Video Virtual Carrier Group and Virtual Edge Input

A Virtual Carrier Group (VCG) is a collection of virtual QAM carriers (RF channels) provisioned on a Logical Edge Device (LED). A Virtual Edge Input (VEI) is a customer assigned IP address that is used, from the Head End, as a destination IP address for unicast video IP packets.

Information about Virtual Carrier Group and Virtual Edge Input

Virtual Carrier Group

A Virtual Carrier Group (VCG) is a collection of virtual QAM carriers (RF channels) provisioned on a Logical Edge Device (LED).

Each VCG must have a unique name and ID, since it also assigns attributes such as TSID and output port number to the virtual QAM carriers. The output port number only needs to be unique per LED. However, TSID/ONID pair must be unique for the chassis.

Duplicate TSIDs can be assigned to multiple QAM carriers by overriding the default TSID. Overriding the default TSID does not affect the unique TSID/ONID pair on the cBR router. The duplicate TSID overrides the unique TSID on the PAT header.

For more information, see Overriding the Default TSID section.

The service type must be designated in each VCG and the encrypt command must be entered if the carriers are to be encrypted. Enabling the VCG to use encryption and service type designates that each QAM carrier listed in the VCG will consume a QAM encryption license and video service type license. The actual number of licenses consumed will be done at VCG binding operation and is also dependent on the QAM replication requirements.

For more information on how the licenses are consumed, see Cisco Smart Licensing for Video.

Virtual Edge Input

A Virtual Edge Input (VEI) is a customer assigned IP address that is used, from the Head End, as a destination IP address for unicast video IP packets. Each VEI will need to be configured with a routable IP address from within the customer's network.

A VEI is assigned within a Logical Edge Device. Each Virtual Carrier Group (VCG) is associated with one or more IP addresses that represent VEIs.

For GQI protocol, VEI must be configured under the LED, since GQI expects VEI to be able to reach any Virtual QAM carrier listed in the same LED. Again, for GQI protocol, there is a limit of five VEIs per LED.

For the table based protocol, VEI may be configured under the LED or under a VCG. If the VEI is configured under a VCG, it can only reach the virtual QAM carriers associated with that particular VCG.

During the VCG binding operation, each VEI IP address will be bound to a single Video IP interface.

You can isolate the video traffic from other network traffic using MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) and VRF (Virtual Routing and Forwarding), by configuring the VRF name parameter in video-edge-input command.


Note


Do not use the same VEI IP address in multiple VRFs, as Head End video session management servers are not MPLS or VRF aware.

How to Configure Virtual Carrier Group and Virtual Edge Input

Configuring Virtual Carrier Group

Before you begin

Since each VEI needs to be configured with a routable IP address from within the customer’s network, choose the IP addresses to use prior to configuring the VEIs.

Error messages for problems with the VCG configuration will become evident during the bind operation. Errors include overlapping rf-channels.

In virtual-edge-input-ip command line configuration, vrf is an optional parameter and can be used for MPLS routing or to make VEI private from other parts of the network.

To configure virtual carrier group, follow the steps below:

enable 
configure terminal 
cable video 
virtual-carrier-group name [id number] 
virtual-edge-input-ip ip-address [vrf vrf-name] input-port-number port-number 
encrypt 
service-type narrowcast 
rf-channel start_channel-end_channel tsid start_tsid-end_tsid output-port-number start_number-end_number 

Overriding the Default TSID

To assign duplicate TSIDs to multiple QAM carriers, you can override the default TSID by using the override-tsid command as shown in the example below.


enable
configure terminal
cable video
virtual-carrier-group name [id number]
override-tsid TSID

Verifying Virtual Carrier Group Configuration

To verify the virtual carrier group configuration, use the show cable video virtual-carrier-group command as shown in the example below.

Router# show cable video virtual-carrier-group all
Number of Virtual Carrier Groups: 1

ID Name Service        Logical      ServiceType Encrypted Low      Override Total Total
        -Distribution  -Edge                              Latency  TSID     VEI   RF-
        -Group Name    -Device Name                                               Channel                                                                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1  vcg1 sdg1           led1         narrowcast   N          N        -      0      1   

Configuring Virtual Edge Input under Logical Edge Device

Before you begin

Since each VEI will need to be configured with a routable IP address from within the customer's network, choose the IP addresses to use prior to configuring the VEIs.

To configure virtual edge input, follow the steps below:

enable 
configure terminal 
cable video 
virtual-carrier-group name [id] number 
virtual-edge-input-ip ip-address [vrf vrf-name] input-port-number port-number 
vcg vcg-name 
active 

To configure virtual edge input under logical edge device, follow the steps below:

enable 
configure terminal 
cable video 
logical-edge-device name [id] number 
protocol table-based 
virtual-edge-input-ip ip-address [vrf vrf-name] input-port-number port-number 
vcg vcg-name 
active 

Verifying Virtual Edge Input Configuration

To verify the virtual edge input configuration, use the show cable video logical-edge-device command as shown in the example below.

Router# show cable video logical-edge-device id 1
Logical Edge Device: led 
Id: 1
Protocol: GQI 
Service State: Active
Discovery State: Disable 
Management IP: 1.33.2.10 
MAC Address: c414.3c17.6000 
Number of Servers: 2
  Server 1: 1.200.1.193
  Server 2: 1.200.1.183
Reset Interval: 5
Keepalive Interval: 5	
Retry Count:3 
Number of Virtual Carrier Groups: 2 
Number of Share Virtual Edge Input: 1 
Number of Physical Qams: 94
Number of Sessions: 240 
No Reserve PID Range

Virtual Edge Input:	
Input Port    VEI	         Slot/Bay	Bundle	Gatewayy
ID            IP	                    ID     IP
-------------------------------------------------- 
1	            174.102.1.1  7/0	     -      -	--

Virtual Carrier Group:
ID	Name	 Total	Total	      Service-Distribution-Group	Service-Distribution-Groupup
         VEI   RF-channel  Name                       ID
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1  vcg   0     28          sdg                        1
2  vcg-2 0     19          sdg                        1

Integrated	Physical Admin	Operational TSID	ONID	Output	VCG	SDG	Encryption		
Cable      QAM ID   State State                 Port   ID  ID  Capable
------------------------------------------------------------------------

7/0/0:1    1        ON    UP          29   1000 30     2   1   powerkey
7/0/0:2    2        ON    UP          30   1000 30     2   1   powerkey
7/0/0:3    3        ON    UP          31   1000 30     2   1   powerkey
7/0/0:4    4        ON    UP          32   1000 30     2   1   powerkey
7/0/0:5    5        ON    UP          33   1000 30     2   1   powerkey
7/0/0:6    6        ON    UP          34   1000 30     2   1   powerkey
7/0/0:7    7        ON    UP          35   1000 30     2   1   powerkey
7/0/0:8    8        ON    UP          36   1000 30     2   1   powerkey
7/0/0:9    9        ON    UP          37   1000 30     2   1   powerkey

To verify the VEI configuration with MPLS-VPN VRF, use the show ip arp vrf command as shown in the example below:
Router# show ip arp vrf Video-VOD-Vrf
Protocol  Address          Age (min)  Hardware Addr   Type   Interface
Internet  174.102.1.1             -   12ab.0007.ce01  ARPA   Video7/0/0

Configuration Examples for Virtual Carrier Group and Virtual Edge Input

This section provides configuration examples for the Virtual Carrier Group and Virtual Edge Input:

Example: Configuring Virtual Carrier Group

The following example shows how to configure virtual carrier group:

enable 
configure terminal 
cable video 
virtual-carrier-group vcg-0 id 1 
virtual-edge-input-ip 174.101.1.1 input-port-number 1 
virtual-edge-input-ip 174.102.1.1 vrf Video-VOD-Vrf input-port-number 2 
encrypt 
service-type narrowcast 
rf-channel 0-10 tsid 1-11 output-port-number 1-11 

Example: Configuring Virtual Edge Input

The following example shows how to configure virtual edge input:

enable 
configure terminal 
cable video 
logical-edge-device led_bc1 id 1 
protocol table-based 
virtual-edge-input-ip 174.102.1.1 input-port-number 1 
vcg vcg_bc1 
active 

You can also configure VEI to be associated with a MPLS-VPN VRF:

enable 
configure terminal 
cable video 
virtual-carrier-group vcg1 id 1 
virtual-edge-input-ip 174.102.1.1 vrf Video-VOD-Vrf input-port-number 1 
vcg vcg-name 
active 

Under logical edge device, follow the steps below:

enable 
configure terminal 
cable video 
logical-edge-device led_bc1 id 1 
protocol table-based 
virtual-edge-input-ip 174.102.1.1 vrf Video-VOD-Vrf input-port-number 1 
vcg vcg_bc1 
active 

Example: Overriding the Default TSID

The following example shows how to override the default TSID:


enable
configure terminal
cable video
virtual-carrier-group vcg1 id 1
override-tsid 100
%%Configuring this will regenerate the PAT with overridden TSID value for all QAM channels under this VCG.
Do you want to continue? [Yes/No][confirm]y

Feature Information for Virtual Carrier Group and Virtual Edge Input

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about the platform support and software image support. Cisco Feature Navigator enables you to determine which software images support a specific software release, feature set, or platform. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to the O: https://cfnng.cisco.com/ WL: https://cfnng.cisco.com/ link. An account on the Cisco.com page is not required.


Note


The following table lists the software release in which a given feature is introduced. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature.


Table 1. Feature Information for Virtual Carrier Group and Virtual Edge Input

Feature Name

Releases

Feature Information

Virtual Carrier Group and Virtual Edge Input

Cisco IOS XE Everest 16.6.1

This feature was integrated on the Cisco cBR Series Converged Broadband Routers.

Using VRF for Video Session Traffic

Cisco IOS XE Everest 16.6.1

This feature was integrated on the Cisco cBR Series Converged Broadband Routers.