IxLoad provides a comprehensive solution for validating service delivery networks utilizing Microsoft™ IPTV. IxLoad offers a complete solution that simulates core systems of the Microsoft IPTV platform and allows service providers to scale to thousands of subscribers in order to determine quality of service under realistic load conditions. Several key performance indicators are measured, including Quality of Experience (QoE) using perceptual video quality metrics.
IxLoad supports Instant Channel Change (ICC) capability across thousands of dynamic triple-play subscribers. IxLoad also emulates acquisition and distribution servers, called A-servers and D-servers.
Each Ixia’s high-performance XMV16 load module can simulate 12,800 MS IPTV clients, generating a video throughput of more than 14 Gbps. A fully loaded Optixia XM12 chassis can simulate over 150,000 clients and deliver 168 Gbps of video traffic. Large scale MS IPTV deployments can be created to measure the performance of the entire service delivery network.
Key Features Emulation
Simulation of large numbers of MS IPTV-like STBs per port, with the ability to scale to hundreds of ports
Simulation 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, anduplink/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 interleaved ICC and VoD client commands
Support for user-specified video content or synthetic data on A and D servers
Comprehensive channel selection capability,including sequential, random and binomial distribution
Dynamic channel watch behavior, including percent distributionsWhat is MS IPTV?
Microsoft IPTV (MS IPTV) offers digital television services over IP networks, including broadcast programming, and 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.
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, content delivery, and security in a service provider’s network.
Acquisition servers perform live content acquisition from various local and terrestrial sources for linear broadcast TV. Distribution servers are placed at various points in the network to facilitate distribution of frequently used content. They also improves service response time and reduce channel change time.
Customer premises IP set-top boxes (IP STB) run Microsoft proprietary software and protocols in order to maximize performance. This includes conditional access and digital rights management (CA/DRM) technologies that ensures that secure copyright content is only delivered to authorized set top boxes.
Unlike channel switching on cable TV, where changes are “instant”, inherent switching and routing delays in an IP network cause channel changes 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 capability is referred to as Instant Channel Change (ICC).
Testing MS IPTV
The inherent complexity of MS IPTV poses a challenge for pre-deployment labs attempting to validate their service delivery network. The ability to measure their network’s performance and reliability under realistic load scenarios is a crucial as part of capacity planning. IxLoad offers the optimal solution in ensuring network readiness.
The core capabilities of IxLoad with respect to MS IPTV testing include:
Subscriber simulation with Instant Channel Change behavior
Triple-play subscriber simulation with ICC-like traffic, in conjunction with data and voice traffic
A-server simulation for delivery of multicast channels into the network
D-server simulation that provides initial unicast streams to subscribers
Key performance metrics, including transport and perceptual video quality scores IxLoad, when used with the MS IPTV component simulations, can be used to:
Measure the channel zap performance of an MS IPTV-like deployment
Determine the ability of a transport network to carry triple-play traffic
Measure the impact of network characteristics on video quality
Measure the perceived quality of video delivered to the subscriberKey Features
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 managementReal 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 interleaved ICC and VoD client commands
Support for user-specified video content or synthetic data on A and D servers
Comprehensive channel selection capability, including sequential, random and binomial distribution
Dynamic channel watch behavior, including percent distributions
Customizable client headers for interoperation with portal services
Configurable DSCP bit settings that may be used to test differentiated class of service for different video streams
Specialized statistics for measuring channel change performance, including unicast-to-multicast switchQuality of Experience (QoE)
Subscriber-level video quality metrics
Transport-level video statistics including loss and jitter effects
Perceptual video scores, including MDI and TVQM (MOS_V)
Video/MPEG level analysis, including IPB frames received and impairedSample Statistics and Performance Analysis
Key channel change performance measurements
Video quality scores per subscriber, per stream
Specifications
Server Emulation
Emulation
Simulation of ICC behavior of A and D servers
Simulation of V server for on-demand operationContent
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
OS/DSCP bits for A and D servers Client EmulationEmulation
Simulation of Instant Channel Change behavior
Simulation of on-demand clientsFeatures
Automatic selection of A and D server configured channel selections
Channel viewing sequences to emulate channel watching patterns
D to A switchover behavior
D to A switchover delay
Jitter buffer configuration
Video quality measurementsStatistics
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
9. IPTV Active A Server Streams Playing 10. IPTV Active D Server Streams Playing 11. IPTV Active V Server Streams 12. IPTV Active V Server Streams Playing 13. IPTV Active V Server Streams Paused 14. V Server Streams Bit Rate (Kbps) 15. A Server Streams Bit Rate (Kbps) 16. D Server Streams Bit Rate (Kbps) 17. IPTV Total Streaming Bit Rate (Kbps)
Ordering Information
Chassis Licenses:
925-3338
IxLoad-Video-IPTV-2015, Software Bundle, Layer 4-7 Performance Test Application; Enables support for basic RTSP, IPTV (Multicast), Video-ADVANCED (VoD). Includes 925-3189 Video Quality VQMON engine for up to 10Gbps, ADVNET-DHCP to emulate DHCP enabled clients and Software Impairment on selected hardware. 925-3359
IxLoad Multiplay-2015, Software Bundle, Layer 4-7 Performance Test Application; Data-Video-Voice package includes:
Data: Enables support for HTTP, HTTPS, TCP Session, FTP, DNS, Mail (SMTP, POP3 and IMAP), SSH, RADIUS, TFTP, Application-Replay, DHCP, LDAP, Telnet, Stateless-Peer and StreamBlaster emulations; Video: Enables support for basic RTSP, IPTV (Multicast), Video-ADVANCED (VoD), Adobe Flash Client, Apple HLS Client, Microsoft Silverlight Client, Adobe HDS Client and DASH Client emulations. Includes 925-3189 Video Quality VQMON engine for up to 10Gbps and 925-3193 TCP VQ – Video quality for TCP video traffic for up to 10 Gbps;
Voice: Advanced VoIP SIP & RTP, Audio Codecs, H.323, VoLTE extensions, and Bulk SIP & MGCP. Also includes 925-3528 Voice Quality engine for up to 10Gbps, 925-3512 Video Quality engine for up to 10Gbps conversational video traffic;
Access: Enables support for Advanced Access networking protocols such as DHCP for IP address acquisition, DHCP Server, PPP, L2TP and IPsec.
Appliance Licenses:
925-6112IxLoad PerfectStorm ONE VIDEO, Software Bundle, Layer 4-7 Performance Test Application Includes: RTSP, IPTV, Video-ADVANCED FLASH, APPLE HLS, Silverlight, Adobe HDS, MPEG-DASH 925-3189 Video Quality VQMON engine for up to 10Gbps 925-3193 TCP VQ - Video quality for TCP video traffic for up to 10 Gbps
925-6321
IxLoad, PerfectStorm ONE Multiplay, Software Bundle, Layer 4-7 Performance Test Application; Data, Voice, Video, Access, VPN and Storage bundle for PerfectStorm ONE appliances. Includes: 925-6111 IxLoad
PerfectStorm ONE DATA, 925-6112 IxLoad PerfectStorm ONE VIDEO, 925-6113 IxLoad PerfectStorm ONE VOICE, 925-6114 IxLoad PerfectStorm ONE AUTH, 925-6115 IxLoad PerfectStorm ONE VPN/ACCESS, and 925-6116 IxLoad PerfectStorm ONE STORAGE
IxVM License:
939-9513IxVM, IxLoad Tier-3 FLOATING Subscription license. Includes the following IxLoad protocols supported on IxVM for the purchased term (List price is per unit, per year). HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, DNS, DHCP, LDAP, TFTP, Radius, Mail (IMAP, POP3, SMTP), Storage, IxLoad-Attack and AppLibrary. REQUIRES: License term to be specified (MUST be purchased in multiples of years). Enables 1Gig throughput per unit. INCLUDES IxVM Software Platform Framework, FLOATING. Enables support for IxVM IxServer
