Developing Media-Specific Traffic Profiles for Reliable Media Over IP Network Testing

Broadcast Engineering and IT Conference , Core Education Collection , Core Education Collection: Connect Series

Originally Aired - Monday, April 15 | 10:40 AM - 11:00 AM PT

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In the face of a transformative shift in the media production and broadcasting industry, the adoption of Media over IP solutions has become prevalent, facilitated by standards such as SMPTE ST 2110 and AES67. Despite this critical need, proper network testing is often sidestepped due to constraints related to budget, time, and equipment availability.

Addressing this gap, the author’s previous work introduced an accessible approach to Media over IP network load testing, leveraging off-the-shelf hardware and open-source software. However, this innovative solution highlighted a crucial area for further exploration—the development of media-specific traffic profiles. Traditional traffic profiles, such as IMIX, fall short in accurately representing the unique characteristics and demands of media traffic. This paper builds upon our foundational work explaining the methods and considerations towards such profile, delving into the actual creation and optimization of such profiles basing on the actual data from large operational facilities, aiming to mirror real-world media traffic patterns and load scenarios more accurately.

This work contributes to the ongoing evolution of the media industry's transition to IP, offering valuable insights and tools to broadcasters, integrators, and network engineers. The paper proposes a systematic methodology for profile creation, analyzing the unique aspects of media traffic, including flow sizes, load asymmetry, and the distribution of multicast traffic. The authors also present a comprehensive evaluation of the developed profiles, assessing their efficacy in providing a realistic and rigorous testing environment compared to traditional profiles.