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-rw-r--r--Documentation/driver-api/media/mc-core.rst12
1 files changed, 12 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/media/mc-core.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/media/mc-core.rst
index 84aa7cdb5341..4bb062d5c2e7 100644
--- a/Documentation/driver-api/media/mc-core.rst
+++ b/Documentation/driver-api/media/mc-core.rst
@@ -214,6 +214,18 @@ Link properties can be modified at runtime by calling
Pipelines and media streams
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+A media stream is a stream of pixels or metadata originating from one or more
+source devices (such as a sensors) and flowing through media entity pads
+towards the final sinks. The stream can be modified on the route by the
+devices (e.g. scaling or pixel format conversions), or it can be split into
+multiple branches, or multiple branches can be merged.
+
+A media pipeline is a set of media streams which are interdependent. This
+interdependency can be caused by the hardware (e.g. configuration of a second
+stream cannot be changed if the first stream has been enabled) or by the driver
+due to the software design. Most commonly a media pipeline consists of a single
+stream which does not branch.
+
When starting streaming, drivers must notify all entities in the pipeline to
prevent link states from being modified during streaming by calling
:c:func:`media_pipeline_start()`.