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IxLoad: MS IPTV

Testing MS IPTV with IxLoad

IxLoad provides a comprehensive solution for testing Microsoft TV (MS IPTV) delivery network. IxLoad emulates large numbers of Instant Channel Change Broadcast Subscribers and Video on Demand (VOD) emulation. It also assesses subscriber Quality of Experience (QoE) using transport and perceptual video quality metrics.

IxLoad MS IPTV

With Ixia's high performance XMV16 load modules, each load module can simulate 12,800 MS IPTV clients, and a fully loaded Optixia XM12 chassis can simulate over 150,000 clients. Video data throughput is more than 14Gbps per load module and 168Gbps per chassis. Therefore large scale MS IPTV deployments can be created to measure the performance of the service delivery network.

What is MS IPTV?

Microsoft TV IPTV Edition (MS IPTV) offers digital television services over IP networks, including broadcast programming, on-demand and rich interactive media services. These services are typically offered in a Triple-Play bundle to consumers, featuring voice, high-speed Internet, and IPTV. Deployments are in progress around the world by various Tier-1 Telecoms and Service Providers.

MS IPTV is a complete solution built around industry-standard and Microsoft proprietary protocols. A number of high-end servers, running on Microsoft platforms are used to provide content storage and delivery in a service provider's network.

Acquisition servers (A-servers) perform live content acquisition from various local and terrestrial sources for linear broadcast TV. Distribution servers (D-servers) are used to distribute frequently used content from various points of presence in the provider's network for faster access and to minimize channel switching time.

In-home IP set-top boxes (STBs) run Microsoft proprietary software in order to maximize performance using special Microsoft protocols. This includes conditional access and digital rights management technologies to ensure copyright content is secure and delivered to authorized set top boxes only. Set top boxes also support Instant Channel Change (ICC) capability used to implement very fast channel change.

Unlike channel switching on cable TV, where changes are "instant", inherent switching and routing delays in an IP network cause channel switches to be visibly slower. Microsoft uses a combination of unicast requests from the STB to the D-Servers, followed by a multicast request to the network. The first request implements ICC by accelerating video for the first seconds, followed by 'normal' video flow.

Testing MS IPTV

The inherent complexity of MS IPTV poses a challenge for pre-deployment labs attempting to validate their network designs. Functionality, interoperability and scale must all be tested, measured and verified. IxLoad offers a solution tailored to the specific needs of MS IPTV, including:

  • Microsoft STB client simulation, supporting Instant Channel Change behavior and MS TV traffic patterns.
  • A-server simulation, to pump multicast content into the network.
  • D-server simulation, to supply local copies of video content and to handle channel change.

IxLoad, when used with the MS IPTV component simulations, can be used to:
  • Measure the channel change performance of an MS IPTV deployment including unicast join and unicast-to-multicast latency
  • Measure the ability of a transport network to carry video data in addition to data and voice
  • Measure the perceived quality of the video delivered to the end-user
  • Measure the impact of network characteristics on video quality

Key Features

Emulation
  • Simulation of large scale MS IPTV-like STBs per port, with the ability to scale to hundreds of ports
  • Emulation of realistic Triple-Play scenarios in which IPTV is actively used along with voice and high-speed Internet access
  • Use of multiple IPTV user profiles, each of which includes channel line-ups, viewing patterns and impairment options
  • Flexible Triple-Play subscriber and service separation options using VLANs, 802.1p TOS, DHCP with option 82, and uplink/downlink per-subscriber management.

Real-world Testing

  • Mixture of IPTV, voice and data traffic in the same test
  • Support for RTP/UDP or UDP for video transmission
  • Near wire-speed video transmission with very low jitter
  • Support for interleaving ICC and VoD commands on client
  • Support for user-specified video files or synthetic data using IxLoad servers
  • Channel viewing sequences such as sequential, concurrent and random for user-realism
  • Channel selection based on statistical distribution models for prime-time emulation
  • Customizable client headers for interoperation with portal services
  • Configurable TOS and DSCP bit settings to test differentiated class of service
  • Specialized statistics for measuring channel change performance, and perceptual and transport-level video quality metrics

Quality of Experience (QoE)

  • Video quality metrics to measure both transmission quality using MDI and perceptual video quality using TVQM
  • Video quality metrics on a per-subscriber basis
  • Per video stream statistics such as jitter, latency, loss, and bit rates
  • MPEG level statistics on number of I, B and P frames received per video stream
  • Support for jitter buffer emulation on video client

Specifications

Server

Emulation Simulation of A, D servers for ICC behavior
Simulation of V server for on-demand
Content Synthetic and real payloads (MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, VC-1)
Features Distributed architecture to support hundreds of D servers
Synchronization between A and D servers
Single and multiple program transport stream, SPTS, MPTS
RTP/UDP, UDP
Options Unicast burst duration
Maximum requests per channel
TOS/DSCP bits for A and D servers

Client

Emulation Simulation Instant Channel Change behavior
Simulation of on-demand clients
Features Automatic selection of A and D server channel selections configured
Channel viewing sequence to create channel watching patterns
Channel selection to create random and prime-time scenarios
Options Distributed D server selection
Watch durations (per subscriber or groups of subscribers)
Channel selection to simulate load patterns
D to A switchover behavior
D to A switchover delay
Jitter buffer configuration
Video quality measurements

Statistics

Client
  1. Total Streams Playing
  2. Active D server channels
  3. Active Multicast channels
  4. Active V server channels
  5. D server channels requested
  6. D server requests successful
  7. D server requests failed
  8. D server requests failed (Control)
  9. D server requests failed (Data)
  10. A server channels requested
  11. A server request successful
  12. A server requests failed
  13. V server channels requested
  14. V server requests successful
  15. V server requests failed
  16. V server requests failed (Control)
  17. V server requests failed (Data)
  1. Global jitter
  2. Jitter distributions
  3. Inter-packet arrival distributions
  4. MOS_V
  5. I Frames Received
  6. P Frames Received
  7. B Frames Received
  8. I Frames impaired
  9. P Frames impaired
  10. B Frames impaired
  11. Play latency
  12. Join Latency
  13. Unicast-Multicast switch latency
  14. I-Join latency
  15. Leave latency
  16. Channel switch latency
  17. Channel gap duration
  18. Channel overlap duration

Server
  1. IPTV D Server Requests Received
  2. IPTV D Server Requests Successful
  3. IPTV D Server Requests Failed
  4. IPTV D Server Requests Failed for Bandwidth
  5. IPTV V Server Requests Received
  6. IPTV V Server Requests Successful
  7. IPTV V Server Requests Failed
  8. IPTV V Server Requests Failed for Bandwidth
  1. IPTV Active A Server Streams Playing
  2. IPTV Active D Server Streams Playing
  3. IPTV Active V Server Streams
  4. IPTV Active V Server Streams Playing
  5. IPTV Active V Server Streams Paused
  6. V Server Streams Bit Rate (Kbps)
  7. A Server Streams Bit Rate (Kbps)
  8. D Server Streams Bit Rate (Kbps)
  9. IPTV Total Streaming Bit Rate (Kbps)

Ordering Information

925-3330
IXLOAD-B3, Triple-Play Software Bundle, Layer 4-7 Performance Test Application Base Software IXLOAD; plus optional software IXLOAD-MAIL, IXLOAD-STREAM, IXLOAD-DDOS, IXLOAD-U1, IXLOAD-VIDEO, IXLOAD-VOICE, and IXLOAD-ADVNET; Supports SSL Client, SSL Server, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and TCP; Includes Media Kit

925-3111
IXLOAD-VIDEO-AVC, Optional Software, Video over IP; Support for advanced video codecs; REQUIRES previous or adjoining purchase of 925-3105 (IXLOAD-VIDEO), OR 925-3320 (IXLOAD-B2), OR 925-3330 (IXLOAD-B3); AND 944-0011 (CPM1000T8) load module

P/N: 915-1726-01 Rev A - August 2006



This material is for informational purposes only and subject to change without notice. It describes Ixia's present plans to develop and make available to its customers certain products, features and capabilities. Ixia is only obligated to provide those deliverables specifically included in a written agreement between Ixia and the customer.

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