Introduction:
For QoS monitoring of Internet streaming video service, there are certain benefits to run the monitoring service in the public cloud. It is more convenient that users don’t need to procure and maintain their own hardware systems. Considering the total cost of hardware and expenses of running the hardware, the cost of running the monitoring service in the cloud is normally compatible to that of running the service in the local premises. Additionally, the large cloud service providers have servers in different geographic locations and can let their customers to choose the servers in specific locations. This is very useful for video service providers who server world-wide audiances, so they can deploy multiple monitoring points to monitor the quality of their services in different regions.
Deploy Mividi IP Video Monitoring Solution in Microsoft Azure Cloud:
Mividi IP Video Monitoring system (TSM100) is a software based product that runs on Windows servers. It supports a variety of input stream formats including TS over UDP, RTP, HLS, MPEG-DASH, RTMP, RTSP, and MMS protocols. It can simultaneously monitor up to 250 streams in a single computer server with proper CPU cores and RAM.
The TSM100 together with Mividi TSMWeb web management software are fully validated in Microsoft Azure Cloud Windows VM. You can partner with Mividi to deploy the TSM100 software in the Microsoft Azure Cloud with the following simple steps:
1.Open an Microsoft Azure account, and set up a Windows 2012 VM.
2.Create a user account for the Windows 2012 VM and log into the VM using Window’s Remote Desktop. You can either install the STM100 and TSMWeb software in the VW or ask Mividi to install and setup the software for you.
3.Once the software is setup, add the streaming URLs of video services you want to monitor and enable 24x7 stream monitoring.
4.The test results can be viewed on the VM by logging in using Windows Remote Desktop and opening the TSM View desktop app as shown in the figure below:
5.Users can also view the test results anywhere using an Internet browser to access the TSM Web server. This web interface provides thumbnail view, streaming monitoring result summary, database searching, and real-time alarms. Below is a screen capture of the TSM Web interface.
6.In addition to pulling the test data by users, the TSM100 can generate error alarms and notify users by email when serious errors are detected.
Cost Analysis:
The cost of running the software in the cloud includes the cost of subscribing Microsoft cloud VM and our stream analysis software. The price of renting a VM varies depending on the number of CPU cores and memory. Detailed Microsoft Azure Cloud service price information can be found in Microsoft website (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/virtual-machines/windows/).
Our test shows a so-called D2 instance with 2 cores and 7 GiB RAM using the 2.3 GHz Intel XEON ® E5-2673 v4 (Broadwell) processor based systems can monitor 30-50 streams using our TSM100 application depending on the video and streaming formats. The cost of renting the instance is ~$208/mo as published by Microsoft. In addition, there will be a small amount of charge associated to the bandwidth use. One big advantage to use Microsoft Azure web service is that it does not incur bandwidth charge for moving data from outside into the Microsoft server. It only charges for bandwidth usage for moving data out of the cloud server. The data being moved out, which is basically test results using the TSMWeb server, is relatively small comparing to the amount data moved in, which is the video stream data. With all cost for procuring and running the hardware, the overall cost seems to be roughly compatible to that of a local monitoring solution. Especially for the customers that don’t have a lot of streams to monitor, this is probably a cost-effect and convenient solution.
You can try out the Microsoft Azure with Mividi IP streaming monitoring solution at no cost for 30 days. By trying out the solution, you will know the exact cost and benefits with no risk.
For more information, please contact Mividi at info@mividi.com.