WEYBRIDGE, U.K. and OSLO, Norway—Pebble and Nevion today announced a new integration between Pebble Control, the company’s IP connection management solution, and Nevion’s VideoIPath orchestration and SDN (software-defined network) control software.

The integration will enable Pebble Control customers to control SDNs as well as traditional IGMP-based networks that may already be controlled by the solution, Pebble said.

Pebble Control can discover devices in the VideoIPath system and issue connection requests based on user input. Additionally, VideoIPath users can now take advantage of advanced Pebble Control features, such as its container logic concept, it said.

“IP networking is a complex area and can seem daunting to customers as they transition to a new technology. Our Pebble Control application offers broadcasters standards-based interoperability for IP broadcast facilities or workflows of all scales,” said Pebble CTO Miroslav Jeras. “We have architected the system around the concepts of ease of use, interoperability and reliability. With the addition of VideoIPath integration, our customers can further expand their IP systems to more complex COTS network architectures and wide area networking applications.”  

PITTSBURGH—Networking for media professionals continues its evolution as the broadcast industry gradually and incrementally moves from serial digital interface (SDI) infrastructures to one steeped in the world of Ethernet, IP, and software based managed.

With the 2017 year-end publication of SMPTE ST 2110—the new standard for IP video over a managed network—engineers, network administrators and broadcast technicians are now faced with learning how to address the growing features and capabilities found in a managed, high-bit-rate, real-time professional media network environment. Having the necessary tools at their fingertips, along with the understandings of how to build, operate and manage these systems using commercially available, common off-the-shelf hardware, will be essential in helping these new users adapt to a paradigm shift in the way media transport, at a stream/flow level, operates.

AMWA, NMOS AND SDN

In harmony with the physical network topology comes the software-based control and management platform we’ll be using in the future. Solutions such as those developed by the Advanced Media Workflow Association and identified as NMOS (Networked Media Open Specifications) Interface Specifications IS-04, IS-05, and IS-06 are built upon the foundations of software-defined-networking or “SDN.”

This overview introduces SDN and how it fits with IP video in a professional media network. The term SDN is not the marketing term augmented with extra letters and used by several manufacturers to describe their control/management solutions. Instead, and more succinctly, SDN is associated with the wide-ranging concepts for the network infrastructure and managed operations. In this context, SDN offers capabilities for the identification, registration, and flow management of the network—in its entirety. The principles of SDN therefore apply to the entire network and not just to controlling specific devices or components that live on that network.

ST 2110 standards clearly address the physicality of the network from the interoperability perspective. It ensures that those devices residing on the network can successfully send and receive packets in an unconstrained manor. None of the ST 2110 standards contend with the control or application planes of the network. Hence, significant work is still needed to achieve useful interoperability and automation in professional networked media environments.

MODELS AND BEST PRACTICES

In 2013, several industry bodies came together to formulate the Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM), which was tasked with coordinating how network control mechanisms and applications planes might be addressed. JT-NM’s output was the formation of a “reference architecture” (RA) for interoperability (i.e., “JT-NM RA”).

At its most basic level, the JT-NM RA identifies models and best practices for what may be needed at four layers: operation, application, platform and infrastructure. Those resolutions and their development are entirely software-based and bring forward the roots of SDN.

SDN is an emerging architecture that is dynamic, manageable and cost-effective and can adapt to the environment in which it is applied to, making it ideal for the high-bandwidth, dynamic nature of today’s applications. SDN is applicable to high-performance computing (HPC), asset management, to transaction management, and to media-centric environments—such as those found in the ST 2110 standards.

What is fundamental to SDN is that the architecture decouples the network control and forwarding functions, enabling the network control to become directly programmable (i.e., “programmatically enabled”) with an underlying infrastructure which is abstracted for applications and network services (Fig. 1).

SDN architectures are directly programmable. In other words, network control is directly programmable because it is decoupled from the forwarding actions found in other conventional network systems.

TRAFFIC FLOW

SDN by nature must be completely agile. By abstracting control from the forwarding elements, administrators can dynamically adjust the traffic flow on a network-wide basis. This means the administrator (which is likely an automation solution versus a human) can adjust the flow of the network traffic to meet changing needs. For example, if the network traffic flow for a signal system is built up for a 3G (1080p60) data packet flow, it means up to three 3G signal flows can be provisioned on a single 10G link. Should another signal be requested to flow through the same port, over-subscription (connecting multiple devices to the same switch port to optimize switch use) would occur. SDN would have knowledge of these limitations and reroute (as necessary) the traffic through an alternate, less congested port. Ideally this is done automatically, with the user never knowing the flow attributes or paths. Switches become an agile, flexible component of the overall network—something that in traditional networking might require reprogramming at the switch-console level.

Programmatic configuration is another key component in SDN. This allows network administrators the ability to configure, secure, manage and optimize all their resources quickly and dynamically. Utilizing automated SDN applications, programs which users can write themselves (or “interfaces” like those in NMOS) no longer depend on proprietary software or hardware controllers, such as those required in traditional SDI-video matrices. Configurations now become “vendor neutral” and applicable to multiple switch vendors, end-point devices and other resources. Fig. 2 summaries what SDN is and is not.

CLOUD-BASED

SDN need not necessarily be associated with cloud computing services; albeit most cloud services depend upon SDN to automate and manage their own resources dynamically. Essentially, SDN replaces those “static architectures” found in traditional networks, decentralizing the hard-set nature of the network and allowing for a flexible, adjustable and extensible architecture—further promoting the differences previously expected from the traditional SDI-video routing solutions.

Karl Paulsen is CTO at Diversified and a SMPTE Fellow. He is a frequent contributor to TV Technology, focusing on emerging technologies and workflows for the industry. Contact Karl atkpaulsen@diversifiedus.com.

EIGHTY FOUR, PA.—Internet protocol technologies developed and implemented globally are now found in equipment rooms and network applications for broadcast. We’re at the cusp of seeing just how technologies like virtualization, IP, real-time transport protocols and software-based network management impact real-time broadcast systems. Of the many enabling datacenter technologies, “software defined networking” (SDN) is now integral to next-generation IP video transport.

SDN is the core technology present in the controlling of IP video on professional media networks (PMN). To understand how SDN fits into real-time transport protocol (RTP), UTP (user datagram protocol) and live-studio video—i.e., Studio Video over IP (SVIP as SMPTE 2110)—we will explore portions of networking evolution; see where the differences are; and provide examples of how SDN is being applied to broadcast infrastructures and IP-network management.

PACKET FORWARDING PLANES
Networks are all about packet forwarding. Networks are largely built of three integral components: a control plane, a data plane and a management plane.

Planes are implemented in the firmware found in routers and switches. The control plane makes decisions about where network traffic is sent; and, the data plane (or forwarding plane) is what moves traffic to the next hop—i.e., which packets go through the router with a path that is determined by the control plane logic. The management plane configures the interfaces, IP subnets, and routing protocols.

SDN changes how the control plane and data plane interact. SDN is a technology where the network control is decoupled from data forwarding and becomes directly programmable. SDN moves away from distributed configurations to controlling the network via a logically centralized high-level controller. Insulating the control plane from network hardware and implementing control in software enables programmatic access, making network administration more flexible.

Fig. 1: Classic network model with details of each network component detailed in the green inset.

TRADITIONAL NETWORKS VS. SDN
Classic networks are built whereby the data planes move traffic using a “state distribution mechanism” (“protocols”) layered onto forwarding hardware, with an operating system in the control plane set between them. Fig. 1 represents how protocols interconnect the components.

Fig. 2: Traditional networking model where each network component has a control plane coupled directly with the data plane of each section.

Fig. 3: In SDN, the data planes exchange the packets, but a single control plane manages the data planes directly.

Using designated protocol(s), vertically integrated practices guarantee consistent interoperability, but unfortunately also produces a closed platform. In the “traditional networking model” (Fig. 2), control planes and data planes are coupled to network elements and endpoints. In the SDN paradigm (Fig. 3), the control plane API is decoupled from each individual data plane using a network topology abstraction with high-level access to programmable switching.

SDN models allow features such as host tracking or shortest path routing; with intelligence to know about and control each data plane element accordingly; and alleviates the former need to land control software applications on each peripheral hardware endpoint. SDN lets the control system become aware of all the network’s activities.

BASIS OF CONTROL
SVIP products leverage SDN capabilities, emulating similar functionality to what broadcasters have in existing SDI-based routing. Since SDI routing is constrained to specific bandwidths (1.5G, 3G, 6G and 12G) with a fixed point-to-point unidirectional signal architecture, all SDI data flows are governed by strict standardized hardware parameters, which send and receive SMPTE standardized signals. For IP-video broadcast networks, flow management is an essential component, which is unnecessary in SDI-routing environments.

IP networks may utilize either TCP (transmission control protocol) or UDP (user datagram protocol); but unlike SDI, IP connectivity is point-to-multipoint. In real-time IP-networks, especially for broadcast applications, “flows” and “connections” are managed via capabilities built into the SDN; providing both intelligence and protection against over-subscription of the network. With SDN, network controllers know of the signals, where they came from, and who gets what data sent to which end-point.

Excessive flows will oversubscribe any network, and may collapse the network in unpredictable ways. By applying SDN’s intelligence, flows are better understood because control on the network becomes centrally managed.

UNDER THE SDN HOOD
Understanding SDN helps users of media networks know how control, automation and network management can be achieved and maintained. We should be clear though, SDN is not virtualization—rather it is the logically controlling of the network from a central high-level program (e.g., the network ‘Controller’)—much like an SDI-router’s controller does today.

In networking, lower layer routing protocols, i.e., layer 3 and layer 2 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), Table 1, won’t understand the infrastructure of the network much further than the next hop in the topology. By themselves, flows are not necessarily fault tolerant, nor do they possess intelligence about the overall systemization or user-interfaces on the network.

Table 1: The classic OSI reference model with examples of the various networking standards, applications or protocols associated to each Layer name and number.

For television broadcast and production, an SDI “router controller” executes the video switches (i.e., routes the signals through the crosspoints to output ports). SDI routers may control audio channel-pairing, shuffling, perform tie-line management between routers, act on specific policies (i.e., user access control), and set up control panels based upon sources, destinations and availabilities.

In networking, the “network controller” is tasked with those management functions. Controllers utilize SDN to “steering packets” across the network from sources to destinations. Since multiple signals are carried on the same physical media (copper Ethernet cable or optical fiber), something must track what is on that media; understanding what is going to or coming from any port on the switch or end-points. Not all switches are SDN capable, so be aware you can’t pick any switch and expect it to handle SDN functions.

SDN AND ORCHESTRATION
SDN enables network agility; helping automate the pathing of packets through switches throughout the network, processes known as “orchestration,” based on what the end-points on the network need or expect. Orchestration is equivalent to the broadcast SDI router control system, (except in network terminologies), and together with SDN, are the basis of control for PMNs.

Applications and SDN handle IP multicast join or leave requests. They aid in port management to prevent packets from oversaturating links or receiver end-points. IP-routing decisions are dynamic and continually changing, so SDN-based network control must understand network changes based upon potential activities throughout the network, contrary to single streams on a single cable in an SDI router.

Network control application software, such as OpenFlow (an open standard-based piece of an SDN system), enable network controllers to know about and steer packets across the network switches. Since SDN separates control from forwarding, a sophisticated and intelligent flow management schema is created.

HYBRID SYSTEMS LIVING TOGETHER
Hybrid systems are where network (IP) and digital video (SDI) topologies share the features of SDN-based controllers to manage real-time transport (RTP) of IP video with legacy SDI-based equipment on the network. Broadcast equipment manufacturers seamlessly integrate these “network controllers” with their SDI-router controllers—which is essentially the SDI/IP architecture we expect to see for several years.

Karl Paulsen is CTO at Diversified (www.diversifiedus.com) and a SMPTE Fellow. Read more about this and other storage topics in his book “Moving Media Storage Technologies.” Contact Karl atkpaulsen@diversifiedus.com.

NEW YORK—AT&T is launching beta tests of a new software-forward “next-generation” video platform that delivers many of the features a virtualized distribution architecture—4K, cloud DVR, several live channels and 30,000 titles on demand in this case—across “satellite, mobile or your own wired internet connection.” AT&T provided few details about the platform architecture other than its capabilities, and that it would be beta testing this summer with DirecTV Now streaming customers and launching commercially in the fall. 

“We all want easy and quick access to our content, regardless of where, when or on what device we watch it,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer of the AT&T Entertainment Group. “By developing for a single video platform, we’ll deliver new features and platform innovations in a faster, more efficient way. And it will be simple and consistent wherever you watch—TV, phone or tablet.”

This is where AT&T described characteristics of a virtualized platform without employing the term: “AT&T has been transforming over the last several years into a software-led company in how we design and manage our network. We’re bringing that same approach to video and entertainment by incorporating principles of agile development, open systems, collaboration with developers and public beta programs to more quickly bring new and enhanced experience to customers. Our next-generation video platform is a key component of this ongoing transformation.”

The carrier is at the forefront of virtualization. It developed a network operating system dubbed “ECOMP,” for “Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management and Policy,” that AT&T Labs vice president of technology, Mazin Gilbert described as “a software-centric network running on a cloud environment.” (See theECOMP White Paper.)

The company offered up ECOMP for open-sourcing last March, which has evolved into the Open Network Automation Platform group comprising the likes of Cisco, Ericsson, Intel, IBM, Orange, VMWare and others along with AT&T. Earlier this month, carrier more recently invested $200 million to a venture-cap fund to invest in technologies that will run on ONAP.

“We believe [ONAP] is going to be the network operating system for the majority of the network operators out there,” AT&T’s Igal Elbaz said, according to Light Reading. Elbaz is vice president of Ecosystem and Innovation for AT&T Services.
A Bit of the ONAP Wiki
ONAP is an open source software platform that delivers capabilities for the design, creation, orchestration, monitoring, and life cycle management of...
...Virtual Network Functions;
...The carrier-scale Software Defined Networks that contain them;
...Higher-level services that combine the above.

ONAP—derived from the AT&T ECOMP—provides for automatic, policy-driven interaction of these functions and services in a dynamic, real-time cloud environment. ONAP is not just a run-time platform; it includes graphical design tools for function/service creation.
AT&T said it would start rolling out this new TV platform in the fall, beginning with DirecTV Now subscribers and DirecTV companion app users. The carrier said the platform would eventually “look and feel” consistent throughout the United States.

Beta testing will involve invited DirecTV Now subscribers who will test drive the cloud DVR and other features. Things like live TV pausing and parental controls are on deck for when the platform comes out of beta later this year. Other features, such as user profiles, download and go, and 4K HDR are planned for 2018.

RASTATT, GERMANY—The buzz surrounding the use of COTS equipment for real-time video production has been growing in intensity for years with very few actual products to show for it. Although there have been a number of experiments and proof-of-concept systems, most real deployments include very little IP technology—and the ones that do are not taking full advantage of the capabilities of SDN (Software Defined Networking) and virtualization technology. Instead, most of them resemble legacy baseband solutions where the connection is IP instead of HD-SDI. But all of that is about to change with the introduction of the V_matrix series from Lawo.

Traditional broadcast systems are built with intricate connections of single-purpose devices linked together with a myriad of content-specific cabling to form an unbroken production “chain” from source to destination. While this legacy approach is well understood, it severely limits broadcasters in terms of the specific architecture of the system, which is then defined by the particular components and how they are connected together. Reconfiguring these purpose-built and static installations is difficult and time consuming, as the process requires careful planning and often involves manual patching of signal paths. Broadcasters therefore tend not to make changes for anything but long-term productions.

A production facility that could be reconfigured seamlessly via software with a few simple mouse clicks would allow broadcasters the flexibility to produce more content with much less time spent in advance planning and preparation, and with little or no additional capital expenditure.

SOFTWARE DEFINES THE FUNCTIONALITY

The Lawo V_matrix product line, where the V stands for “video,” the newest advance following on legacy single-purpose broadcast hardware, takes advantage of the latest high-performance processors coupled with intelligent and versatile software modules. With Lawo V_matrix products, the software defines the functionality and the hardware simply provides the processing power required to execute those functions. A multitude of software modules including streaming, embedding, video and audio processing, and monitoring can be activated on demand and combined as needed to build each signal path.

With high-speed, 40-gigabit Ethernet connections, the core processing blades can be located anywhere in the facility or, using high-speed WAN/LAN networks, they can just as easily be located in a data center outside of town. Each core processing blade is capable of handling dozens of uncompressed HD signals and thousands of audio channels on a single fiber pair. With the addition of optional mezzanine VC-2 compression, this density quadruples with no loss of video quality and only a few milliseconds of latency, making it possible to build systems that scale to tens of thousands of I/O on a single switch.

When coupled with an Arista high-capacity switch and Lawo SDN functionality as outlined here From SDI Baseband to IP Routing the V_matrix system provides the performance expected for a broadcast live production, including the timely and vertically accurate switching of video with the performance and reliability that broadcasters have come to expect from their legacy systems.

The Lawo V_matrix series uses same as the V_link4 and remote4 IEEE 1588 PTP to distribute accurate timing through the IP layer rather than relying on external cabling, thereby further simplifying facility wiring. With the Lawo PTP Reference functionality, existing facilities can sync all IP devices to their house clock so that both new and old equipment will operate in the same timing domain.

To service a wide range of applications with different requirements, Lawo V_matrix solutions come in a variety of different form factors. The V_line products described in Video line provide compact, powerful systems that can be configured to perform an assortment of typical signal transformation tasks, including routing, embedding/de-embedding, signal processing, synchronization, and monitoring in a small form factor.

The V_matrix software-defined IP core routing and processing platform described in V_matrix brochure offers all the common video and audio processing functionality required in a broadcast facility as versatile software modules running on generic core processing blades. It also offers a wide range of legacy video and audio signal conversion interfaces to connect to legacy signals.

The V_matrix platform uses high-speed 10GE and 40GE IP links to connect to COTS switches for routing, while Lawo SDN provides the performance and functionality required for live production environments.

Broadcasters and media professionals of all types who choose Lawo’s reconfigurable and fully virtualized IP technology in place of dedicated, function-specific hardware will be ideally positioned to cope with the unknown future of modern content production—and they will be able to build a truly future-proof solution that promises to change and adapt along with their business.