AES70 (Open Control Architecture)
AES70 is the AES-governed Open Control Architecture standard for control, monitoring, and connection management of professional media devices. It is not audio/video transport. In an IT schedule, treat AES70 as a control-plane service whose actual OCP.1 service port is implementation-specific and normally discovered or configured per endpoint, not as a media-stream port list like AES67, Dante, Milan, or ST 2110.
Scope: AES70 (Open Control Architecture) — select the deployed product/version; optional services require separate selection.
protocol · Catalog reviewed 2026-10-22
AES70 series, including AES70-3-2024
Infrastructure Requirements
- IP reachability between controllers and controlled devices
- a supported AES70 implementation and exposed schema on each endpoint
- the actual OCP.1 service port advertised/configured by the product
- mDNS / DNS-SD handling if local service discovery is required
- a separate media transport strategy if the system also needs audio/video carriage
Network & Physical Requirements
| Port / allocation | Transport | Connection / signal flow | Feature and requirement | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Configured | TCP | Controller → OCA device | Profile requirement · Core OCP.1 device control OCP.1 TCP service on an implementation-selected endpoint port Obtain the device service port from its DNS-SD SRV record or configuration. No universal numeric OCP.1 port is asserted. | Source checked 2026-10-22 AES70-3: Protocol for IP Networks, PDF pages 50-51: DNS-SD and TCP/IP service _oca._tcpOCA Alliance AES147 NA02 tutorial, 2019 |
| 5353 | UDP Multicast: 224.0.0.251; ff02::fb | Controller / device → Local peers | Optional · mDNS discovery OCA service discovery where supported Optional local-link mDNS discovery for AES70 implementations using DNS-SD OCA Alliance describes DNS-SD discovery in its AES147 tutorial, PDF pp. 50-51: https://ocaalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/AES147-Network-NA02-An-Introductory-Tutorial-to-AES70.pdf. UDP 5353 applies only when mDNS is used; unicast DNS-SD follows the DNS service profile. | Source checked 2026-10-22 Sections 3 and 5.1: local-link mDNS multicast addresses and UDP port 5353RFC 6762, February 2013; OCA Alliance AES147 tutorial |
Gotchas & IT Notes
- ⚠Do not list AES70 as a media protocol. It is control, monitoring, and connection management only.
- ⚠Do not invent a universal AES70 numeric port. IANA's OCA entries are DNS-SD service names with blank numeric port fields, not fixed TCP/UDP port numbers.
- ⚠For firewall rules, require the selected product's actual advertised/configured OCP.1 service port and secure/insecure mode.
- ⚠Prefer secure transport and trusted control VLAN placement. Insecure OCP.1 may be useful for lab work, but it should not become the production default by accident.
- ⚠mDNS is local-link behavior. If the controller and device live on different VLANs, plan same-subnet discovery, static enrollment, unicast DNS-SD, or a managed mDNS gateway; do not assume discovery will route.