System and method for analyzing the performance of multiple transportation streams of streaming media in packet-based networks

• US 20060184670A1
• Filed: 04/03/2006
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ineoquest Technologies Incorporated (Telestream Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Ineoquest Technologies Incorporated (Telestream Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Dawson, Peter S., Holleran, Richard T., Beeson, Jesse D., Todd, Marc A. C., Welch, James T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,838,772 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/026 using flow identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

Streaming media network parameters are measured using an electronic system and displayed directly to a user or transmitted via an electronic interface such as an existing system network conduit, either in or out-of-band. A scalable hardware and/or software compute engine filters and reduces network parameters to simplify tracking the instantaneous and long term streaming media performance of the network. Hence, the entire set of active media streams is continuously monitored concurrently, thereby providing the ability to detect impairments as well as predict impending impairments. In one example, an existing packetized network conduit containing streaming media is tapped to concurrently and objectively analyze the streaming media streams, producing statistics (such as delay factor and media loss rate) and alarm-type events according to predetermined rules. Tapping the existing packetized network in multiple points provides comparison points and assists in pinpointing the source(s) of the impairment(s).

Claims

1. A method for simultaneously analyzing multiple packetized media streams in a network, said method comprising:

(a) receiving network traffic corresponding to a plurality of media streams at a node of the network, said network traffic including packets having destination information and a media payload;

(b) filtering said network traffic into said plurality of media streams on a packet-by-packet basis, in accordance with said destination information;

(c) passing the media payload of each packet to one of a plurality of hardware-implemented analyzer ports respectively associated with each destination, to build a plurality of isolated media streams substantially in parallel with one another;

(d) effecting said filtering (b) and passing (c) substantially at the rate said network traffic passes through the node; and

(e) computing statistics associated with each isolated stream.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said received network traffic comprises a copy of network traffic passing through the node.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising removing the destination information from each packet prior to said passing (c).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware-implemented analyzer ports are disposed within hardware selected from the group consisting of an FPGA, ASIC, discrete logic, and combinations thereof.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the hardware-implemented analyzer ports comprise a hardware-implemented lookup table.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the hardware-implemented lookup table comprises a content addressable memory (CAM).

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the hardware-implemented analyzer ports comprise an array of finite state machines.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising replacing the destination information of at least one of the isolated media streams with new destination information.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising modifying the media payload of the at least one isolated media streams to correspond to the new destination information thereof, to facilitate identification of decoded versions thereof.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said modifying comprises modifying the media payload by applying a stamp selected from the group consisting of a visual signal and an audible signal.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein said modifying comprises temporally offsetting the at least one isolated media streams from one another.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein said computing (e) is effected at the new destination.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the destination information comprises an IP Protocol n-tuple.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the n-tuple comprises at least one of an OSI layer 2 address, layer 3 address, layer 4 port number, and VLAN ID.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the media streams are of distinct media formats.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the media streams are selected from the group consisting of constant bit rate and variable bit rate streams.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein said computing (e) comprises analyzing the network'"'"'s influence on at least one of the isolated media streams.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing statistics associated with each isolated stream, said statistics comprising at least a delay factor (DF) parameter defining an instantaneous flow rate balance representing a virtual buffer delay that is needed to prevent data loss and absorb network jitter growth; and

forwarding, for each isolated stream, said computed statistics to a measurement consumer.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said computed statistics comprise a media loss rate (MLR) parameter representing number of media packets lost or corrupted.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein said computed statistics comprise any of the following:

stream instantaneous bit-rate, average bit-rate, deviation from nominal bit-rate, minimum and maximum deviation from nominal bit-rate, instantaneous flow rate, minimum and maximum instantaneous flow rate, instantaneous flow rate deviation, minimum and maximum instantaneous flow rate deviation, stream utilization of network bandwidth, minimum and maximum of stream utilization of network bandwidth, or number of sequence errors.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein said instantaneous flow rate balance value is computed from said each isolated stream via a counter computing an instantaneous flow rate and said counter registers a deviation from nominal as an indication of the flow'"'"'s instantaneous accumulated jitter for forwarding to said measurement consumer.

22. An article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein which simultaneously analyzes multiple packetized media streams in a network, said medium comprising:

computer readable program code aiding in receiving network traffic corresponding to a plurality of media streams at a node of the network, said network traffic including packets having destination information and a media payload;

computer readable program code to aid in filtering said received network traffic into said plurality of media streams on a packet-by-packet basis, in accordance with said destination information;

computer readable program code to aid in passing the media payload of each packet to one of a plurality of hardware-implemented analyzer ports respectively associated with each destination, to build a plurality of isolated media streams substantially in parallel with one another; and

computer readable program code to compute statistics associated with each isolated stream.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 22, comprising computer readable program code computing statistics including at least a delay factor (DF) parameter defining an instantaneous flow rate balance representing a virtual buffer delay that is needed to prevent data loss and absorb network jitter growth.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 23, comprising computer readable program code computing statistics including a media loss rate (MLR) parameter representing number of media packets lost or corrupted.

25. A system for simultaneously analyzing multiple packetized media streams in a network at a network node, the system comprising:

one or more interfaces configured to forward a copy of the multiple packetized media streams, the streams including packets having destination information and a media payload;

one or more filters configured to receive and filter said forwarded media streams on a packet by packet basis in accordance with said destination information;

a plurality of hardware-implemented analyzer ports respectively associated with each destination, configured to receive the media payload of each filtered packet to build a plurality of isolated media streams substantially in parallel with one another;

a computing engine configured to compute statistics associated with each isolated media stream.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the hardware-implemented analyzer ports are disposed within hardware selected from the group consisting of an FPGA, ASIC, discrete logic, and combinations thereof.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the hardware-implemented analyzer ports comprise a hardware-implemented lookup table.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the hardware-implemented lookup table comprises a content addressable memory (CAM).

29. The system of claim 25, wherein the hardware-implemented analyzer ports comprise an array of finite state machines.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein said computing engine is configured to replace the destination information of at least one of the isolated media streams with new destination information.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein said computing engine is configured to modify the media payload of the at least one isolated media streams to correspond to the new destination information thereof, to facilitate identification of decoded versions thereof.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein said computing engine is configured to modify the media payload by applying a stamp selected from the group consisting of a visual signal and an audible signal.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein said computing engine is configured to temporally offset the at least one isolated media streams from one another.

34. The system of claim 25, wherein said computing engine is configured to encapsulate at least a portion of at least one of the isolated media streams within a reliable delivery protocol encoded with new destination information.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein said computing engine is configured to encapsulate a subset of the at least one isolated media stream, wherein bandwidth requirements of a link to the new destination are reduced.

36. The system of claim 34, wherein said at least one media stream comprises a single program stream extracted from a Multi Program Transport Stream (MPTS).

37. The system of claim 25, wherein the destination information comprises an Internet Protocol n-tuple.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the n-tuple comprises at least one of an OSI layer 2 address, layer 3 address, layer 4 port number, and VLAN ID.

39. The system of claim 25, wherein the media streams are of distinct media formats.

40. The method of claim 25, wherein the media streams are selected from the group consisting of constant bit rate and variable bit rate streams.

41. The system of claim 25, wherein said computing engine is configured to analyze the network'"'"'s influence on the isolated streams.

42. The system of claim 25, wherein said one or more filters and said plurality of hardware-implemented analyzer ports are configured to build the plurality of isolated media streams substantially at the rate said network traffic passes through the node.

43. The system of claim 25, wherein said computing engine is configured to compute statistics comprising at least a delay factor (DF) defining an instantaneous flow rate balance representing a virtual buffer delay that is needed to prevent data loss and absorb network jitter growth.

44. The system of claim 43, wherein said computed statistics comprise a media loss rate (MLR) parameter, said MLR representing number of media packets lost or corrupted.

45. The system of claim 43, comprising one or more interfaces configured to forward said computed statistics to a measurement consumer.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein said computing engine comprises one or more finite state machines to compute index values associated with said one or more streams of interest, said index values for each stream comprising at least a delay factor (DF) and a media loss rate (MLR), said DF defining an instantaneous flow rate balance representing a virtual buffer delay that is needed to prevent data loss and absorb network jitter growth for said stream, and said MLR representing number of media packets lost or corrupted for said stream.

47. The system of claim 46, comprising a controller to transmit control instructions from said measurement consumer to modify system-level state-based logic data associated with said one or more finite state machines.

48. The system of claim 46, wherein at least one of said interfaces is a native streaming video interface forwarding a streaming media payload, said native streaming video interface providing minimum time distortion to permit media stream analysis and monitoring by a native streaming media analyzer.