The following section gives a preliminary introduction to the main features available while using a cloudSwXtch.
Licensing cloudSwXtch Features
In addition to Multicast and wXcked Eye, users can license the following features for their cloudSwXtch:
| Protocol Fanout | Protocol Conversion (e.g. SRT to Multicast) | Ground to Cloud/Cloud to Ground | SMPTE ST 2022-7 & High Availability |
| Precision Time Protocol (PTP) | Tachyon LIVE! | Increase Bandwidth Capacity (Ingress) | Additional Endpoint Connections |
Multicast
cloudSwXtch enables true and seamless IP-multicast.  Using multicast, instead of unicast, optimizes a user's network configuration, reducing their cloud distribution and egress costs.  In addition, receivers can dynamically subscribe and unsubscribe to a user's streams as workflows dictate.  cloudSwXtch alleviates the need to have to constantly reconfigure unicast streams to accommodate downstream receivers. cloudSwXtch uses the industry standard IGMPv2/v3 for its management of multicast group membership.
For more information, check out the Multicast feature article.
Single Source Multicast (SSM)
Traditionally, Single Source Multicast (SSM) is a method for delivering multicast packets in which the only packets that are delivered to the receiver are those originating from a specific source address requested by the receiver. This can be accomplished as either a consumer command for swxtch-perf, the cloudSwXtch-based tool for simulating traffic movement, or via an external application.
Protocol Conversion and Fanout
cloudSwXtch supports a unique feature called protocol conversion and fanout. This feature is useful when a user's multicast application needs to stream to an endpoint that does not support multicast or it is not possible to install an xNIC in the endpoint. cloudSwXtch can map a multicast group address to a unicast address. Similarily, a unicast input to cloudSwXtch can be mapped to a multicast group enabling mulitple endpoints to consume the original unicast input stream. Protocol Fanout converts many packet protocols and distributes them out as if they were multicast; freely integrating multicast, unicast and Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) streams while making the network more efficient and reducing egress costs.
For more information, check out the Protocol Conversion and Fanout feature article.
SMPTE 2022-7 and High Availability (HA)
High Availability (HA) protects users against data path errors by sending the same stream through as many as eight different distributed data paths. It compares packet reception from the multiple paths, detects dropped packets and reconstructs the output stream in the correct order. This feature is compliant with SMPTE 2022-7 for media workflows.
For more information, check out the High Availability feature article.
Ground to Cloud <==> Cloud to Ground
A user can connect their On-Prem network to their cloudSwXtches in the Cloud via the bridge application.
For more information, check out the Installing cloudSwXtch Bridge guide.
wXcked Eye for Monitoring and Configuration
cloudSwXtch also provides its users with visibility down to the packet level for enhanced Monitoring and Quality of Service (QoS). wXcked Eye is the cloudSwXtch monitoring UI tool that enables users to deeply audit the performance of their cloudSwXtch network. Each cloudSwXtch performs complete packet capture.
In addition, wXcked Eye also provides users with an additional avenue to configure their cloudSwXtch environment for mesh, high availability, protocol conversion and fanout, and precision time protocol.
A REST API is provided to help users manage and control their network in their own way.
For more information, please see the Using wXcked Eye for cloudSwXtch article.
Precision Time Protocol (PTP)
Precision Time Protocol (PTP) is a cloudSwXtch feature that facilitates clock synchronization between agents connected to the network. The cloudSwXtch acts as the Master Node, passing on the information gained from the true clock source to the Follower Nodes or agent end points.
For more information, please see the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) feature article.
Tachyon LIVE!
Tachyon LIVE! is a live, high-quality standards, format, and frame rate converter software stack that maximizes video quality across all conversions. It performs standards conversion including PAL/NTSC frame rate and format conversions, high-quality deinterlacing, and up/down rescaling from SD through HD, and it can process the highest-quality conversions for HD 59.97p to HD 50p, faster than real time in a VM with NVIDIA GPU-accelerated infrastructure.
This feature is an exclusive offer for cloudSwXtch from Cinnafilm and available as either an HD or UHD add-on.
For more information, please see the Tachyon LIVE feature article.