WHITE PAPER Title Kollective POC Test Plan for Skype Meeting BILINE Broadcast Introduction This document presents a sample test plan for demonstrating how the Kollective SD ECDN operates in your network environment with Skype Meeting Broadcast. The tests involve accessing live streams and peering content under various conditions to simulate your actual usage. Agent, Network Requirements, and 0365 Requirements This plan assumes that Kollective ECDN Agents are already installed on each machine that will participate in the test. If not, please continue reading this section. Agent requirements and installation process The easiest method to manually install the Kollective Agent is from the customer s POC Landing Page. There is a link named Kollective Agent Self-Extracting EXE. Clicking this will download and launch the installation of the Kollective Agent. There are only two prompts to click through, and the agent will be installed. To deploy the Kollective Agent using software automation/deployment solutions, like MSFT SCCM, Altirus, LANDesk, Kaseya, etc, there is an MSI file available. This link is named Kollective Agent MSI. Clicking on this link will download the zip file that contains the MSI file and supporting files. The command used by customers to silently deploy the Kollective Agent via these automation tools is: Msiexec.exe /I PATH_TO_MSI\KollectiveAgent-X.X.X-Setup.msi /qn /norestart KCONFIGDIR= PATH_TO_MSI X refers to the agent version provided to customer. kollective.com page 1
Network requirements To enable communication between the Kollective production servers and Kollective ECDN Agents, some configuration of your firewalls or proxy servers may be necessary. Kollective leverages firewall friendly ports and protocols. We use port 80 and 443 along with TCP, UDP, and HTTPS. We also require the whitelisting of the Kollective Servers within the customer s proxy server. Please refer to the Firewall Network and Proxy Datasheet, available from the POC Landing Page. It lists the ports and protocols over which the Kollective services must be allowed to communicate. Additionally, the FQDN client.kontiki.com must resolve to 127.0.0.1 in order to allow the browser to communicate with the local host. O365 and Skype Requirements In order to test Kollective ECDN delivery of video for Skype Meeting Broadcast the 0365 tenant must be configured to use the Kollective ECDN. Follow these steps: In the Windows PowerShell window, connect to your Office 365 organization by running: $Credential = get-credential $O365Session = New-CsOnlineSession -Credential $credential Import-PSSession $O365Session Confirm your current Skype Meeting Broadcast configuration by running: Get-CsBroadcastMeetingConfiguration If you have ever used the EnableSdnProviderForBroadcastMeeting parameter before then the EnableBroadcastMeeting will display as True, you may have to re-initialise this parameter by first setting it to false, as follows: Set-CsBroadcastMeetingConfiguration -EnableSdnProviderForBroadcast- Meeting $False You will need to run the following cmdlet on your Showcase Skype for Business environment in order to leverage the Kollective client for delivery: Set-CsBroadcastMeetingConfiguration -EnableSdnProviderForBroadcast- Meeting $True -SdnProviderName kollective - SdnApiTemplateUrl https://api. eval.kontiki.com/api/v2/metadata/content/azure/live?auth=srv-{0} -SdnApiToken 12345678-90ab-cdef-1234-567890abcdef -SdnFallbackAttendeeThresholdCount- ForBroadcastMeeting 1000 SdnFallbackAttendeeThresholdCountForBroadcastMeeting is reserved for future use to limit the total number of CDN fallbacks kollective.com page 2
Recommendations for a Successful POC Keep it simple! Be conservative with allowed bandwidths, perhaps selecting a specific bitrate. Turn off DVR-Rewind by CDN fallback by settting setting seekbacksecs to 0. Try to standardise on the browser used. All pilot users must have the version 10.0 agent Kollective Unit Test Prior to conducting the larger series of use case tests, it is suggested to conduct a small unit test. This test will verify that the Kollective agent has been installed correctly, and that the network requirements have been met. Depending upon the customer s network and locations involved in the use case testing, this unit test should be conducted on at least one machine per location prior to conducting the other tests. Kollective Unit Test Process: 1. Verify that the Kollective Agent has been installed onto machine and is running. This can be verified by opening Task Manager, and looking for a process named KService.exe (Windows). Alternatively, check for a Service running named KService. On MacOS, launch Activity Monitor, and check for 2 processes, KontikiService and KontikiAgent. 2. Open your web browser, and go to the customer POC Landing Page. It will have a URL that resembles this http://shore.kollective.com/democenter/customername. This is sent to each customer in an introduction email. 3. From the POC Landing Page, click on the link named Always On Live Stream. This will play a 600kbs live stream. Once the buffer is built, the video will play. 4. Once the video is playing, go back to the POC Landing Page, and click on the link named Web-based Download Monitor. This will launch the Kollective Download Monitor. This is a utility that provides details on how the stream is being delivered and also provides details on peering activity. For purposes of the unit test, we want to focus on the middle section of the window: kollective.com page 3
The image on the previous page is from the Kollective Download Monitor. If the user sees KDP on the top line, that means UDP port 80 is open. If the user sees SDDP on the top line, that means UDP port 80 is blocked, and the Kollective Agent had to fallback to the TCP-based delivery protocol. For optimal delivery experience, Kollective suggests opening UDP port 80. That concludes the Kollective Unit Test. If the above test was successful, the customer can proceed with their use case testing. Preparing for the Tests Sample Live Streams Downloads of files can sometimes finish too quickly to be adequately observed. For some tests, a continuous video stream is preferred to make evaluating the results easier. To facilitate the testing of live streams, a sample 600kbs stream has been made available in the POC. Download Monitor The Download Monitor is a utility included with the Kollective agent that presents a graphical display of all current Kollective activity on a user s machine. You will use the Download Monitor to observe activity for many of the tests. To open the Download Monitor on a agent machine, from the POC Landing Page, click on Web-based Download Monitor. Agent KDP Peering This test demonstrates Kollective s peering behavior. Requirements You ll need a live video stream published to Kollective. Please use the Always On Live Stream. Steps 1. Launch the Download Monitor on two or more agent machines. 2. Initiate a live stream on one agent (call it machine A). If initiating a live stream, please use the sample live stream available on the POC Landing Page. From the Download Monitor on Machine A, observe the stream coming from a Kollective origin server. Connections from an origin server are shown in orange (you may see either KDP or SDDP). 3. Initiate the same stream from another agent (call it machine B). The Download Monitor on Machine A indicates it is now serving the stream to other agent peers. kollective.com page 4
On Machine B, the Download Monitor shows the source of the stream is a peer (Machine A) and not an origin server. Connections from peers are shown in purple or green. Repeat this process for each machine participating in the test. 4. If using the sample live stream from the POC Landing Page, close the browser tab where the video is playing on Machine A, but keep open the browser tab with the Download Monitor running. After about 60-90 seconds, you will see the activity in machine A s download monitor stop. In the Download Monitor on Machine B (or one of the participating machines), notice that the source of the stream automatically falls back to the origin server with no interruption of the video in the media player. Expected Result Only one agent receives a live video stream from the origin server, while the other ECDN Agents receive the live stream from peers over the LAN. Live Event User Testing This test validates the real-time, peer-assisted delivery of the Kollective agent when used in conjunction with a Skype Meeting Broadcast Live Event. This test will represent a real world scenario where all users watch a live event using the Kollective agent and Media Player. This test will also demonstrate the dynamic nature of the Kollective agent in terms of how Kollective ECDN Agents work together to pull only a single copy of a live stream across the WAN circuit. Requirements Sign in to http://broadcast.skype.com and schedule a live event. Make sure to invite all users you plan on joining the test, or make the event public and share the meeting URL with them. Steps 1. Start the Skype Meeting Broadcast meeting. The URL of the live event should be sent to all users participating in the test. a. Have each user open Download Monitor. https://bagel.kontiki.com/download_monitor/ b. Have each user join the Skype Meeting Broadcast and start watching the live event. c. Depending if the user is the leader PC, start up may take up to 30 seconds to start playing the live stream. This is by design. 2. Once everyone has the live event streaming to their PC, the users should watch the stream for 5 minutes or so (the time is up to the customer to decide how long they want this test to continue). kollective.com page 5
a. Each user should watch Download Monitor to ensure the video is streamed from a peer location vs Kollective s Origin Servers. However, it is very possible that a user will see some activity from the Kollective Origin Servers, as some users will be the leader PC responsible for pulling the video from the source. It is also not uncommon to see multiple sources for one video. 3. If possible, the user that represents the leader PC should shut down the media player window. This will force the Kollective ECDN Agents to designate a new leader PC and this is done automatically. The end user will see no interruption to the viewing experience. 4. The user that closed the media player window should click on the link again to re-join the live event. Depending upon network conditions, the user may see that their PC has been designated leader PC status again. 5. Upon completion of the meeting go back in to the Skype for business meeting portal and click on the meeting details. On the meeting details page, click on the Network usage report link to review the performance analytics for the event. Expected Result The end users should experience a high quality video streaming experience with zero buffering and a minimal wait time prior to playback. If a user is the first to connect to the live stream, the user may experience up to a 30 second delay in startup. This is by design as this is the buffer that Kollective creates to ensure a high quality, zero buffering, fault tolerant viewing experience. Optimization Based on Network Conditions: VPN This test is designed to let customers see the benefits of tuning the Kollective ECDN to optimize for specific networking conditions. Video delivery to VPN users from Skype Meeting Broadcast is a common challenge which the Kollective ECDN can solve by creating different peering behaviors based on the type of connection in use. Requirements: Customer should review their VPN configuration (split-tunnelling or not) with Kollective sales engineering resources and decide the best approach for optimizing delivery. Customer should identify a population of VPN users to test against. This test will use a Skype Meeting Broadcast event as described in the previous test. Steps: 1. Work with Kollective presales engineering to define the preferred VPN delivery policy, and deploy the configuration to the Kollective agents. 2. Schedule and start a Skype Meeting Broadcast meeting. The URL of the live event should be sent to all users participating in the test. Ensure that some set of the people participating in the test are joining via VPN. kollective.com page 6
a. Have each user open Download Monitor. https://bagel.kontiki.com/download_monitor/ b. Have each user join the Skype Meeting Broadcast and start watching the live event. 6. Once everyone has the live event streaming to their PC, the users should watch the stream for 5 minutes or so (the time is up to the customer to decide how long they want this test to continue). 7. After the event concludes additional reporting can be provided to show specifically the performance of video delivery to VPN users Expected Result The end users should experience a high-quality video streaming experience with zero buffering and a minimal wait time prior to playback. VPN users should be able to get the same quality of experience. It may also be interesting to compare the experience of VPN users with the Kollective agent to VPN users who do not have the Kollective agent. Optimization Based on Network Conditions: Bandwidth Constrainted Site This test is designed to let customers see the benefits of tuning the Kollective ECDN delivery grid to optimize for specific networking conditions. In many cases, customers have specific locations, such as regional offices, which have bandwidth constraints. Because the default Skype Meeting Broadcast video bit rate used is 1.7 Mbps, this can frequently be a significant challenge. The Kollective ECDN has the capability to force bandwidth constrained sites to use the lower bit rate feed offered by Skype Meeting Broadcast, thereby relieving some of the stress on the system that the higher bit rate can cause. Requirements: Customer should review their network with Kollective sales engineering resources and decide the best approach for optimizing delivery. Customer should identify one or more bandwidth constrained sites to test against. This test will use a Skype Meeting Broadcast event as described in the previous test. Steps: 3. Work with Kollective presales engineering to define the preferred delivery policy, and deploy the configuration to the Kollective agents. 4. Schedule and start a Skype Meeting Broadcast meeting. The URL of the live event should be sent to all users participating in the test. Ensure that some set of the people participating. a. Have each user open Download Monitor. kollective.com page 7
https://bagel.kontiki.com/download_monitor/ b. Have each user join the Skype Meeting Broadcast and start watching the live event. 8. Once everyone has the live event streaming to their PC, the users should watch the stream for 5 minutes or so (the time is up to the customer to decide how long they want this test to continue). a. Each user should watch Download Monitor to ensure the video is streamed from a peer location vs Kollective s Origin Servers. Users should make note of the bit rate being delivered from b. Each user should note the bit rate being delivered and report it back. Expected Result The end users should experience a high-quality video streaming experience with zero buffering and a minimal wait time prior to playback. By comparing the received bit rates reported by users in each location you should see that by configuring preferences you re able to control which bit rate is delivered to a site. kollective.com page 8
Why Kollective? The largest, most successful, global companies trust Kollective Technology to power their Enterprise Live and On-Demand video delivery, serving millions of users worldwide. From its software defined enterprise content delivery network (SD ECDN) to edge related IT tools like Network Readiness Testing, and Network Analytics, Kollective drives a powerful ROI and makes the flexibility of software defined networking a reality. kollective.com page 9 Contact Kollective kollective.com info@kollective.com US +1 408 215 6400 UK +44 (0) 800 242 5602 ASIA +91 (80) 41 21 87 77 2016 Kollective Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2016.11.07