DekTec DTC-720 User Manual
®
Xpect
24/7 Transport Stream Monitoring
USER MANUAL
March 2015
DTC-720 Xpect® – 24/7 Transport Stream Monitoring
USER MANUAL
Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 4
1.1 General description ....................................................................................................... 4
1.2 Licensing....................................................................................................................... 5
1.2.1 How long is a licence valid? .................................................................................... 5
1.2.2 Where is the licence located? .................................................................................. 5
1.3 List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... 6
2. Pre-installation considerations .............................................................................................. 7
2.1 Minimum system specs ................................................................................................... 7
2.2 Xpect server: required memory ........................................................................................ 8
2.3 Xpect server: required hard disk space ............................................................................. 9
2.4 Number of DekTec cards .............................................................................................. 10
2.5 Number of licence points .............................................................................................. 10
3. Installation ....................................................................................................................... 11
3.1 Hardware installation ................................................................................................... 11
3.2 Software installation ..................................................................................................... 12
4. Detailed Configuration ...................................................................................................... 16
4.1 TR 101 290 Tests ......................................................................................................... 16
4.2 Extra Tests ................................................................................................................... 16
4.3 Template Tests ............................................................................................................. 16
4.4 General Advanced Settings ........................................................................................... 17
4.5 TS Advanced Settings ................................................................................................... 17
4.6 Mosaic Configuration ................................................................................................... 17
4.7 Backup and Restore ..................................................................................................... 19
4.8 Configuration Files ....................................................................................................... 19
5. Web GUI ......................................................................................................................... 21
5.1 Main GUI elements ...................................................................................................... 21
5.2 Real Time status Tab .................................................................................................... 22
5.3 Event Log Tab.............................................................................................................. 23
5.4 Recording Tab ............................................................................................................. 24
5.5 Configuration Tab ....................................................................................................... 25
5.6 About Tab ................................................................................................................... 26
6. Trouble shooting ............................................................................................................... 27
6.1 How to verify Xpect is running? ...................................................................................... 27
6.2 Check the Windows event log for errors ......................................................................... 27
6.3 Web GUI Service decoding is reporting “Streaming Failed” .............................................. 27
6.4 Web GUI is not accessible remotely ............................................................................... 27
6.5 Xpect server address is not shown in the Configuration Tool ............................................. 27
6.6 One or more Mosaic programs not shown ..................................................................... 28
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DTC-720 Xpect® – 24/7 Transport Stream Monitoring
Copyright © 2009-2015 by DekTec Digital Video B.V.
DekTec Digital Video B.V. reserves the right to change products or specifications without notice. Information
furnished in this document is believed to be accurate and reliable, but DekTec Digital Video B.V. assumes no
responsibility for any errors that may appear in this material.
USER MANUAL
6.7 Xpect dongle license driver............................................................................................ 28
6.8 Upload Error ............................................................................................................... 28
7. Copyright Notices ............................................................................................................. 29
8. DTC-720 Xpect Revision History .......................................................................................... 30
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DTC-720 Xpect® – 24/7 Transport Stream Monitoring
USER MANUAL
Introduction
1.1 General description
Xpect is a ‘24/7’ transport stream monitoring software package, which continuously checks transport
streams for compliance to TR 101 290 and compares each stream to a user-created template (defining
the expected properties of the transport stream). Any violations of the TR 101 290 rules, or mismatches
to the template, will be logged in a database and can be signalled to an NMS through SNMP traps
or as an IP/UDP based message.
Xpect also keeps logs of statistical information (e.g. bitrates, number of CC errors and scrambled
status) for the services, tables and individual components in the monitored stream. The period over
which to gather the statistical information is user-configurable and can be set from several seconds
up to multiple days/weeks.
Xpect monitors multiple transport streams simultaneously, applying different test criteria to each
stream. Each stream is independently monitored and can be paused without affecting the other
streams, for example when new test criteria are being loaded by the user. The maximum number of
streams that can be monitored in parallel is defined by the required configuration, the bit rate for each
transport stream and the resource availability of the host PC (Xpect server).
The Xpect server software is installed on a PC platform. It consists of the main Xpect ‘application’ and
a companion ‘guardian’ service. The Xpect guardian will launch and shut down Xpect gracefully to
protect its databases against corruption should a user-invoked shut-down be attempted during
database writes. Furthermore, the Xpect guardian will regularly communicate with each Xpect
‘instance’ (TS monitoring thread) to ensure they are each running properly. If an instance does not
respond within a time limit then the Xpect guardian will automatically re-initialise that instance without
interrupting the monitoring of the other instances. Once configured, each Xpect monitoring instance
is designed to run autonomously without any human supervision.
For remote control purposes Xpect provides both SNMP and SOAP interfaces. These will allow a 3rd
party NMS, or custom-built client application, to fully configure Xpect and download captured
transport stream files as well as giving full access to the event log and statistical information databases.
Xpect provides a web interface which can be used to check the live status of the monitored stream,
access event logs and perform basic configuration tasks using a standard browser.
Finally, Xpect provides a fully configurable Multi-TS viewer (Mosaic) of decoded video, audio bars and
monitoring status. Mosaic output uses a standard PC graphics card or HD-SDI via a DTA-2152.
The Xpect software runs on a standard Windows-based PC and can be combined with almost all
DekTec hardware input devices. Using a DekTec hardware interface, you will be able to monitor
transport streams from DVB-ASI, DVB-T, DVB-S(2) and IP networks.
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DTC-720 Xpect® – 24/7 Transport Stream Monitoring
TS type
Points
Description / Remarks
SPTS Radio
¼
A single-program transport stream carrying a radio service.
SPTS TV
½
A single-program transport stream carrying a TV service.
MPTS
4
A multi-program transport stream i.e. stream carrying multiple services
USER MANUAL
1.2 Licensing
As is true for most other DekTec software applications, Xpect requires the presence of a valid licence
before it can be used. The Xpect software uses a licence point mechanism. The basic idea behind this
points-based license mechanism is that you need a certain amount of licence points per monitored
transport stream (see table below).
Given the above, you can compute the number of licence points needed to run Xpect on the basis of
the number of multi- and/or single-program transport streams you want to monitor. For an example
of how to compute the number of points required please refer to §2.5 Number of licence points.
NOTE: you can only buy whole points, therefore the number of total number points required must be
rounded upwards to the nearest whole number (e.g. if your setup requires 7.75 points you must round
this up to 8 points).
1.2.1 How long is a licence valid?
There are two types of licence available for Xpect, the first being a time limited evaluation licence and
the second a permanent licence.
The evaluation licence is intended for evaluation purposes and will always be time-limited (i.e. after a
certain amount of time the licence will expire and Xpect will no longer be able to run).
A permanent licence will never expire; however, it does have a time-limited maintenance period
associated with it (by default: 1 year). This means that you will be able to freely upgrade to the latest
Xpect version as long as it was released prior to the end date of the maintenance period. If you
upgrade to a version which was released after the maintenance end date, the licence will not be
accepted and you will need to renew the maintenance period to be able to use the latest version.
NOTE: your licence will still be valid for any Xpect version released prior to the maintenance end date
(i.e. you can still use the older version).
1.2.2 Where is the licence located?
Although you may have received a file with the licence for Xpect, the licence itself will be stored on a
DekTec card after you have activated the licence. This means that the file is no longer needed after
activation and that the DekTec card is effectively a dongle for Xpect (i.e. the licence moves with the
DekTec hardware). It is possible to have multiple DekTec cards with Xpect licences on more than one
of them.
When Xpect starts it will check all cards which are part of its configuration (i.e. cards which are
specified in the XpectGeneralConfig.xgen configuration file) to see if they have a valid licence. The points
of all valid licences will be accumulated and if there are enough points available to run the
configuration, Xpect will start. For example if the configuration contains two cards ‘A’ and ‘B’ with
respectively a licence for four and two points on them, Xpect will start successfully as long the number
of licence points needed does not exceed six points.
NOTE: if your system contains the cards ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’, and a valid Xpect licence is stored on each
of them, but card ‘C’ is not used in the configuration of Xpect (i.e. no transport stream received via
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DTC-720 Xpect® – 24/7 Transport Stream Monitoring
CC
Continuity Count
DVB
Digital Video Broadcasting
EULA
End User Licence Agreement
IP
Internet Protocol
Mbps
Megabits per second
MIB
Management Information Base. The set of status and control variables
accessible through the SNMP protocol
MPTS
Multi-Program Transport Stream
NA
Not Applicable
NMS
Network Management System
PCI
PCI Bus
PCIe
PCI Express Bus
PCR
Program Clock Reference
ppm
Parts per million
SNMP
Simple Network Management Protocol
SPTS
Single Program Transport Stream
TSoIP
Transport Stream over IP
UDP
User Datagram Protocol
URL
Uniform Resource Locator
XCT
Xpect Configuration Tool. A tool for editing and creating Xpect configuration
files
USER MANUAL
card ’C’ will be monitored), then the licence points on card ‘C’ will not be included in the sum of
available points.
1.3 List of Abbreviations
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DTC-720 Xpect® – 24/7 Transport Stream Monitoring
#
Requirement
Depends on
1
Minimum system specification
Windows OS used
2
Amount of memory (RAM) needed
Number of transport streams monitored
Number and type of cells part of the Mosaic
Size of pre- and post-trigger buffers
3
Hard disk space needed
Number of transport streams monitored
Will transport stream capturing will used?
Number of days to keep in log databases
4
Number of DekTec interface cards
Number of transport streams monitored
Which interface types are used (DVB-ASI, DVB-
T, DVB-S(2), TSoIP, etc.)?
Can you use cards with multiple input ports?
5
Number of licence points
Number of transport streams monitored
Type of transport streams (i.e. SPTS Radio/TV or
MPTS)
Platform:
64-bit : Vista, 2k8, Win 7 or Win 8.1
Processor:
P4 3GHz or better
Memory:
≥1GB RAM
Hard disk:
Minimum of 1GB of free space
PCI/PCI Express
Enough free slots to fit required DekTec interface cards
Prerequisites
Silverlight 4 runtime
Administrator rights
IE9 browser is recommended
Windows User Access Control (UAC) should be disabled
Screensaver and Sleep mode should be disabled
Automatic Windows update installation should be disabled
Platform:
64-bit : Vista, 2k8, Win 7 or Win 8.1
USER MANUAL
2. Pre-installation considerations
Before explaining how to configure Xpect, we will first discuss some important considerations related
to the choice of the PC and DekTec interface(s).
The desired setup has a big impact on the hardware requirements needed to run Xpect smoothly and
it is therefore important to ask yourself a number of questions prior to selecting a hardware platform
for your Xpect installation. The table below lists a number of requirements and the parameters on
which they depend.
2.1 Minimum system specs
The minimum system specifications for running Xpect are given in the table below.
The minimum system specifications for running Xpect including Mosaic are given in the table below.
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DTC-720 Xpect® – 24/7 Transport Stream Monitoring
Processor:
Intel Core i7
Memory:
≥6 GB RAM
Video Card:
AMD 6670 1GB DDR (AMD/ATI out-performs higher spec NVIDIA
cards for this application)
Hard disk:
Minimum of 10GB of free space
PCI/PCI Express
Enough free slots to fit required DekTec interface cards
Prerequisites
Silverlight 4 runtime
Administrator rights
IE9 browser is recommended
Windows User Access Control (UAC) should be disabled
Screensaver and Sleep mode should be disabled
Automatic Windows update installation should be disabled
USER MANUAL
NOTE: Please also check minimum system requirements for the Windows OS you will be using
NOTE: In the next sections we will go into the memory and hard disk requirements in more detail
2.2 Xpect server: required memory
The amount of memory required for Xpect consists of two parts, namely: (1) the minimum amount of
memory required for the Windows operating system and (2) the runtime amount of memory required
by Xpect itself. For the first we recommend you consult the system requirements of the Windows version
you will be using; but, as a minimum, we recommend at least 1GB. The runtime memory requirements
depend on the number of transport streams and the sizes of the pre- and post-trigger buffers.
To compute the amount of memory required for an Xpect server the Xpect Configuration Tool could
be used to define your configuration and show the memory required for Xpect.
M
= MOS + M
REQ
M
REQ
= Total amount of memory required for an Xpect system
MOS = Minimum amount of memory required by Windows
For example, suppose you have a setup with 4 transport streams and with the pre- and post-trigger
buffer sizes set to respectively 32MB and 16MB. In this case the total amount of memory required
would be:
RUNTIME
, where
M
= 1GB + 562MB
REQ
M
= >1.5 GB
REQ
IMPORTANT NOTES:
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DTC-720 Xpect® – 24/7 Transport Stream Monitoring
USER MANUAL
The runtime memory required by Xpect (M
) must not exceed 75% of the total amount of memory
RUNTIME
available. Xpect applies this restriction to ensure the system does not become unusable due to
resource starvation.
The memory usage estimate for HD AVC Mosaic service is less accurate compare to a SD service,
so make sure to have sufficient free Memory available.
2.3 Xpect server: required hard disk space
Like the memory usage, the required hard disk space depends on a number of variables such as the
number of transport streams, pre- and post-trigger buffer sizes and the maximum number of entries
to be stored in the log database.
The required disk space can be computed using the formulae below (all values in MB):
HD
= (B
CAP
HD
CAP
B
= Size of pre-trigger buffer
PRE
B
N
= Size of post-trigger buffer
POST
= Number of transport streams capture files to store
FILES
PRE
+ B
) x (212 ÷ 188) x N
POST
, where:
FILES
= Amount of disk space required for transport stream captures
HD
= N
LOG
HD
LOG
N
S
= Maximum number of log entries to store
LOG
= Size of log entries in database (typically = 1kB)
LOG
LOG
× S
, where
LOG
= Amount of disk space, per TS, required for the log database
HD
= (N
STAT
HD
N
N
N
N
= Amount of disk space, per TS, required for the statistics database
STAT
= Maximum number of short-term statistics entries to store
SHORT
= Maximum number of medium-term statistics entries to store
MEDIUM
= Maximum number of long-term statistics entries to store
LONG
= Number of services in transport stream
SVC
SHORT
+ N
MEDIUM
+ N
LONG
) × (N
+ NBS + N
SVC
TBL
) × S
NBS = Number of basic streams in transport stream
N
= Number of tables in transport stream
TBL
S
= Average size of log entries in database (typically = 1kB)
LOG
HD
= NTS × (HD
REQ
CAP
+ HD
LOG
+ HD
), where
STAT
, where
stat
HD
= Total amount of required disk space
REQ
NTS = Number of transport streams monitored
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DTC-720 Xpect® – 24/7 Transport Stream Monitoring
USER MANUAL
For example, suppose you have a setup with 4 transport streams, with pre- and post-trigger buffer
sizes of respectively 32MB and 16MB, a maximum of 16 capture files are stored on disk, the number
of log entries is limited to 100,000 and the number of short-, medium- and long-term statistics entries
is set to 60, 60 and 48 respectively, the number of services is 8, number of basic streams is 40 and
the number of tables is 60. In this case the total hard disk space required would be:
HD
= (32 + 16) × (212 ÷ 188) × 32 = ~866MB
CAP
HD
= 100,000 × 1kB = ~98MB
LOG
HD
= (60 + 60 + 48) × (8 + 40 + 60) × 1kB = ~18MB
STAT
HD
= 4 × (866 + 98 + 18) = ~3928MB
REQ
NOTE: in the above formulae we do not account for the disk space required for installing Xpect,
however, this is a relatively small amount (<100MB) that can be disregarded.
2.4 Number of DekTec cards
It is important to consider the number and type of DekTec input cards (DVB-ASI, DVB-T, DVB-S(2),
TSoIP, etc.) required for your setup. The number of cards needed depends largely on the number of
transport streams you will be monitoring. The number of cards used will have an impact on the number
of available PCI/PCIe slots your target PC will need to have. If the number of PCI/PCIe slots in your
target PC is limited, it is worthwhile considering the use of a DekTec card with multiple input channels
on a single board (if available for the type of interface you need). See our website for details of the
currently available input cards (www.dektec.com).
2.5 Number of licence points
Xpect uses a point-based licensing system (see §1.2 Licensing). The number of licence points required
depends on the number of transport streams you will be monitoring and the type of transport stream
(single- or multi-program).
The formula below can be used to compute the number of required points:
LP
TOT
LP
N
LP
N
= (N
= Number of licence points required
TOT
= Number of single-program radio transport streams to monitor
SPTSRAD
SPTSRAD
= Number of single-program TV transport streams to monitor
SPTSTV
SPTSRAD
× LP
SPTSRAD
) + (N
SPTSTV
× LP
SPTSTV
) + (N
MPTS
× LP
), where
MPTS
= Number of licence points (=¼) required for each SPTS Radio
LP
N
LP
= Number of licence points (=½) required for each SPTS TV
SPTSTV
= Number of multi-program transport streams to monitor
MPTS
= Number of licence points (=4) required for each MPTS
MPTS
For example, suppose you have a setup where you want to monitor eight radio SPTS streams, two TV
SPTS streams and three MPTS streams:
LP
= (8 × ¼) + (2 × ½) + (3 × 4) = 15 licence points
TOT
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