1. 1 STREAMING SERVERS Presented By: Joy Chakraborty Martin Stavrev

2. 2 OVERVIEW  What is ‘Streaming’  Why Use Streaming?  Streaming Technologies  Streaming Products  Windows Media Technologies

3. 3 WHAT IS STREAMING ?  Method of making audio, video and other multimedia available in real-time over the Internet or corporate intranets  Streaming ensures no download wait  No files to take up space on your hard disk.

4. 4 STREAMING MEDIA  Streaming technology is not new  It has been around since the inception of the radio (1897). We just called it broadcast.  Streaming media is content that contains audio, video and other media types.

5. 5 WHY USE STREAMING ?  Streaming video can be used for live or recorded events  Provides truly interactive, on-demand audio and video  No need for time taking downloads  Corporate communications and training

6. 6 CURRENT ISSUES  The Internet was not designed for real time streaming.  Limited bandwidth, latency, noise, & packet loss  Retransmission and out of order packet delivery Continued….

7. 7 CURRENT ISSUES  Live or on-demand streaming is a time critical application  Sensitive to the variation in delay inherent in a shared access network like the Internet  Majority of end users access the Internet over very narrowband dial up links

8. 8 THE ‘streaming’ SOLUTION  Streaming uses ‘Buffering’  Buffering irons out the natural traffic variations inherent on the Internet.  Streamed broadcast starts to play at the same time as more content is being downloaded  Media file can be of any length and can run over Internet bandwidths

9. 9 THE STREAMING MODEL  The components of an end to end streaming system are:  Client (Media Player)  Streaming Server  Streaming Media Production Tools

10. 10 STREAMING TECHNOLOGIES  Unicast  A separate copy of the data is sent from the source to each client that requests it.  Broadcast  A single copy of the data is sent to all clients on the network  Multicast  sends a single copy of the data to those clients who request it.

11. 11 UNICAST  The bulk of the traffic on today's networks is unicast  A separate copy of the data is sent from the source to each client that requests it  Unicast wastes bandwidth by sending multiple copies of the data

12. 12 BROADCAST  A single copy of the data is sent to all clients on the network  Broadcast wastes bandwidth by sending the data to the whole network whether or not the data is wanted  Broadcast slows client machine - each client must process the broadcast data whether or not the broadcast is of interest

13. 13 MULTICAST  Multicasting sends a single copy of the data to those clients who request it  Multicasting takes the strengths of unicast and broadcast and avoids their weaknesses

14. 14 MULTICAST  No matter how many connections, there's still only one connection at the server.  With multicasting, the client must notify the server that it wishes to receive the multicast stream, eliminating the capability of on-demand content

15. 15 MULTICAST  Comparison of network load per client when unicasting an 8-Kbps PCM audio stream and multicasting the stream

16. 16 THE MBONE  Internet Multicast Backbone  Most widely known and used multicast enabled network  A virtual network consisting of those portions of the Internet, sometimes called multicast islands, on which multicasting has been enabled Continued….

17. 17 THE MBONE  MBone has been in place since 1992 and has grown to more than 2000 subnets.  Has been used to multicast live audio and video showing Internet Engineering Task Force conferences, NASA astronauts working in space, and the Rolling Stones in concert.  MBone has successfully demonstrated the practicality and utility of using multicasting to send multimedia across the network.

18. 18 MULTICAST ISLANDS AND TUNNELS  Multicasts that must travel across areas of the Internet that are not yet multicast-enabled are sent as unicasts until they reach the next multicast enabled island.

19. 19 HOW MULTICASTING WORKS  Multicasting follows a push model of communications  The user is simply instructing the computer's network card to listen to a particular IP address for the multicast.  Multicast addresses are Class D IP addresses ranging from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255  The computer originating the multicast does not need to know who has decided to receive it. Continued…

20. 20 HOW MULTICASTING WORKS

21. 21 MULTICASTING REQUIREMENTS  Clients must have a way to learn when a multicast of interest is available.  Clients must have a way to signal that they want to receive the multicast.  The network must have a way to efficiently route data to those clients who want to receive it.

22. 22 ANNOUNCING MULTICASTS  Multicasts are announced in advance so that clients know when a multicast is available  On the MBone, multicasts are typically announced using the Session Description Protocol (SDP)  The announcement information is multicast to a well-known IP address and port where clients running the session directory tool receive this information

23. 23 JOINING MULTICAST GROUPS  To signal that they want to receive a multicast, clients join the group to which the multicast is directed.  The Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) handles this task  Groups are dynamic: clients can join or leave at any time

24. 24 MULTICAST GROUPS  When a client joins a group, it initiates two processes  First, an IGMP message is sent to the client's local router to inform the router that the client wants to receive data sent to the group  Second, the client sets its IP process and network card to receive the multicast on the group's address and port  When a group has no members, it ceases to exist on the network, releasing network bandwidth.

25. 25 MULTICAST ROUTING

26. 26 STREAMING PRODUCTS  Quicktime (Apple)  RealMedia (Real Networks)  Windows Media Services (Microsoft)

27. 27 QUICKTIME  Mature technology (Developed 1991)  Mac OS, but Darwin Streaming Server available for other platforms.  Open Plug-in Feature (3 rd party codecs)  MPEG 1 and 4  Quicktime 5 (beta) – support for immersive virtual reality

28. 28 REAL MEDIA  70% Market Share (Installed on 90%)  SureStream Technology - adjusts the streamed data rate to suit the client's connectivity (Intel partner)  Supports SMIL  RealServer (25 users free)

29. 29 WINDOWS MEDIA SERVICES  Free with Windows 2000 Server  Relatively new  Proprietary ASF codec, MPEG4, SMIL  Intelligent Streaming  Microsoft Media Server (MMS), HTTP protocol

30. 30 WINDOWS MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES  Internet broadband-ready platform for the creation, distribution, and playback of digital media files.  Newest version of the industry's leading digital media platform

31. 31 COMPONENTS  Windows Media Player  Windows Media Services  Windows Media Encoder  Windows Media Format  Windows Media SDK  Windows Media Rights Manager

32. 32 WINDOWS MEDIA SERVICES  Used to host media files to be streamed over the internet/intranet  A digital media platform that offers employees, partners, and customers exceptional scalability, reliability, and quality

33. 33 WINDOWS MEDIA SERVICES FEATURES  Most Scalable  Uses Windows NT Server multithreading and processor support to allow for maximum scalability. Pentium II system can support over 2000 28.8 Kbps connections  Provides freely available tools for independent organizations to document concurrent streams delivered on one machine Continued….

34. 34 WINDOWS MEDIA SERVICES FEATURES  Most Reliable  Tight integration between Windows Media Services and Windows 2000 creates the most reliable streaming platform  ZD Labs reported that Windows Media Services delivered 26 billion packets of data with 99.9999999% accuracy over more than 12 days of continuous streaming of over 2,400 broadband streams. Continued….

35. 35 WINDOWS MEDIA SERVICES FEATURES  Highest Quality Output  Windows Media Services supports the industry-leading Windows Media format  Only video codec that offers near-DVD quality video at as low as 750 Kbps  The Windows Media audio format, which offers CD-quality audio at 96 Kbps  The revolutionary Windows Media Screen codec, which offers exceptional reproductions of computer screen movement at resolutions as high as 800 × 600 and data rates as low as 22 Kbps. Continued….

36. 36 WINDOWS MEDIA SERVICES FEATURES  Highest Return On Investment  Windows Media Services are built directly into Windows 2000 Server, offering complete integration with corporate infrastructure  No additional per-stream or per-seat licensing is required for Windows Media, thus minimizing deployment costs

37. 37 STREAMING CONTENT SETUP  Basic steps for creating and hosting streaming content using Windows Media Technologies: 1. Encoding Windows Media Files 2. Hosting Encoded Content

38. 38 WINDOWS MEDIA FILES  Format created by Microsoft for authoring, storing, editing, distributing, streaming, and playing multimedia content  Designed specifically to stream the content over networks, like the Internet  Highly flexible format that can be used for streaming audio, video, slide shows, and synchronized events  Windows Media Format enables content to be delivered to end users as a continuous flow of data

39. 39 ENCODING WINDOWS MEDIA FILES  Windows Media file may be created from a.wav,.avi, or.mp3 file  Windows Media file can also contain JPEG or.bmp image  Source Files may be PowerPoint Presentation slides

40. 40 ENCODING TOOLS  Media On-Demand Producer (Microsoft)  Windows Media Encoder  Windows Media Author  Free with Windows 2000 Server  SMIL creation  Convert.wav,.avi, or.mp3 to Windows Media file format (.asf,.wma,.wmv)

41. 41 CONTENT HOSTING  Two Choices of hosting:  On a Web Server  On to Windows Media Server

42. 42 WEB SERVER HOSTING  Creating and hosting Windows Media metafiles - a metafile is needed for each Windows Media file.  A Windows Media metafile is a small text file that contains the URL of a Windows Media file.  Adding links to the metafiles from a Web page - each link points to the metafile for a Windows Media file instead of directly to the file.

43. 43  Windows Metafile Example: WEB SERVER HOSTING

44. 44 WEB SERVER HOSTING PROBLEMS  Web Server not designed for streaming media files.  Playback can be interrupted by periods of buffering.  Cannot stream files that have been encoded with multiple bit rates.

45. 45 WINDOWS MEDIA SERVER HOSTING  If you require higher quality and better server resource utilization, it makes sense to host your content on a dedicated Windows Media server.  Copy the Windows Media files to the ASFroot directory, and copy the metafiles to the Web server

46. 46 WINDOWS MEDIA SERVER HOSTING  Windows Media Services can stream two types of content:  Broadcast and  On-demand.  Delivered to clients with a unicast connection  Broadcast content can also be delivered with a multicast connection

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50. 50 CONTENT VIEWING  Windows Media Player can play back audio and video content the same whether a file is on a Windows Media server, a Web server, a network server, or a local hard disk  A Windows Media server is designed to handle busy, congested networks and low- bandwidth connections to client computers running Windows Media Player.

51. 51 WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER

52. 52 ADVANTAGES  Stream through most firewalls  Indexing - provides end users with a means of fast-forwarding and rewinding through a file that is being streamed  Stream content with Digital Rights Management - Windows Media Rights Manager - distribute licensed digital media over the Internet with superior audio quality.  Windows Media security - Security features can be used to limit access to media on a Windows Media server

53. 53 ADVANTAGES  Live Streaming - Playback of a broadcast stream is controlled at the point where the stream originates and includes live streaming  Intelligent streaming - interaction between a Windows Media server and Windows Media Player to optimize the stream for the current available bandwidth  Administering and logging - control how a Windows Media server manages live content and files and monitor overall system activity in real time, log files

54. 54 ADVANTAGES  Best-of-breed Multicast and Server Administration - easy-to-use server administration with extensive wizards that guide the user through procedures, such as setting up a multicast, monitoring a server, or switching between multiple live sources.  Support for Advanced Applications and Pay- Per-View (PPV) - Includes pre-built and documented interfaces to Site Server Ad Server, Site Server Commerce Server, and Site Server Membership server. This functionality is the core of pay-per-view and dynamic ad-insertion applications of streaming media on the Internet.

55. 55 THE FUTURE  High bandwidth connections will make streaming more popular.  Guaranteed Quality of Service over IP will improve streaming quality.  The streaming model will be used more widely to provide multimedia content.

56. 56 CONCLUSION  Streaming media is the future of online entertainment.  Low cost way to deliver interactive multimedia.  Windows Media Services: a comprehensive suite for streaming.

57. 57 RESOURCES  http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en- us/dnwmt/html/contcreation.asp?frame= true http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en- us/dnwmt/html/contcreation.asp?frame= true  http://www.publicsource.apple.com/proj ects/streaming/ http://www.publicsource.apple.com/proj ects/streaming/  http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue4/video/ http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue4/video/

58. 58 RESOURCES  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/wind owsmedia/en/overview/default.asp http://www.microsoft.com/windows/wind owsmedia/en/overview/default.asp  http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en- us/dnwmt/html/webserver.asp http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en- us/dnwmt/html/webserver.asp  http://www.zdnet.com/sp/stories/issue/0, 4537,2471928-4,00.html http://www.zdnet.com/sp/stories/issue/0, 4537,2471928-4,00.html

59. 59 RESOURCES  http://www.nwfusion.com/research/strea ming.html http://www.nwfusion.com/research/strea ming.html  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/wind owsmedia/en/support/faq_strm.asp http://www.microsoft.com/windows/wind owsmedia/en/support/faq_strm.asp  http://www.broadcastengineering.com/ht ml/2000/august/features/streamMedia_ 0800.htm http://www.broadcastengineering.com/ht ml/2000/august/features/streamMedia_ 0800.htm

60. 60 RESOURCES  http://www.savetz.com/mbone/ http://www.savetz.com/mbone/  http://www.cis.ohio- state.edu/~jain/cis788-97/ip_multicast/ http://www.cis.ohio- state.edu/~jain/cis788-97/ip_multicast/  http://www.real.comhttp://www.real.com  http://www.opensource.apple.com/proje cts/streaming http://www.opensource.apple.com/proje cts/streaming

61. 61 LOG ON http://130.182.215.66/index.html In the Linux Lab