How to Properly Write Received UDP Audio Data to ALSA with C++ on Raspberry Pi

Question

I have 2 Raspberry Pis and 1 of them transmits UDP frames of Audio data to the other Raspberry Pi. The UDP Packets received are 160 Bytes each. The transmitting Raspberry Pi is sending 8KHz 8-bit Mono samples. The receiving Raspberry Pi uses Qt 5.4.0 with QUDPSocket and tries to play the received data with ALSA. The code is below. Each time the "readyRead " signal is fired when bytes arrive on the receiving Raspberry Pi, the Buffer is written to ALSA. I have very Choppy and Glitchy sound coming out of the headphone Jack on the Receiving Pi - but it is recognizable. So it is working but sounds Terrible.

1. Is there anything glaringly wrong with my configuration below for ALSA?
2. How should I approach writing the received UDP packets to ALSA with snd_pcm_writei?

Thank you for any suggestions.

UdpReceiver::UdpReceiver(QObject *parent) : QObject(parent)
{

    // Debug
    qDebug() << "Setting up a UDP Socket...";

    // Create a socket
    m_Socket = new QUdpSocket(this);

    // Bind to the 2616 port
    bool didBind = m_Socket->bind(QHostAddress::Any, 0x2616);
    if ( !didBind ) {
        qDebug() << "Error - could not bind to UDP Port!";
    }
    else {
        qDebug() << "Success binding to port 0x2616!";
    }

    // Get notified that data is incoming to the socket
    connect(m_Socket, SIGNAL(readyRead()), this, SLOT(readyRead()));

    // Init to Zero
    m_NumberUDPPacketsReceived = 0;

}

void UdpReceiver::readyRead() {

    // When data comes in
    QByteArray buffer;
    buffer.resize(m_Socket->pendingDatagramSize());

    QHostAddress sender;
    quint16 senderPort;

    // Cap buffer size
    int lenToRead = buffer.size();
    if ( buffer.size() > NOMINAL_AUDIO_BUFFER_SIZE ) {
        lenToRead = NOMINAL_AUDIO_BUFFER_SIZE;
    }

    // Read the data from the UDP Port
    m_Socket->readDatagram(buffer.data(), lenToRead,
                         &sender, &senderPort);

    // Kick off audio playback
    if ( m_NumberUDPPacketsReceived == 0 ) {

        qDebug() << "Received Data - Setting up ALSA Now....";

        // Error handling
        int err;

        // Device to Write to
        char *snd_device_out  = "hw:0,0";

        if ((err = snd_pcm_open (&playback_handle, snd_device_out, SND_PCM_STREAM_PLAYBACK, 0)) < 0) {
            fprintf (stderr, "cannot open audio device %s (%s)\n",
                    snd_device_out,
                    snd_strerror (err));
            exit (1);
        }

        if ((err = snd_pcm_hw_params_malloc (&hw_params)) < 0) {
            fprintf (stderr, "cannot allocate hardware parameter structure (%s)\n",
                     snd_strerror (err));
            exit (1);
        }

        if ((err = snd_pcm_hw_params_any (playback_handle, hw_params)) < 0) {
            fprintf (stderr, "cannot initialize hardware parameter structure (%s)\n",
                     snd_strerror (err));
            exit (1);
        }

        if ((err = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_access (playback_handle, hw_params, SND_PCM_ACCESS_RW_INTERLEAVED)) < 0) {
            fprintf (stderr, "cannot set access type (%s)\n",
                     snd_strerror (err));
            exit (1);
        }

        if ((err = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_format (playback_handle, hw_params, SND_PCM_FORMAT_U8)) < 0) { // Unsigned 8 bit
            fprintf (stderr, "cannot set sample format (%s)\n",
                     snd_strerror (err));
            exit (1);

        }

        uint sample_rate = 8000;
        if ((err = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_rate (playback_handle, hw_params, sample_rate, 0)) < 0) { // 8 KHz
            fprintf (stderr, "cannot set sample rate (%s)\n",
                     snd_strerror (err));
            exit (1);
        }

        if ((err = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_channels (playback_handle, hw_params, 1)) < 0) { // 1 Channel Mono
            fprintf (stderr, "cannot set channel count (%s)\n",
                     snd_strerror (err));
            exit (1);
        }

        if ((err = snd_pcm_hw_params (playback_handle, hw_params)) < 0) {
            fprintf (stderr, "cannot set parameters (%s)\n",
                     snd_strerror (err));
            exit (1);
        }

        snd_pcm_hw_params_free (hw_params);

        // Flush handle prepare for playback
        snd_pcm_drop(playback_handle);

        if ((err = snd_pcm_prepare (playback_handle)) < 0) {
            fprintf (stderr, "cannot prepare audio interface for use (%s)\n",
                     snd_strerror (err));
            exit (1);
        }

        qDebug() << "Done Setting up ALSA....";

    }

    // Grab the buffer
    m_Buffer = buffer.data();

    // Write the data to the ALSA device
    int error;
    if ((error = snd_pcm_writei (playback_handle, m_Buffer, NOMINAL_AUDIO_BUFFER_SIZE)) != NOMINAL_AUDIO_BUFFER_SIZE) {
        fprintf (stderr, "write to audio interface failed (%s)\n",
                 snd_strerror (error));
        exit (1);
    }

    // Count up
    m_NumberUDPPacketsReceived++;

}

Answer 1

I'm not understanding the "capping the buffer size" part of the code. If the incoming data is larger than your arbitrary NOMINAL_AUDIO_BUFFER_SIZE then you're chopping off that incoming data. Have you tried removing that bit of code?