Monitoring Stream Statistics from the xNode

Scope

The xNode's stream statistics can be monitored from the telnet interface using a terminal emulator. This procedure applies to audio nodes, including xNode and Legacy 8x8 Node. It does not apply to GPIO nodes or GPIO xNodes.

Description

Using a TTY/Terminal Emulator such as PuTTY, you can log into a node's telnet interface with the username and password of the device's web interface. From here, you can view the LWRD statistics to troubleshoot problems.

Some statistics available in the xNode are not available in Legacy nodes.
  1. Connect to the Node via Telnet on port 23

  2. Log in to the interface

    The username and password are the same as the login for the web interface.
  1. Start LWRD -stat

    From the prompt, type the following and press Enter
/home> lwrd -stat

This command will display a table of statistics.

You may want to increase your terminal emulator window size to larger than 80 columns to avoid word wrapping some of the statistics displayed.

The highlighted columns are the ones to monitor:

  • rx: This is the number of packets received
  • or: Overruns - The number of packets dropped because of inrush / overrun condition
  • ur: Underruns - The number of packets expected but not received
  • plen: packet lengh will tell you what kind of packet it is. Live Stereo LLivewire packets are 72. 1440, indicates Standard Stero Liveweire packets
  • nrdy: This is the number of empty frames

Here, we are monitoring for changes in the numbers displayed. Just because there are values in the field does not indicate anything. After running this program several times, make a note of the values that are increasing.

The rx value should always increase if there is an active stream at that destination. The ur and nrdy values may increase if there is an active source but no stream. (i.e., IP drivers that are not set to keep channels active when playback has stopped.) In this case, the xNode is expecting audio but didn't receive it.

Similarly, nrdy will increment if there is a stream active but no RTP packets. If you hear silence or dropouts at the node's output and nrdy is not counting up, then the stream is intact, and the device that is playing into the network is sending audio containing silence or dropouts.

The or value will increase if there is excessive jitter on the network, causing inrushes of packets at the interface.

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