What is Milan?
A standards-based deterministic media networking protocol.
Media-Integrated Local Area Networking (Milan) is built on IEEE AVB/TSN standards and tailored for the Pro AV industry. Milan defines unified rules for media formats, clocking, redundancy, and control, ensuring full interoperability across certified devices.
What is the relation between Milan, AVB, and TSN?
Milan is a standards-based protocol built on AVB, which itself is a profile of TSN.
TSN is the umbrella family of IEEE Standards for deterministic networking, it can be seen as the IEEE complete toolbox of capabilities that can be used across a wide range of industries. AVB is the time-sensitive Audio/Video transport profile of TSN. Milan is a standards-based deterministic network protocol based on AVB/TSN that defines specific AVB/TSN requirements for AV networking devices to ensure compliance and interoperability.
Who maintains Milan?
Milan is maintained by the Avnu Alliance
How can I access the Milan specification?
The specification is free to download from the Avnu website.
The openness is deliberate. Milan is not a proprietary protocol locked behind licensing fees. You don’t need to be an Avnu member to access the documents, and the technical details are public. You can download the specification here: https://avnu.org/resource/milan-specification/
What is a converged network?
A converged Ethernet network refers to a single, unified network infrastructure that supports multiple types of traffic.
Multiple protocols can exist at the same time. AVB streams can coexist together with TCP/IP control data and RTP-based media flows of any kind. A crucial part of Milan, Avnu sees convergence as the future of networking for multiple industries, from ProAV and industrial automation to aerospace and automotive.
What are the main benefits of Milan?
Determinism, reliability, interoperability.
Milan guarantees these benefits while achieving unprecedented robustness and deterministic low-latency in operations. The foundations are built on IEEE AVB/TSN standards, which add precise time synchronisation, bandwidth reservation, and traffic shaping to standard Ethernet.
What is Milan Manager?
A free-to-use software application designed to easily manage any Milan-AVB network.
Milan Manager simplifies and streamlines the configuration, management and monitoring of Milan networks. You can find out more here: https://milanmanager.com/
Can Milan run on existing network infrastructure?
Yes…
If the Ethernet switches support the IEEE 802.1BA Profile for AVB/TSN. Avnu certification ensures that these switches meet the standards that are the foundation of Milan.
What happens if a device fails in a Milan network?
The rest of the network continues to operate normally.
Because Milan is built on AVB/TSN standards, real-time streams are strictly managed by the network itself, so one failing device will not interrupt the performance of other devices.
How many devices can be connected in a Milan network?
It depends.
Milan is highly scalable so it depends on three main factors: network bandwidth, switching capacity, system design.
Which products support Milan?
Milan products listed on the Avnu Certified Product Registry.
As Milan is an open specification, many products may claim compatibility with it. However, there isn’t always a guarantee that they work properly and follow the specification. Avnu Milan Certification is the only way to ensure the product meets the requirements to interoperate and work seamlessly in a shared network with other Milan certified products.
Why do the network switches need to be certified?
Because certification ensures delivery of real-time performance and interoperability required for Milan.
AVB and TSN bring significant intelligence to the functionality of network switches. Certification ensures that this technology is implemented according to the standards, continuing the evolution of Ethernet.
Is Milan compatible with Dante, AES67, or other formats?
Not without a format converter, but…
Milan is designed for coexistence with best effort AoIP protocols thanks to its traffic shaping capabilities. Other audio protocols relying on best effort transport can benefit as a result.
What is a talker, and what is a listener?
A talker is an audio source (e.g. an A/D converter); a listener is an audio sink (e.g a loudspeaker).
A talker is a device that sends audio data. A listener is a device that consumes the audio data. Talkers and listeners are linked in Milan via streams – just like Analog systems that are connected with cables. Find the full definitions in the Milan specification.
How can I connect the talker and a listener and route the audio signal?
A Milan controller knows all the talkers/listeners on a network and makes that connection happen.
These connections persist on the network even when the controller is disconnected. Milan is designed so that bandwidth is taken care of.
What is AAF?
The stream format used by Milan.
It packages the audio samples in a certain way so that all devices that support AAF can exchange audio signals.