Endpoint information for network VQM

• US 9,674,515 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2013
• Issued: 06/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wildfeuer, Herbert Michael, Lin, Da, Hu, Jing
• Primary Examiner(s): Goodarzi, Nasser
• Assistant Examiner(s): Imperial, Jaycee
• Application Number:
  US13/939,251
• Publication Number:
  US 20150015722A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,426 Days
• Field of Search: 348192
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/004 for digital television systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/154 Measured or subjectively estimated visual quality after decoding, e.g. measurement of distortion use of rate-distortion criteria H04N19/147
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• 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 21/647 Control signaling between network components and server or clients; Network processes for video distribution between server and clients, e.g. controlling the quality of the video stream, by dropping packets, protecting content from unauthorised alteration within the network, monitoring of network load, bridging between two different networks, e.g. between IP and wireless real-time session protocols H04L65/1101
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

Video quality management (VQM) may be provided. First, transmitter metrics corresponding to a video stream may be determined by a transmitting endpoint. The determined transmitter metrics may then be transmitted from the transmitting end point and received by a receiver. The receiver may then determine receiver metrics for a video stream received at the receiver. A quality score may then be determined by the receiver. The quality score may be based on the received transmitter metrics and the determined receiver metrics.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a receiver, a video stream, the receiver comprising a network device of a video distribution system;

receiving, by the receiver, transmitter metrics corresponding to a video segment of the received video stream, wherein receiving the transmitter metrics comprises extracting the transmitter metrics from the received video stream, the extracted transmitter metrics comprising a compressed quality of the video segment and a quality degradation due to packet losses as a function of packet loss rate and packet loss burst length for the video segment;

determining, by the receiver, receiver metrics for the video stream received at the receiver; and

determining, by the receiver, a quality score for the video segment based on the received transmitter metrics and the determined receiver metrics, wherein determining the quality score comprises;

determining a network impairment for the received video segment from the determined receiver metrics, the network impairment comprising packet loss in the received video segment and the packet loss for packets received in the video stream;

determining, based on the network impairment, an average packet loss rate and an average packet loss burst length for the received video segment;

determining a drop corresponding to the determined average packet loss rate and the average packet loss burst length from the quality degradation due to packet losses as a function of packet loss rate and packet loss burst length for the video segment of the quality degradation metrics; and

determining the quality score by adjusting the determined drop from the compressed quality, wherein determining the quality score further comprises determining the quality score to be the compressed quality of the video segment in the video stream subtracted by a measure of quality degradation due to delay and jitter in the video segment when the receiver observes packet delay and jitter.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the transmitter metrics comprises receiving the transmitter metrics on a per video segment basis of the video stream.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the transmitter metrics comprises receiving the transmitter metrics on a per video segment basis of the video stream wherein the first video quality comprise a measure of the compressed quality of the video segment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the transmitter metrics comprises receiving the transmitter metrics on a per video packet basis of the video stream.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the transmitter metrics comprises receiving the transmitter metrics from a transmitting endpoint located in a service provider head end.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the transmitter metrics comprises receiving the transmitter metrics from a transmitting endpoint comprising one of the following:

a server, a network switch, and a router.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the transmitter metrics comprises receiving the transmitter metrics in at least one of the following:

in at least one Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) header extension in the video stream and in at least one Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN) UDP packet in the video stream.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving by the receiver comprises receiving by the receiver wherein the receiver comprises one of the following:

a server, a network switch, a router, and a user device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the receiver metrics for the video stream received at the receiver comprises determining the receiver metrics wherein the video stream is encrypted.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the network impairment further comprises determining a measured packet loss corresponding to the video stream at the receiver.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the network impairment further comprises determining a measure of the delay and jitter corresponding to the video stream at the receiver.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the quality score comprises determining the quality score to be the compressed quality of the video segment in the video stream when the determined network impairments corresponding to the video segment in the video stream indicate that the receiver observes no packet loss, no delay, and no jitter in the video segment.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the quality score comprises determining the quality score to be the compressed quality of a video segment in the video stream subtracted by the determined drop.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the quality score comprises determining the quality score to be the compressed quality of the video segment in the video stream subtracted by a measure of the quality degradation due to at least one neighboring packet of a video pack in the video segment being lost when the receiver observes packet loss and is able to spend cycles to perform a calculation per lost packet.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the calculated quality score to determine Quality of Service (QoS) corresponding to the receiver.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising making an adjustment to the receiver to improve quality based on the calculated quality score.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitter metrics further comprises a scene complexity of the video segment and motion estimation for the vide segment.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising making adjustment at the network device determined the quality score.

17. An apparatus comprising:

a memory storage; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to;

receive, at a network device of a video distribution system, a video stream;

receive transmitter metrics corresponding to a segment of the received video stream, wherein the processing unit being operative to receive the transmitter metrics comprises the processing unit being operative to extract the transmitter metrics from the received video stream, the extracted transmitter metrics comprising a compressed quality of the video segment and a quality degradation due to packet losses as a function of packet loss rate and packet loss burst length for the video segment;

determine receiver metrics for the video segment of the received video stream; and

determine a quality score for the video segment based on the received transmitter metrics and the determined receiver metrics, wherein the processing unit being operative to determine the quality score comprises the processing unit being operative to;

determine network impairment for the received video stream from the determined receiver metrics, the network impairment comprising packet loss in the received video segment and the packet loss for packets received in the video stream;

determine, based on the network impairment, an average packet loss rate and an average packet loss burst length for the received video segment;

determine a drop corresponding to the determined average packet loss rate and the average packet loss burst length from the quality degradation due to packet losses as a function of packet loss rate and packet loss burst length for the video segment of the quality degradation metrics; and

determine the quality score by adjusting the determined drop from the compressed quality, wherein the quality score is determined to be the compressed quality of the video segment in the video stream subtracted by a measure of quality degradation due to delay and jitter in the video segment when the receiver observes packet delay and jitter.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the processing unit being operative to receive the transmitter metrics comprises the processing unit being operative to receive the transmitter metrics from a transmitting endpoint.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the processing unit being operative to determine the network degradation for the video stream comprises the processing unit being further operative to determine a measure of the delay and jitter corresponding to the video stream at the network device.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores a set of instructions which when executed perform a method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

receiving, at a network device of a video distribution system, a video stream;

receiving transmitter metrics corresponding to a video segment of the received video stream, wherein receiving transmitter metrics comprises extracting the transmitter metrics from the received video stream, the extracted transmitter metrics a compressed quality of the video segment and a quality degradation due to packet losses as a function of packet loss rate and packet loss burst length for the video segment;

determining receiver metrics for the received video stream; and

determining a quality score for the video segment based on the received transmitter metrics and the determined receiver metrics, wherein determining the quality score comprises;

determining a network impairment for the received video segment from the determined receiver metrics, the network impairment comprising packet loss in the received video segment and the packet loss for packets received in the video stream;

determining, based on the network impairment, an average packet loss rate and an average packet loss burst length for the received video segment;

determining a drop corresponding to the determined average packet loss rate and the average packet loss burst length from the quality degradation due to packet losses as a function of packet loss rate and packet loss burst length for the video segment of the quality degradation metrics; and

determining the quality score by adjusting the determined drop from the compressed quality, wherein determining the quality score further comprises determining the quality score to be the compressed quality of the video segment in the video stream subtracted by a measure of quality degradation due to delay and jitter in the video segment when the receiver observes packet delay and jitter.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein determining the receiver metrics for the received video stream comprises determining the receiver metrics wherein the video stream is encrypted.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the network impairment for the received video stream further comprises a measured packet loss corresponding to the video stream at the network device.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the network impairment for the received video stream further comprises a measure of the delay and jitter corresponding to the video stream at the network device.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein determining the quality score comprises determining the quality score comprising an estimated Mean Opinion Score (MOS).

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20, further comprising using the calculated quality score to do at least one of the following:

determine Quality of Service (QoS) corresponding to a receiver and adjust the receiver to improve quality based on the calculated quality score.