TRANSIENT VIDEO ANOMALY ANALYSIS AND REPORTING SYSTEM

• US 20130111535A1
• Filed: 12/20/2012
• Published: 05/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mariner Partners Inc
• Original Assignee: Mariner Partners Inc
• Inventors: Howe, Curtis I., Harris, James Martin G., Lesbirel, Stephen W., Petrovic, Aleksander
• Granted Patent: US 9,325,986 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/109
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/004 for digital television systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/159 Prediction type, e.g. intra-frame, inter-frame or bidirectional frame prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/44 Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/89 involving methods or arrangements for detection of transmission errors at the decoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2404 Monitoring of server processing errors or hardware failure error or fault detection G06F11/07; monitoring in general G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4425 Monitoring of client processing errors or hardware failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP

Abstract

A system and method for detecting and analyzing transient video anomalies in AV broadcast networks includes AV signal monitors associated with each decoding device in the network for monitoring AV signals received by their associated video decoding device for detecting signal anomalies which are outside predetermined signal parameter levels during normal operation of the broadcast network.

Claims

1. A method for supporting and quality monitoring digital Audio/Video (AV) services transmitted in an MPEG transport stream in an AV broadcast network implementing the ISO open system interconnect network model and having video decoding devices capable of decoding digital AV bitstreams, comprising:

receiving at a management server reports of detected anomalies from a plurality of video decoding devices that each perform one or more tests to detect anomalies in AV signals received thereby through the broadcast network in an MPEG transport stream during normal operation of said digital broadcast network,

aggregating the reports from the plurality of the video decoding devices in a database; and

automatically analyzing the aggregated reports to isolate faults responsible for detected anomalies and identify a probable source of the detected anomalies.

2. The method of claim 1 comprising:

determining, in dependence on the analyzed aggregated reports, if additional testing or more frequent polling is required of one or more of the video decoding devices and if so, sending a request to one or more selected video decoding devices and receiving corresponding test result results from the selected video decoding devices.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the aggregated reports to isolate faults comprises applying sectionalization logic to correlate detected anomalies reported from video decoding devices connected to different locations of the broadcast network.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein a plurality of content encoders provide digital AV bitstreams to respective video decoding devices that are connected to the broadcast network through a service delivery platform comprised of network elements including one or more of switches, middleware servers and routers, the AV bit streams being distributed over the broadcast network to the video decoding devices, the broadcast network including a plurality of digital subscriber access points each providing digital AV bitstreams to a set of video decoding devices associated therewith, wherein analyzing the aggregated reports comprises determining which of the content encoders, network elements, access points or video decoding devices is the probable source of the detected anomalies.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein if the aggregated reports indicate that a plurality of decoding devices are uniquely detecting anomalies on AV signals from an AV digital bitstream for a channel or content encoded at a specific content encoder, the specific content encoder is identified as the probable source of the detected anomalies.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein if the aggregated reports indicate that a plurality of decoding devices are uniquely detecting anomalies on AV signals from AV digital bitstreams for a plurality of channels that pass through a specific network element, the specific network element and its associated communications link is identified as the probable source of the detected anomalies.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein if the aggregated reports indicate that a plurality of decoding devices are uniquely detecting anomalies on a AV signals from AV digital bitstreams for a plurality of channels that all pass through a specific router, the specific router is identified as the probable source of the detected anomalies.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein if the aggregated reports indicate that a plurality of decoding devices associated with a specific access point are uniquely detecting anomalies on a AV signals from AV digital bitstreams that pass through the associated access point, the associated access point is identified as the probable source of the detected anomalies.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein if the aggregated reports indicate that a specific video decoding device is uniquely detecting anomalies, the specific video decoding device is identified as the probable source of the detected anomalies.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the automatic analyzing is performed by an inference engine present on the management server.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the video decoding devices are located at individual customer locations.

12. A centralized monitoring system for automatically detecting and locating problems in an IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) network having a plurality of network components for transmitting Audio/Video (AV) services transmitted in an MPEG transport stream to a plurality of customer video decoding devices that are capable of decoding digital AV bitstreams, the centralized monitoring system comprising:

a data collection system for receiving and storing reports of detected anomalies from a plurality of customer video decoding devices that each perform one or more tests to detect anomalies in AV signals received thereby through the IPTV network during normal operation of IPTV network; and

an inference engine for automatically analyzing a plurality of the reports to isolate faults responsible for detected anomalies and identify a probable source of the detected anomalies.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the data collection system and inference engine are implemented by one or more servers.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the inference engine is configured to determine, in dependence on the analyzed plurality of reports, if additional testing or additional polling is required of one or more of the video decoding devices and if so, send test request to one or more selected video decoding devices, the data collection system being configured to receive and store the corresponding test result results from the selected video decoding devices.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the inference engine is configured to, as part of automatically analyzing the plurality of the reports, apply sectionalization logic to correlate detected anomalies reported from video decoding devices connected to different locations of the IPTV network.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the inference engine is configured to, as part of automatically analyzing the plurality of the reports, anaylize for errors signatures that are used by sectionalization logic to correlate detected anomalies reported from video decoding devices connected to different locations of the IPTV network.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the network components include:

(i) a plurality of content encoders;

(ii) a plurality of IP gateways receiving digital AV bitstreams from respective channel encoders;

(iii) a plurality of ATM switches or routers receiving digital AV bitstreams from the IP gateways and routing the AV bitstreams through at least portions of the IPTV network;

(iv) a plurality of digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs) each receiving digital AV bitstreams through at least portions of the IPTV network and providing digital AV bitstreams to a set of the video decoding devices associated therewith, and wherein the inference engine is configure to;

(a) determine if the plurality of reports indicate that a plurality of decoding devices are uniquely detecting anomalies in an AV digital bitstream for specific content encoded at a specific encoder, and if so, identify the specific encoder and content are identified as the probable source of the detected anomalies;

(b) determine if the plurality of reports indicate that a plurality of decoding devices are uniquely detecting anomalies in AV digital bitstreams for a plurality of channels that pass through a specific IP gateway, and if so, identify the specific IP gateway as the probable source of the detected anomalies;

(c) determine if the plurality of reports indicate that a plurality of decoding devices are uniquely detecting anomalies in AV digital bitstreams for a plurality of channels that all pass through a specific router, and if so, identify the specific router as the probable source of the detected anomalies;

(d) determine if the plurality of reports indicate that a plurality of decoding devices associated with a DSLAM are uniquely detecting anomalies in AV digital bitstreams that pass through the associated DSLAM, and if so, identify the associated DSLAM as the probable source of the detected anomalies; and

(e) determine if the plurality of reports indicate that a specific video decoding device is uniquely detecting anomalies, and if so, identify the specific video decoding device as the probable source of the detected anomalies.

18. A video decoding device operable on an MPEG transport stream transmitted through a digital broadcast network implementing the ISO open system interconnect network model, the video decoding device decoding said MPEG transport stream to output AV signals, the video decoding device comprising:

a monitor operable on the MPEG transport stream for inferring Audio/Video (AV) quality of AV signals transmitted on the broadcast network by continuously performing one or more tests on the MPEG transport stream during normal operation of said broadcast network to detect anomalies which exceed predetermined parameters in AV signals transmitted in the MPEG transport stream on said broadcast network and received by the video decoding device, the monitor being operable to also detect problems with the video decoding device.

19. The video decoding device of claims 18 wherein the problems the monitor is operable to detect includes repeated re-booting of the video decoding device and the monitor is configured to provide information regarding detected anomalies and problems to a management server for the digital broadcast network.

20. The video decoding device as defined in claim 18, wherein the monitor is a software agent on the video decoding device.