the
options panel, the about panel, and to quit.
Pressing the right mouse button anywhere within the RAT window will
temporarily toggle the state of the audio input mute: this allows a
"push-to-talk" mode of operation.
Options
RAT supports a large number of options and pressing the "options"
button will launch the optinos panel. The best approach to see what is
available is to go and explore. The options panel has a category menu
at the top and by clicking on it options in the different categories
are presented.
Personal
User details that are conveyed to other conference participants.
Transmission
Allows the selection of codec used for transmission, the setting
of the number, of units of audio per packet, and the selection
of redundant audio data.
Reception
Options that control how received audio is decoded.
Audio Options to select and configure the available audio device, and
features that pertain to audio handling (i.e. silence
suppression, agc, audio loopback, and echo suppression).
Codecs Displays details on available codecs and allows for them to be
assigned to alternate RTP payload numbers. Map payload numbers
at your own peril.
Security
Allows DES encryption of audio for incoming and outgoing
streams.
Interface
Allows users to control balloon help, enable lip synchronization
with suitably modified versions of VIC , and displaying of
windows for reception quality and file playback and recording.
EXAMPLES
To start a unicast session between the current host and the host
shrew.cs.ucl.ac.uk using port 12000 type:
rat shrew.cs.ucl.ac.uk/12000
To join a multicast session on group address 224.5.6.7 and port 8110
type, using primary encoding of dvi and a secondary encoding of lpc:
rat -f dvi/lpc 224.5.6.7/8110
AUTHORS
This version of RAT was written by Orion Hodson <O.Hodson@cs.ucl.ac.uk>
and Colin Perkins <C.Perkins@cs.ucl.ac.uk> in the Networked Multimedia
Group, University College London. Markus Iken contributed the 3d
rendering code. Bob’s Olson and Lindell contributed the ALSA audio
interface.
The first version of RAT was developed by Vicky Hardman
<V.Hardman@cs.ucl.ac.uk> and Isidor Kouvelas <I.Kouvelas@cs.ucl.ac.uk>
at University College London. The DES encryption was written by Saleem
Bhatti <S.Bhatti@cs.ucl.ac.uk> and integrated by Darren Harris.
RAT has been supported by the following projects: <IP> MICE Multimedia
Conferencing in Europe (ESPRIT)
MERCI Multimedia European Research Conferencing Integration
ReLaTe Remote Language Teaching for Super Janet (BT/JISC)
RAT Robust Audio Tool (EPSRC/BT)
This software has benefited from hardware donations by Sun Microsystems
and Hewlett Packard, and software donations by Microsoft.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank Roy Bennett, Davide Cavagnino, Jon Crowcroft, Ross Finlayson,
Atanu Ghosh, Terry Gibbons, Jeremy Hall, Mark Handley, Marcus Iken,
Iain McKay, Roman Kurmanowyts, Robert Olson, Fulvio Risso, Roy
Rodenstein, Lorenzo Vicisano, Anna Watson, Michael Wallbaum, Hui Zhao,
and our collegues at UCL who have provided countless suggestions and
extended good humour through the buggy pre-releases.
Modifications for HP-UX by Terje Vernly <terjeve@usit.uio.no> and Geir
Harald Hansen <g.h.hansen@usit.uio.no>.
This software is derived, in part, from publically available source
code with the following copyright:
Copyright (c) 1991-1993,1996 Regents of the University of California.
Copyright (c) 1992 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam.
Copyright (c) 1991,1992 RSA Data Security, Inc.
Copyright (c) 1992 Jutta Degener and Carsten Bormann, Technische
Universitaet Berlin.
Copyright (c) 1994 Henning Schulzrinne.
Copyright (c) 1994 Paul Stewart.
This product includes software developed by the Computer Systems
Engineering Group and by the Network Research Group at Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratory.
Encryption features of this software use the RSA Data Security, Inc.
MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm.
FEEDBACK
Please send comments, bug-reports, patches, and suggestions to rat-
trap@cs.ucl.ac.uk.
Please check http://www-mice.cs.ucl.ac.uk/multimedia/software for
latest release information.
14 January 2000 rat(1)