TWI552589B - End-to-end active test IPTV channel access quality method - Google Patents

Description

End-to-end active test method for IPTV channel access quality

The invention relates to a method for actively testing the quality of the IPTV service access end-to-end, in particular to eliminate the problem of the test environment of the client end.

The general test process for the end-to-end active testing of the IPTV service access quality is as follows: after the client test device sends the IGMP protocol protocol to receive the received signal, the UDP stream from the headend server is received during the test, if a certain time The stream packet is not received within the definition of no stream (No Stream); this test reflects the availability of the client test endpoint access channel. However, the results of No Stream test are sometimes caused by misjudgment caused by the user test environment, such as network settings of the client test equipment, hardware and software problems or network transient effects, ATU-R overheating, STB interference RTU. ...etc. Regular maintenance of the client-side test equipment can reduce the chance of this problem, but in the current measurement, it may still be affected by some temporary abnormal environment.

The previous general practice is a single point test with the premise of setting the normal IPTV hardware instrument in the test environment. It does not specifically consider the possible abnormality of the test environment. However, in practice, a complete end-to-end quality active test system is required. When a large number of test endpoints are deployed in various areas, and a large number of test points must be maintained, it is inevitable that some test points encounter the above-mentioned abnormalities, and it is difficult to avoid misjudgment of the test results, thereby generating a large number of false alarms of abnormal quality, which must be manually eliminated one by one. In view of the above shortcomings, the inventor of the present invention has improved and innovated, and proposed a way to automatically eliminate the problem of the client test environment.

The object of the present invention is to provide a test evaluation method for automatically eliminating the test environment of the client end, which is helpful for improving the accuracy of the test result of the IPTV service quality availability, effectively reducing the false alarm amount, and correctly and timely alerting the service abnormality phenomenon. In order to deal with obstacles and improve customer satisfaction before users complain.

In addition, this method also detects the status of each test endpoint environment, and automatically alerts the test endpoint environment to improve the efficiency of the measurement endpoint device.

The test evaluation method that can achieve the above object is to use the phenomenon observed by Packet Capture while the IPTV active test access command is issued, and propose a packet parsing and judgment method to instantly evaluate the normal test environment of the client. Whether or not. The concept and principle of this method is: a normal access quality test, the client must send out the access command signal correctly, and when the test environment generated by the client for any reason is abnormal, the access command is not correct. The ground is sent out, and these phenomena can be observed in the captured packet, so a judgment method is proposed to distinguish various test results and achieve an accurate test of the availability of the IPTV channel.

1‧‧‧ IPTV headend multimedia server

2‧‧‧IPTV backbone network

3‧‧‧Test equipment and programs

4‧‧‧Package capture module

5‧‧‧ Analytical judgment method

The first figure is the end-to-end active test IPTV service access quality exclusion user end measurement of the present invention System architecture diagram for the method of testing environmental problems.

Please refer to FIG. 1 for a system architecture diagram of the method for "end-to-end active testing of the quality of the IPTV service to exclude the client test environment". The service access test referred to in the present invention is based on the IPTV network architecture (including the IPTV headend multimedia server (Head-End) 1, the IPTV backbone network (Network) 2}, and the user test environment is provided as one. The IPTV service's xDSL line and ATU-R equipment replace the Set Top Box (STB) with a personal computer (RTU 3, Remote Test Unit) and develop a test program to simulate the behavior of the customer's click channel (LiveTV). After the multimedia stream is taken, the quality parameter "No Stream" is determined.

The test evaluation method steps of the present invention include:

1. The client test endpoint (RTU) first starts the packet capture module 4, and listens for the packet to and from the RTU.

2. The RTU measurement program sends an IGMP protocol access signal to the IPTV backbone network and the headend multimedia server for a certain channel (Host IP).

3. Wait for the channel stream from the IPTV service during the test time.

4. After the test time is completed, analyze all the round-trip records of the packets during the test. The various test results and their interpretation methods are as follows:

5. "Analytical judgment method" 5 distinguishes the following test results:

(1) Normal: There is a stream recorded from the measured channel (that is, the Destination IP is the channel IP, and the IP frame length is 1358 bytes UDP packet), and all UDP packets are There is only one Source IP.

(2) Double Source: There is a UDP packet recorded from the measured channel, but the Source IP of the UDP packet exceeds one (Note: The IPTV headend or backbone network configuration setting error will cause this abnormality).

(3) No stream: The test result is time-out and no stream, and no stream of the tested channel is received during the test period. Judgment method:

i. No UDP packets from the measured channel are recorded.

Ii. There is a packet to the IGMP, and the Destination IP is Host IP (indicating that the RTU test program does send an IGMP access command).

(4) STB interference: Although the test result is time-out and no stream, it is caused by the interference of STB, so it is not regarded as a test result without stream. Judgment method: There is a UDP packet with a length of 1358 bytes in the IP frame, but the Destination IP is different from the IP of the measured channel, indicating that the STB is connected to the ATU-R at the same time, and the stream flows to the STB, causing the RTU not to receive the desired The streaming of the measured channel, but in fact the IPTV service is no problem. This measurement result can detect the abnormality of the client test environment, and then test the equipment maintenance personnel to remove the STB. (Note: The STB should not exist in the test architecture. However, in practice, the operators are connected to the STB for other purposes.)

(5) Test environment abnormality: Although the test result is time-out without stream, it is caused by various abnormalities of test equipment and environment, so it is not regarded as a non-streaming test result. Judgment method: There is no record of the IGMP packet with the Destination IP being Host IP (indicating that the RTU test program did not correctly send the access command due to the test environment problem). This measurement result can detect the abnormality of the client test environment, and then test the equipment maintenance personnel to check the test equipment and the environment.

When the test method provided by the present invention is compared with other conventional techniques, Has the following advantages:

1. Using Packet Capture and Parsing, a judgment method is proposed to instantly evaluate whether the customer test environment is normal or not.

2. Effectively eliminate the error measurement results caused by the user test environment problem, improve the accuracy of the No Stream measurement of the IPTV service, and ensure the credibility of each test at any time point.

3. Correct and immediate warning of the decline in availability of IPTV services in various regions.

4. At the same time, it can detect the status of each test end office environment, automatically alert the environment to abnormalities, improve the working efficiency of the measuring end office operators, and shorten the working time.

5. Effectively play the test capacity of each test end office, avoiding wasting resources on invalid tests.

The detailed description of the present invention is intended to be illustrative of a preferred embodiment of the invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. The patent scope of this case.

To sum up, this case is not only innovative in terms of technical thinking, but also has many of the above-mentioned functions that are not in the traditional methods of the past. It has fully complied with the statutory invention patent requirements of novelty and progressiveness, and applied for it according to law. Approved this invention patent application, in order to invent invention, to the sense of virtue.

1‧‧‧ IPTV headend multimedia server

2‧‧‧IPTV backbone network

3‧‧‧Test equipment and programs

4‧‧‧Package capture module

5‧‧‧ Analytical judgment method

Claims (1)

A method for actively testing the quality of the IPTV channel end-to-end, using a computer software program to receive the packet parsing of the IPTV stream communication process, to test the availability of the client to access the IPTV channel, and to exclude the user terminal test Environmental issues, improve test accuracy, the steps are: a. develop client software program to start the computer to access the IPTV channel stream communication process; b. develop client software program to capture packet data on the computer network card; c. According to the IGMP communication protocol and the response content of the UDP stream packet, it is judged whether the channel stream is successfully received; d. If there is no UDP stream response, the IGMP communication protocol process records, and then confirms whether the client program correctly sends the access instruction. : If yes, the test result of "Client can not access the channel"; if not, it is regarded as the impact of the client's own test environment exception, not as a valid test, exclude the test result; and e. If there is UDP The stream responds, and the UDP packet header confirms whether the stream is from the channel to be accessed: if it is, the test result of "client successfully accessing the channel" is obtained. If not, it is regarded as the impact of the client's own test environment abnormality, not as a valid test, and excludes the test result.