IPv4 IPv6 Multi Protocol Media Player

Background

IPv6 is coming, but we still have to use IPv4 also. In other words, we have to keep use IPv4/IPv6 dual stack environment. Also, ISPs use different aggregators for IPv4 and IPv6 (For example, PPPoE for IPv4, IPoE for IPv6). And their capacity and performance are different. As a result, connections speed of IPv4 and IPv6 are different.

I’ll talk the statistics of this player at next APNIC conference (IPv6 deployment session). Please play the videos.

IPv4 IPv6 Multi Protocol Media Player

Speed comparison

The player downloads media chunks by IPv4 and IPv6 (e.g. media001.ts by IPv4, media002.ts by IPv6, media003.ts by IPv4, media004.ts by IPv6 …) and calculate the download speeds.

Protocol selection

After the comparison, the player use the faster protocol. There are 2 modes:

• Initial check mode
  • The player compares the protocols during the first segments. After that, the player keeps using the faster protocol.
• Continuous check mode
  • The player compares the protocols during the first segments. After that, the player uses both protocols by the following rate (e.g.) to get the latest speeds.
    • faster protocol: 4
    • slower protocol: 1
  • The reason of this mode: media streaming could keep long (For example TV streaming would continue to be watched for several hours). Protocol speeds could be changed during the hours.

Implementation

I made a simple plugin (hls-46.js) for hls.js.

• https://github.com/kosho-org/hls-46-plugin

Sample

Caution: all samples are only available for IPv6:

• Simple speed comparison
  • http://ipv6.jpcdn.jp/hls-comp0-simple.html
  • http://ipv6.jpcdn.jp/hls-comp0.html
  • This sample only uses the plugin for speed display. IPv4/IPv6 mixed play uses the media playlist (tears-2m-2-mixed.m3u8) has the following entries:
    • #EXTINF:2.00000
    • https://ipv6.jstream.jp/media/hls2/2M-2/tears000.ts
    • #EXTINF:2.00000
    • https://ipv4.jstream.jp/media/hls2/2M-2/tears001.ts
    • #EXTINF:2.00000
    • https://ipv6.jstream.jp/media/hls2/2M-2/tears002.ts
    • #EXTINF:2.00000
    • https://ipv4.jstream.jp/media/hls2/2M-2/tears003.ts
    • …
• Speed comparison by plugin
  • http://ipv6.jpcdn.jp/hls-comp1.html
  • This sample uses the normal playlist (tears-2m-2-template.m3u8) and the plugin adds the hosts (ipv4.jpcdn.jp, ipv6.jpcdn.jp) one by one.
• Protocol selection (Initial check mode)
  • http://ipv6.jpcdn.jp/hls-mcdn1.html
• Protocol selection (Continuous check mode)
  • http://ipv6.jpcdn.jp/hls-mcdn2.html

The player has console output (Browser debug window: F12) that shows each download speeds.