ORACLE VIDEO STREAMING

ORACLE VIDEO STREAMING

Contact: Roney E. Boyd

The Oracle Software products that provide Video Streaming consists of the following:

Video Client Software - resides in the customer desktop for accessing and receiving video from the Oracle Video Server at run time.
Video Server Manager Software - a graphical user interface that monitors and manages the Oracle Video Server and its clients.
Video Server Software - stores and delivers video content to customers that have the Video Client Software on their Desktop.
Media Net - a networking infrastructure that enables the Oracle Video Server and its clients to communicate in a distributed computing environment using heterogeneous network protocols, i.e. Token-Ring, Ethernet or ATM.
Oracle Database (Optional) - allows customer to write and query database tables associated with the Oracle Video Streaming processes, including logical content, clips, and schedules.

The Oracle Network Architecture for Video Streaming is based on a Three Tier structure:

Tier 1: Video Client and Video Server Manager.

Tier 2: Video Server and Media Data Server

Tier 3: Oracle Database

The Video Streaming Pilot Project used Tiers 1 and 2 to validate the proof of concept. The third Tier was not used because no logical content, clips or schedules were created. The creation and use of logical contents, clips and schedules require a connection to an Oracle Database. The Video Streaming Pilot Project used the demo video sample (physical) content that was provided with the Video Server Software package.

One server was used to house the Oracle Video Client (OVC), Oracle Video Server (OVS), Video Server Manager (VSM) and the Media Data Store (MDS). The server, a Gateway2000 NS-8000, was connected to a 100mbps port on an Ethernet Switch.

Figure 1 below depicts the heterogeneous network used for the Video Streaming Pilot Project:

The MDS contained 13 demo sample videos that were from 20 seconds to 2 minutes in duration. The number of concurrent video streams was set to 15 and the maximum bandwidth (maxbw) value was set to 55. The maxbw specifies the maximum rate at which all Oracle Video Server components can both read and/or write to a MDS volume. Once the 15 concurrent session limit is reached, no other video session is allowed to start.

The only three values that were changed during the installation process for this Pilot Project were the Hard Disk Address, Number of Streams, and the Maximum Bandwidth Value.

The Hard Disk Address Value was changed to use a logical drive instead of a physical drive. It is recommended that a physical drive be used if high performance is a requirement. The value was set to file://./D.

The default value for Number of Streams is 5; this value equates to the number of concurrent users, and was set to 15.

The MDS uses a value for maximum bandwidth available for all Oracle Video Server components to both read and write to the MDS volume. If this parameter (maxbw) is not sufficient, it can restrict the number of concurrent media streams available. To calculate the maxbw value, use the following formula:

Bandwidth demand = video streams x bit rate x 1.2

Where:

Video streams is the number of concurrent video streams you plan to serve from the

MDS volume.

Bit rate is the bit rate of these streams (encoding rates range from 1.366 to

2.048).

Examples:

If the customer requires 40 concurrent video streams encoded at 1.3 Mbps (1.366), the formula to determine maxbw is:

Bandwidth demand = 40 x 1.3 x 1.2 = 62.4 Mbps rounded to 63Mbps

If the customer requires 40 concurrent video streams encoded at 2.0 Mbps (2.048), the formula to determine maxbw is:

Bandwidth demand = 40 x 2.0 x 1.2 = 96 Mbps

(NOTE: The MDSVOLSTAT utility command will determine the value for maxbw when it is executed. Refer to the Oracle Media Data Store Utilities in the Oracle Video Server Administrator's Guide and Command Reference Manual).

After the maxbw value has been determined, the voltab file (created during installation) will have to be updated with this value.

During the Pilot test the Oracle Video Clients used the IP address of the Video Server instead of the Host Name because the Host Name for the Video Server was not registered in the Domain Name Server (DNS). If the Host Name is not registered, each Client's Windows Host file on the workstation will have to be updated with the IP address of the Video Server; therefore, it is recommended that you register the Host Name of the Video Server in the DNS.

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