Specifications

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Cisco TV CDS 2.5 ISA Software Configuration Guide
OL-24788-01
Chapter 4 Configuring the CDS
System Level Configuration
Note Single-site steering assumes all Streamers in a Stream Group are located at the same geographical
location.
Caution Multi-site steering is available only with ASI streaming. See the “Configuring the Streamer for BMS
Connectivity” section on page 4-45 for information about configuring the ASI streaming mode.
The Stream Group preference options in the QAM Gateway page differ based on the steering used in
your deployment.
With single-site steering, you are given the option to set a Stream Group to High or None. Only one
Stream Group can be set to High, all others are set to None. In a CDS network with single-site steering,
if one Streamer in the Stream Group that is serving streams to a QAM device fails, another Streamer in
the same group takes over.
With multi-site steering, there are four Stream Group preferences: high, medium, low, and none. In a
CDS network with multi-site steering, if one Streamer in the Stream Group with a preference of High
fails, the scenario is the same as single-site steering; another Streamer in the Stream Group takes over.
If network connectivity is lost to the entire Stream Group with High” preference, the Stream Group with
equal or next highest preference takes over.
ARP
The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is the method for finding a host MAC address when only its IP
address is known.The QAM Gateway page allows you to specify the MAC address of an IP gateway.
There are three reasons you may want to do this:
1. To statically configure the MAC address of an IP gateway.
2. ARP is disabled on the QAM gateway.
3. To statically configure all devices on the network to have all packets go to a specific IP gateway.
For single-site steering, the QAM Gateway page allows you to specify the MAC address of the IP
gateway when you enter the IP address of the QAM gateway. All streams from the Stream Group with a
high preference are routed to the IP gateway specified.
For multi-site steering, the QAM Gateway page allows you to specify the MAC address of the IP gateway
for the QAM gateway, as well as for each Stream Group and for each Streamer in a Stream Group.
Note We recommend you leave all QAM MAC settings blank and allow ARP to determine the MAC address
of the next Layer 3 device connected to the Streamer. To specify the next Layer 3 device, see the
“Configuring the Route Table” section on page 4-118.
Figure 4-1 shows a possible network design using multi-site steering with three Streamers, two gateway
devices, and three QAM devices. In this example, all QAM gateways communicate with all Streamers.
Because Streamer 3 is connected to the QAM gateway by way of a different router or switch, it was
placed under a different Stream Group. For more information about Stream Groups, see the “Configuring
Stream Groups” section on page 4-58.
The Streamers in “Stream Group 1” have the highest preference for streaming to the three QAM devices.
Streamer 3 (Stream Group 2) has a medium preference. The Stream Groups and preference levels are
configurable and are typically based on the destination IP address and the topology of the network.