DCM-Digital Program Insertion resource management

[Taeho Choi]

Application Note

Digital Content Manager (DCM) D9900/D9901

--- Digital Program Insertion resource management ---

Scope

All DCMD9900/D9901 products equipped with one or more Co-Processor cards configured for DPI functionality.

Purpose

This application note provides instructions on how to manage the available Digital Program Insertion (DPI) resources so to avoid splice performance issues.

Audience

This application note is written for:

• Cisco customers
• Cisco Advanced Services personnel

Background

The Co-Processor Card of the DCM is able to perform many different video manipulation processes like DPI, transrating, and delaying service components.  Each process consumes a portion of the total available Co-Processor Card processing power. The primary factors that determine the processing power requirements are the process itself (DPI or transrating), the bit rate of the video stream, and the number of audio streams in the service.

Note: Transrating requires continuous processing power from a Co-Processor Card while DPI only requires additional processing power at the moment of execution.

When ordering a DCM, the limitations are outlined through the sales configurator but in operational environments the customer may deviate from these limitations and as a result, experience performance drops that affect the available resources for splicing. This is especially true when splices are scheduled simultaneously.

Limiting factors are:

• The number of HD video streams processed and bitrates
• The number of SD video streams processed and bitrates
• The number of audio components within the services and the audio bitrates
• The number of streams being transrated
• The number of streams provisioned for DPI
• The video quality optimization settings
• The installed software and firmware version

Example

If the installed version of DCM code is 8.00.81, SD video bandwidth is up to 3.75Mbps, HD video bandwidth is up to 16 Mbps, and the video optimization setting is set to “quality”, then here is the resulting capacity per co-processor:

Item	SD TR	HD TR	SD splice	HD splice
# of service / co-processor	340	85	85	21

Note:

Cisco has a tool available (“DPI Capacity Check – Configurator Vxx.yy.zz.xls”) that simulates the required processing power based on above factors. Contact your SPVTG service organization to get a copy.

Software Features in 8.02.xx:

From SW version 8.2 onwards, a load management algorithm is added to the GUI.

The web browser user interface of the DCM will hereby display the following theoretical calculated processing load figures:

• Current processing      load: the current processing load of the Co-Processor Card
• Maximum processing load:      the maximum processing load of the Co-Processor Card since reset
• Worst Case processing      load: the processing load of the Co-Processor Card as if all configured      DPI channels for this card are splicing simultaneously.

Furthermore, it is possible to block splices if all DPI capacity has been consumed.

See the user manual for more details.