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VI. Feature Setup

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Configuring a DrayTek Router to work with IPTV, SkyQ & YouView

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Setup
Background Info

Setup

IGMP Configuration

To configure IGMP settings on a DrayTek Vigor router, go to [Applications] > [IGMP] in the router's web interface. The function of each option is covered below.

In most configurations, only this setting change will be needed to allow IPTV to operate. Enable IGMP Proxy and select the WAN interface that the IPTV service is available through, then click OK to apply the setting change.

Once this has taken effect, IPTV services should work in a similar manner to an ISP supplied router.

Additional Settings

IGMP Proxy

The IGMP Proxy option relays IGMP packets from the LAN to the specified Internet connection and vice versa. It must be set to the WAN interface that the IPTV service is available through, to operate.

IGMP Snooping

The IGMP Snooping option controls how IGMP packets received from the Internet are sent to the LAN side of the network. This could be useful on larger networks or networks with a large quanitity of IGMP packets that could limit normal LAN throughput. This option would not typically need to be enabled on a home network.

Enabling this will send IGMP packets only to the LAN ports that have subscribed to those groups.
When the option is disabled, the IGMP packets are sent to all devices on the LAN in the same way that broadcast packets are sent.

IGMP Fast Leave

This option is presented when IGMP Snooping is enabled, it allows the router to terminate an IGMP data stream when there are no longer any clients / LAN ports subscribed to that group, freeing up the bandwidth used by that stream for Internet usage.

Background Info

IPTV, Multicasting and IGMP

With higher speed Internet connections, watching TV over the Internet is becoming more popular and more services are being made available which offer TV over the Internet.

TV delivered over the Internet is typically referred to as IPTV (Internet Protocol TeleVision) and a common method of sending IPTV data stream is by employing a broadcast method called Multicast. Multicast allows data to be sent from a server to a group of subscribers and is a more efficient method compared to each individual subscriber separately downloading the stream. Instead of always sending this data, IPTV sends this data stream only to customers that request it, using IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) by joining an IP Multicast group. When a set top box like the BT YouView box selects a TV channel, it requests to join the multicast group displaying that IPTV channel, the ISP then sends that data to that client's Internet connection which is then relayed through and displayed by the set top box.

Multicasting is used because the data stream of a TV channel or other scheduled video would be the same for every client; sending it as a unique stream (or Unicasting) to clients would require more of the ISPs bandwidth. When the packets are sent out as a multicast, the source server sends a single cast per data stream and the network equipment forwards this data stream to every user that requests it, making much more efficient use of bandwidth for the server sending that stream and for the ISP's network resources.

IPTV on DrayTek Products

DrayTek Vigor routers and modems are compatible with many IPTV services provided by ISPs over VDSL / Fiber Internet connections. This requires enabling IGMP Proxy, which is not enabled in the factory default settings and links to a specified WAN interface, such as WAN1 if using VDSL or WAN2 if using an Ethernet Internet connection.

The implementation of IGMP multicast on the Openreach FTTC network sends IGMP packets through the same interface and VLAN tag as normal Internet data, but this is not encapsulated in the same PPP connection as the Internet connection's data.

DrayTek Vigor routers must have IGMP Proxy configured (detailed below) and will handle Multicast / IGMP packets in the correct way for compatibility with FTTC IPTV services.
The DrayTek Vigor 130 modem does require a change from its factory default settings for compatibility with this implementation, which is detailed here.

Some ISPs provide IPTV over ADSL services; this requires a specific implementation for each ISP's network. Information on how this is configured is not typically shared with customers for use with third party routers, therefore, details of configuration for this type of IPTV can not be provided by DrayTek.

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: First Published: 05/01/2017; Last Updated: 22/04/2021

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