JP2005073211A - Quality report server and system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a quality report server and system in which RTP can be appropriately controlled by allowing both terminals to recognize packet transfer characteristic information for the unit of a section constituting an IP network in RTP-based communication. <P>SOLUTION: A quality report server 1 includes a means for monitoring an RTP/RTCP packet by capturing and for acquiring its quality information, a section quality information deriving means for deriving section quality information over the IP network, and a report message transmitting means for transmitting an extension report message to which the section quality information is linked, when the extension report message of RTCP is received. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a quality report server and system based on RTP (Real Time Protocol) / RTCP (Real Time Control Protocol) packets.

  The means for accessing the IP (Internet Protocol) network from the terminal is increasing year by year regardless of the infrastructure of the mobile network or the fixed network, and an access environment by higher-speed data transfer is being provided. With the rapid spread of such high-speed IP networks, real-time conversation services based on the VoIP technology on the networks are attracting attention. In an IP telephone service, which is one of real-time conversation services, voice coding method information to be used is transmitted to a destination device using a protocol for the service, and an agreement is reached between a transmission side device and a reception side device. RTP communication using the obtained speech encoding method information is performed mutually. Quality information in such an IP network has been grasped by RTP / RTCP communication.

H. Schulzrinne, S. Casner, R. Frederick and V. Jacobson, “RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications”, IETF RFC 1889, January 1996. Takeshi Yoshimura, Tomoyuki Ohya, Toshiro Kawahara, Satoshi Eito, "MPEG video quality control using RTP monitoring agent in mobile streaming", IEICE Transactions J85-B, 8, pp. 1243-1253, 2002 8 Moon A. Barberis, C. Casetti, JC De Martin and M. Meo, “A Simulation Study of Adaptive Voice Communications for IP Networks”, IEEE Computer Communications, Vol. 24, No. 9, pp. 757-767, 2001 May

  According to the technique described above, the quality information can only be grasped as quality information between terminals. That is, when communicating via a plurality of different IP networks between terminals, the quality information in the IP network unit or the communication section unit cannot be grasped individually.

  Therefore, the present invention has an object of providing a system capable of appropriately controlling RTP by allowing both terminals to recognize packet transfer characteristic information for each section constituting an IP network for communication based on RTP. To do.

  The present invention is characterized by extending the transmission side report message and the reception side report message in the RTCP procedure.

According to the quality report server of the present invention,
Means for monitoring RTP / RTCP packets by capture and obtaining quality information thereof;
Section quality information deriving means for deriving section quality information in the IP network;
And a report message transmitting means for transmitting the extended report message to which the section quality information is connected when the RTCP extended report message is received.

According to another embodiment of the quality report server of the present invention,
Report message transmission means, when receiving the extended transmission side report message, if the destination address is not its own address, it transmits to the destination address, and if it is the own address, the extended reception side concatenating the section quality information Send a report message to its source address,
When receiving the extended reception side report message, it is also preferable to link the section quality information to the extended reception side report message and transmit it to the destination address.

  According to another embodiment of the quality report server of the present invention, when the report message transmitting means receives the RTP based sender report message and the destination address is not its own address, the extended sender report It is also preferable to send a message to its destination address and send an extended receiver report message concatenated with section quality information to its source address.

According to the system of the present invention, it has a terminal having at least two RTP / RTCP communicating through a plurality of IP networks, and a plurality of the above-described quality report servers provided in each IP network,
The terminal
Means for deriving quality information based on RTP / RTCP packets;
RTP control means for controlling transmission / reception of RTP packets based on a plurality of section quality information concatenated with the received extended receiver report message;
When an extended sender report message is received, an extended receiver report message with its own quality information is sent to the source address, and when an extended receiver report message is received, an extended transmission is sent to the source address. And a report message transmitting means for transmitting the side report message.

  According to another embodiment of the system of the present invention, it is also preferable that the RTP control means controls an RTP packet transmission interval, a voice coding type and / or a voice coding speed.

  Further, according to another embodiment of the system of the present invention, the report message transmission means of the terminal is extended to a quality report server provided in the IP network connected to the terminal at a certain period or when preset. It is also preferred to send a sender report message.

  Further, according to another embodiment of the system of the present invention, the report message transmission means of the terminal sends the extended transmission side report to the quality report server provided in the IP network connected to the terminal at the end of the RTP packet communication. It is also preferable to send a message.

  Furthermore, according to another embodiment of the system of the present invention, the report message transmission means of the terminal compares the derived quality information with a threshold value set in advance for each item of the quality information, and sets a predetermined condition. When satisfied, it is also preferable to send the quality information to the quality report server by an extended receiver report message.

  Further, according to another embodiment of the system of the present invention, the report message transmission means of the quality report server includes means for transmitting an extended transmission side report message to the terminal in order to obtain quality information derived by the terminal. It is also preferable to have it.

  Furthermore, according to another embodiment of the system of the present invention, it is preferable that the section quality information deriving unit of the quality report server derives quality information based on the port number information of the transport protocol for the VoIP packet.

  Furthermore, according to another embodiment of the system of the present invention, it is also preferable to have the above-described quality report server and a quality information collection server having means for acquiring and accumulating section quality information from the quality report server.

  Furthermore, according to another embodiment of the system of the present invention, it is preferable to further include a quality information collection server having means for acquiring and accumulating section quality information from the quality report server.

  According to the present invention, based on the notified quality information, it is possible to control the RTP transmission interval, or to select a speech coding type or a speech coding speed.

  Hereinafter, the best embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram according to the present invention.

  According to FIG. 1, the system includes a plurality of IP networks 30 to 32, a quality report server 10-12 provided in each of the IP networks and capturing quality information by capturing RTP packets, and the quality report server. And a quality information collection server 2 that collects section quality information in the IP network. User-side boxes 40 to 42 having RTP / RTCP communication functions are connected to the IP networks 30 to 32, respectively. For example, a PC terminal 50 that transmits and receives by IP, a FAX terminal 60 that transmits and receives by voice signal, a voice telephone terminal 70, and a modem terminal 80 are connected to the user box 40 as terminals that transmit and receive information in real time. Yes. The RTCP communication function according to the present invention transmits and receives standard RTCP SR and RR (source address and destination address are the same as RTP), and transmits and receives extended xSR (extra Sender Report) and xRR (extra Receiver Report). It can be performed.

  Here, for example, when the PC terminal 50 has a function of mutually transmitting and receiving RTP / RTCP packets by the software, the user box 40 does not perform any processing, and between the PC terminal 50 and the quality report server 40, RTP / RTCP function extended communication can be directly performed.

  Further, according to FIG. 1, the other user box is connected to the public telephone network 90 via the gateway 91. Here, by extending the RTP / RTCP function of the gateway 91, it is possible to acquire a plurality of section quality information from each user box to the gateway 91.

  In realizing the present invention, xSR and xRR are defined as extended RTCP functions.

  Table 1 shows the RSR xSR format.

  xSR is different in transmission side IP address and reception side IP address compared to normal SR. That is, the xSR sender IP address is not necessarily the same as the RTP sender IP address. Further, since the report block is not actually carried on the SR and only the header and the transmission side information are used, the format of the xSR and SR is basically the same as that of the SR.

  Table 2 shows the RSR xSR format.

  xRR differs in transmission side IP address and reception side IP address compared with normal SR. In addition, every time the xRR relays, the quality report server partially modifies the contents of the report block of the most recently received xRR, and then adds and connects to the end. It is the “final SR” and the “final SR delay” that are modified. These are terms that have meaning only when set with SR, and have no meaning when only RR information is relayed alone.

"Final SR"->"Round trip time obtained by RFC1889 formula"
“Last SR Delay”-> “XRR packet source IP address (not its own IP address)

  A device having RTP / RTCP communication software such as a user box, a gateway, or a PC terminal is referred to as an RTCP function extended communication device. The RTCP function-enhanced communication apparatus notifies other RTCP function-enhanced communication apparatuses of quality information for each section by exchanging RTCP function-enhanced communication in addition to standard RTCP communication.

  In the present invention, a terminal based on RTP communication does not necessarily have to have an RTCP function (SR and RR transmission / reception function). In this case, the quality report server according to the present invention can be used as a simple RTCP RR information transmitting apparatus reflecting only a part of the state of the network through which RTP passes.

  FIG. 2 is a basic sequence diagram according to the present invention.

  According to FIG. 2, first, data transfer by RTP is performed between the user box 40 and the user box 41 via the IP networks 30 and 31. In addition, transmission and reception of SR and RR by RTCP is performed between both boxes.

  At this time, the user box 40 transmits the extended transmission report message xSR to the quality report server 10 belonging to the IP network 30. The quality report server 10 that has received the xSR transmits the xSR to the quality report server 11 belonging to the IP network 31. Further, the quality report server 11 that has received the xSR transmits the xSR to the user side box 41.

  Next, the user-side box 41 that has received xSR transmits xRR to the quality report server 11 that is the transmission source of xSR. The xRR includes the quality information UB41 of the user box 41 as a report block RB (UB41). The quality report server 11 that has received the xRR (RB (UB41)) links the quality information RS11 of the quality report server 11 to the xRR (RB (UB41)) as a report block RB (RS11). Then, the quality report server 11 transmits the xRR (RB (UB41), RB (RS11)) to the quality report server 10. The quality report server 10 that has received the xRR (RB (UB41), RB (RS11)) links the quality information RS10 of the quality report server 10 to the xRR as a report block RB (RS10). Then, the quality report server 10 transmits the xRR (RB (UB41), RB (RS11), RB (RS10)) to the user box 40.

For example, the packet configuration of xRR (RB (UB41), RB (RS11), RB (RS10)) is as follows.

The quality report server operates based on certain rules as follows.
(1) When an SR whose destination IP address is not its own is detected in a state where the xSR is not transmitted, the xSR is transmitted to the detected destination IP address of the SR.
(2) When an SR whose destination IP address is not its own is detected in a state in which xRR is not transmitted, xRR is transmitted to the source IP address of the detected SR.
(3) When an xSR not addressed to itself is detected, the xSR is transmitted to the destination IP address of the detected xSR.
(4) When an xRR not addressed to itself is detected, the xRR is transmitted to the detected source IP address of the xSR.
(5) When xSR addressed to itself is received, xRR is transmitted to the transmission source IP address of xSR. If the xRR has already been transmitted, the latest xSR is validated and the transmission of the xRR to the previous destination is stopped. However, when no RTP / RTCP packet has been detected or received for the last certain period, xRR is not transmitted.
(6) When xRR addressed to itself is received, xSR is transmitted to the transmission source IP address of xRR. If the xSR has already been transmitted, the latest xRR is validated and the transmission of the xSR to the previous destination is stopped. However, if no RTP / RTCP packet has been detected or received for the last certain period, xSR is not transmitted.
(7) When RTP / RTCP cannot be detected or received for a certain time, transmission of xSR and xRR is stopped.

The RTCP function expansion communication apparatus (for example, a user box) operates based on a certain rule as follows.
(1) Do not transmit xSR at the start of a call.
(2) When xSR addressed to itself is received, xRR is transmitted to the transmission source IP address of xSR. If the xRR has already been transmitted, the latest xSR is validated and the transmission of the xRR to the previous destination is stopped. However, when no RTP / RTCP packet has been detected or received for the last certain period, xRR is not transmitted.
(3) When xRR addressed to itself is received, xSR is transmitted to the transmission source IP address of xRR. If the xSR has already been transmitted, the latest xRR is validated and the transmission of the xSR to the previous destination is stopped. However, if no RTP / RTCP packet has been detected or received for the last certain period, xSR is not transmitted.
(4) If RTP / RTCP cannot be detected or received for a certain period of time, transmission of xSR and xRR is stopped.

  The sequence based on FIG. 2 acquires the latest quality information by transmitting the xSR to the quality report server provided in the connected IP network when the RTCP function-enhanced communication device is set at a fixed period or in advance. can do. In addition, the RTCP function extended communication device transmits the xSR to the quality report server provided in the connected IP network at the end of the RTP packet communication, so that the latest quality information is updated every time one session ends. Can be acquired. Furthermore, the RTCP function expansion communication device compares the derived quality information with a threshold value set in advance for each item of the quality information, and when a predetermined condition is satisfied, the quality information is transmitted to the quality report server by xRR. By transmitting, the latest quality information can be acquired every time a predetermined condition is satisfied.

  On the other hand, the quality report server can acquire the quality information derived by the RTCP function expansion communication device by transmitting xSR to the RTCP function expansion communication device. The quality information acquired by the quality report server can be collected by the quality information collection server. Thereby, the quality information of a plurality of IP networks can be integrated and managed.

  FIG. 3 is a first sequence diagram until the RTCP function expansion communication converges.

  The RTCP function extended communication device and the quality report server do not have any information about the presence or absence of other RTCP function extended communication devices on the route and the installation position in the case when the voice RTP communication is started. . Therefore, after starting RTP and standard RTCP communication between the RTCP function extended communication apparatus and the quality report server, the RTCP function extended communication apparatus and the quality report server that have detected the communication need to converge the RTCP function extended communication. That is, in order for the sequence of FIG. 2 to be realized, the RTCP function extended communication must converge between the RTCP function extended communication apparatus and the quality report server by the method shown in FIG.

  According to FIG. 3, the quality report server 10 transmits xSR to the destination IP address of the SR based on relaying the standard RTCP SR, and includes the quality information of the quality report server 10 as a report block. (RB (RS10)) is transmitted to the source IP address of the SR. On the other hand, the user-side box 41 that has received xSR transmits xRR (RB (UB41)) including the quality information of the user-side box 41 as a report block to the quality report server 10 that is the source address of the xSR. To do. On the other hand, the user-side box 40 that has received xRR (RB (RS10)) transmits xSR to the quality report server 10 that is the source address of the xRR.

  Further, the quality report server 11 transmits xSR to the destination IP address of the xSR based on the relaying of the xSR, and includes xRR (RB (RS11)) including the quality information of the quality report server 11 as a report block. To the source IP address of the SR. On the other hand, the user-side box 41 that has received xSR transmits xRR (RB (UB41)) including the quality information of the user-side box 41 as a report block to the quality report server 11 that is the source address of the xSR. To do.

  FIG. 4 is a second sequence diagram until RTCP function expansion communication converges.

  According to FIG. 4, consider the case where the quality report server 11 transmits xSR to the user side box 41 almost simultaneously with the user side box 40 transmitting xSR to the quality report server 10.

  Upon receiving the xSR, the quality report server 10 transmits the xSR to the quality report server 11, and the xRR (RB (RS10)) including the quality information RS11 of the quality report server 11 as a report block is transmitted from the source IP address of the xSR. To the user box 40. The user box 41 that has received the xSR transmits xRR (RB (UB41)) including the quality information UB41 of the user box 41 as a report block to the quality report server 11 that is the source address of the xSR. .

  The quality report server 11 that has received xSR transmits xRR to the quality report server 10. At this time, the xRR includes not only the quality information RS11 of the quality report server 11 but also the already received quality information UB41 of the user box 41 as a report block.

  The quality report server 10 that has received xRR (RB (UB41), RB (RS11)) next receives xSR from the user box 40, and then xRR (RB (UB41), RB (RS11), RB ( RS10)) is transmitted to the user box 40.

  Thereby, the user side box 40 controls the transmission interval of RTP packets, the voice coding type and / or the voice coding speed in accordance with the quality information for each IP network interposed between the user side box 41 and the user side box 41. Can do.

  The quality information includes information obtained by RTP / RTCP as follows. Note that the VoIP packet is preferably derived based on the port number information of the transport protocol.

Acquisition date and time: Date and time when the packet was captured (msec unit)
RTP port number: port number information identifying RTP stream RTP IP address: IP address information identifying RTP stream RTP encoding identifier: RTP payload encoding type information RTP payload size: RTP payload part byte size RTP packet interval: RTP packet transmission interval information calculated from RTP time stamp
Delay: Transmission delay. A value obtained by dividing RTT (Round-trip time) obtained from transmission / reception of an RTCP packet by two.
MeanDelay: represents the arithmetic mean of transmission delay.
MaxDelay: Indicates the maximum value of transmission delay.
CumulativeNumberOfPacketsLostRate: represents the cumulative number of packet losses since the start of the call. The value of the cumulative loss number of the most recent RTCP packet.
MaxPacketLost: The number of packet losses for each RTCP transmission interval is obtained by taking the difference in accumulated packet loss between the RTCP packet at a certain point in time and the previous RTCP packet. Each time an RTCP packet is received, the number of packet losses is calculated, and the maximum number of packet losses from the start of the call is set as the maximum packet loss rate.
InterarrivalJitter: The fluctuation value of the arrival interval of the latest receiver report (RR).
MeanJitter: Represents an arithmetic average of fluctuations in the arrival interval of packets.
MaxJitter: Represents the maximum value of the arrival interval fluctuation.

  FIG. 5 is a functional configuration diagram of each device according to the present invention.

  The quality report server apparatus 1 includes an IP interface function unit 101 for connecting to an IP network, a transport protocol header information extraction function unit 102, a transport protocol determination function unit 103, an RTCP information determination function unit 104, and an RTCP The information processing function unit 105, the packet transmission function unit 107, and the quality information management database function unit 106 are included.

  The IP interface function unit 101 monitors IP packets as needed, and the transport protocol header information extraction function unit 102 and the transport protocol determination function unit 103 extract RTCP packets. Thereafter, the RTCP information determination function unit 104 extracts the RTCP information, and the RTCP information processing function unit 105 performs the RTCP function extended communication process. Quality information collected based on the RTCP information is stored and managed in the quality information management database function unit 106. Further, the RTCP packet subjected to the RTCP function extended communication process and the stored quality information are transmitted to the IP network 3 by the packet transmission function unit 107.

  A quality information acquisition request packet from a quality information collection server, which will be described later, is detected by the transport protocol determination function unit 103, and then a necessary processing request is transmitted to the quality information management database function unit 106. Quality information is transmitted to the IP network 3 via the packet transmission function unit 107.

  The quality information collection server 2 includes an IP interface function unit 21 for connecting to the IP network, a transport protocol header information extraction function unit 22, a transport protocol determination function unit 23, a quality information management database function unit 25, And a quality information collection schedule management function unit 24.

  A quality information collection event packet is transmitted via the IP interface function unit 21 according to the schedule stored in the quality information collection schedule management function unit 24 or the threshold value of the quality information. The IP interface function unit 21 receives the IP packet, and the transport protocol header information extraction function unit 22 and the transport protocol determination function unit 23 determine the quality information collection event packet or the quality information packet. The quality information management database function unit 25 stores and manages information of quality information packets.

  The user box 4 includes an IP interface function unit 401 for connecting to the IP network, an RTCP information determination function unit 402, an RTCP information processing function unit 403, a packet reception processing function unit 404, and a packet transmission processing function unit. 406, a VoIP processing function unit 407, a telephone or FAX function unit 408, a telephone terminal connection function unit 409, and a user-side IP packet communication device connection function unit 405.

  The IP interface function unit 401 receives the IP packet, the RTCP information determination function unit 402 extracts the RTCP information, and the RTCP information processing function unit 403 performs an RTCP function extended communication process described later. Further, based on the quality information for each section obtained by the RTCP function extended communication, the packet transmission processing function unit 406 controls the RTP transmission interval, or selects the voice coding type or the voice coding speed.

  The telephone terminal connection function unit 409 converts the format of information from the telephone or FAX device, and necessary call processing is mutually converted by the telephone or FAX function unit 408 and the VoIP call processing function unit 407. Thereafter, the packet is transmitted to the IP network via the packet transmission processing function unit 406. An RTP packet (information packet to the telephone or FAX apparatus 408) received via the IP interface function unit 401 is sent to the packet reception processing function unit 404 after passing through the RTCP information determination function unit 402. Then, after the packet is disassembled, the information is sequentially transferred to the VoIP call processing function unit 407 and the telephone or FAX function part 408, converted in format by the telephone terminal connection function part 409, and then transferred to the telephone or FAX apparatus. The

  The present invention can be used for a quality report server and a system in which both terminals can recognize packet transfer characteristic information in units of sections constituting an IP network based on RTP / RTCP.

1 is a system configuration diagram according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a basic sequence diagram according to the present invention. It is a 1st sequence diagram until RTCP function expansion communication converges. It is a 2nd sequence diagram until RTCP function expansion communication converges. It is a functional block diagram of each apparatus by this invention.

Explanation of symbols

10-12 Quality report server 2 Quality information collection server 30-32 IP network 40-42 User side box 50-52 PC terminal 60-62 FAX terminal 70-72 Voice telephone terminal 80-82 Modem terminal 90 Public telephone network 91 Gateway

Claims (12)

A quality report server provided in the IP network,
Means for monitoring RTP / RTCP packets by capture and obtaining quality information thereof;
Section quality information deriving means for deriving section quality information in the IP network;
A quality report server, comprising: a report message transmission unit configured to transmit the extended report message in which the section quality information is connected when an RTCP extended report message is received. The report message transmission means includes:
When the extended transmission side report message is received, if the destination address is not its own address, it is transmitted to the destination address, and if it is the local address, the extended reception side report message concatenated with the section quality information is transmitted. Send to the original address,
2. The quality report server according to claim 1, wherein, when an extended reception report message is received, the section quality information is connected to the extended reception report message and transmitted to the destination address. 3. The report message transmission means includes:
If the destination address is not its own address when the sender side report message based on RTP is received, the extended sender side report message is transmitted to the destination address and the section quality information is concatenated. The quality report server according to claim 1, wherein the quality report server is transmitted to the transmission source address. A terminal having at least two RTP / RTCP communicating via a plurality of IP networks;
A system having a plurality of quality report servers according to any one of claims 1 to 3 provided in each of the IP networks,
The terminal
Means for deriving quality information based on RTP / RTCP packets;
RTP control means for controlling transmission / reception of RTP packets based on a plurality of the section quality information concatenated with the received extended reception report message;
When an extended sender report message is received, an extended receiver report message with its own quality information is sent to the source address, and when an extended receiver report message is received, an extended transmission is sent to the source address. And a report message transmission means for transmitting a side report message.   The system according to claim 4, wherein the RTP control unit controls an RTP packet transmission interval, a voice coding type, and / or a voice coding speed.   The report message transmission means of the terminal transmits the extended transmission side report message to the quality report server provided in the IP network connected to the terminal at a predetermined period or when preset. The system according to claim 4 or 5.   The report message transmission means of the terminal transmits the extended transmission side report message to the quality report server provided in the IP network connected to the terminal when RTP packet communication ends. The system according to 4 or 5.   The report message transmission means of the terminal compares the derived quality information with a threshold value set in advance for each item of the quality information, and if the predetermined condition is satisfied, the quality information is transmitted to the extended receiving side report. 6. The system according to claim 4, wherein the system transmits the message to the quality report server.   5. The report message transmission means of the quality report server further comprises means for transmitting the extended transmission side report message to the terminal in order to obtain the quality information derived by the terminal. The system according to any one of 1 to 8.   10. The system according to claim 4, wherein the section quality information deriving unit of the quality report server derives the quality information based on port number information of a transport protocol for a VoIP packet. . The quality report server according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
And a quality information collection server having means for acquiring and accumulating the section quality information from the quality report server. The system according to any one of claims 4 to 10, further comprising a quality information collection server having means for acquiring and accumulating the section quality information from the quality report server.

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