omnia.8x trouble ?!

[mgawlowicz]

hi folks,

maybe that isn't the right forum here to discuss that type of issue but i go mad with audio drops using the livewire enabled omnia.8x

we use a pair of machines equipped with the marvelous ip-audio driver running a broadcast playout application. machines are equipped with dedicated livewire nic's connected through 1000FDX to a dedicated ivewire hp layer2 switch hosting no additional traffic. we do use a 8x8 analog node to provide clocking. there is no special qos config currently.

it appears that livewire works fine while the omnia's are *not* connected to the switch and as long it comes to standardized streams (200 packets/s) produced by the ip-audio driver only.

problems occur if the omnia gets connected to the network. omnia.8x connects through 1000FDX as well as the playout machines. i recently found out that omnia out is always set to stream mode "live" (4000 packets/s) (not changeable i think). the omnia status page states frequent dsp underruns as well

it looks like the omnia produces a paket storm (the problems go bigger the more omnia output streams are configured out to livewire) which prevent some pakets with lower priority (i.e. streams produced by the ip-audio driver) to be switched successfully ?

are we running into a switch issue ? any ideas are welcome.


best regards from germany,

markus

[MarcJohnson]

Hello Markus,

This sounds like the correct switch config is not present. Many switches can handle the traffic from a handful of Nodes without any special config, it is when you add many Nodes, Omnia.8x, an Engine, then we need to be sure we are preparing the switch for the amount of traffic that is coming from that unit.

If you could export your switch config and email it to me at support@axiaaudio.com, it would be most helpful. You can also check the config yourself by looking at our recommended configurations located under the heading Ethernet Switch and Adapter Documents/Recommended Hewlett-Packard Switches of this page:
http://www.axiaaudio.com/manuals/

It is very important to have this correct config in place to get reliable results. Please feel free to email us any time you have questions or problems.

Marc

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Marc Johnson
Axia Technical Support
Telos Systems / Omnia / Axia
(216) 241-7225
mjohnson@axiaaudio.com
support@axiaaudio.com
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[MarcJohnson]

Approved / Properly Configured Switch Required

Markus,

From our discussion earlier today, it is very important to use an approved Axia switch with the correct configuration. We have standardized on Cisco and HP because their reliability, feature sets and performance are the best we've found. Many different manufacturers have different implementations of “standards” – for file transfers and e-mail, these differences are minute. For VoIP and, most especially, AoIP, these implementations become more important. It's quite possible and common for a given switch to "work" with just a few nodes attached, but when a more robust test of Axia's capabilities is applied, that same switch can fail. This is the case in your situation. You can read more about the switches that we recommend here:
www.axiaaudio.com/switches/

Then you can pick a unit from our complete list of switches here:
http://www.axiaaudio.com/switches/full-list.htm

The 2960 series would be perfect for the size system you are assembling. It can handle up to 255 LW streams; specifically the Cisco 2960-24TC-L is a good choice for the 50 Livewire streams that you currently have with some room for expansion. Once you reach that limit, it is very easy to add additional Cisco units, such as a 3560, 3750, or 4948. The larger series switch will allow you to increase the number of streams you can have on the network. Please note that the 2960-24TC-L has 24 10/100 ports plus 2 dual purpose gigabit uplinks and you will be using this document to program the switch:
http://www.axiaaudio.com/manuals/files/ ... config.pdf

When you get this rocking, please feel free to let us know when all is well with this properly configured switch. You can post to this forum or email us at support@axiaaudio.com ANYTIME! Let us know if you have ANY additional questions,

Marc

[Catfish]

Marc,

You mention in your first reply that the Omnia.8x is a high bandwidth device like the Axia engine. I don't believe this is the case. Even though it is based on the same DSP platform, the Omnia.8x is an 8x8 stereo device, just like an Axia node. So the problem here is not related to gigabit configuration. It is simply a switch that does not provide the proper multicast functionality. The easiest way for users to avoid problems is to select switches from the approved list. Easy.

CF

[mgawlowicz]

just wanted to let you all know we run a cisco 2960g right now. we do have around 30 sources on the livewire net and it works like a charm now


regards from germany,

markus

[wgabel]

One of our installation use 1x 2960G as well running about 100 'live streams' fine...

[AXIA_milos]

the 2960 series will be able to manage 250 streams. This is based on the switch's ability with IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) snooping.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_G ... t_Protocol.
IGMP prevents flooding all the traffic down all ports. This is why Nodes are only 100Mbps connections. They subscribe to only needed traffic as opposed to finding the needed traffic in a downpour of traffic.