p3m: A Kernel Space Tool for Multimedia Stream Monitoring

With the development of the broadband Internet, heterogeneous multimedia service or protocols have been widely deployed, however, to monitor their quality of service (QoS) has become an important job. There are two traditional strategies: one is server-based QoS monitor depending on the specific multimedia server, such as Helix. Another is tcpdump-based, for example mmdump, which can measure the nature of multimedia traffic merely. These tools both work in the user space, which will reduce the efficiency. At present, we present p3m (portable multimedia monitor), a portable multimedia QoS monitor tool, which parses and analyzes the stream packet in the kernel space. The p3m is server-independent and can monitor the multimedia packets of interest for optional storage, thus greatly reducing resource requirements. This paper describes the design and implementation of p3m and demonstrates one instance of its utility in monitoring the QoS of RTSP with Helix Server.