HLS Test

HLS Test allows you to execute performance tests on your on-demand or live-streaming video services.

After logging into Loadium, follow the path Create —> HLS Testing to create a video stream test.

Video Stream Settings

Manifest URL: The URL here should be the manifest URL (.m3u8 or .mpd) which contains the main information of the video.

Protocol: Specifies the protocol to be used, HLS or MPEG-DASH. When choosing "Automatic", the configuration is made automatically based on the values ​​in the manifest URL.

Resolution: Specifies the resolution values ​​for the video. "Minimum" and "Maximum" options automatically set the resolution based on the values ​​in the manifest URL. Custom resolution allows specific values, but they must match one of the options contained in the manifest URL.

Duration: Specifies the duration of the video. Can be the entire video or a custom duration in seconds.

Example

In our example, this URL value is “https://vp.nyt.com/video/hls/2023/01/18/105584_1_opdoc-kitchen_wg/master.m3u8".

Result

After all these configuration settings are made, we can start the test. We can use the “Request Stats” tab to see the results.

When we start the test after making the relevant settings, Loadium will start downloading the manifest and segment files from the specified URL.

When we examine the table on the Request Stats screen, we can see the effect of the load settings we made before the test on the test. There are 5 requests named "Loadium - Streaming Sampler - master playlist". These requests contain the audio and video files of the relevant URL.

One of the values ​​we need to pay attention to in this type of test is the average data size. We can use the “Overview” field to see this value.

The value here shows us that our test downloaded an average of 2.42 MB of data per second. By multiplying the relevant value by the test duration, we can find out the size of the download made during the test period.

In this example, the test lasted 8 seconds. Therefore, it can be seen that the download we made during the test period was 8 x 2.42 MB = 19.36 MB in size.