"Limit bandwidth per stream per player" problem

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Artemios G. Voyiatzis - 14 May 2004 10:07 GMT

Hi,

We have a WMS9 serving clients both for our intranet and Internet users. The
Windows Media Encoder produces a live MBR stream composed of three CBR
streams (48,24, and 19 Kbps). What we are trying to achieve is a scenario
where Internet users have access only to 24 and 19 Kbps streams, while our
intranet users be able to receive the 48 Kbps stream too. According to the
documentation and mined information there are two different solutions, one
based on the WMS and one on the WME. The first solution is to use two
different WME, one streaming at 48 Kbps and the other at 24 and 19 Kbps,
then create appropriate publishing points and finally enable an IP address
authorization rule on the 48 Kbps publishing point. This solution is
rejected in our environment, since it requires two machines for live
streaming, which we can afford.

The second and more elegant solution is to create two publishing points on
the WMS9 and enable "Limit bandwidth per stream per player" for the
publising point exposed to the Internet (we enable IP address authorization
on the other publising point). Both publishing points pull the same content
from the same encoder but the exposed one does not allow clients to receive
more than 30 Kbps per player. This is the desirable behavior but
unfortunately, when the limit is enabled clients receive a "Server busy"
error message and cannot view the content. Is this a kind of bug?

It appears that you cannot limit the bandwidth per stream in less than the
maximum CBR stream on the MBR. If this is the case, it practically cancels
out the option of controlling client bandwidth and my question is how it
would be possible to achieve to control the client bandwidth independently
of the encoding bandwidth.

As an alternative, it has been suggested in this newsgroup to use and
extended URL that passes along maximum client bandwidth. This is not enough,
since everyone can create an alternative URL that ommits the extra
parameters and saturate the available bandwidth.

How could this problem be solved?

Regards,
Artemios.

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Ravi Raman - 17 May 2004 19:46 GMT

Would you happen to have a WIndows Media Enterprise server
edition? If so, you can combine the URL modifier solution
that you suggested last with a custom plug-in (or a simple
Active Script plug-in) which will deny access if the
selected bitrate was > 40K and the request was coming from
an internet IP. So, anyone who tries to overcome the bw
limitation by omitting parameters will be denied access
because they are accessing with internet IP.

For example, I have given an active script plug-in that
can be enabled on a publishing point that will deny Play
access if someone requests from "155.155.155.155" and the
content bitrate selected was > 40K. Hopefully, you can
modify to make this work for you:

function OnWmseAuthorizePlay(u, p, c)

ipaddr = u("WMS_USER_IP_ADDRESS_STRING").Value
bw = CLng(p("WMS_PRESENT_WMSSINK_SELECTED_BITRATE").Value)

if (ipaddr = "155.155.155.155" AND bw > 40000) then
OnWMSEAuthorizePlay = &H80070005
else
OnWMSEAuthorizePlay = &H0
end if

end function

Obviously,I haven't tested the above script rigorously -
the script above is just a sample. Please modify it to fit
your needs. Hope this helps.

Thx,
Ravi
--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights. Use of included script samples are
subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm"

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