Cisco Cisco Video Assurance Management Solution 2.0 White Paper

White Paper

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Constant Bit Rate (CBR) video flow monitoring

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Video flow path tracing

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Correlation of multicast flows to video programs

Figure 3. Multicast Path Trace Screen in Cisco Multicast Manager

Within Cisco VAMS, Cisco Multicast Manager collects data from video probes and from multicast

MIBS in Cisco routers and switches and presents the data in a visual manner for rapid fault

isolation. It tracks convergence and re-convergence of multicast trees, and most importantly,

associates individual multicast addresses with unique programs. This association allows Cisco

Multicast Manager to present information to Cisco ANA and Cisco Info Center in the language of

both network managers (who think about IP and multicast addresses) and video managers (who

think about programs). This facilitates communication between the two groups, and delivers

information to Cisco Info Center in comprehensible language for help desk personnel.

Cisco Multicast Manager supports RFC 4445 video probes, which collect data about each

multicast stream (carried in MPEG transport headers) for each multicast flow and forward the data

to Cisco Multicast Manager. This capability allows Cisco Multicast Manager to report video quality

issues to Cisco Info Center for specific multicast groups while identifying the video programs that

those groups support. Integration for IP Video Management System (iVMS) from Ineoquest

Technologies enables real-time alerts to assist rapid fault isolation of customer-impacting video

events.

Some Cisco customers use Cisco Multicast Manager to support a “probeless” management

environment. The software can monitor multicast flows on a tree, branch, or device level for

thresholds measured by packets per second (PPS) or bits per second (BPS). This capability allows

Cisco Multicast Manager to monitor CBR video flows, correlate them to video programs, and send

northbound alerts when a threshold is violated.