JP2005102019A - Quality monitoring and analyzing system in video conference system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable the side of a system network manager to independently perform quantitative and regular quality monitoring operations and detecting/analyzing operations. <P>SOLUTION: A conference terminal is provided with a conference function 1 for holding a video conference, a control function 2 for controlling quality observation, a packet information collecting function 3 for collecting packet information and a packet information transferring function 4 for transferring the collected packet information to the quality statistics information collecting manager terminal. The quality statistics information collecting manager terminal is provided with a packet information receiving function 5 for receiving the transferred packet information, an objective assessment value calculating function 6 for calculating objective assessment data which is factor of degradation from the collected packet information, a quality information accumulating function 7 for accumulating data of the objective assessment value, a quality information searching function 8 for searching the content of the accumulated data according to inputted items and a quality information displaying function 9 for screen displaying the result of search on a display. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention provides a quantitative and periodic method for audio / image data in an environment using a video conference system that performs two-way communication of audio / image data using RTP (A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications) on an IP network. The present invention relates to a quality monitoring / analysis system that enables a system / network administrator to actively perform quality monitoring / detection / analysis work.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, multimedia communication systems in which audio / image data communication is performed on an IP network include a video conference system that performs bidirectional audio / image data communication using, for example, RTP. Here, in this type of multimedia communication system, the quality (sound quality and image quality) of transmitted / received audio / image data may be deteriorated. It is necessary to make corrections and prevent quality degradation. In order to take such measures as correction, the cause of the quality deterioration must be specified. As the specifying method, for example, the following patent gazette describes a quality measurement packet (for example, after the user has recognized the quality deterioration) A method is disclosed in which a round trip delay, a packet loss, and the like are calculated by performing transmission / reception of ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol), and a user is notified of a site where a network failure has occurred.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-051041

  However, since the conventional quality degradation cause identification method uses a packet prepared for quality measurement, depending on the degree of difference from the actually transmitted / received audio / image data (audio / image packet). However, there is a possibility that the data regarding the transmission delay, the packet loss rate, and the fluctuation for the actual voice / image packet and these results calculated using the quality measurement packet do not always match. There is a problem that the identified cause of quality degradation may not be the true cause.

  In addition, if the system can detect the quality deterioration of the audio / image data and identify the cause in advance, it is not necessary to provide the user with the sound or the image with deteriorated quality. Since the user cannot detect the deterioration of the sound or image quality prior to the user during the viewing of the conference, there is also a problem that the user must view the sound or image with the deteriorated quality at least until correction is made. It was.

  Therefore, in order to solve the above problems, the applicant has invented and filed a quality monitoring system for multimedia communication capable of detecting voice / image data quality degradation with high accuracy and ahead of the user. (Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-82317).

  In recent years, as network broadbandization has progressed, an inexpensive system that operates on a general-purpose personal computer has appeared as a video conferencing system, and an environment that can be easily used is being prepared. As a method for notifying the user of the audio / image data quality monitoring result in the video conference system, there is an invention filed in the above Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-82317. According to this invention, the user himself / herself can obtain real-time quality information at the time of the conference, and the user who has received the detection result of the quality deterioration can quickly correct the image or sound to be deteriorated by the user himself / herself. become able to.

  However, in the video conferencing system, when constant quality degradation occurs between specific users, the above invention corrects the image or sound each time a video conference is performed between the specific users. Must.

  Therefore, in the video conference system, the quality of the video conference system is monitored on the system / network administrator side, and permanent quality degradation is detected, and before the audio / image data is transmitted / received between users, -It is preferable that correction is performed on the network administrator side.

  However, the system network administrator in the current video conference system can monitor the traffic state of the line used for video conference and estimate the quality deterioration of the voice / image data from the monitoring result. In advance, the system / network administrator has not been able to obtain detailed quality information regarding audio / image data. Therefore, at present, the system / network administrator can recognize the deterioration of the quality of the voice / image data for the first time based on the complaint from the user regarding the deterioration of the quality of the voice / image data. It was possible to make corrections.

  Thus, conventionally, the quality of the video conferencing system has been independently monitored by the system / network manager, and it has not been possible to detect / analyze permanent quality deterioration of the audio / image data.

  Therefore, in the present invention, the video / conference system enables the system / network administrator to actively perform quantitative and periodic quality monitoring and detection / analysis work on the audio / image data of the video conferencing system. It is to provide a quality monitoring analysis system.

  In order to achieve the above object, a quality monitoring analysis system in a video conference system according to the present invention is used by a conference terminal used by a conference participant in the video conference system and a system network administrator of the video conference system. A quality statistics information collection manager terminal is connected via a network 10 such as a LAN or the Internet, and the conference terminal includes a conference function for conducting a video conference, a control function for controlling quality observation, A packet information collection function for collecting packet information, and a packet information transfer function for transferring the collected packet information to the quality statistics information collection manager terminal, and the quality statistics information collection manager terminal is the conference terminal Packet information reception function to receive packet information transferred from and for each conference Objective evaluation value calculation function that calculates objective evaluation data that causes deterioration from packet information collected from the end, quality information accumulation function that accumulates objective evaluation value data in the quality statistics information collection manager terminal, and A quality information search function for searching the contents based on an item input from the input device, and a quality information display function for displaying the search result on the display device on a screen are provided.

  According to the quality monitoring / analysis system of the present invention, the system / network administrator can statistically determine in which time zone the quality degradation has occurred in the video conference system based on the collected data. Therefore, it is possible to detect and analyze constant quality deterioration, and to perform quality correction in advance on the system / network administrator side before audio / image data is transmitted / received between users.

  An embodiment of a quality monitoring analysis system in a video conference system of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a quality monitoring analysis system of the present invention.

[Constitution]
As shown in FIG. 1, the quality monitoring / analysis system in the video conference system of this embodiment includes a conference terminal used by a conference participant and a quality statistical information collection manager terminal used by a system / network administrator. Or connected via a network 10 such as the Internet. In the following description, the program on the conference terminal side is referred to as a quality monitoring agent, and the program on the quality statistics information collection manager terminal is referred to as a quality statistics information collection manager.

  In FIG. 1, reference numerals 1 to 4 denote functions provided in each conference terminal. 1 is a conference function for conducting a video conference, 2 is a control function for controlling quality observation, 3 is a packet information collection function for collecting packet information, and 4 is a quality statistical information on the collected packet information. This is a packet information transfer function for transferring to the collection manager.

  Reference numerals 5 to 9 denote functions provided in the quality statistical information collection manager terminal. Reference numeral 5 denotes a packet information reception function in which the quality statistics information collection manager receives packet information transferred from the quality monitoring agent. Reference numeral 6 denotes objective evaluation data that causes deterioration from the packet information collected from each quality monitoring agent, that is, transmission delay. , 7 is an objective evaluation value calculation function for calculating the packet loss rate, fluctuation information, and standard deviation value of jitter, and 7 is a quality information storage function for storing calculated objective evaluation value data in a storage unit (not shown). Yes, 8 is a quality information search function for searching the contents of stored data based on specific items (such as the date and time of the conference and the IP address of the terminal) input from an input device (not shown), Reference numeral 9 denotes a quality information display function for displaying the result of the search in 8 on a display device (not shown). Here, the calculation method by the objective evaluation value calculation function 6 is to calculate each objective evaluation data by the same method as the above prior art (Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-82317).

  Note that the adoption of the quality monitoring / analysis system of the present invention does not depend on the type of network connecting the conference terminals and the quality statistical information collection manager, or the type and number of network devices existing between the conference terminals.

[Processing procedure]
Next, a processing procedure by the quality monitoring analysis system having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIGS.

  First, as a first step, processing in the quality monitoring agent is performed as shown in FIG. First, an IP address assigned to each conference terminal is acquired. At this time, the quality monitoring agent acquires the IP address assigned to the terminal in which the quality monitoring agent is incorporated. This is possible by referring to the setting value of the terminal (step ST1).

  Next, the IP address of the communication destination is acquired. This can be realized by allowing the user to set the destination IP address in advance (step ST2). Subsequently, the quality monitoring agent creates a conference ID that combines the current time (date and hour / minute / second data) of the call execution side terminal and the IP addresses of the own machine and the partner machine (step ST3). Since this conference ID is used as a common name for the file name transferred to the quality statistics information collection manager, it is shared between both terminals.

  Next, a process of correcting a difference between the set time of the called terminal and the time of the terminal in which the terminal is incorporated is performed. For this purpose, a packet in which transmission data returns to the transmission source, such as Ping, is used, and packet data of the same size is transmitted and received between terminals. And the time at the time of transmission / reception of this packet is recorded by both terminals, and the time gap between both terminals is calculated from the transmission / reception time of this packet data (step ST4). Note that the calculation method of the information on the deviation time is the same method as that of the above prior art (Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-82317).

  Next, when the processing of the first step is completed, the quality monitoring agent notifies each user's conference terminal that preparation for quality monitoring is completed, prompts the user to start a video conference, and starts the conference. (Step ST5). Thus, the process of the second step starts.

  When the video conference is started as the second step, the packet data collection function 3 of the quality monitoring agent collects voice / image data (RTP packets) transmitted and received between the conference terminals and performance data (CPU usage rate / scale). Usage rate collection processing is started, and data collection processing is performed until the video conference is completed (steps ST6 and ST7). The voice / image data is identified by the payload type included in the header of the RTP packet.

  At the end of the video conference, the packet information collected by each conference terminal is stored as a file (step ST8), and the packet information transfer function 4 transfers the packet information file to the quality statistics information collection manager (step ST9). ). As described above, the process of the second step is completed, and at this point, the process in the quality monitoring agent ends.

  When the processing of the second step is completed in this way, as a third step, first, the quality statistics information collection manager receives the packet information file from both conference terminals that have been conducting the video conference by the packet information receiving function 5 ( Step ST11). Then, an objective evaluation value is calculated by the objective evaluation value calculation function 6 using the received packet information file (step ST12). At this time, the file search and matching between both terminals is performed with the conference ID as the file name.

  The calculation result of the objective evaluation value calculated as described above is stored in a database or the like by the quality information storage function 7, and data is stored (step ST13). Thus, the process of the third step by the quality statistical information collection manager is completed.

  When the system / network administrator browses the quality statistics information stored in the quality statistics information collection manager terminal, as a fourth step, the system / network administrator first determines the date and time of the meeting, When an item such as the IP address of the terminal is input, the quality information search function 8 searches for data of desired quality statistical information based on the input content (step ST21), and then the quality information display function 9 Then, the retrieved desired quality statistical information data is displayed on the screen (step ST22). Thus, the system / network administrator can view desired quality statistics information on the screen.

  Here, FIG. 5 to FIG. 7 show examples of quality statistics information displayed on the screen at this time. The screens as shown in FIGS. 5 to 7 are displayed on the quality statistical information collection manager terminal, so that the system / network administrator can determine in which time zone the quality degradation has occurred. Therefore, it is possible to detect and analyze constant quality deterioration, and to perform quality correction in advance on the system / network administrator side before audio / image data is transmitted / received between users.

It is a block diagram of the quality monitoring analysis system in the video conference system in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence in the quality monitoring agent of the quality monitoring analysis system of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the objective evaluation value preservation | save process in the quality statistics information collection manager of the quality monitoring analysis system of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence at the time of browsing of quality statistical information in the quality statistical information collection manager of the quality monitoring analysis system of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen displayed on the quality statistics information collection manager of the quality monitoring analysis system of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen displayed on the quality statistics information collection manager of the quality monitoring analysis system of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen displayed on the quality statistics information collection manager of the quality monitoring analysis system of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Conference function, 2 ... Control function, 3 ... Packet information collection function, 4 ... Packet information transfer function, 5 ... Packet information reception function, 6 ... Objective evaluation value calculation function, 7 ... Quality information storage function, 8 ... Quality information Search function, 9 ... Quality information display function.

Claims (1)

A conference terminal used by a conference participant in the video conference system and a quality statistics information collection manager terminal used by a system network manager of the video conference system are connected via a network 10 such as a LAN or the Internet. Configured,
The conference terminal includes a conference function for conducting a video conference, a control function for controlling quality observation, a packet information collection function for collecting packet information, and the collected packet information to the quality statistics information collection manager terminal A packet information transfer function for transferring,
The quality statistical information collection manager terminal is configured to receive packet information transferred from the conference terminal, and objective evaluation to calculate objective evaluation data that causes degradation from the packet information collected from each conference terminal. A value calculating function, a quality information accumulating function for accumulating objective evaluation value data in the quality statistical information collection manager terminal, and a quality information retrieving function for retrieving the contents of the accumulated data based on items input from the input device; And a quality information display function for displaying the search result on a display device on a display device.

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