Multicast Show and Share live event from TCS

Ola Dallokken · ‎05-24-2012

Hi

I have a deployment with DMM, SnS, and TCS and C90 Telepresence codec.

The TCS is sending the live stream to the SnS server. The question is if it is possible to multicast that live event to the SnS clients, or is unicast the only option here?

If unicast is the only option with the current deployment, is it possible to make a multicast stream with a different deployment?

I would appriciate any thoughts on this.

Regards,

Ola Dallokken

gabriel.caclin · ‎07-24-2012

Hi Ola,

Yes it is possible. have a look over there:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/video/mxe/3500/sw/3_x/3_4/cxs_solution/configuration/guide/CTSconfiguration.pdf

The trick is to create on the TCS a publishing point in multicast (duplication of the TCSmulticastTemplate), configure it with your multicast adress, and then configurate the TCS app with multicast (media server configuration/recording aliases and so on).

On SnS, same as unicast, the only difference is the URL of the stream.

But you have to know that the multicast stream is not coming from the SNS server BUT from the TCS. The SNS server only instruct the client to watch the stream coming from the TCS.

Regards,

wagnep999 · ‎09-22-2013

Does it actually view the mulicast stream or gets re-directed to the TCS server and plays it in unicast? From all my testing i cant get SNS to actually show that it is iewing the multicast stream. ie from the mulitcast address...the document you provided doesnt clarify this point. Have you put wireshark on the traffic flow to see what the actual flow is? I have and tried several different methods but anything from SNS will not connect to the mulicast aaddress but looks more like a uncast stream

gabriel.caclin · ‎01-17-2014

well, the SNS just provide a URL on a Multicast file located on the TCS (nsc file).

When the users open a live event, the player downolad the nsc file which contain the multicast adress used by the TCS to stream the video, and the video format.

In the end, this is the TCS that stream Multicast, the SNS does not stream anything in this case.

wagnep999 · ‎01-19-2014

Hi, yes you can use mutlicast to do this(but as Gabriel says its not SNS tat streams it, it is merely a container looking at the raw stream from the TCS or wherever you choose to pull it from) but its a complete waste of time IF your network isnt setup for Multicast AND if you have WAN sites running slow links...TCS uses Microsoft Windows Media Server for Uni/multi and is inherently TERRIBLE in sending multicast traffic..! If you have wireshark have a look for yourself..unicast it can deal with and it will send a nice consistent stream but Multicast bursts all over the shop(so a 500k stream can burst to 2mb..which is not a good thing if yhou know about routing congestion etc etc)...took me months of workng out the root cause of the issue and to eventually get Cisco to fess up about it and say 'yes' its an issue. Its really a Microsoft issue and unfortunately thats what Cisco's TCS platform sits on....:).

Forget reading he 'standard' Cisco blurb as it will say try this and try that, tweak this and tweak that but in the end you just cant use it (unless as i say your on a LAN or your WAN has big links and can deal with the overheads!) also unless you have a TAC engineer who has actually deployed this and not just read the manual they wont having wokring knowledge of the issue either. It took me a long time to find someone at Cisco who actually did know the issue and would actually admit it was a issue..I guess thats why the developed ECDS. Now thats a good product.But as usual not cheap at all.

Thats why Cisco talk about 'Wowza'..!(or atleast they use it as an example in thier blurb for streaming and not the TCS) As it can deal with multicast fine BUT the catch is its not supported by Cisco...:)...the only REAL solution is to use a content delivery system like Cisco ECDS. Believe me i have spent months going through this with TAC Engineers and i have the current ' Cisco Expert' in this field who has helped me alot with this. Its a very sad fact to find out 'after' the fact.

Also the new SNS will be very different so will lend itself to ECDS in the long run anywa so all this we are discussing becomes a mute point...

Hope this helps. If you need any assistance apart from the TAC let me know as i have just spent a fair while deploying this myself and working out 'ALL' the non documented issues, of which there seem to be alot. Once its in it seems to work ok though.

karmentrout · ‎02-20-2015

We are currently having issues where clients are joining MC but then falling back to UC. Any reasons why? These are mainly wireless clients.

Thanks

Kevin