Cisco Cisco Video Assurance Management Solution 2.0 Release Notes

an interface between the Cisco Info Center product suite

1

 and CMM. Cisco has bundled this interface 

with the Object Server (central DB) and Webtop (web GUI for event list viewing) from the Cisco Info 
Center product suite.

The Cisco Info Center product suite includes two additional product components from the IBM Tivoli 
product suite: 

IBM Tivoli Business & Services Manager (TBSM), a service dashboard and visualization tool.

IBM Tivoli Impact, which supports the definition of service and network correlations.

This combination of Cisco Info Center and Netcool functionality accomplishes two key objectives for 
Cisco VAMS 2.0. It provides:

Connectivity between Cisco ANA, CMM, the Cisco ROSA NMS, and Cisco Info Center.

A “Single Pane of Glass” toolset

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 for Cisco VAMS 2.0.

Cisco Info Center contains rules files that specify the rules that define multicast alerts from various 
sources, such as probes, routers, Digital Content Managers (DCMs), and other network management 
systems. The rules file contains code that extracts the multicast group and source information from these 
alerts and provides the operator with a Launch CMM Multicast Trace option.

By integrating CMM and the Cisco ROSA NMS with Cisco Info Center you can view all the alarm 
conditions and data for service level correlation and analysis. Additionally, for CMM events, you can 
launch troubleshooting and diagnostic analysis directly from Cisco Info Center.

Cisco VAMS 2.0 supports several third-party probes, including the Bridge Technologies, IneoQuest, 
Mixed Signals, PixelMetrix, and Tektronix video probes. You can add these video quality monitoring 
probes to key points in the transport network. Functionally, these probes detect impairments and validate 
the integrity of the Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) transport stream, which carries video. 

The video probes communicate with the Cisco VAMS components as follows:

The video probes communicate traps directly to Cisco Info Center. For example, the PixelMatrix 
probe communicates directly with Cisco Info Center (and can only communicate directly with Cisco 
Info Center). When you are viewing a video probe event forwarded by these probes, you can launch 
CMM diagnostics directly from the Cisco Info Center interface.

Certain video probes, such as the IneoQuest probes compatible with iVMS 3.x, support direct 
polling by CMM 2.5. CMM 2.5 is also able to receive traps from iVMS.3.x.

Cisco VAMS 2.0 uses Cisco ANA 3.6 Service Pack 3 to build an abstracted network model through a set 
of virtual network elements (VNEs). Each VNE represents an element in the managed network. Cisco 
VAMS 2.0 extends the base functions of the Cisco ANA 3.6.3 VNEs for Cisco 7600 Series routers, Cisco 
Carrier Routing System (CRS-1) devices, Cisco 12000 series routers, and Cisco Catalyst 4948 Series 
switches. These VNE extensions address the specific requirements of video delivery across the IP 
network.

Finally, Cisco VAMS 2.0 includes generic VNEs supporting specific video probes; this release includes 
VNEs for IneoQuest, Mixed Signals, and Tektronix video probes.

See 

 for an overview of the Cisco VAMS components (the topology shown in the 

figures are examples). 

 shows Cisco VAMS in the video headend network, and 

 shows 

Cisco VAMS in a video transport network.

1. This is the OEM product of the IBM Tivoli Netcool Suite.

2. Single Pane of Glass—The ability to utilize multiple interconnected tools to monitor, diagnose, and 

troubleshoot network and video impairments from a single console.