Support up to 8 NICs in FFmpeg TX path by sunilnom · Pull Request #46 · OpenVisualCloud/directview-led-software-toolkit

sunilnom · 2026-07-21T06:36:57Z

Multi-NIC (FFmpeg avdevice mtl_st20p path):

Register up to DVLEDTX_MAX_NICS (8, MTL_PORT_MAX) NICs with the shared MTL device via p_port/r_port/p2_port..p7_port AVOptions, since mtl_init()/DPDK EAL is only initialised once per process (session 0 registers every configured NIC on first avformat_write_header()).
Set r_tx_ip on session 0's r_port slot so st20_tx_create()'s tv_ops_check() doesn't reject it with "invalid ip 0.0.0.0" (slot 1 aliases MTL_SESSION_PORT_R, so it needs a valid destination IP even though slots 2-7 are device-only registrations).
Requires a patched mtl_st20p muxer exposing p2_port..p7_port / p2_sip..p7_sip AVOptions (documented in README); the ENABLE_MTL_TX direct pipeline already supports 8 NICs without any FFmpeg patch.
Update config/tx_fullhd_multi_nic.json to an 8-NIC/8-session layout and tx_fullhd_single_session.json for this test environment.

Remove PTP (hardware timing) support:

Drop ptp_enable/ptp_pi/ptp_unicast from app_context.h and config_reader.h/.c (was hardcoded, not JSON-configurable).
Remove the AVOption-setting block in ffmpeg_tx.c — these options were silently failing on every run (not exposed by the compiled mtl_st20p muxer), so this was dead/no-op code.
Remove MTL_FLAG_PTP_* setup and the mtl_tx_ptp_sync_notify_cb callback from the direct MTL TX path (mtl_tx.c).

Validated end-to-end on hardware with 8 SR-IOV VFs: all 8 sessions open and transmit cleanly with no PTP-related warnings.

Description

Checklist

Code Quality

Code follows project style guidelines
No unnecessary debug logs or commented-out code
No hardcoded values / secrets

Testing

Unit test added/modified accordingly
Perform manual basic sanity testing at system level

Review Readiness

PR title and description are clear and meaningful
Story/Task IDs are linked

Documentation

README or relevant docs updated (if applicable)

Security

No sensitive data exposed (keys, passwords, tokens)
Input validation added where needed

PR Type

What kind of change does this PR introduce?

Multi-NIC (FFmpeg avdevice mtl_st20p path): - Register up to DVLEDTX_MAX_NICS (8, MTL_PORT_MAX) NICs with the shared MTL device via p_port/r_port/p2_port..p7_port AVOptions, since mtl_init()/DPDK EAL is only initialised once per process (session 0 registers every configured NIC on first avformat_write_header()). - Set r_tx_ip on session 0's r_port slot so st20_tx_create()'s tv_ops_check() doesn't reject it with "invalid ip 0.0.0.0" (slot 1 aliases MTL_SESSION_PORT_R, so it needs a valid destination IP even though slots 2-7 are device-only registrations). - Requires a patched mtl_st20p muxer exposing p2_port..p7_port / p2_sip..p7_sip AVOptions (documented in README); the ENABLE_MTL_TX direct pipeline already supports 8 NICs without any FFmpeg patch. - Update config/tx_fullhd_multi_nic.json to an 8-NIC/8-session layout and tx_fullhd_single_session.json for this test environment. Remove PTP (hardware timing) support: - Drop ptp_enable/ptp_pi/ptp_unicast from app_context.h and config_reader.h/.c (was hardcoded, not JSON-configurable). - Remove the AVOption-setting block in ffmpeg_tx.c — these options were silently failing on every run (not exposed by the compiled mtl_st20p muxer), so this was dead/no-op code. - Remove MTL_FLAG_PTP_* setup and the mtl_tx_ptp_sync_notify_cb callback from the direct MTL TX path (mtl_tx.c). Validated end-to-end on hardware with 8 SR-IOV VFs: all 8 sessions open and transmit cleanly with no PTP-related warnings.

Guard ctx->idx against ctx->app->st20p_sessions and nic_index against nic_count before indexing session_net[]/nics[], falling back to app-level defaults / NIC 0 when out of range. Fixes a segfault in test_open_ffmpeg_tx_uses_app_defaults (pre-existing bug from upstream's Multiple NIC for Transmission commit).

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR updates the FFmpeg-based TX path to support registering up to 8 NICs with the MTL device at first initialization (to accommodate the “init once per process” DPDK/MTL constraint), and removes legacy/no-op PTP wiring while updating documentation and example configs accordingly.

Changes:

Extend FFmpeg TX multi-NIC registration logic to populate device-level port AVOptions for up to 8 NICs.
Document the requirement for a patched mtl_st20p muxer to expose p2_port..p7_port / p2_sip..p7_sip AVOptions.
Update example JSON configs for an 8-NIC / 8-session test layout.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
src/ffmpeg/ffmpeg_tx.c	Adds multi-NIC (up to 8) AVOption registration logic for the FFmpeg `mtl_st20p` TX path.
include/ffmpeg/ffmpeg_tx.h	Updates public header comments to describe the multi-NIC behavior/constraints.
README.md	Documents muxer patch requirements and notes the multi-NIC configuration pattern.
config/tx_fullhd_single_session.json	Updates single-session sample config values for the target test environment.
config/tx_fullhd_multi_nic.json	Updates multi-NIC sample config to an 8-NIC / 8-session layout.

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- Use relative filenames (not absolute paths) for tx_url in example configs - Fix stale DVLEDTX_NIC_SLOTS reference in ffmpeg_tx.c comment - Minimize the multi-NIC registration comment in ffmpeg_tx.c - Fail fast with a clear error if the mtl_st20p muxer lacks p2_port when more than 2 NICs are configured, instead of continuing with only warnings - Fix README's tx_fullhd_multi_nic.json description (was '6-NIC', now '8-NIC/8-session')

Add an explicit "nic_index" field to every interfaces[] entry and every tx_sessions[] entry across all sample config files, matching each entry's array position. This makes the schema consistent for single-NIC and multi-NIC configs alike (tx_fullhd_multi_nic.json already used this convention for tx_sessions[]).

…json Local ad-hoc edits (swapping in an available NIC/video file for this dev environment) were accidentally included in the previous commit, breaking test_parse_3sessions_interface_fields which asserts the fixture's original interface name (0000:03:10.1) and tx_url. Restore both to their committed values; nic_index additions are unaffected.

Parsing now fails fast with a clear error if an interfaces[] entry's optional nic_index does not equal its actual position in the array, catching config authoring mistakes (reordered/duplicated entries) before they silently misroute a tx_session to the wrong NIC. Interfaces are still stored positionally; nic_index is not otherwise used to control storage.

Covers the new validation added in config_reader.c: - nic_index omitted (backward compatible) - nic_index matches actual array position (multi-interface) - nic_index mismatch on a non-first entry fails parsing - nic_index mismatch on the first (only) entry fails parsing

dmkarthi

LGTM

sunilnom added 2 commits July 21, 2026 12:03

dmkarthi reviewed Jul 21, 2026

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Comment thread config/tx_fullhd_single_session.json Outdated

Comment thread config/tx_fullhd_multi_nic.json Outdated

Comment thread src/ffmpeg/ffmpeg_tx.c Outdated

dmkarthi requested a review from Copilot July 21, 2026 08:50

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of dmkarthi July 21, 2026 08:51 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 21, 2026

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Comment thread src/ffmpeg/ffmpeg_tx.c Outdated

Comment thread src/ffmpeg/ffmpeg_tx.c

Comment thread README.md Outdated

Comment thread config/tx_fullhd_single_session.json Outdated

Comment thread config/tx_fullhd_multi_nic.json Outdated

sunilnom changed the title ~~Support up to 8 NICs in FFmpeg TX path, remove PTP code~~ Support up to 8 NICs in FFmpeg TX path Jul 22, 2026

dmkarthi reviewed Jul 23, 2026

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Comment thread config/tx_fullhd_multi_nic.json

sunilnom added 3 commits July 23, 2026 09:45

dmkarthi reviewed Jul 23, 2026

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Comment thread README.md

Comment thread src/ffmpeg/ffmpeg_tx.c

Comment thread src/util/config_reader.c

sunilnom added 2 commits July 23, 2026 11:34

docs: document interfaces[].nic_index in README

9946f82

dmkarthi approved these changes Jul 23, 2026

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dmkarthi merged commit 6c1ea7e into OpenVisualCloud:main Jul 23, 2026
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Support up to 8 NICs in FFmpeg TX path#46

Support up to 8 NICs in FFmpeg TX path#46
dmkarthi merged 8 commits into
OpenVisualCloud:mainfrom
sunilnom:multiple_nic_ffmpeg

sunilnom commented Jul 21, 2026

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sunilnom commented Jul 21, 2026

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