The Custom Integrator Show Installment 00E is live. We expand upon our discussions of the home networking hardware and Ethernet switch considerations that we touched on in the last installment. In addition, we take a little deeper look at not only bandwidth requirements for different devices and content streams, we discuss the influence of physical cabling types and some of the wiring techniques that can influence getting those streams around the home efficiently.
The concept of our initial focus is that, with any stream, there really are four factors that influence how many bits per second are required to move the data around – resolution, frame rate, color depth, and the amount and type of compression. The easiest example to put some numbers around is a “basic” IP-based surveillance video camera. We will leave out the color depth aspect to keep it simple and will assume that the camera is transmitting a “reasonable” VGA image with a JPEG compression scheme. That gives us about 30 KB (that’s 30,000 Kilo Bytes) per frame. We then need to multiply that times 8 to get to bits per frame, so we are dealing with about 240,000 bits (240 Kb) of bandwidth needed per frame of video sent. We will assume, for this example, that we will send 30 frames per second (based upon the US 60 Hz standard for video – it would be 25 fps for Ian because of their using 50 Hz for their power line frequency). Note that Hollywood is using 24 fps for most of the film work for formats like many of the Blu-ray Discs, but that really does not come into play for this example. Also note that you normally can use a much lower frame rate for most surveillance scenarios, but we will stick with 30 fps for this. Therefore, we multiply the 240 Kb per frame times 30 fps to end up with 7,200 Kilobits per second, or about 7.1 Mb for one second of video – and that is for a single camera. You can see where having five or ten cameras constantly sending video over your IP network can start to have a significant impact on the overall bandwidth requirements, even without the high definition streams.
If we take a look at some of the bandwidth requirements for a wider array of high definition material, things start to add up even more. Notice the impact of the levels of compression on different sources of material. Naturally, this impacts the perceived picture quality, even for the same resolution.
Blu-ray H.264/MPEG2 at 1920×1080 1080i/p about 40 Mb/s
ATSC HDTV MPEG2 at 1920×1080 1080i about 19.39 Mb/s
Digital Cable MPEG2 at 1920×1080 1080i about 16 MB/s
DIRECTV HD MPEG2/MPEG4 at 1920×1080 less than 10 Mb/s
Xbox Live Video VC-1 at 1280×720 720p about 6.8 Mb/s
DVD MPEG2 at 720×480 480i about 8 Mb/s
Apple iTunes Quicktime/H.264 at 1280×720 720p about 4 Mb/s
Web “HD” downloads H.264 at 1280×720 720p about 1.5 Mb/s
HD DVCPRO (home movies) comes in at about 100 Mb/s!
1920×1080/60i 4:2:0 is a whopping 932 Mb/s
Remember that you need to take into account the aggregated bandwidth requirements of all of the different types of streams potentially playing simultaneously to all devices within the home. Add in copying files and/or transmitting high resolution images to picture frames and it really starts to add up. As we note in the Podcasts though, it is not just about bits per second. The real issue is that this is all timing-sensitive information and the bits need to arrive in order with no latency, jitter, or reties. Putting in a solid cable plant with all of the appropriate equipment for achieving that takes a lot of up-front planning and work to be successful.
Another consideration, especially when looking at how to configure traffic prioritization manually for the overall Quality of Experience (QoE) of the network, is that many families now are using their network for all of their phone and audio traffic, too. If you try to accommodate Quality of Service (QoS) for the high definition streams, you cannot do it at the expense of the audio. Things get even more complicated when you start streaming audio around for a multi room IP-based audio system. It takes a lot of effort and insight to get it right.
We talk about some of the new IEEE standards on the horizon that could influence your equipment purchasing criteria like the IEEE 802.1 AVB (Audio/Video Bridging Transport Protocol) and IEEE 1722 specs at http://www.ieee802.org/1/pages/avbridges.html. We also mention the IEEE 802.11aa specs for wireless video transport streams (although, once again, we discourage the use of this type of wireless for the infrastructure components). There is a good time line for when these may hit at http://www.ieee802.org/11/Reports/802.11_Timelines.htm. They may seem like they are a while out, but it never is too early to start understanding them and the impact they may have on your designs.
As always, ALWAYS document your systems, especially the static IP addresses of all of the infrastructure devices on the network. I mention a couple of tools we have found useful for doing this. One is the Colasoft MAC address scanner at http://www.colasoft.com/ (you can start with the free one under Downloads off of the main pull-down menu). There are others, but we have had good luck with this one. They have several other nice products for purchase. Another is the network mapping utility for Visio from SolarWinds called LAN Surveyor Express at http://www.solarwinds.com/products/LANsurveyorExpress/. They have a free trial available.
I thought Digital Cable Tuners and CableCARDs would draw a lot of interest. Based on the site numbers so far, the last installment on home networking Ethernet hardware considerations has the highest number of views yet. I find it interesting that there were no comments from any of you regarding the questions I posted for the last installment (Installment 00D). I really would like to see a couple of takers share their in-field experiences for the good of the community. In an effort to try to keep that moving forward, I am going to break the topics out a little more so they are not quite as intimidating in hopes that a couple of threads might start up. Keep an eye out on this blog site over the next week or so as I re-post some of that information in a different format.
In the next Installment, we will take a look at some of the tests to try before turning the system over and some troubleshooting approaches to isolating network related issues. We also will hear about Ian’s experiences with his power line network, so stay tuned.
0 thoughts on “The Custom Integrator Show Installment 00E”
Regarding extenders and networks: Would it be advisable, or even possible, to install a separate NIC on the Media Center PC exclusively to connect extenders.
For instance, the DMA-2100 has a 10/100 ethernet port. Could I install a 10/100 NIC card in the PC (in addition to the 10/100/1000 on the motherboard) and stream directly from the PC to the extender(s) over that line? The PC’s on board NIC could go out to the internet, communicate with WHS, etc, and the NIC card would deal exclusively with the extender.
While it would be possible, I am not sure it would be worth the effort or that it would achieve anything. If you are running Gigabit out of the PC, that should handle your Extenders for Windows Media Center pretty well (assuming the Ethernet switch is a good one). You would end up having to have two separate subnets (I do not believe there is any third party software for Vista that lets you do load balancing, which would be different anyhow). Are you currently having performance issues? I would be curious what they are and what it takes to eliminate them.
Some problems. The PC is connected directly to a D-Link router, which also connects to the extender. Everything is fine, until the Zune software starts downloading a video podcast, then I get stuttering in the playback on the extender and the Network Issues message come up.
I could eliminate the problem by shutting down the zune software, but where’s the fun in that?
I’ve recently taken the step of moving my Media Center and extenders to their own switch, which is then connected to the main switch. That way – all traffic for the Media Center occurs without interaction or mingling of traffic from other PCs. The exception would be if my WHS is performing a backup, or if I’m streaming media from WHS to the Media Center/extender.
Is the Zune software on your Media Center PC or is it on a different PC. If it’s on a different PC – and that PC is on the same switch as your Media Center/extenders – that could account for the problem. I’m not a network person, but I’ve definitely noticed issues all my PCs on on the same switch and I start a process (like a download) that could potentially hog the bandwidth.
{"id":null,"mode":"button","open_style":"in_place","currency_code":"GBP","currency_symbol":"\u00a3","currency_type":"decimal","blank_flag_url":"https:\/\/thedigitallifestyle.com\/w\/wp-content\/plugins\/tip-jar-wp\/\/assets\/images\/flags\/blank.gif","flag_sprite_url":"https:\/\/thedigitallifestyle.com\/w\/wp-content\/plugins\/tip-jar-wp\/\/assets\/images\/flags\/flags.png","default_amount":500,"top_media_type":"none","featured_image_url":false,"featured_embed":"","header_media":null,"file_download_attachment_data":null,"recurring_options_enabled":true,"recurring_options":{"never":{"selected":true,"after_output":"One time only"},"weekly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every week"},"monthly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every month"},"yearly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every year"}},"strings":{"current_user_email":"","current_user_name":"","link_text":"Leave a tip","complete_payment_button_error_text":"Check info and try again","payment_verb":"Pay","payment_request_label":"TheDigitalLifestyle.com","form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","general_server_error":"Something isn't working right at the moment. Please try again.","form_title":"TheDigitalLifestyle.com","form_subtitle":null,"currency_search_text":"Country or Currency here","other_payment_option":"Other payment option","manage_payments_button_text":"Manage your payments","thank_you_message":"Thank you for being a supporter!","payment_confirmation_title":"TheDigitalLifestyle.com","receipt_title":"Your Receipt","print_receipt":"Print Receipt","email_receipt":"Email Receipt","email_receipt_sending":"Sending receipt...","email_receipt_success":"Email receipt successfully sent","email_receipt_failed":"Email receipt failed to send. Please try again.","receipt_payee":"Paid to","receipt_statement_descriptor":"This will show up on your statement as","receipt_date":"Date","receipt_transaction_id":"Transaction ID","receipt_transaction_amount":"Amount","refund_payer":"Refund from","login":"Log in to manage your payments","manage_payments":"Manage Payments","transactions_title":"Your Transactions","transaction_title":"Transaction Receipt","transaction_period":"Plan Period","arrangements_title":"Your Plans","arrangement_title":"Manage Plan","arrangement_details":"Plan Details","arrangement_id_title":"Plan ID","arrangement_payment_method_title":"Payment Method","arrangement_amount_title":"Plan Amount","arrangement_renewal_title":"Next renewal date","arrangement_action_cancel":"Cancel Plan","arrangement_action_cant_cancel":"Cancelling is currently not available.","arrangement_action_cancel_double":"Are you sure you'd like to cancel?","arrangement_cancelling":"Cancelling Plan...","arrangement_cancelled":"Plan Cancelled","arrangement_failed_to_cancel":"Failed to cancel plan","back_to_plans":"\u2190 Back to Plans","update_payment_method_verb":"Update","sca_auth_description":"Your have a pending renewal payment which requires authorization.","sca_auth_verb":"Authorize renewal payment","sca_authing_verb":"Authorizing payment","sca_authed_verb":"Payment successfully authorized!","sca_auth_failed":"Unable to authorize! Please try again.","login_button_text":"Log in","login_form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","uppercase_search":"Search","lowercase_search":"search","uppercase_page":"Page","lowercase_page":"page","uppercase_items":"Items","lowercase_items":"items","uppercase_per":"Per","lowercase_per":"per","uppercase_of":"Of","lowercase_of":"of","back":"Back to plans","zip_code_placeholder":"Zip\/Postal Code","download_file_button_text":"Download File","input_field_instructions":{"tip_amount":{"placeholder_text":"How much would you like to tip?","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"invalid_curency":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please choose a valid currency."}},"recurring":{"placeholder_text":"Recurring","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"}},"name":{"placeholder_text":"Name on Credit Card","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please enter the name on your card."}},"privacy_policy":{"terms_title":"Terms and conditions","terms_body":null,"terms_show_text":"View Terms","terms_hide_text":"Hide Terms","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."},"unchecked":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please agree to the terms."},"checked":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."}},"email":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"not_an_email_address":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Make sure you have entered a valid email address"}},"note_with_tip":{"placeholder_text":"Your note here...","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"not_empty_initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"saving":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Saving note..."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Note successfully saved!"},"error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to save note note at this time. Please try again."}},"email_for_login_code":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."}},"login_code":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."}},"stripe_all_in_one":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"success":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"invalid_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is not a valid credit card number."},"invalid_expiry_month":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration month is invalid."},"invalid_expiry_year":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is invalid."},"invalid_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is invalid."},"incorrect_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incorrect."},"incomplete_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incomplete."},"incomplete_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incomplete."},"incomplete_expiry":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration date is incomplete."},"incomplete_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code is incomplete."},"expired_card":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card has expired."},"incorrect_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incorrect."},"incorrect_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code failed validation."},"invalid_expiry_year_past":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is in the past"},"card_declined":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card was declined."},"missing":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"There is no card on a customer that is being charged."},"processing_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"An error occurred while processing the card."},"invalid_request_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to process this payment, please try again or use alternative method."},"invalid_sofort_country":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The billing country is not accepted by SOFORT. Please try another country."}}}},"fetched_oembed_html":false}
Regarding extenders and networks: Would it be advisable, or even possible, to install a separate NIC on the Media Center PC exclusively to connect extenders.
For instance, the DMA-2100 has a 10/100 ethernet port. Could I install a 10/100 NIC card in the PC (in addition to the 10/100/1000 on the motherboard) and stream directly from the PC to the extender(s) over that line? The PC’s on board NIC could go out to the internet, communicate with WHS, etc, and the NIC card would deal exclusively with the extender.
Any thoughts?
While it would be possible, I am not sure it would be worth the effort or that it would achieve anything. If you are running Gigabit out of the PC, that should handle your Extenders for Windows Media Center pretty well (assuming the Ethernet switch is a good one). You would end up having to have two separate subnets (I do not believe there is any third party software for Vista that lets you do load balancing, which would be different anyhow). Are you currently having performance issues? I would be curious what they are and what it takes to eliminate them.
=D-
Some problems. The PC is connected directly to a D-Link router, which also connects to the extender. Everything is fine, until the Zune software starts downloading a video podcast, then I get stuttering in the playback on the extender and the Network Issues message come up.
I could eliminate the problem by shutting down the zune software, but where’s the fun in that?
I’ve recently taken the step of moving my Media Center and extenders to their own switch, which is then connected to the main switch. That way – all traffic for the Media Center occurs without interaction or mingling of traffic from other PCs. The exception would be if my WHS is performing a backup, or if I’m streaming media from WHS to the Media Center/extender.
Is the Zune software on your Media Center PC or is it on a different PC. If it’s on a different PC – and that PC is on the same switch as your Media Center/extenders – that could account for the problem. I’m not a network person, but I’ve definitely noticed issues all my PCs on on the same switch and I start a process (like a download) that could potentially hog the bandwidth.