One document matched: draft-johansson-avt-mcast-based-rams-01.txt

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Network Working Group                                       I. Johansson
Internet-Draft                                               Ericsson AB
Intended status: Standards Track                            Oct 22, 2009
Expires: April 25, 2010


      Extended Rapid Acquisition of Multicast RTP Sessions (ERAMS)
                draft-johansson-avt-mcast-based-rams-01

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 25, 2010.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents in effect on the date of
   publication of this document (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info).
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.

Abstract

   This document proposes Extended RAMS (ERAMS), which is an improvement
   to the unicast based Rapid Acquisition for Multicast based Streaming
   discussed in [ID-RAMS].  The outline of the improvement is to gather



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   up Rapid Acquisition requests for many users and transmit them in
   dedicated multicast streams.  With this technique the peak load on
   the retransmission server and on the outgoing link from the
   retransmission server can be reduced.  For a problem description of
   the channel change problem in multicast based IPTV the reader is
   encouraged to read [ID-RAMS].

Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     2.1.  Message flow  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
     2.2.  Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
       2.2.1.  RAMS-R message  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
       2.2.2.  RAMS-I message  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
     2.3.  Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
       2.3.1.  Different max bitrates  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
     2.4.  Alternative solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
   3.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
   5.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
     6.1.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
     6.2.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9



















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1.  Introduction

   Draft [ID-RAMS] proposes a method for fast channel change in
   multicast RTP session that employs setting up separate unicast burst
   transmissions to set top boxes that changes channel.

   The methods should considerably reduce the channel switch latency as
   experienced by the end user.

   There are a number of potential issues with the aforementioned
   methods.

   o  Peaky load pattern: Viewers of popular IPTV channels may display a
      synchronized behavior in their channel change pattern , for
      instance when a commercial break sets in or a popular TV show
      ends.

   o  High load on the retransmission server: The retransmission server
      will sometimes be exposed to high load, also the load on the
      outgoing link from the retransmission server can be very high.
      This means that the retransmission server and the outgoing link
      needs to be vastly over provisioned, something that may be costly
      for the implementer of the IPTV infrastructure.

   This draft explains how multiple rapid acquisition requests can be
   gathered up and served via a dedicated multicast channel and can be
   used as an improvement to the method described in [ID-RAMS].  The
   additional delay compared to a solely unicast based version depends
   on the gather up time which can be set quite low during low load
   conditions and set to higher values during high load conditions
   (giving graceful degradation).  The benefit is that the peak load on
   the retransmission server is reduced considerably.  Another method
   that is described is to setup multicast control channels that
   contains information about rapid acquisition multicast feeds that are
   active.

   Section 5 in [ID-RAMS] states "Rapid acquisition is an optimization
   of a system that must continue to work correctly whether or not the
   optimization is effective, or even fails due to lost control
   messages, congestion, or other problems".  The method described in
   this draft promises to ensure that resource usage is optimized and
   thus helps to avoid e.g congestion.

   Furthermore section 6.3 [ID-RAMS] says "However, a higher rate for
   the burst also increases the chances for congestion-caused packet
   loss.  Thus, as discussed in Section 5, there must be an upper bound
   on the extra bandwidth used by the burst".  The method described in
   this draft minimizes the load on the RS as well as the outgoing link



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   from it.


2.  Description

   The proposed solution can serve as a complement to the solutions
   outlined in [ID-RAMS].  During low load conditions the retransmission
   server (RS) will serve each RAMS-R request from an RR in an STB (set-
   top box) with an individual unicast RTP burst as described in
   [ID-RAMS].  As the load increases the RS will gather up RAMS-R for
   the same channels over a defined time window (Td) and set up a
   multicast stream that contains the same contents as the unicast
   stream would have done.  The time window that is used to gather up
   RAMS-R requests for the same channel is made dependent on the load on
   the RS.  During fairly low load conditions the time window is made
   small (e.g Td=50ms), as load gets higher the time window increases,
   thus the degradation in channel switching performance will become
   graceful.

2.1.  Message flow

   The figure below displays how Extended RAMS would work.
   +--------+ +---------+       +--------+  +----------+ +----------+
   | M.cast | |  Re-TX  |       |        |  |   RTP    | |   RTP    |
   | Source | |  Server |       | Router |  | Receiver | | Receiver |
   |        | |   (RS)  |       |        |  |  (RR-1)  | |  (RR-2)  |
   +--------+ +---------+       +--------+  +----------+ +----------+
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |- RTP M.cast------------------->|              |          |
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |- RTP M.cast >|                 |              |          |
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |              |<''''''''' RTCP RAMS-R: Chl: A '|          |-----
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |              |'(RTCP RAMS-I:Redirect Addr:X)'>|          |
    |              |                 |<~ SFGMP J. X~|          |
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |              |<''''''''' RTCP RAMS-R: Chl: A'''''''''''' |  Td
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |              |'(RTCP RAMS-I:Redirect Addr:X)''''''''''''>|
    |              |                 |<~ SFGMP Join X~~~~~~~~~~|
    |              |                 |              |          |-----
    |              |'(RTCP RAMS-I:on Mcast Addr:X)'>|          |
    |              |'(RTCP RAMS-I:on Mcast Addr:X)''''''''''''>|
    |              |RTP Burst on Multicast  Addr:X.>|          |
    |              |..RTP Burst on Multicast  Addr:X..........>|
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |              |<''''''''''''''''(RTCP RAMS-R)''|          |



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    |              |<''''''''''''''''(RTCP RAMS-R)''''''''''' '|
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |              |'' (RTCP RAMS-I) ''''''''''''''>|          |
    |              |'' (RTCP RAMS-I) '''''''''''''''''''''''''>|
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |              |                 |<~ SFGMP J. A~|          |
    |              |                 |<~ SFGMP Join A~~~~~~~~~~|
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |-- RTP Multicast ----------------------------->|          |
    |--------RTP Multicast ----------------------------------->|
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |              |<'''''''''''''''' RTCP RAMS-T ''|          |
    |              |<'''''''''''''''''' RTCP RAMS-T '''''''''''|
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |              |<''''''''''''''''' (RTCP NACK)''|          |
    |              |<''''''''''''''''' (RTCP NACK)'''''''''''''|
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |              |..(Unicast Retransmissions) ...>|          |
    |              |..(Unicast Retransmissions) .... .........>|
    |              |                 |              |          |
    |              |<''''''''''''''''' (RTCP BYE) ''|          |
    |              |<''''''''''''''''' (RTCP BYE) '''''''''''''|
    |              |                 |              |          |



   RR-1 transmits a RAMS-R to RS, requesting rapid acquisition data for
   channel A, as RR-1 is the first to request this data, a timer is
   started in order to wait for a given timespan (Td) for other RAMS-R
   for the same channel from other RR's.  RS sends a RAMS-I to RR-1 with
   instructions to listen in on X and thus RS-1 makes an SFGMP Join to
   said multicast address.

   Later RR-2 sends a RAMS-R to RS, requesting rapid acquisition data
   for channel X. RS sends a RAMS-I to RR-2 with instructions to listen
   in on X and RS-2 also makes an SFGMP Join to the said multicast
   address

   When the timer is expired, RS will stream the requested data on
   multicast channel X the data speed in the multicast channel is
   preferably higher than normal (e.g 120%).

   When sufficient data has been received via the multicast channel,
   both RR-1 and RR-2 makes an SFGMP Join to multicast channel A.

   As Td is made dependent on the load on the RS this method allows for
   graceful degradation.  A special case occurs when the timer expires
   and only one STB has sent a request, this case is similar to the



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   unicast streaming case.

   At severe load conditions the RAMS-R requests will be either ignored
   or responded with a negative acknowledgement (error code 501), in
   which case the RR's will not receive any rapid acquisition data.

   There are a few different ways to determine when a switch from the
   rapid acquisition channel to the normal multicast channel:

   1.  A marker in the rapid acquisition media stream tells the RR to
       make a switch

   2.  A multicast control channel tells the RR that it is time to
       switch or can give the STB sufficient information necessary to
       make the switch

   3.  End of rapid acquisition media stream, indicated by an explicit
       End-Of-Stream symbol

   4.  Count of frames, the RR can itself decide to switch after
       receiving e.g 3 I-frames.  In this case the RR must know the size
       of the RS buffer to avoid a gap in the stream.

   5.  The RS informs the RR about the synchornization point in a RAMS-I
       message.

   In certain cases it is preferable (for instance limited downlink
   bandwidth) that the rapid acquisition stream to a particular RR is
   terminated (e.g by means of SFGMP Leave) before the normal multicast
   channel is joined.  Depending on how the decision to switch is made
   there is a slight possibility that data will be missing, to alleviate
   this risk the normal multicast streams can be delayed a fraction of a
   second to allow for a certain switching time and a smooth transition
   from the rapid acquisition data to the normal multicast channel.
   Extended RAMS here has the benefit that the join and leave messages
   can be sent simultaneously or almost simultaneously and to the same
   endpoint.  This reduces the risk of having parallel streams over the
   last mile interface with lower risk of congestion as a result.

2.2.  Message

2.2.1.  RAMS-R message

   The Extended RAMS solution implements a new TLV field to the RAMS-R
   to indicate support for Extended RAMS






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    0                   1                   2                   3
    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |    Type=?     |          Length=1             |6|4|A|S|R R R R|
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

   Type
    Type number for message (T.B.D)

   Flags:
    6 : Supports IPv6
    4 : Supports IPv4
    A = Supports ASM
    S = Supports SSM

    R = reserved

   The new TLV field is included in a RAMS-R when the RR supports
   Extended RAMS and prefers to use the mechanism.  The field contains a
   few flags that can be combined. [ Ed. note it is not certain that
   these flags are really needed, it may be sufficient to signal this in
   the SDP instead].

2.2.2.  RAMS-I message

   The Extended RAMS solution implements a new TLV field to the RAMS-I
   message

    0                   1                   2                   3
    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |    Type=?     |            Length             |S|R R R R R R R|
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
   :               Multicast address to join in                    :
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Type
    Type number for message (T.B.D)

   Flags:
    S : Address is a (S,G) address (SSM)
    R = reserved
    If S flag is specified the Source address is specified first,
     then the Group address

   The TLV field contains only one flag, namely the S-flag that
   indicates that the address is a source, group pair.  Whether the
   address is an IPv4 or IPv6 address is inferred from the length field



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   and the S-flag. [ Ed. note it is not certain that the S-flag is
   really needed, it may be sufficient to signal this in the SDP
   instead].

2.3.  Considerations

2.3.1.  Different max bitrates

   It is possible that the STB that sends RAMS-R for a given channel
   also indicate different Max Receive Bitrate in their requests.  A
   retransmission server that serves the RAMS-R has to adapt its
   transmission rate to the RAMS-R request with the lowest indicated Max
   Receive Bitrate.  An option is to collect the RAMS-R in two or more
   groups, each group can then provide with different transmission
   bitrates.

2.4.  Alternative solutions

   Besides the methodology described above, another possibility is also
   that an STB joins a multicast control channel which contains
   information about which multicast channel contains rapid acquisition
   data for a given channel.  Because of the limited amount of data that
   is carried in this multicast control channel reliable transmission
   techniques can possibly be used.


3.  IANA Considerations

   T.B.D


4.  Security Considerations

   T.B.D


5.  Acknowledgements

   The author wish to thank Mats Cedervall, Victor Souza, Hareesh
   Puthalath and Thomas Lundqvist for help with this draft.


6.  References

6.1.  Informative References

   [ID-RAMS]  IETF, "Unicast-Based Rapid Acquisition of Multicast RTP
              Sessions, http://tools.ietf.org/html/



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              draft-ietf-avt-rapid-acquisition-for-rtp-04".

6.2.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.


Author's Address

   Ingemar Johansson
   Ericsson AB
   Laboratoriegrand 11
   SE-971 28 Lulea
   SWEDEN

   Phone: +46 73 0783289
   Email: ingemar.s.johansson@ericsson.com

































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