System and method for analyzing the performance of multiple transportation streams of streaming media in packet-based networks
First Claim
1. A method for simultaneously analyzing multiple packetized media streams in a network, said method comprising:
- 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;
filtering said network traffic into said plurality of media streams on a packet-by-packet basis, based upon said destination information;
passing the media payload of each packet of each of the plurality of media streams excluding, at least, a header of each said packet, to one of a plurality of hardware-implemented analyzer ports respectively associated with each destination;
building a plurality of isolated media streams in parallel with one another, based, at least in part, upon the passed media payload of each said packet that excludes, at least, the header of each said packet, wherein each of the plurality of isolated media streams includes only one stream of packetized data;
effecting said filtering and passing simultaneously at the rate said network traffic passes through the node;
computing statistics associated with each of the plurality of isolated media streams, wherein said statistics comprise at least a delay factor (DF) parameter and a media loss rate (MLR) parameter; and
replacing the destination information of at least one of the plurality of isolated media streams with new destination information.
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Accused Products
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).
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. A method for simultaneously analyzing multiple packetized media streams in a network, said method comprising:
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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; filtering said network traffic into said plurality of media streams on a packet-by-packet basis, based upon said destination information; passing the media payload of each packet of each of the plurality of media streams excluding, at least, a header of each said packet, to one of a plurality of hardware-implemented analyzer ports respectively associated with each destination; building a plurality of isolated media streams in parallel with one another, based, at least in part, upon the passed media payload of each said packet that excludes, at least, the header of each said packet, wherein each of the plurality of isolated media streams includes only one stream of packetized data; effecting said filtering and passing simultaneously at the rate said network traffic passes through the node; computing statistics associated with each of the plurality of isolated media streams, wherein said statistics comprise at least a delay factor (DF) parameter and a media loss rate (MLR) parameter; and replacing the destination information of at least one of the plurality of isolated media streams with new destination information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A non-transitory computer readable medium including a computer program product residing thereon having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
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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; filtering said received network traffic into said plurality of media streams on a packet-by-packet basis, based upon said destination information; passing the media payload of each packet of each of the plurality of media streams excluding, at least, a header of each said packet, to one of a plurality of hardware-implemented analyzer ports respectively associated with each destination; building a plurality of isolated media streams in parallel with one another, based, at least in part, upon the passed media payload of each said packet that excludes, at least, the header of each said packet, wherein each of the plurality of isolated media streams includes only one stream of packetized data; computing statistics associated with each of the plurality of isolated media streams, wherein said statistics comprise at least a delay factor (DF) parameter and a media loss rate (MLR) parameter; and replacing the destination information of at least one of the plurality of isolated media streams with new destination information. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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24. A system for simultaneously analyzing multiple packetized media streams in a network at a network node, the system comprising:
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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 based upon 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 of each of the forwarded media streams excluding, at least, a header of each said filtered packet; the plurality of hardware-implemented analyzer ports being further configured to build a plurality of isolated media streams in parallel with one another, based, at least in part, upon the received media payload of each said filtered packet that excludes, at least, the header of each said filtered packet, wherein each of the plurality of isolated media streams includes only one stream of packetized data; a computing engine configured to compute statistics associated with each of the plurality of isolated media streams, wherein said statistics comprise at least a delay factor (DF) parameter and a media loss rate (MLR) parameter; and wherein said computing engine is configured to replace the destination information of at least one of the plurality of isolated media streams with new destination information. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification