Additional information can be found at: https://5g-mag.github.io/Getting-Started/pages/multimedia-content-delivery/

Installation of libflute consists of 4 simple steps:

1. Getting the source code
2. Installing the dependencies
3. Build setup
4. Building

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/5G-MAG/rt-libflute.git

sudo apt install ninja-build libboost-all-dev libspdlog-dev libtinyxml2-dev libconfig++-dev clang-tidy clang g++-12

cd rt-libflute/
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -GNinja ..

If you want to build the project without the unit tests run the following commands instead:

cd rt-libflute/
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -GNinja -DBUILD_TESTING=OFF ..

ninja

When installing libflute, it comes with two demo applications, a receiver and a transmitter. Both applications can be found under rt-libflute/build/examples.

To start the Flute receiver type in

cd rt-libflute/build/examples
./flute-receiver

The application will listen at the multicast address 238.1.1.95 by default. Check the help page for additional options ( ./flute-receiver --help).

By default, the FLUTE receiver will store the received files under the same path they were transmitted from (essentially overwriting the files if you are running the transmitter and the receiver on the same machine). To change the output directly you can use the -o option:

./flute-receiver -o /path/to/output/directory

To start the Flute transmitter type in

cd rt-libflute/build/examples
./flute-transmitter -r 100000 file

For file enter a file that shall be transmitted.

The parameter -r provides a data rate limit in kbit/s.

Note: Keep in mind, the rate limit should not be set higher than the network allows, otherwise packet loss can occur (UDP transmission).

If you want to ensure, that transmission between to parties shall be encrypted, you can activate IPSec.

Simply use the -k parameter on transmitter and receiver side with a. As IPSec key a AES 256-bit key (so 64 character long) is expected.

• Starting the receiver with IPSec key:

sudo ./flute-receiver -k fdce8eaf81e3da02fa67e07df975c0111ecfa906561e762e5f3e78dfe106498e

As soon as the receiver is starting with -k option, a policy is beeing created that ensures that incoming packets with a specific destination address (can be set with -m) are decrypted with the specified IPSec key.

You can check the policies with

sudo ip xfrm state list
sudo ip xfrm policy list

• Starting the transmitter with IPSec key:

sudo ./flute-transmitter -r 100000 -k fdce8eaf81e3da02fa67e07df975c0111ecfa906561e762e5f3e78dfe106498e file

Outgoing packages with a specific destination address (can be set with -m) will be encrypted with the specified IPSec key.

• Optional: Setting superuser rights

To allow the application to set policy entries without superuser privileges for IPSec, set its capabilities accordingly. Alternatively, you can run it with superuser rights (sudo ...).

sudo setcap 'cap_net_admin=eip' ./flute-transmitter
sudo setcap 'cap_net_admin=eip' ./flute-receiver

To execute the unit tests make sure to have built the project with the unit tests enabled (see Step 3: Build setup).

Then run

cd build/tests
ctest

Documentation of the source code can be found at: https://5g-mag.github.io/rt-libflute/