Use the Route Performance report in the Partner Portal to help identify client prefixes in your network that might be experiencing less than optimal Netflix video streaming quality. The report displays performance metrics (defined in the glossary below) by prefix (CIDR)s in your network with a minimum threshold of Netflix traffic over the last 30 days. You can view a "Top 20" visualization of the data within the portal, and you can also export the raw data to a CSV file, which includes up to 1000 prefixes.
To analyze performance trends over a time period longer than 30 days, you can download the data in the report on a monthly basis.
Note:
Very large subnets with short prefix lengths are broken into smaller chunks, to provide more granular visibility into different parts of your network.
- For IPv4 subnets with prefix lengths less than /16, we force the prefix length to /16.
- For IPv6 subnets with prefix lengths less than /20, we force the prefix length to /20.
In this article:
Running the report
- Open Routes > Route Performance Report from the main menu.
- Use the controls on the left to modify the results that are returned.
You can:
- Run the report for all of your ASNs at once, or limit the results to a single ASN
- Include or exclude IPv6 prefixes
- Include or exclude public or private IPv4 prefixes.
Note: If you are using a "CGNAT Bypass" configuration, data for your private IPv4 prefixes are available in the report. However, If you are using a "CGNAT Inline" configuration, we do not get data for your private IPv4 prefixes. For more information see: Are OCAs compatible with CGNAT (Carrier Grade NAT)?
- Click Submit.
The report runs and results appear in the Report View.
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Optional: Click CSV to export route performance data to a CSV file.
The CSV file contains performance data for up to 1000 ranked routes meeting a minimum threshold of traffic levels. Use the CSV export for additional offline analysis or to look at trends greater than 30 days.
Glossary of terms
Prime Time
The 3 hours of the day with the highest amount of Netflix viewing as measured by hours of content watched.
This definition is used in the calculation of the Compression and Percent Perfect metrics, defined below.
Time-weighted Bit Rate (TWBR)
The time weighted average bit rate of video content streamed from Netflix.
This measure is used to calculate the Compression and Percent Perfect metrics, defined below.
Maximum Possible Bit Rate
The maximum possible video bit rate a Netflix streaming session could have obtained, based on a number of factors such as content availability and customer device capabilities.
Compression (Congestion)
Ratio of the Time-weighted Bit Rate for the 3 prime time hours, as compared to the 3 hours with the best Time-weighted Bit Rate. A higher value indicates a network that performs as well under high load as it does under low load, while a lower value indicates a degradation of bit rate when a network is under high load.
Important Note: This metric is relative, so a higher value here does not necessarily indicate that network performance is "good" - it only indicates that performance is fairly consistent throughout the day. Therefore, you should look at this metric in combination with Percent Perfect Prime Time.
Percent Perfect Prime Time
Ratio of the actual bit rate achieved for a Netflix streaming session to the Maximum Possible Bit Rate. A higher percentage value indicates that streaming sessions are achieving and maintaining their maximum possible bit rate and is an indication of a more performant network. A lower percentage value indicates a less performant network that is less frequently achieving the maximum possible bit rate.
Interpreting the results and addressing issues
The report displays the Top 20 prefixes in your network with the relative poorest performance as compared to other prefixes in your network. These prefixes are identified by having:
- Relatively poor Percent Perfect Prime Time
- Consistent or Nominal Compression (indicating that degraded performance is consistent)
Routes are ranked in the report based on highest possible improvement, loosely defined as relatively poor performance combined with relatively high view hours. It is recommended to focus your attention on troubleshooting prefixes in rank order.
Every network is different, and the steps you need to take to improve performance on congested or otherwise sub-optimal network segments is dependent on your specific network design. Therefore, we recommend that you follow normal troubleshooting procedures - looking for issues that could impact performance such as sub-optimal routing, congested segments, and so on.
The Partner Portal contains some additional troubleshooting tools that can help with routing issues:
- Use the Route Optimizer tool in the portal to ensure that you are advertising BGP routes in your network optimally: more specifically to embedded sites, and less specifically to peering locations. If routes are advertised more specifically to a typically less optimal source, this can cause traffic to be served from peering locations over a longer network distance, potentially resulting in a lower quality streaming experience.
- Use the Route Explorer tool in the portal to ensure that you are advertising BGP routes consistently to all OCAs within your embedded sites. If routes are not advertised consistently within a site, client IPs within prefixes that are not advertised to some OCAs in the site may end up streaming some titles from peering locations, potentially resulting in a lower quality streaming experience.