Overview of EMDI

Definition

Enhanced media delivery index (EMDI) allows E2E measurement of the multicast video service packets specified on each network node on an IP network so that performance indicators including the packet loss rate, packet out-of-order rate, and jitter can be obtained. eMDI has the advantages of easy deployment, full NE coverage, and high statistical precision.

Purpose

Multicast video services, including IPTV, are gradually deployed on carrier networks and have become a major opportunity to improve profitability for carriers. Quality monitoring of video services is of vital importance. Packet loss rate, packet out-of-order rate, and jitter are three major factors that may affect video quality. Even the packet loss rate and packet out-of-order rate of less than 0.01% may cause terminals to experience erratic display or mosaic. Jitter may also lead to black screen. These problems severely affect the service quality of experience (QoE) as well as the profitability and brand awareness of carriers. A video quality monitoring and fault locating solution is in need so that carriers can monitor and maintain service quality in real time and quickly demarcate faults and clarify responsibilities.

The traditional quality monitoring and fault locating methods have the following disadvantages:

  • The IP flow performance monitor (IP FPM) solution is limited in usage scenarios and fails to locate faults based on multicast traffic.
  • The network quality analysis (NQA) solution provides indirect measurement and low precision because the packets detected are not real service packets.

In addition, the preceding two solutions provide detection only on the ingress and egress of an IP network and fail to rapidly locate faults.

The eMDI detection solution is a quality monitoring and fault locating solution designed for multicast video services such as IPTV. This solution supports real-time detection of quality indicators (such as packet loss rate, packet out-of-order rate, and jitter) of real service packets, featuring high statistical precision and reliable data support. In addition, this solution can be deployed on all network nodes from edge devices to core devices. The detection results on multiple nodes help to rapidly locate the faulty network segment.

Benefits

  • Carriers can rapidly discover the video service faults on IP networks based on the eMDI detection result and quickly identify whether a network fault arises from a user access problem, video source quality problem, or network transmission problem. The responsibilities can be clarified, reducing costs in customer services and onsite services.
  • Maintenance engineers can rapidly locate the faulty network segment and faulty node based on the eMDI detection result and use the existing fault locating methods to rapidly identify the problem and restore services.
Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
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