Edge Application - Storm Streaming Server

An Edge-type application is used to redistribute streams to end viewers using various protocols such as RTMP, HLS, or those dedicated to the stormLibrary and stormPlayer. This guide provides all the necessary information about configuring this type of application.

Sample Configuration

An edge application is the basis for creating a video streaming cluster. It is very similar to a live application. A single edge application will connect to an origin application (or multiple ones) and copy its streams when requested. You cannot push streams into an edge-type application.

The basic edge-type application configuration stored in config/preferences.xml looks as follow:

                        
<Application name="edge" type="edge">

    <!--
        Cluster Connection Settings
    -->
	<StreamingClusterSettings>
        <SupervisorList>
            <ClusterManager host="mydomain.com" port="443" isSSL="true">
                <Priority>1</Priority>
                <Secret>qwerty*1234556</Secret>
            </ClusterManager>
        </SupervisorList>
        <CopyOnPublish>true</CopyOnPublish>
    </StreamingClusterSettings>

    <!--
        General configuration settings related to this application and its streams.
    -->
    <GeneralSettings>
		<Description>Default application</Description>
		<BroadcastLimit>unlimited</BroadcastLimit>
	    <StatInterval>2</StatInterval>
	</GeneralSettings>

    <!--
        Settings related to video playback for connected clients.
    -->
    <PlaybackSettings>
		<AllowedHarnesses>
            <Harness type="storm-hls"/>
            <Harness type="storm-mse"/>
            <Harness type="generic-hls"/>
            <Harness type="rtmp"/>
        </AllowedHarnesses>
		<TotalViewerLimit>unlimited</TotalViewerLimit>
		<StreamViewerLimit>unlimited</StreamViewerLimit>
		<FrameBufferSize>0</FrameBufferSize>
	</SecureStream>

    <!--
        Access control settings for WebSocket and HTML-based endpoints (Storm Library & Storm Player).
    -->
	<StreamSecuritySettings>
		<TokenProtection enabled="false">
            <Password>qwerty</Password>
            <CheckViewerIP>true</CheckViewerIP>
            <TokenLifespan>10</TokenLifespan>
        </TokenProtection>
		<DomainAccessRights>
            <AccessRight type="allow" domain="*" />
            <AccessRight type="deny" domain="acme.com" />
        </DomainAccessRights>
	</SecureStream>

    <!--
        Basic MP4 muxing settings.
    -->
	<MP4MuxerSettings>
		<VariableFPS>true</VariableFPS>
		<KeyFrameCompensation>false<KeyFrameCompensation>
	</MP4MuxerSettings>

    <!--
        nDVR settings for live streaming.
    -->
	<DVRSettings enabled="false">
		<CacheSize>100</CacheSize>
	</DVRSettings>

    <!--
        Recording configuration for saving live streams to disk.
    -->
	<RecordingSettings enabled="false">
		<FileFormat>fMP4</FileFormat>
		<SavePath>/Users/szymon/Desktop</SavePath>
        <MaxFileSize>10</MaxFileSize>
        <MaxFileDuration>10</MaxFileDuration>
        <CacheSize>1</CacheSize>
        <MaxStorageSize>1500</MaxStorageSize>
        <RemoveOldFiles>true</RemoveOldFiles>
	</RecordingSettings>

    <!--
        List of enabled live transcoding presets for this application.
    -->
	<LiveTranscoding enabled="true">
		<Preset name="360p" />
		<Preset name="480p" />
        <Preset name="720p" />
	</LiveTranscoding>

</Application>
                    

Main Parameters Explanation

StreamingClusterSettings

This block defines a list of ClusterManagers to which information about streams and their status within the cluster is sent. Later, edge or transcode-type applications connected to these same ClusterManager will be able to locate the stream on the appropriate server with an origin-type application.

It is possible to define more than one ClusterManager in the list for the purpose of redundancy.

PlaybackSettings

This block defines how streams can be played back within the application.

StreamSecuritySettings

This block defines access protection mechanisms for streams, as well as domain-level playback restrictions. These settings apply exclusively to stormLibrary and stormPlayer. If you wish to exclude other types (generic hls, rtmp), please check PlaybackSettings section and disable these harnesses.

To enable secure playback, a valid hash must be generated and passed to the Storm JavaScript Library. Below is a sample implementation in PHP:

                        
$password = "qwerty";                        // Your security password
$unixTime = strtotime(date('Y-m-d H:i:00')); // Current time, rounded to the nearest minute
$token = md5($unixTime . $password);         // Basic token (without IP)
$token = md5($unixTime . $password . $ip);   // Token including viewer IP
                    

Defines a list of domain-level access control rules for stream playback.

Examples:

1. Allow only a specific domain:

                           
   <AccessRight type="deny" domain="*" />
   <AccessRight type="allow" domain="acme.com" />
                       

2. Block a specific domain:

                           
   <AccessRight type="allow" domain="*"  />
   <AccessRight type="deny" domain="acme.com"  />
                       

3. Block all subdomains:

                           
   <AccessRight type="deny" domain="*.acme.com"  />
                       

MP4 Muxer Settings

MP4MuxerSettings block defines basic options for MP4 packager that is used for MSE/HLS connections

DVR Settings

DVR function allows for short live-stream rewind mechanism based on cached stream.

RecordingSettings

Recording option allows for recording video streams into media files.

LiveTranscoding

For each individual application a set of presets for transcoding can be selected. Please keep in mind that presets must be already defined in your config/preferences.xml file. If you would like to define your own presets and learn more about transcoding check our Transcoding Guide.