[vlc-devel] rtcp and udp port collision

[Ross Finlayson]

>Le vendredi 22 octobre 2010 14:29:20 Sébastien Escudier, vous avez écrit :
>>  But, in the case I describe, we know DEST is taken by the client, which
>>  may be on the same computer, so we shouldn't bind DEST-1. This is what's
>>  happening with me.
>>  And to avoid this, we could bind only even ports number for SRC.
>>  Moreover, as noticed by David, this seems to be a common practice.
>
>I checked the VLC RTP output code. It ignores failure to create the RTCP
>socket (this is another bug). So it must be the client that fails.
>
>That would be live555, not VLC. This is pretty stupid. The client should
>allocate both RTP and RTCP ports *before* it contacts the server. Then, for
>lack of atomic multi-bind(), the client should run a live loop until it
>obtains a working pair.

I don't think that the LIVE555 code (used by the 
RTSP client) is a problem; it does exactly what 
you describe (see "liveMedia/MediaSession.cpp", 
lines 610-673).  Note, though, that before trying 
to "bind()" a port to the new socket (to see if 
it can be used), the code calls "setsockopt()" to 
turn off SO_REUSEPORT.  This is how it detects 
whether the port number is in use elsewhere on 
the same host.

This can work, of course, only if the *server* 
also turns off SO_REUSEPORT when it tries to 
allocate its own ports.  Our RTSP server code 
does this (look for "NoReuse" in 
"liveMedia/OnDemandServerMediaSubsession.cpp" if 
you care).  But perhaps your RTSP server code 
doesn't?
-- 

Ross Finlayson
Live Networks, Inc.
http://www.live555.com/