NetUP's IPTVProbe

open source software for IPTV streams monitoring
License: GPLv2, GPLv3

Source code - iptvprobe_v0.1.tbz2

Questions concerning IPTVProbe can be discussed at NetUP's IPTV Forum

Network Scheme

Probe (iptvprobe) and Collector Operation Layout

Building and Installing the Software

The software consists of the following parts:

Collector - collects statistics from probes. Collected statistics is stored into the database (mysql).
Probe - is an application working remotely. Statistics on received IP packets is collected by the probe and sent to the collector. The probe consists of a Linux kernel module (netup_netprobe.ko) and a user level software (iptvprobe).
Reports subsystem - is a set of web scripts to visualize collected statistics.

Building and Starting the Collector

Building the collector:

cd iptvprobe/userver/
cmake --debug-output . -DCMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE:BOOL=ON
make

Starting the collector:

./iptvprobe_server -l root -s 127.0.0.1

in this example the collector writes statistics into 'iptvprobe' database on localhost (127.0.0.1)

Building iptvprobe

Building the application for x86 platform:

cd iptvprobe/udaemon/
cmake --debug-output . -DCMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE:BOOL=ON
make

Building the Linux kernel module for x86 platform:

cd iptvprobe/kmodule/
make

Building the Linux kernel module for sh4 platform (IP STB AmiNET 130):

cd iptvprobe/kmodule/
export CROSS_COMPILE=sh4-unknown-linux-gnu-
make ARCH=sh amino130

The aminet130_bin/ directory contains an already-built Linux kernel module and a user level application for AmiNET 130 IP STB.

Starting the Probe

Loading the Linux kernel module:

cd iptvprobe/kmodule/
insmod netup_netprobe.ko hook_position=0

The hook_position parameter specifies IP packets hook position of netfilter:

0 - process all incoming IP packets (PREROUTING policy) 1 - process all outgoing IP packets (POSTROUTING policy)

Value "0" must be set when running the module on a client's device (for example, IP STB AmiNET 130). In case of running the module on a server sending multicast traffic, value "1" must be set.

It is required to make a node in /dev filesystem and to start the iptvpobe application when netup_netprobe.ko module is successfully loaded:

mknod /dev/iptvprobe c 61 0
cd iptvprobe/udaemon/
./iptvprobe -i 224.117.117.10 -s 10.1.4.242 -r 5 -p 7700

Command line options:

-i Sets the multicast address for monitoring
-s Specifies the IP address of the collector
-p Specifies the port for the collector to accept connections from probes
-r Specifies a run identifier

Fully assembled command can be found in the reports subsystem.

Reports Subsystem

In order to run the reports subsystem it is required to copy all the web scripts from iptvprobe/report_sys/ to cgi-bin folder of your web server:

cd iptvprobe/report_sys/
cp *.pl /var/www/localhost/cgi-bin/

perl and GD must be installed on the system for proper operation.

Point the web browser to the following URL:

http://address/cgi-bin/iptvprobe_runs.pl

where "address" is an address of your web server.

Start page contains the list of probe runs:

"Command to run on probe" column contains fully assembled command which should be run on the probe.

Graphic representation of multicast flow can be viewed using "UDP timeline diagram" or "PCR Arrival Interval" links. Approximately last 30 seconds are shown on the diagram.

Two example runs were done. The first was done on AmiNET 130 IP STB connected via a simple SOHO switch without IGMP snooping support. The second run was done on AmiNET 130 IP STB connected via a Cisco catalyst switch with IGMP snooping. In the first case there is a lot of IP packet losses. The following diagrams visualize these two cases:

Diagram Explanation

Approximately last 15-30 seconds are shown on the x axis.

The following parameters are shown on the y axis:

Count of IP packets grouped within 100 msec.
Number of bytes grouped within 100 msec.
Red line indicates lost IP packets. A peak is shown on the diagram if discontinuity in "IP packet ID" has been detected. Value 0 means that no packet loss has been detected.

Database Description

SQL table	Description
runs	Runs list. Every run is identified by a unique number
data_ip	IP packets detected by the probe. IP packet arrival time (timestamp) is stored in nanoseconds. Also packet ID (header_id) is stored
data_ts	MPEG Transport Stream (TS) packets detected by the probe. The following values are stored: PID, PTS/DTS/PCR, counter values (cont_counter)
stat_bandwidth	Grouped statistics

TODO List

Diagram improvements (scale, shifting, etc.)
"PCR jitter" diagram, another diagrams
Probe binary builds for various types of IP STB's
Probe availability monitor for network management