Telenor EPM Collector
This connector is used to gather STB data coming from MAM events and Agama firehose export files. The MAM events are forwarded to the collector by elements using the Telenor EPM MAM Consumer connector. The Agama files are forwarded to the collector by elements using the Telenor EPM Agama Consumer connector. This data is then aggregated to higher topology levels in the Telenor EPM Manager connector. Because of the large amount of data they contain, the collector elements are not intended to be opened. The manager UI gives better access to the data.
About
Version Info
| Range | Key Features | Based on | System Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.0.x [Obsolete] | Initial version | - | - |
| 1.0.1.x [SLC Main] | - Removed deprecated MAM Data IP Connection and associated logic. - Channels Provisioning Filename is now configurable. |
1.0.0.42 | Existing elements can be upgraded to this version without any problem, but some of the configuration on the element pages will be different (see How to Use). |
System Info
| Range | DCF Integration | Cassandra Compliant | Linked Components | Exported Components |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.0.x | No | Yes | Telenor EPM Agama Consumer & Telenor EPM MAM Consumer Telenor EPM Manager | - |
| 1.0.1.x | No | Yes | Telenor EPM Agama Consumer & Telenor EPM MAM Consumer Telenor EPM Manager | - |
Configuration
Connections
IP Connection - Agama Data
This connector uses a serial connection and requires the following input during element creation:
SERIAL CONNECTION:
- IP address/host: The connector will be listening for incoming data from the Agama consumer, so this field must be set to any.
- IP port: The IP port of the server where data from the Agama consumer will enter. You can freely choose the value, but remember to open the TCP port in the firewall if the data comes from a different server.
IP Connection - MAM Data (Removed in Range 1.0.1.x)
This connector uses a serial connection and requires the following input during element creation:
SERIAL CONNECTION:
- IP address/host: The connector will be listening for incoming data from the MAM consumer, so this field must be set to any.
- IP port: The IP port of the server where data from the MAM consumer will enter. You can freely choose the value, but remember to open the TCP port in the firewall if the data comes from a different server.
Initialization
On the General page, configure the County ID for which this collector will be gathering data.
In the Provisioning Share Location parameters, fill in the location of the LPI and SDP folders along with the credentials to access these.
With the Starting Period Minute, indicate when the first new period with Agama data after the hour starts (e.g., if a new period starts every xx:01, set the parameter to 1). Indicate in Period Length how long a period takes (e.g., 4 minutes). After a period window is closed, it will take some time before the Agama files are created and transferred to the collector. With Period Margin, you can configure how long the connector should wait for these files before filling in default N/A values. After the period margin has passed, data will be written into the parameter tables within 10 seconds.
The consumer elements could be located on a different server and the collector element has the any IP configured on the connection settings. As a server could have different network cards, it is not easy to automatically detect which IP the consumers should use to reach the collector. This can be configured in the appropriate Listening Socket parameters. Fill in the socket that the consumers need to use to reach the collector in the format IP:Port. The port needs to be exactly the same as defined in the connections configured during element creation.
How to Use
General
From the consumer element, MAM events will enter during the defined period and Agama files should enter during the period margin. After the period margin has been reached, the data will be set into the parameter tables.
The MAM events are considered the main source for OTT data. In other words, if Agama files contain data about an asset and MAM did not report that asset, then that Agama data will be ignored. As it is possible that a MAM heartbeat is missed, you can use the parameter Remove OTT Entry when Missing to configure during how many periods MAM data can be absent while Agama data still gets filled in for that asset, before the asset is removed. The asset will be removed immediately in case a MAM stop event is received.
Agama files are considered the main source for non-OTT data, such as Live DVB-C. In other words, if MAM reported a channel that Agama did not report during the period, then that channel will be ignored.
As it is possible to zap through channels, the Minimum Agama Activity setting helps you to avoid collecting channels that were only watched for a brief moment. It allows you to configure how long a channel needs to be watched before it is taken into account.
Note
Starting from range 1.0.1.x, the channel file name must be configured manually. To do this, enter the desired value in the Provisioning Channel File Name parameter.
Channel Details
The channel details are used to make the mapping of a channel. This is for Live DVB-C, Live IPTV, OTT Live/Start-Over and OTT Catchup. You can load these by clicking the Load button. The details will be loaded from the configured LPI folder in the sublocation \enrichment\services\channels.csv. However, note that starting from range 1.0.1.x, the file name needs to be configured manually (see General).
The content of the loaded file must be comma-separated and must contain the following headers: ChannelID,ChannelName,CS_Type,DVB-C-Live-TV,IPTV-Live-TV,OTT-Live-TV,Start-over,Catchup,MultiCast,MC_Port,SID,TS_ID,ONid,MPEG-DASH OTT Live/Start-Over URL,HLS OTT Live/Start-Over URL,MPEG-DASH OTT Catch-Up URL,HLS OTT Catch-Up URL,NPVR
Note
The "NPVR" header is only used from range 1.0.1.x onwards.
Asset Details
The asset details are used to make the mapping of an OTT VOD asset. You can load these by clicking the Load button. The details will be loaded from the configured LPI folder in the sublocation \enrichment\services\assets.csv and \enrichment\services\providers.csv.
The content of the assets.csv file must be separated by semicolons (";") and must contain the following headers: Asset Id;Timestamp;Provider Id;Log Title Nb;Telenor Common Id;Stream Id;Dash Url;HLS Url
The content of the providers.csv file must be separated by semicolons (";") and must contain the following headers: ProviderNumber;ProviderId;ProviderName
To be able to easily detect if a URL is for a VOD asset, the asset details will be analyzed, and one or more signatures will be created and added to the Asset Signatures table. This table is displayed to make it possible to investigate problems in case mapping is not working as expected.
Aggregation Threshold
On this page, you can configure the different thresholds that will be used during aggregation to higher levels. For example, if you set QoE Unavailable Live IPTV Aggregation Threshold to 20%, the device will be considered to have an unavailable service during the period if the reported unavailable QoE value is greater than or equal to 20%.
Error Codes
The Error Codes table allows you to determine to which category an error code belongs. For example, when you configure Error Code to E2309 with Category OTT Live/Start-Over Setup Error, the device will be considered to have an OTT Live/Start-Over Setup Error as soon as an error code E2309 enters for the device during the period interval.
Custom Logging
Because of the large amount of data that would otherwise flood the log file, it is preferable to use a filtered way of logging and focus on part of the data. You can configure this with the custom logging.
In the Log Request Destination Type, you can select where the content should be written: in the Protocol Log file where all other element logging is recorded, in a separate Custom File, or in a Table.
When the logging is written to a custom file, the default location for this file is C:\Skyline DataMiner\Telenor\Elements\elementname>\Logging. However, you can specify a custom location with the Log Request Custom Folder setting. Custom log files are by default kept for 7 days, after which they are automatically deleted, but you can customize this number of days with the Log Request Remove Custom File After setting. File deletion will only be active when custom logging is created.
You can configure what should be logged in the Log Request table. To add a row, click the Add Row button.
You can subscribe to a type of MAM event, or choose MAM-specific content to look for a certain filter value in all incoming events, or focus on rejected content to only see what data has been ignored and the specific reason why. MAM logging can have a Filter Value to only log events that contain a certain value.
You can also subscribe to Agama files. Agama Basic shows the summary of when the different types of Agama files were received, without showing content. Either the header line of a specific file can be shown, or the entire content. There is no need to specify both Header and Content, because when Content is selected, the header line is included. It is also possible to view only rejected content to see what data has been ignored and the specific reason why. Agama logging does not support a Filter Value as most content consists of numbers only.
Logging for a Specific Device is also supported. To use this, select this type of logging and fill in the device ID in the Filter Value. All incoming data about this device across the different MAM events and Agama files will be logged, including the reason why some data has been rejected. The Full Content with all incoming data can be logged, but this is not advised as it will log everything. This could only be handy when there is no data present at all, to investigate if any data enters the element.
The Log Result table will display the logging in case the Log Request Destination Type is set to Table. This type of logging can be useful to quickly investigate something when there is no file access. The number of rows is limited to 2000. The oldest rows get overwritten when there are there are new entries. You can clean the table by clicking the Clear Results button.
Other pages
The other pages contain the raw data, e.g., all devices, households, channels, etc. These pages are not meant to be consulted. To view this data, use the manager UI instead.
Notes
Blacklisting
If devices are linked to different households in the provisioning files, these devices will not be added to the collector. You can force the collector to ignore a device by adding the device ID as an entry in the blacklisted.csv file, which is located in the configured SDP folder. This allows you to exclude test devices, or to exclude devices where the user has not given permission to gather data in the context of the GDPR legislation.
Alarm monitoring
Alarm monitoring is not possible on the data of the device, household, and channels. This is because these levels contain thousands of entries. Monitoring just one parameter would result in such a large number of alarms, that it would flood both server and client. There is no practical use for this monitoring, and it would be impossible to still detect the root cause of the issue. However, note that trending is still possible.