MPEG Transport Stream Monitor - Tektronix MTM400

Technical Details

Power Requirements

Power Consumption (nominal) – 40 VA.

Voltage – 100 to 240 V.

Frequency – 50/60 Hz.

Data Rate

Maximum Data Rate – 155 Mb/s*6.

Minimum Data Rate – 250 Kb/s.

*6 Maximum Transport Stream bit rate is dependent on Transport Stream content and depth of analysis being performed. Stream analysis is handled gracefully if SI/PSIP max content is exceeded to ensure critical measurements continue to be performed.

TR 101 290 Tests and Measurements

The MTM400 is a real-time MPEG Transport Stream monitor. The MTM400 provides a complete solution for transmission monitoring of MPEG Transport Streams over RF, IP, and ASI interfaces.

The MTM400 uses a single Transport Stream processor platform packaged in a 1 RU rackmount chassis to provide monitoring of a Transport Stream at data rates up to 155 Mb/s*2. The platform is used to provide an extended confidence monitoring product that, with the addition of software options, provides diagnostic monitoring capabilities.

The extended confidence monitor provides the key MPEG tests; this basic level of functionality and low cost enables widespread deployment throughout a transmission network, facilitating rapid fault isolation. The diagnostic monitoring options provide more in-depth analysis of the MPEG

Transport Stream including recording capability, PSI/SI/PSIP/ARIB analysis, and unique user-defined template tests to ensure right content, right place, right time. Deployed at key network nodes, the MTM400 equipped as a diagnostic monitor enables the cause of faults to be pinpointed and solved.

Optional IP and RF confidence monitoring interfaces including Gigabit Ethernet, COFDM, 8VSB, Turbo 8PSK, QPSK (L Band), and QAM are available. RF interfaces allow the MTM400 to receive RF inputs and display key RF monitoring parameters including MER, BER, and constellation displays before demodulating the signal to provide measurements on the health of the Transport Stream. Channel polling allows up to 200 channels to be polled sequentially from either the IP or the RF interface*1.

The polling capability for the MTM400 probe, combined with RF and IP interfaces, allows up to 200 RF channels or IP sessions (discovering up to 500 IP sessions) to be monitored in a repeating cyclic measurement process. Control and configuration of the polling is undertaken using flexible XML scripting. This polling ability makes a single MTM400 probe a

broader tool, monitoring large numbers of network points in a time-sampled measurement mode.

The MTM remote user interface provides a summary screen for MPEG Transport Stream thumbnails and video metadata support for confidence monitoring. A full set of APIs is available to support displaying this information within network management platforms. This includes video walls that can display up to the full transmitted resolution of the video stream.