On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 6:50 PM, Len Ovens <len@ovenwerks.net> wrote:

Shouldn't be, The network traffic does not need to be real time, but the network does. In other words the way the host computer deals with network traffic does not need to be real time. The computer puts a packet into a buffer, this part does not need to be real time.

this is not correct. there's no difference between this operation and putting audio into the h/w buffer associated with a PCI audio interface. the entire transport chain must be RT.

The network sends it while there is no audio traffic, this part does need to be real time.

also wrong. it must be able to send it on demand, or at least within a given (realtime) window.

but this then gets to the clocking part ... not word clock per se (although that is related) but the question of how the entire transport mechanism is driven.