Send adaptive bitrate streams to Akamai using a single stream target

The Stream Targets feature in Wowza Streaming Engine™ media server software allows you to send live streams to widely distributed destinations. This article explains how to use the group-manager profile to create stream targets with the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API to send adaptive bitrate live streams to Akamai for HLS and MPEG-DASH distributed delivery. Using the group-manager profile, you can group multiple bitrate stream renditions and send the group to Akamai with a single stream target. The group contains the streams you specify and uses a unique, adaptive bitrate playback URL.

This article assumes you have already created a Wowza Streaming Engine application with adaptive bitrate streams for playback with HLS or MPEG-DASH and configured Akamai to ingest an HLS or MPEG-DASH stream. See Configure Akamai to receive and distribute the stream to configure Akamai. Refer to the Akamai documentation if you need additional help with configuring its service to ingest adaptive bitrate streams.

Note:  Using the group-manager profile is the most efficient way to stream adaptive bitrate content to Akamai and is not supported in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager. In addition to using the REST API to send adaptive bitrate streams to Akamai with a single stream target, you can also edit the PushPublishMap.txt file directly to do so. See Stream to the Akamai HD network from Wowza Streaming Engine for more information.

Enable push publishing in the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API

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Before you can create or use stream targets with the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API, you must enable the push publishing module. To do so, you need to add an advanced property to the application's configuration and add the push publish module to the application.

Start by retrieving the details of the application's advanced settings and a list of the modules the application is using. Retrieve the information by sending a GET call to the endpoint /v2/servers/{serverName}/vhosts/{vhostName}/applications/{appName}/adv.

Note: Wowza Streaming Engine REST API requests must include three headers: Accept:application/json, Content-Type:application/json, and charset=utf-8. For more information, see Query the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API.

Example request:

curl -X GET \
-H 'Accept:application/json; charset=utf-8' \
-H 'Content-Type:application/json; charset=utf-8' \
"http://localhost:8087/v2/servers/{serverName}/vhosts/{vhostName}/applications/{appName}/adv"

The request returns an object (advancedSettings) that shows the application's advanced settings and a modules list of the modules in use. The response looks something like this:

{
  "version": "1543353224014",
  "serverName": "serverName",
  "advancedSettings": [
    {
      "enabled": false,
      "canRemove": true,
      "name": "debugAACTimecodes",
      "value": "false",
      "defaultValue": "false",
      "type": "Boolean",
      "sectionName": "cupertinostreamingpacketizer",
      "section": "/Root/Application/LiveStreamPacketizer",
      "documented": true
    },
    {
      "enabled": false,
      "canRemove": true,
      "name": "debugMP3Timecodes",
      "value": "false",
      "defaultValue": "false",
      "type": "Boolean",
      "sectionName": "cupertinostreamingpacketizer",
      "section": "/Root/Application/LiveStreamPacketizer",
      "documented": true
    },
    ...
  ],
  "modules": [
    {
      "order": 0,
      "name": "base",
      "description": "Base",
      "class": "com.wowza.wms.module.ModuleCore"
    },
    {
      "order": 1,
      "name": "logging",
      "description": "Client Logging",
      "class": "com.wowza.wms.module.ModuleClientLogging"
    },
    {
      "order": 2,
      "name": "flvplayback",
      "description": "FLVPlayback",
      "class": "com.wowza.wms.module.ModuleFLVPlayback"
    },
    {
      "order": 3,
      "name": "ModuleCoreSecurity",
      "description": "Core Security Module for Applications",
      "class": "com.wowza.wms.security.ModuleCoreSecurity"
    },
  ]
}

 

Note: During GET requests to the /v2/servers/{serverName}/vhosts/(vhostName}/applications/{appName}/adv endpoint, the wowzaVideoApiToken used for Wowza Video stream targets is obfuscated. When you run a PUT or POST request for this same endpoint, the wowzaVideoApiToken is encrypted when stored.

Now, execute a PUT command to accomplish two tasks:

1. Add the pushPublishMapPath property to the application's configuration.
2. Append the ModulePushPublish to the complete list of modules in use.

Note: The PUT command must include all of the existing modules in use by the application as well as the push publish module; use the response from the GET call to enumerate the modules that precede ModulePushPublish in the PUT call.

The command calls the same endpoint, /v2/servers/{serverName}/vhosts/(vhostName}/applications/{appName}/adv, and looks like this:

curl -X PUT \
-H 'Accept:application/json; charset=utf-8' \
-H 'Content-Type:application/json; charset=utf-8' \ 
"http://localhost:8087/v2/servers/{serverName}/vhosts/{vhostName}/applications/{appName}/adv"
{
  "version": "1543353224014",
  "serverName": "serverName",
  "advancedSettings": [
    {
      "enabled": true,
      "canRemove": false,
      "name": "pushPublishMapPath",
      "value": "${com.wowza.wms.context.VHostConfigHome}/conf/${com.wowza.wms.context.Application}/PushPublishMap.txt",
      "defaultValue": null,
      "type": "String",
      "sectionName": "Application",
      "section": "/Root/Application",
      "documented": false
    }
  ],
  "modules": [
    {
      "order": 0,
      "name": "base",
      "description": "Base",
      "class": "com.wowza.wms.module.ModuleCore"
    },
    {
      "order": 1,
      "name": "logging",
      "description": "Client Logging",
      "class": "com.wowza.wms.module.ModuleClientLogging"
    },
    {
      "order": 2,
      "name": "flvplayback",
      "description": "FLVPlayback",
      "class": "com.wowza.wms.module.ModuleFLVPlayback"
    },
    {
      "order": 3,
      "name": "ModuleCoreSecurity",
      "description": "Core Security Module for Applications",
      "class": "com.wowza.wms.security.ModuleCoreSecurity"
    },
    {
      "order": 4,
      "name": "ModulePushPublish",
      "description": "ModulePushPublish",
      "class": "com.wowza.wms.pushpublish.module.ModulePushPublish"
    }
  ]
}

Finally, restart the application, and then you can create and edit stream targets using the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API.

curl -X PUT \
-H 'Accept:application/json; charset=utf-8' \ 
"http://localhost:8087/v2/servers/{serverName}/vhosts/{vhostName}/applications/{appName}/actions/restart"

Create an Akamai stream target in Wowza Streaming Engine 

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With the Wowza Streaming Engine REST API, use your Akamai stream information from the Media Services Live page in Luna Control Center to create an Akamai stream target for an application {appName} using the group-manager profile to group adaptive bitrate streams. 

Wowza Streaming Engine map entries parameters

Example request and response

curl -X POST \
-H 'Accept:application/json; charset=utf-8' \
-H 'Content-Type:application/json; charset=utf-8' \
http://localhost:8087/v2/servers/{serverName}/vhosts/{vhostName}/applications/{appName}/pushpublish/mapentries/Akamai-DASH-myStreamNGRP \
-d '
{
  "profile": "group-manager",
  "childProfile": "mpegdash-akamai",
  "group.streamMatcher": "ngrp",
  "sourceStreamName": "myStream_all",
  "group.name": "NameGroupDASH",
  "entryName": "Akamai-DASH-myStreamNGRP",
  "akamai.streamId": "123456",
  "playbackHost": "example-i",
  "akamai.destinationServer": "primary",
  "http.playlistCount": "15",
  "debugLog": "true",
  "debugLogChildren": "true"
}'

The command creates the target (map entry) and returns a response that looks something like this:

{
  "success": true,
  "message": "Entry (Akamai-DASH-myStreamNGRP) saved successfully",
  "data": null
}

Map entry added to PushPublishMap.txt:

myStream_all={"entryName":"Akamai-DASH-myStreamNGRP", "profile":"group-manager", "group.name":"NameGroupDASH", "playbackHost":"example-i", "debugLog":"true", "debugLogChildren":"true", "akamai.streamId":"123456", "http.playlistCount":"15", "childProfile":"mpegdash-akamai", "group.streamMatcher":"ngrp"} 

Note: Stream targets created using the group-manager profile do not appear in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager.

Related request

Enable a single stream target (push publishing map entry):

curl -X PUT \
-H "Accept:application/json" \
-H "charset=utf-8" \
-H "Content-Type:application/json" \
"http://localhost:8087/v2/servers/{serverName}/vhosts/{vhostName}/applications/{appName}/pushpublish/mapentries/{entryName}/actions/enable"

Test the connection

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1. Start the stream in the camera or encoder that's sending the stream to the live application in Wowza Streaming Engine. The application ingests the live stream and sends it to Akamai.
2. In Luna Control Center, verify that Akamai is receiving the stream and distributing it to endpoints across its network:
   • Click the Monitor menu, choose Monitor Streams, and then choose the product. Check to see that there's an Ingest Bit Rate and an Egress Bit Rate for your stream.
      
3. Enter the playback URL(s) in a test player. You can use your own player or the Video Test Players webpage. In the following example playback URLs, [akamai-playback-host] is the playback host name for the stream as it appears in the Luna Control Center.

HLS

http://[akamai-playback-host].akamaihd.net/hls/live/[akamai.streamId]/[group.name]/playlist.m3u8

MPEG-DASH

http://[akamai-playback-host].akamaihd.net/dash/live/[akamai.streamId]/[group.name]/manifest.mpd

4. Stop the stream in the source camera or encoder to end your test connection. 

More resources

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• Stream to the Akamai HD network from Wowza Streaming Engine
• Use CDNs and services to distribute live streams from Wowza Streaming Engine
• Sample map file entries for Stream Target destinations (push publishing)