Advanced Media Delivery (AMD) - In-band reporting of CMCD information - PoC: Enable CMCD reporting in Exoplayer

[dsilhavy]

Description

As part of this sub-issue evaluate whether Exoplayer supports CMCD reporting and how CMCD can be enabled. Moreover, to collect information which CMCD configuration options are available.

[dsilhavy]

Reference implementation

A lightweight reference implementation is available here: 9986eb1

It enables CMCD reporting in the Media Stream Handler that uses Exoplayer. A basic CmcdConfiguration is provided and the reporting is done in MODE_QUERY_PARAMETER.

Inspecting the logs of the Application Server I can see the CMCD parameters being added.

192.168.65.1 - - [10/Apr/2025:08:35:05 +0000] 200 "GET /m4d/provisioning-session-33fc2008-15e1-41f0-b4a7-7baf51dc63f5/redir-73ab9bd4-6b34-4a6b-baa1-4cf677060d3f/avc3/1920x1080p25/000006.m4s?CMCD=bl%3D17300%2Cbr%3D4742%2Ccid%3D%2263cebaa2-fb75-42a1-b1b9-5f39cc085d7a%22%2Cd%3D3840%2Cdl%3D17300%2Cmtp%3D88800%2Cnor%3D%22..%252F000007.m4s%22%2Cnrr%3D%220-%22%2Cot%3Dv%2Crtp%3D23700%2Csf%3Dd%2Csid%3D%220cb0a900-c134-43bf-a66f-e67e5b07bc7e%22%2Cst%3Dv%2Ctb%3D4742 HTTP/1.1" 2110450 "-" "5GMSMediaStreamHandler/17 A5GMSMediaStreamHandler/1.2.2 (Linux;Android 12) AndroidXMedia3/1.6.0 (Android 12; NE2213)" "-"

Parsed payload

'/m4d/provisioning-session-33fc2008-15e1-41f0-b4a7-7baf51dc63f5/redir-73ab9bd4-6b34-4a6b-baa1-4cf677060d3f/avc3/1920x1080p25/000006.m4s?CMCD=bl=17300,br=4742,cid="63cebaa2-fb75-42a1-b1b9-5f39cc085d7a",d=3840,dl=17300,mtp=88800,nor="..%2F000007.m4s",nrr="0-",ot=v,rtp=23700,sf=d,sid="0cb0a900-c134-43bf-a66f-e67e5b07bc7e",st=v,tb=4742'

Follow up discussion (originally via email)

Comment / Questions

Configuration

Question by @haudiobe

Just to check, the configuration is done through an API? Is this API consistent across dash.js and Exo? Does it align with the API/Service description in the 6th edition of DASH? At least conceptually: Do you believe it is better to configure outside the MPD using Service Provisioning or should we rely on MPD carrying the information?

Response by @dsilhavy

Yes, the configuration for Exoplayer is done via an API overriding callback functions and defining the report mode (headers vs query parameters).In dash.js we do the configuration via a settings object that is passed to the player. Overall, the available configuration options look similar though. See also: https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/media3/exoplayer/upstream/CmcdConfiguration.RequestConfig
I don’t think Exoplayer supports the configuration via the MPD at least it is not mentioned in the documentation. I assume this is true for other players as well. I recommend doing the configuration via the app and signal it using service access information.