Testing Interoperability

With the upcoming release of the RIST Main Profile (TR-06-02), we recognized that it would be important to ensure interoperability with as many tools and technologies as possible. This is important not only to ensure that RIST can work with any number of available media solutions but also so that we can gain valuable feedback to roll into further development.

To that end, we held an interop ahead of VidTrans at the Cobalt offices in Orange, California. On site, we had participants from VideoFlow, Net Insight, Cobalt, Qvidium, and Evertz. We also had remote participation from DVEO and Zixi. Also present at the interop was by Rick Ackermans of MVA Broadcast Consulting, who has a great deal of experience with broadcast standards and protocols and is the Chairman of the RIST Activity Group. 

The teams spent several days working together, testing workflows between the different technologies. Here are the key results:

·      The tests achieved basic DTLS compatibility between all vendors, both with and without authentication. 

·      Net Insight and DVEO proved PSK connectivity as server/client.

·      Both Full Datagram Mode and Reduced Overhead Mode were successfully tested.

·      Keep-alive messages with JSON were successfully tested.

As mentioned, feedback is an important part of this type of activity. The RIST Main Profile Draft Specification held up very well during the testing; no protocol changes were needed.  The group decided to revise the document to clarify a few points and make it clearer for implementers and users.  These points include: 

·      Detailed elaboration on PSK Nonce byte order.

·      Passphrase clarification and examples so that implementers have a way of checking their key generation.

·      Propose compliance levels to assist customers to understand vendor capabilities.

In the next phase, we will be looking to test the advanced features, such as reconnect / disconnect and inner IP negotiation.

Naturally the world is facing some significant challenges right now. With an unprecedented rise in remote and home working, the need to be able to transmit reliable, high-quality video from anywhere has never been so high. Our next interop will be entirely cloud-based, which serves to ensure that RIST can be relied upon in fully cloud-based workflows while also ensuring that all our collaborators can keep safe in these troubling times.