Internet DRAFT - draft-akhunger-ad-insert-multicast
draft-akhunger-ad-insert-multicast
Network Working Group A. Khunger
Internet-Draft Flextronics Software Systems
Expires: March 5, 2006 September 1, 2005
Inserting Advertisements in IP multicast
draft-akhunger-ad-insert-multicast-00
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Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
Abstract
Providing a Standard method for Addition of regional Advertisements
in the IP Multicast Video Streaming is very important , because the
equipment deployed would most likely be from different vendors across
a multicast network.
The idea is to introduce a special kind of Enhanced IGMP Ad-Insert
control packet, which is passed from the multicast source to
intermediate routers and which indicates that the source is going to
stop sending multicast traffic for a particular group for specified
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time and the Regional center can utilize this time to insert its
regional advertisement.
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1. Introduction
The Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) is used by IPv4 systems
to report their IP Multicast group memberships to any neighboring
Multicast routers. Typical applications for the IP multicast include
video streaming , enterprise wide broadcasts, training etc. Video
Streaming application has a lot of potential and is being worked upon
by various vendors
The idea presented in this draft is to introduce a special kind of
Enhanced IGMP Ad-Insert control packet for the Video Streaming
application.
Television amonuts to 37 percent of total advertising revenue in US
and 43 percent in Japan. Video Streaming using IP Multicast has a
similar potential for generating advertising revenues and thus
standardization efforts should be put to realize its potential.
This Ad-Insert message is passed from the multicast source to
intermediate routers and it indicates that the source is going to
stop sending multicast traffic for a particular group for specified
time and the Regional center can utilize this time to insert its
regional advertisement.
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2. Motivation
One of the main advantages with Ad-Insert IGMP control packet is
that, the schedule of when to insert ads in the content remains
flexible . Thus if there is a game live telecast going on and you
have a timeout then you can actually indicate to regional centers to
utlize that time to insert their Ads.
Also having this Ad-Insert signalling removes need for huge
configurations about hundreds of advertising slots in hundreds of
multicast streams passing through network devices.
In any multicast, Original Source is the one who knows best the
correct points when it makes logical sense to introduce
advertisements. However regional centers are best suited for launch
of ads which are targeted to a particular geographical audience.
Also providing a mechanism to add their own advertisements, provides
motivation for the regional centres to become intermediate multicast
forwarders - leading to increase of multicast video streaming
popularity.
Providing the coding mechanisms of traffic make it difficult for the
regional centres to decipher when to insert advertisements without
disturbing traffic's quality delivery and the mechanisms to do it can
be quite complex. Thus providing them with a cue when to insert can
be helpful.
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3. Applicability
The source of the multicast will provide for two or multiple levels
of advertisement slots in the traffic content. First level of
advertisements are targeted to the audience of all receivers which
subscribe to this multicast group. These are inserted with the
content by source itself. Second levels can be based on service
provider, region or any other criteria.
Taking an example of regional distribution , regional centres will be
informed by source, by sending a Enhanced Ad-Insert IGMP control
packet that the source has stopped or will stop sending the content
for a particular time period and this time can be used by regional
center to insert second level/regional advertisements.
There can be an overall agreement whereby the regional center knows
that in every cycle period - there will be commericals for how much
time - for example it could be that every one hour there will be five
minute commercials - however it depends on the program being streamed
as to how these five minutes are divided and when do they start.
The regional centre collects ads beforehand and these are played when
the Ad-Insert message is received or at the time specified by source
in Ad-Insert message
The Ad-Insert message can be used in two ways. One message is of
Immediate nature, which indicates that the Ad-Insert message itself
indicates that traffic from source has already stopped. The other
one gives a schedule in terms of Date and Time when the source will
stop sending content traffic and Regional center can then insert its
advertisements.
For Scheduled Ad-Insert messages it is assumed that the there is a
standard method for obtaining time, adopted by each source and
regional center
As there is no need for the regional center to decode content coming
from source for inserting Ads - the time taken and complexity of
equipment to insert ads should be much less than existing solutions.
Regional Center advertisement traffic also has group address as
destination address. The destination IP address of the Ad-Insert
IGMP packet is group multicast address itself, if the ad-insert is
for a immediate play.
However if the source needs to send ad-insert information for
scheduled inserts for multiple groups , it can send the traffic onto
ALL-ROUTERS destination address.
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The Regional Center is only supposed to play the ads to hosts within
its network. If the regional center is also forwarding the traffic
to another regional center (in another network) it will simply pass
the Enhanced Ad-Insert IGMP message on the port connecting to other
network. The regional center of other network will start playing its
ad to subscribers which belong to its network once it gets Ad-Insert.
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4. Impact on End Applications
Because the hosts will receive Ad's traffic with same multicast IP
address they will not be able to seperate it out. Thus the user cant
just drop the traffic with those Ads.
However multicast applications running over IP on host, may have
their own sequence numbering or ordering mechanisms for displaying
multicast content - the source can provide this sequencing
information to regional centers so that they can use these sequence
numbers to generate traffic. Another mechanism could be that streams
before and after the advertisement are considered as two seperate
sessions and client application is able to do sequencing
correspondingly.
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5. Message Formats
The following sections highlight the message formats
5.1. Ad-Insert IGMP Message
This message is sent by Source to the Intermediate muticast routers.
It is processed by routers which act as Regional Centers to insert
ads to their directly attached customers. The Ad-Insert message is
passed as-it-is by these regional centers further on ports which
connect to other regional centers.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Type | Start Flag | Duration in millisec |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Number of Scheduled Ad-Insert Time Records |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
where each scheduled Ad-Insert Time Record is of the following type.
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Group Address |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| TimeZone | Year | Month | Day |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Hour | Minutes | Seconds | Milliseconds |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Duration in millisec | Source Specific Info |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
The fields in this enhanced Report include the following information
Type
The value of Type indicates that this is a Ad-Insert type of IGMP
message and distinguishes this message from other IGMP messages
Start Flag
This indicates whether the advertisement has to be inserted
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immediately or at the scheduled times which are specfied by further
fields in the packet
Duration in millisec
This indicates the duration for which the regional center can play
their Ads. This field is only relevant if the Start flag has value as
Immediate Play.
Number of Scheduled Ad-Insert Time Records
If the start flag indicates Scheduled Inserts than this field
indicates the number of Time Records which are present in this Ad-
Insert message
Group Address
This indicates that for which Group Address this Ad-Insert Schedule
is relevant.
TimeZone
Indicates the timezone as per which the following time is described
Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute, Second, Millisecond
These indicate when the Insertion of Ad by regional center should
start
Source Specific Info
This is used by sources if they wish to inform something specific to
regional center, usage of this field will be developed in future
5.2. Future Directions
As the industry evolves there can be future evolution of methods of
inserting regional advertisements.
Inserted commercials can be customized as per individual viewers/
group profiles because regional centers can have better information
about their viewers
The commercials can be made more interactive by providing a way for
viewers to stream back their responses which can then be processed by
regional centers
There can also be multiple levels where the hierarchy of who is
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allowed to insert and who is not allowed in which timeslot can be
defined
5.3. Security Considerations
As with all other IGMP messages Ad-Insert message will also need
security provisions to avoid misuse. Also the cooperation between
different network operators to pass the Ad-Insert would be crucial
for success of this approach.
6. References
[1] Cain, B., Deering, S., Kouvelas, I., Fenner, B., and A.
Thyagarajann, "Internet Group Management Protocol, Version 3".
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Author's Address
Ajeet Khunger
Flextronics Software Systems
Plot 31 Sector 18 Electronic City,
Gurgaon, Haryana 122015
India
Phone: +1 818 878 4421
Email: ajeet.khunger@flextronicssoftware.com
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