1.335 MFM-IpEncoder

The MFM-IpEncoder logical device is part of the sat-nms MFM framework which interconnects a sat-nms VLC to the ND SatCom Media Fleet Manager.The MFM-IpEncoder is a so called translation device which interconnects the MFM-PlayList device to the sat-nms device driver of an IP encoder device.

Internally the Media Fleet Manager codes all equipment settings in binary enumerations (for choice parameters) and scaled integers for numeric values. The MFM-IpEncoder translation device takes these settings and translates them into the parameter representation expected by the sat-nms device drivers. For this, it inspects each parameter's range definition and matches the settings against the MFM encoding of the parameters.

Overview

The sat-nms MFM framework consists of the MFM-PlayList device and a number of so called translation devices. The MFM-PlayList device does the communication with the Media Fleet Manager using the proprietary protocol of this. It manages the sequence control of transmissions, even if there is no connection to the MFM.

Beside this, there are translation devices which have to be configured with one instance for each DVB uplink or downlink chain, for each IP encoder or decoder. The task of translation devices is to translate the settings commanded by the media fleet manager in it's own format into the individual format each sat-nms device driver expects. The translation devices also check if parameters have been set properly and forward this information to the MFM-PlayList device.

Adding a translation device for a certain physical device to the configuration automatically makes this device known to the MFM. The following types of translation devices are available with the sat-nms MFM framework:

• MFM-IpDecoder --- Connects an IP decoder device to the MFM-PlayList.
• MFM-IpEncoder --- Connects an IP encoder device to the MFM-PlayList.
• MFM-Ird --- Connects a (DVB) IRD to the MFM-PlayList.
• MFM-PlayList --- Connects a satellite modem for intercom purposes to the MFM-PlayList.
• MFM-SkyWANIdu --- Connects a ND SatCom SkyWAN IDU to the MFM-PlayList.
• MFM-Upc --- Connects a (DVB) uplink chain consisting of encoder, modulator, upconverter and power amplifier to the MFM-PlayList.

Device window pages

The following table shows which device window pages are available with this individual device type. Tool-bar functions not mentioned here are described at the general description of device windows .

• --- General status.
• --- The device info page.
• --- The maintenance page. The configuration parameters described below are set at this page.

Configuration parameters

At the page 'Maintenance' the setup dialog contains some settings to configure this logical device.

All message ID settings above may be left empty. The MFM-IpEncoder device will not control a parameter with an empty ID setting and it will not check if it is set properly.

Session word and encryption key parameters are not read back and compared to the commanded values, as some devices do not support a readout of these values.

Video profiles

Encoder devices are handling encoding profile parameters in different ways, depending on vendor and / or encoder type. For this reason there is no direct translation possible from the MFM specific parameters selecting an encoding profile and the corresponding encoder parameters. Instead, the MFM-IpEncoder device calls a sat-nms device preset to configure these parameters.

To make this work, you have to store device presets for each particular encoder type you are using and the video encoding profiles used in your MFM equipment presets. The names of the presets called by the MFM-IpEncoder device follow a fixed scheme, resembling the combination of the "video coding standard" and "coding format" MFM parameters.

This is the list of all presets names recognized by the MFM-IpEncoder device:

    MPEG2-MP@ML-420     MPEG4-MP@ML-420         
    MPEG2-MP@LL-420     MPEG4-MP@LL-420
    MPEG2-HP@ML-422     MPEG4-HP@ML-422
    MPEG2-HP@LL-422     MPEG4-HP@LL-422
    MPEG2-SP@LL-420     MPEG4-SP@LL-420
    MPEG2-SP@ML-420     MPEG4-SP@ML-420
    MPEG2-MP@H14-420    MPEG4-MP@H14-420
    MPEG2-MP@HL-420     MPEG4-MP@HL-420
    MPEG2-HP@H14-422    MPEG4-HP@H14-422
    MPEG2-HP@HL-422     MPEG4-HP@HL-422
    MPEG2-HP@HL-420     MPEG4-HP@HL-420
    MPEG2-HP@H14-420    MPEG4-HP@H14-420
    MPEG2-HP@ML-420     MPEG4-HP@ML-420       

It is not necessary to create all of these presets, only these ones addressed by MFM transmission presets are required.

If the presets are created by the "preset store" function in the device window, they should be edited afterwards to remove all parameters from the preset which are set explicitly by the MFM-IpEncoder device. If such a parameter remains in the preset, it may overwrite the value actually commanded by the MFM-IpEncoder device. There is no fixed order in which preset contained parameters and explicitly commanded ones are processed by the encoder device driver.

Remarks

• The device does not provide individual alarm flags. It reports a summary fault state which resembles the summary state of the device configured with the 'encDevice', configuration setting.
• Setting the device to the FAULT-SUPPRESSED mode will suppress alarms or warnings of the attached devices which would normally lead to ONAIR-ALARM or ONAIR-WARNING alerts at the Media Fleet Manager. FAULT-SUPPRESSED does not suppress the communication fault checks the MFM-PlayList device does before configuring the device nor does it suppress the check of correct parameter setting at the end of the configuration process.
• Setting the device OUT-OF-SERVICE switches it to a simulation mode in which it does not send commands to any device and reports to the MFM-PlayList 'everything OK' all the time.

Variables defined by this device driver