[Asterisk-video] CPU Utilization of H.264 Conference with MCU

[Kiran N]

Hi Sergio,

Thanks for the quick response. I was able to reduce the CPU utilization to
6% (when only one participant is present in the conference) by performing the following
1. Re-compile the x264 module with yasm support.
2. Changed to QCIF format
3. FPS is reduced to 10.

The reason for why I am sticking to H.264 is that, I am testing the application 
with both Eyebeam and SIP Communicator. For some reason, SIP Communicator is 
not able to understand the H.263-1998 format from the MCU and thus nothing is shown 
on the
 screen.

I may be wrong, I had a peek into the code and thus came to know that
a VideoEncoder object is made for each participant and thus when there are 2 participants
the CPU usage is 12% (6 + 6) and when its 3 participants the usage is 18%.
This might be a stupid question, but it came to my mind
Isn't it possible for us to have a single VideoEncoder per conference?

Thanks and Regards,
Kiran


>Hi Kiran,

>The CPU utilization is something that we cannot reduce, it is bound to 
>the encoding process, which is something expensive if using h264.

>You can do one of the following things, reduce the video quality (either 
>going to QCIF, or H263 or reducing fps) or increase the CPU power of 
>your server. I have made test with up to 8 participants using HD(720P) 
>video at 30fps.

>Also, the mcu allows you have more than one mixer configured to be able 
>to use more than one server at a time.

>Best regards
>Sergio

--- On Mon, 30/5/11, Kiran N <nkirankurup at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Kiran N <nkirankurup at yahoo.com>
Subject: CPU Utilization of H.264 Conference with MCU
To: asterisk-video at lists.digium.com
Date: Monday, 30 May, 2011, 12:56 PM

Hi -,


I am trying to use 2X2 conference with H.264 Codec with CIF format. With a single person in the conference i could see that the CPU utilization has gone to 25% and when the second fellow joins, it went up to 50%. I could see that H.264 encoder (x264 lib) is the one responsible for most of the CPU utilization. 

Does this mean that I would not be able to run more that 2-3 conferences (say 2X2) active on a system? Is there any way, we can
 reduce the CPU usage? 
Any help in this regard will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and Regards,
Kiran
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