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April 3, 2000
These release notes for the Cisco 6920 RateMux multiplexer support RateMux Release 1.96. These release notes are updated as needed to describe new features, memory requirements, hardware support, and changes to the microcode, configuration software, and related documents.
For a list of caveats that apply to Release 1.96, see the "Open CaveatsRelease 1.96" section.
These release notes discuss the following topics:
The Cisco 6920 RateMux multiplexer is a real-time bandwidth management solution for digital cable operators and digital video service providers. The Cisco 6920 uses high-speed programmable DSPs to dynamically perform real-time rate conversion and bitstream manipulation on encoded MPEG-2 streams. This maximizes audio, video, and data signal throughput, and effectively widens bandwidth capability, while ensuring quality transmission at full transponder link rates.
The Cisco 6920 accepts up to 15 MP&ML MPG-2 input signals through DHEI or DVB-ASI compliant interfaces. The unit's programmable statistical remultiplexing engine then performs real-time Variable Bit Rate (VBR) and Constant Bit Rate (CBR) rate conversion and bitstream manipulation processing to the input streams.
Using a proprietary statistical model, the processed streams are then recombined into a highly efficient, multiplexed program transport stream while maintaining video quality. The Cisco 6920 processing engine, aside from performing static grooming, also supports PID filtering and PCR jitter removal.
The hardware components supported in this release include:
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Note These instructions assume that you have BootLoader version 148 or higher running on your Cisco 6920. |
To upgrade the Cisco 6920, you need the following files:
Cisco recommends that you use Windows NT and a crossover Ethernet cable to connect your PC to the Cisco 6920.
To upgrade the Cisco 6920 firmware:
Create a directory on your PC and populate it with all the listed files.
Step 2 Verify the Hyperterminal connection and get the BootLoader version number and the IP and Ethernet addresses.
Connect a regular serial cable to the DEBUG port on the PowerPC card. Start a Hyperterminal session on that connection (57600, 8bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, flow control = none).
Reset the Cisco 6920 and press the Enter key at 2- to 5- second intervals until the BootLoader menu appears on the screen (on older systems, depending on hardware and firmware configuration, this can take anywhere from five to 60 seconds). The first few lines will show the BootLoader revision number and the IP and Ethernet addresses being used by the Cisco 6920. Make a note of them---you will need them later.
The default addresses are 192.168.0.200 and 00:22:33:44:55:66, respectively.
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Caution Hyperterminal on Windows 95 does not consistently operate properly with the Cisco 6920 (it will display output, but will ignore any input). |
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Caution The BootLoader will start the PowerPC application if no keys are pressed within a few seconds. To avoid this, press Enter, then leave the Cisco 6920 in this configuration. |
Step 3 Set up the Ethernet connection.
Connect the crossover cable from your PC to the Cisco 6920. Make sure the IP addresses are on the same network. From your PC you should be able to successfully ping the Cisco 6920.
Step 4 Load the new BootLoader code.
Reset the Cisco 6920, then connect to the Cisco 6920 using the connect.exe program (connection should be established within 10 seconds).
At the top level menu, select A: Download Boot Code Firmware.
At the "INFO: Waiting for BootLoader file ..." message, download file binstall170.fls using the File and Download selections. The following messages should appear:
About to reprogram BootLoader ...
Erasing FLASH ...
Programming FLASH ...
BootLoader was reprogrammed, you can reset the system ...
This completes the BootLoader upgrade.
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Caution In this phase, the BootLoader is being reprogrammed. A major failure, such as a power off, will cause the Flash memory on the PowerPC card to be corrupted. If this happens, the only corrective action is to send the board back to Cisco for reprogramming. Even if you fail to see any output on the Hyperterminal window, do NOT reset the PowerPC card for at least 2 minutes. |
Step 5 Program the PowerPC board.
Reset the Cisco 6920, then connect to the Cisco 6920 using the connect.exe program. Connection should be established within 10 seconds.
At the BootLoader top menu, select F: Easy Chassis Download.
At the "Do you want to be in CHASSIS mode? [n]:" prompt, type n and press Enter.
You will be prompted to load the PPC card Flash. At the "Do you want to load the PPC file?[n]:", type y, press Enter, then load file PPC196.ld.
At the "Do you want to erase the Application Configuration? [y]", press Enter. If you want to save the previous configuration, type y and press Enter. At the "Do you want to load the board parameters? [n]:", type y, press Enter, then load file PPCenv196.ld.
When prompted, type the IP address, Ethernet address, and Card Name.
Step 6 Program all other boards in the chassis.
Perform the regular field firmware upgrade.
Reset the Cisco 6920 then connect to the Cisco 6920 using the connect.exe program. Connection should be established within 10 seconds.
At the BootLoader top menu, select F: Easy Chassis Download.
At the "Do you want to be in CHASSIS mode? [n]: prompt type y then press Enter. The BootLoader will take some time to configure all the boards in the chassis (up to 60 seconds).
For each board in the chassis, you will be asked whether you want to perform a software upgrade. Type y then press Enter for the cards that you want to program. At the "INFO: Waiting for Module ..." message, download the correct file using the "File" and "Download" selections. Use the following files:
You will be prompted to load the PPC card Flash memory. Because this was already done in Step 5, press ENTER when prompted to load any files or to erase the Application Configuration.
At this point, the Cisco 6920 has been upgraded. Reset the Cisco 6920. After approximately 60 seconds, connect from a Netscape browser.
The following section lists the new features supported in Release 1.96.
The default for Output PSI Data Rate is set to 14 (times per 10 seconds). If you want to pass through an NIT or other tables, the Passthrough mechanism should be used.
The Output Section on the browser has been modified. A new field has been added to display the NIT PID (if any) that is sent out with the Output PSI Data (only relevant when PsiRate is greater than 0). Also, a section has been added to display which PIDs (if any) are being passed through. These PIDs are inserted into the output stream without any manipulation. The new section will display the PID being used at the output ("PassThru PID") as well as the input PID (same as output PID unless some remapping occurred) and input this PID is being extracted from.
A new feature has been added to drop PIDs from programs selected for output. To drop a PID, simply remap it to "--". All other rules about remapping still apply (see the Cisco 6920 RateMux Multiplexer Installation Guide). In particular, if one PID in a list has to be dropped, the whole list should be remapped. The position in the list will determine which PID should be remapped to which value, with "--" and the original PID both being among the valid values.
A mechanism has been added to allow passing packets directly from the Input to the Output without any processing. The bit rate of each Passthrough PID should not exceed 256K bps. To use this feature, go to the "Edit Pass Thru" window when editing an output configuration. The window contains a read-only list of PIDs that are recognized as NIT PIDs on the different inputs, as well as a table where Passthrough PIDs can be specified.
Passthrough PIDs are selected by virtue of being in the table. To select a Passthrough PID, simply enter the Input PID, the Output PID (only needed if different from Input PID), the Input that PID should be extracted from and whether the Cisco 6920 is allowed to remap the Output PID to a different value in case of a conflict ("Remap" box). If a Passthrough PID is recognized as an NIT PID from the NIT list, then the Cisco 6920 will assume that PID should be used as the NIT PID.
A mechanism has been added to enable/disable Input PSI data collection by the Cisco 6920. To use this mechanism, use the "Advanced" button and the "Disable Input Psi Collection" box. Input PSI Data Collection is used by the Cisco 6920 to create the Input Program LIst, and disabling it causes the Cisco 6920 to use the last collected PSI Data. Input PSI Data Collection can conflict with the Passthrough PID mechanism when a PID carrying PSI data is selected as Passthrough; in this case the results are unpredictable (the Input PRogram List can be inaccurate or the PID may not be passed through). In order to avoid these conflicts disable Input PSI Data Collection when passing through PIDs.
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Note The value in the "Disable Input Psi Collection" box is stored in Flash with the last successful configuration. At start-up, Input PSI Data Collection is not enabled until the Cisco 6920 has had a chance to verify the content of the Flash configuration. |
It is possible to generate more than one output stream using only one Cisco 6920. In order to do so, the output has to be selected as follows:
Step 2 Click on Edit List.
From this moment on, all operations and displays will refer to the selected output.
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Note The selection is maintained on the Cisco 6920, so when multiple browsers are connected, selecting one output from one browser will cause that selection to be in force for the other browsers as well. |
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Note It is possible to select the same input program to be part of two output streams, as long as any PID remapping is consistent. |
It is possible to control the Cisco 6920 across gateways. In order to do so, the environment variable "GATEWAY" has to be defined, for example: "GATEWAY=10.0.0.6"). Only one gateway can be specified. For information on how to define an environment variable, refer to the "Upgrading to a New Software Release" section.
These documents are available for the Cisco 6920 RateMux multiplexer on CCO:
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