How to measure bandwidth for IP cameras
In CCTV projects it is necessary to know how to measure bandwidth usage, especially if there is a
need for transmission for remote monitoring via cell.
In this lesson, you will learn how to measure bandwidth usage
for IP cameras and recording systems through the use of simple software.
Bandwidth
measurement unit
The first thing you should learn is which units that are used
to measure the speed of data traffic in digital networks.
When we talk about bandwidth usage for IP cameras or any other digital
system that transmits data via a computer network or the Internet, we have to
know how to quantify the amount of data that is transmitted or received per
unit of time and in this case, we are talking about bits per second.
Do not worry too much about the term bit, it is the digital
information unit represented by 0 or 1, at that point you just
need to know that this term is basically the information that is transmitted
over the network and the larger the number of bits to be transmitted the higher
is the necessary bandwidth.
See the following image where there is an IP camera connected
to a PoE injector that feeds the camera which in turn is connected to the
laptop. An amount of data (bits) travels from the IP camera to the laptop and
the bandwidth can be measured through the use of specific software.
When transmitting video from an IP camera to a recorder or to a
mobile phone on the Internet, we use terms such as 256 Kbps, 500 Kbps, 1 Mbps, etc.
These numbers are referring to the amount of information that
is transferred every second between the devices.
When we say that the baud rate is 256 Kbps, that means that 256,000 bits are transmitted every
second, since K represents 1,000 and we could even
write in another way, such as 256,000 bits per second, but that only makes
things more difficult, so it's better to write or say 256 Kbps (256 Kilobits
per second).
Similarly, we can use M to represent 1,000,000 (one million), so
when we say that the speed of the network link is 1 Mbps, we are in practice saying
that it is possible to traffic 1 million bits every second through this link.
So we must measure bandwidth usage at specific points in our
network to ensure that the system will work without crashes if the available
bandwidth is not enough we have to use faster network/Internet links or reduce
the amount of bandwidth that travels through the system.
The following image shows an IP camera connected to a router
that in turn is connected to a laptop and an NVR. You need to know how much
bandwidth is used between the IP camera and all devices, as well as the
Internet link traffic.
When installing an IP camera, you can see how much bandwidth is consumed according
to the video streaming quality setting of the camera, because the higher the
quality (resolution, frame rate per second and compression) the greater the use
of the bandwidth.
Other factors like the amount of movement in front of the
camera can also influence the bandwidth usage result, so it is important that
you do the calculations and tests to be sure of the bandwidth requirement for
your project.
See in the image below an example of an IP camera that shows
the maximum amount of bandwidth that will be used is 2,048 Kbps (2 Mbps) to deliver
the video at a resolution of 1920x1080 at a frame rate of 15 FPS and intermediate
compression using the H .264 CODEC.
This information is provided by the IP camera itself as shown
in the picture above (the menu varies according to the different makes and
models) and can be verified by measurement with software installed on a
computer.
How to
measure the bandwidth usage with the Windows task manager
If you do not have any specific software to measure the bandwidth usage of your IP camera,
you can use the Windows task manager by right-clicking on the bottom bar and
choosing the "task manager"
in the floating menu.
In the network
menu, you can view the amount of bandwidth used at the moment, note in
the following image that the IP camera was accessed via the Internet Explorer
and the task manager shows that the camera is using 1.6 Mbps of
traffic.
This is a very simple
and practical way of measuring the bandwidth usage of an IP camera, once the
camera image is being displayed on the computer this traffic can be measured.
Be careful when
measuring network traffic as there is an option to measure what is coming in
through the Ethernet interface (to which the network cable is
connected) since there is another option to measure network traffic over the
Wi-Fi interface, so please don't get confused.
Make sure you are
measuring the correct interface and that there is no other traffic than the
camera being used, otherwise the measurement will not be correct
Measuring
the IP camera bandwidth usage with a professional software
You can use professional software for measuring bandwidth usage, there is a multitude of
them available on the Internet, some are free and others are paid.
I use Netlimiter to analyze the
network traffic because it allows you to view bandwidth usage per application,
ie it is possible to know that Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, monitoring
software or any other bandwidth are using individually.
Note in the following image that the software shows the amount
of network bandwidth being used by Internet Explorer which is connected to the
IP camera.
It is recommended that you use professional software to measure
the use of networks in IP CCTV systems, so you can have more control over what
is being used in your network.
Netlimiter is able to identify the processes that are using
network bandwidth and what are the device ports, which is very useful for
diagnosing potential problems.
How to
Measure Your Internet Bandwidth
After measuring the bandwidth usage of the devices, it is
necessary to ensure that there is Internet bandwidth required for external
traffic if you want to view the cameras remotely via mobile.
Measuring Internet bandwidth is extremely simple, just use the
Speedtest.net service by typing the address https://speedtest.net into an Internet
browser such as Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.
See below an example of Internet bandwidth measurement where a
link is being used with 59 Mbps download and 58 Mbps upload.
Obviously, it is not recommended to send high-resolution video
streaming over
the Internet for mobile viewing as this will consume the resources of your
Internet link unnecessarily, after all the display of the image on the screen
of the mobile phone does not require high-resolution video such as a Full HD .
For mobile video streaming over the Internet, you can create a
profile with low resolution and low frame rate, and high video compression.
Most IP cameras have at least two video configuration profiles,
so they can be used with a high-quality profile for local recording and the
other profile must be configured with low quality for remote sending to a cell
phone.
Summary
and conclusion
Measuring the use of network bandwidth in IP cameras is not
complicated and the same concept applies to digital recorders (DVRs) and
network recorders (NVRs).
Just use the features available in the device menu itself or
use the software on the computer or laptop that must be connected to the same
network.
If you do not want to buy bandwidth analysis software, use the
Windows task manager itself, make sure not to mix network traffic from
other sources.
Ensure that you have enough Internet bandwidth to stream video
to a mobile.
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What is RTSP protocol for IP cameras
The RTSP protocol can be used to transmit images on CCTV
systems and due to its compatibility with several devices, it is a great option
for hybrid projects.
In this lesson, you will learn what the RTSP protocol is and how to use it
for an IP camera, digital recorder (DVR) or network recorder (NVR).
What is
the RTSP protocol?
RSTP is an acronym for "Real Time Streaming Protocol", meaning it was
designed to send audio or video live from one device to another.
This protocol was not created exclusively for CCTV, it was
already used in other sectors where there is a need for real-time transmission and was adopted by
video surveillance device manufacturers and became a standard protocol.
The RTSP
protocol for CCTV
Video surveillance manufacturers implement the RTSP protocol on their cameras,
recorders, and software so that they are compatible with other devices that are
available in the market.
When purchasing an IP camera and a video network recorder from different
manufacturers, you can have them communicate using this universal protocol.
To configure the equipment it is necessary to find out which
RTSP command is to be used and this information can be found in the product's
manual or by consulting the technical support team.
How to use
the RTSP protocol
Imagine that you have purchased an IP camera from Dahua (a
Chinese manufacturer) and want to use it with a network recorder (NVR) that you
already own, but it is from a different manufacturer, such as Samsung.
You should search the Dahua's camera manual for the RTSP
command that should be used to stream video over the network.
If you do not find this information in the product's manual you
should contact the manufacturer technical support team as it is essential that
you get the correct command so your equipment can communicate with each other.
After obtaining this information, you must insert it into the
recorder which will initiate a request to send video through this universal
protocol.
In practice, just open the NVR menu and input the RTSP command
followed by the username and password of the IP camera and upon receiving this
information the camera will send a real-time video stream.
How to use
the RTSP protocol for cloud recording
The principle for video recording in the cloud is the same,
just use the correct RTSP command to request the camera to send the video to
the server that is located somewhere on the Internet.
The diagram below shows a IP camera that is installed on an
internal network and it is connected to a router. You just need to set up the
cloud recording server to send the RTSP command over the Internet and as soon
as it is received by the camera it starts video streaming.
In this example, the server simply sends the RTSP command over
the Internet and upon reaching the external interface of the router it routes
to the internal network where the camera is located.
Therefore, it is necessary to configure the router and input
the routing rules that are based on the network interfaces and communication
ports.
How to Test
an IP Camera with the RTSP Protocol
Before trying to set up a CCTV system it is interesting to make
sure everything will work properly and the best way to do this is through
simple tests like connecting an IP camera with a traditional software that uses
the RTSP protocol.
There is a traditional free software called VLC that can be
used for such tests. The diagram below shows an example of how to use it.
In this example, an IP camera is connected to the router which
in turn is connected to the laptop that uses the VLC software to send the RTSP
command to the camera. Everything is on the local network and therefore there
is no need for routing rules (the devices are attached to the internal ports).
In the VLC software, just open the "Media> Open Network Stream"
menu or type CTRL + N and paste the RTSP command from the IP
camera.
In our example, the IP of the camera is 192.168.2.107 and the RTSP port is 554, this information must be
entered in the command that will be sent to the camera. See the example in the
image below:
The command in this case is:
rtsp://192.168.2.107:554/user=admin_password=admin_channel=1_stream=0.sdp?real_stream
After sending the command you can see the image of the IP
camera directly on the laptop, which proves that the command used is correct
and the network connections and IPs are also correct.
After this initial test it is possible to move on to more
advanced tests and use a remote connection with IP camera recorders or cloud
recording systems.
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