StreamonixOS

The SX.Streamer is powered by StreamonixOS™. This innovative 64-bit, real-time, distributed Operating System runs across both CPUs in the SX.Streamer — and all CPUs in an SX.Streamer Cluster — tightly coupling all processor cores, memory controllers and network ports into a highly integrated, coherent and extremely high-performance system.

StreamonixOS is a real-time Operating System that has been painstakingly engineered to transmit hundreds of thousands — even millions — of video and audio network packets per second. The Operating System transmits each packet precisely on schedule — packets are never transmitted late, and are never dropped.

A critical and innovative feature of StreamonixOS is that its performance ceiling is higher than the line speed of the network interfaces of the SX.Streamer. StreamonixOS can saturate the SX.2422's dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports with a torrent of precisely timed video and audio packets.

Embedded in StreamonixOS are highly optimized, distributed H.264, MPEG-2, VC-1, JPEG2000 and Streaming Audio servers, providing state-of-the-art performance and scalability. A next-generation parallel HTTP server, offering extremely high performance for static web pages, is available as an option.

StreamonixOS incorporates a rigorously defined and implemented security architecture. It is designed to be hacker-proof, yet easy to use.

The 80/20 Rule: Tall Heads & Long Tails

The architecture for our video streaming technology is based on Pareto's “Law of the Vital Few,” also known as the “80/20 Rule.” Applied to the media business — video streaming included — this Rule states: 20% of titles generate 80% of sales.

We serve up the hits. Our SX.Streamer instantly supports thousands of requests for the top 20% of titles — the “Tall Head” — while our SX.NAS provides back-end support for the 80% of titles in the “Long Tail.”

With Streamonix streaming systems, content distributors can fully satisfy the high demand for their hottest programs and movies, while offering users 1000s of titles to choose from.

Network Protocols

StreamonixOS, the SX.Streamer's high performance Operating System, provides full support for IPv4 and IPv6 protocols.

The SX.Streamer fully supports open Internet and multimedia network protocols — transmitting MPEG-2 Transport Streams (with H.264, MPEG-2 and VC-1 payloads) using UDP and RTP/UDP protocols, with optional support for RTSP.

JPEG2000 Digital Cinema streams are transmitted using MXF containers.

Delivering JPEG2000 streams at Digital Cinema bitrates over IP networks exceeds the capabilities of standard multimedia protocols. To solve this problem, Streamonix has developed the open Digital Cinema Streaming Protocol (DCSP) for IPv4 and IPv6. This UDP-based protocol supports bitrates in excess of 260 Mbps, offers precise video frame control, supports payload encryption and watermarking and provides a very efficient mechanism for lost packet retransmission.

DCSP is also extremely well suited for transmitting High Definition H.264, MPEG-2 and VC-1 streams — particularly at bitrates greater than 20 Mbps.

For further information on DCSP, please feel free to contact us.

Scalability & Clustering

Multiple SX.Streamers can be clustered via 20 Gbps InfiniBand to give a linear increase in performance.

A rack of 20 SX.2422 Streamers transmits at more than 320 Gigabits/second — that's 160,000 simultaneous on-demand Standard Definition H.264 streams.

Continuing with this example, that rack of 20 SX.2422 Streamers provides up to 2.56 Terabytes of RAM-based storage — enough space to hold an entire video library.

One rack.
320 Gbps of real-time streaming bandwidth.
2.56 Terabytes of RAM-based storage.
More performance than a large data-centre.
That's our definition of Scalable.

To go beyond the capacity of RAM-based storage, and to provide a disk-based backing store for the SX.Streamers, one or more SX.NAS systems are integrated with the SX.Streamers, either via 10 Gigabit Ethernet or InfiniBand.

Sophisticated and robust dynamic caching algorithms in StreamonixOS determine which files — or parts of files — are cached on the SX.Streamer and which ones remain on the SX.NAS.

The diagram below illustrates a highly scalable, next-generation Video Streaming Network — featuring a Core Network / Edge Network architecture — based on Streamonix technology (click for PDF version):

Solid State Architecture

One of the most exciting advantages of the SX.Streamer is its ability to cache entire movies in main memory (RAM) — enabling the on-demand streaming of any and all movies to thousands of users.

The SX.Streamer's Solid State Architecture supports up to 128 Gigabytes of DRAM — enough to hold almost 140 hours of Standard Definition H.264 video — giving the SX.Streamer an enormous performance and reliability advantage over hard-disk based systems.

SX.2422 RAM-based Video Storage Capacity
Memory (GBs)	Hours of Content Stored in RAM
Memory (GBs)	Mobile H.264 300Kbps	SD H.264 2Mbps	SD MPEG-2 3.75Mbps	HD H.264 10Mbps	HD MPEG-2 20Mbps
32	232.3	34.8	18.6	7.0	3.5
64	464.6	69.7	37.2	13.9	7.0
128	929.2	139.4	74.3	27.9	13.9

Higher Performance, Lower Cost

The SX.Streamer's Solid State Architecture not only provides far higher performance — it does so at substantially lower cost. At first glance, a Solid State System appears costlier than a hard-disk based server. A gigabyte of RAM-based storage can be several times more expensive than a gigabyte of hard-disk space. But that comparison is misleading, and ignores the very large additional costs that must be incurred to achieve multi-gigabit bitrates with a conventional hard-disk based system.

To reduce hard disk bottlenecks, hard disk-oriented systems use one disk for every two or three High Definition video streams. For applications requiring more than a trivial number of HD streams, the number of required hard disks and related computers quickly rises into the hundreds, and even thousands.

The cost of hundreds of hard disks plus associated CPUs, cases, cables and cooling — in addition to personnel expenses — far exceeds cost of a single SX.Streamer.

Expandability

The SX.Streamer is designed to be seamlessly integrated with the SX.NAS network attached video storage system, providing terabytes of RAID storage to complement the SX.Streamer's RAM cache. This brings together the extreme performance of Solid State Architecture with the enormous capacity of a high-performance disk-based system.

Optionally, the SX.2422 can be integrated with video storage systems from partners such as Omneon Video Networks. Together with our partners we offer integrated video storage and video streaming solutions that offer industry-leading performance, scalability and reliability.

SX.Streamer Solid-State Advantages

Lower Cost
- A single SX.Streamer replaces multiple hard-disk based servers.
Performance
- Solid-state architecture eliminates hard disk bottlenecks
- Full memory caching of 140 hours of SD H.264 video
Scalability
- Multiple SX.Streamers can be interconnected to provide terabytes of distributed Solid State Storage
- Memory shared across all CPUs in a cluster
Reliability
- Highly reliable DRAM semiconductors instead of fault-prone hard disks
- ECC error correction on all data
- Simplified cooling requirements
- Optional battery-backed capability
Expandability
- Integration with disk-based storage systems brings together the extreme performance of Solid State Architecture with the enormous capacity of modern NAS systems

SX.Streamer Chassis

Outstanding Cooling = Outstanding Reliability.

Heat is the greatest contributor to system failure. We engineered our 2U rack-mountable chassis for maximum cooling. The chassis features five long-life 80cm x 38cm fans that provide strong, highly effective front-to-back airflow — keeping system and component temperatures to a minimum.