IQDialogue™ SDV Desktop Edition

IQDialogue – Desktop Edition

Real-time Network Analyzer for Switched Digital Video in the Cable Industry

IQDialogue monitoring and analysis interface

Applications

• Analyze, monitor and debug Swtiched Digital Video Networks
• Measure channel change timing, mini-carousel and many other parameters
• Quick and accurate fault identification and isolation

Technical Overview

IQDialogue is a software application for your PC that analyzes, monitors and troubleshoots Switched Digital Video (SDV) networks . IQDialogue identifies the various SDV protocols in a comprehensive and familiar web-based format, which in turn provides information on the SDV service delivery platform. IQDialogue allows users to measure channel change timing, control plane signaling, mini-carousel, and many other parameters (IGMP, DHCP, etc.) allowing for quick and accurate fault identification.

SDV Client Emulation

• Emulation of one or multiple SDV clients, across single or multiple service groups
• Load-generation algorithms for SDV client registration, and channel change protocol
• Ability to craft impairment messages (assign wrong TSID, service groups, etc.) and audit the SDV system impact and response
• Full Libpcap capture of traffic being generated, and SDV server responses
• Export capability of emulated client information (MAC address, IP address, etc.)
• Ability to simultaneously monitor mini-carousel changes during emulated channel change requests

Key Features

• Targeted Real-Time analysis and auditing of IP traffic for Switched Digital Video deployments
• Simultaneous support of every major SDV signaling specifications, and most vendor implementations
• Analysis of traditional IP control protocols such as DHCP and IGMP
• Ability to emulate one, or multiple SDV clients
• SDV signaling impairments generation and auditing
• Full libpcap capture and playback

Mini-carousel monitoring display

Measurements and Analysis

• Timing and auditing of Channel Change Protocol (CCP)
• Timing and auditing of STB Client SDV boot-up & registration
• Timing and auditing of RTSP based messaging
• Timing and auditing of SDV Client Auto-Discovery Protocols
• Timing and Auditing of SDV Client KeepAlive Protocols
• Monitoring of MPEG2-TS Data flows
• Monitoring and full parsing of SDV mini-carousel, for both configuration messages and channel/frequency assignments
• Auto-detection of signaling and vendor protocols
• Analysis and timing of IGMP and DHCP transactions
• XML log reporting of all transactions monitored and faults
• Fast fault isolation via simple color-coded status of bulk messages
• Real-time event filtering on a Service Group basis for fast ID
• Analysis of SDV informational messages (LUA, etc.)

SDV Signaling Overview

IQDialogue provides visual representation of all aspects of the Switched Digital Video signaling. Classification is done in real-time on type and status, with easy to understand color coding. The user can switch back and forth between the various status screens, and operational mode (analysis, stim) with just the click of a button. SDV message filtering can be performed on a per Service-Group level for more targeted analysis. Capacity and processing abilities are only limited by the host platform and IP interfaces available.

SDV Client Emulation 

When analysis just isn’t enough, IQDialogue allows for the emulation of many SDV clients (tuners), in one or many Service Groups. These clients can interact in real-time with the SDV network elements, and perform functions such as SDV client registration and channel changes.. Some of these functions can also be automated to perform bulk operations (ie. 500 SDV clients performing a channel change per second for 12 hours). The SDV client emulation tool also allows for the crafting of impaired messaging. Fields such as “Service Group ID”, “TSID”, “SourceID”, can be manipulated to offer any value desired.

IQDialogue client emulation interface

Recording and Playback

In addition to real-time monitoring, IQDialogue allows the user to playback and analyze any compliant Libpcap capture file. IQDialogue can also create and provide a Libpcap capture file, for archiving and offline analysis.