Cisco Cisco Video Assurance Management Solution 2.0 Data Sheet
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Data Sheet
Cisco Video Assurance Management Solution
Solution Overview
Cisco
®
Video Assurance Management Solution (VAMS) delivers to service providers real-time, centralized
monitoring of their headend/hubs and their core, distribution, and aggregation networks for broadcast video
transport. Cisco VAMS provides the framework for a modular, end-to-end assurance management architecture for
video services, such as linear broadcast and video on demand (VoD) based on MPEG-2 transport streams and
uncompressed flows.
Today most service providers use IP as the backbone to transport video. TV-class video being very sensitive to
loss and delay, any network-based impairment can adversely affect the end users’ quality of experience, which
can lead to customers abandoning the service provider. The challenge for service providers is to detect and
resolve these issues before customers start calling the customer service reps. Service providers require ways to
monitor media delivery performance and track causes for any degradation.
Cisco VAMS allows service providers to monitor all their video flows directly from the data plane of the router
without having to pull the video flows to a dedicated card or appliance. With the Cisco 7600 and Cisco ASR 9000
Series Routers supporting inline video monitoring, or VidMon, VAMS gives service providers the ability to gather
and display per flow metrics by directly polling these routers. This is a tremendous benefit for operators, who can
now detect, diagnose, and pinpoint where in the IP transport network video impairment occurs due to loss and
delay. See Table 1.
Table 1.
Video Monitoring Metrics Supported by VAMS
Metric
Description
Support
MRV
Media Rate Variation: This metric allows the measurement
of packets per second of an IP constant bit rate (CBR) flow
against a user-configured nominal setting for that flow.
MRV is most applicable for uncompressed flows such as
serial digital interface (SDI) and high definition SDI (HD-
SDI) where it is not possible to inspect the payload.
of packets per second of an IP constant bit rate (CBR) flow
against a user-configured nominal setting for that flow.
MRV is most applicable for uncompressed flows such as
serial digital interface (SDI) and high definition SDI (HD-
SDI) where it is not possible to inspect the payload.
Cisco 7600 Series Ethernet Services Plus (ES+) line card
and Cisco ASR 9000 Series
and Cisco ASR 9000 Series
MDI_MLR
Media Delivery Index - Media Loss Rate: This metric is
derived by summarizing the total missing MPEG frames for
a given reporting period for a given PID (program
identifier).
derived by summarizing the total missing MPEG frames for
a given reporting period for a given PID (program
identifier).
Cisco 7600 ES+ line card
DF
Delay Factor: This metric is applicable to both MDI and
MRV and measures the difference between the arrival and
drain rates of a media stream.
MRV and measures the difference between the arrival and
drain rates of a media stream.
The DF over an interval period represents the buffering
required to handle variations in transmission at a point in
the transmission path.
required to handle variations in transmission at a point in
the transmission path.
Cisco 7600 ES+ line card as MDI:DF and Cisco ASR 9000
Series as MRV:DF
Series as MRV:DF