Rust-Based Multicast MPEG-TS UDP Stream PCAP Capture for S3/MinIO HLS Hourly Archiving and Playback

This Rust application enables capturing of MPEG-TS UDP multicast streams, segmenting them into time-based HLS segments, creating .m3u8 playlists, and uploading them to MinIO or S3 storage. The segments and playlists can then be signed for secure playback. You can also run diskless and not store the segments locally, only in memory and upload to S3/MinIO. It has a container deployment option using Podman that sets up a local MinIO server and the capture application.

graph LR
    A["UDP<br/>Multicast<br/>Stream"] -->|"Captured via libpcap"| B["Capture<br/>Module"]
    B -->|"MPEG-TS"| C["Segmentation<br/>Process"]
    C -->|"FFmpeg"| D["HLS Segments<br/>and Playlist"]
    C -->|"Manual"| D
    D -->|"Watch"| E["S3/MinIO<br/>Upload"]
    E -->|"URLs"| F["HLS<br/>Playback"]
    E -->|"Log"| G["URL<br/>Logs"]
    G ~~~ Z1[" "]
    Z1 ~~~ Z2[" "]

    style A fill:#b3e0ff,stroke:#0066cc,stroke-width:2px,color:#003366,font-weight:bold
    style B fill:#b3ffb3,stroke:#006600,stroke-width:2px,color:#003300,font-weight:bold
    style C fill:#ffb3ff,stroke:#660066,stroke-width:2px,color:#330033,font-weight:bold
    style D fill:#ffcc80,stroke:#995200,stroke-width:2px,color:#663300,font-weight:bold
    style E fill:#ff99cc,stroke:#cc0066,stroke-width:2px,color:#660033,font-weight:bold
    style F fill:#e6b3e6,stroke:#660066,stroke-width:2px,color:#330033,font-weight:bold
    style G fill:#b3b3e6,stroke:#000066,stroke-width:2px,color:#000033,font-weight:bold
    style Z1 fill:none,stroke:none,color:transparent
    style Z2 fill:none,stroke:none,color:transparent

Quick Start Guide (Containerized)

git clone https://github.com/groovybits/mpegts_to_s3.git
cd mpegts_to_s3

# Edit the config.env file to set the desired settings
vim config.env

# Start MinIO and the Mpeg_to_S3 capture using config.env values for settings
podman-compose up --build

Quick Start Guide (Local Build)

Clone and Build the Project

git clone https://github.com/groovybits/mpegts_to_s3.git
cd mpegts_to_s3

# Build the application in release mode
cargo build --release

Configure and Run the Components

1. Start MinIO Server

# Start the MinIO server (uses ./data/ for storage)
scripts/minio_server.py &

2. Serve HLS Playlist

# Create HLS directory for serving the index.m3u8 file
mkdir hls && cd hls

# Run Python HTTP Server to serve files from the ./hls/ directory
../scripts/http_server.py &

3. Capture and Segment UDP Stream

# Capture multicast stream from udp://224.0.0.200:10001 on interface eth0
# Segments can be saved to ./ts/ directory with 2-second duration and uploaded to S3/MinIO
SEGMENT_DURATION_SECONDS=10 \
../target/release/mpegts_to_s3 \
    -n eth0 \         # Network interface for packet capture
    -i 224.0.0.200 \  # Multicast IP to filter
    -p 10001 \         # UDP port to filter
    --manual_segment \ # Use manual segmentation instead of FFmpeg
    -o ts \           # Output directory for .ts segments
    --diskless_mode   # Diskless mode avoids writing .ts segments to disk

4. Playback

• Direct Playback:

mpv -i http://127.0.0.1:3001/index.m3u8

• MinIO Playback:
  1. Retrieve the signed URL for the desired hour:

     curl -s http://127.0.0.1:3001/ts/urls.log | tail -1
     

  2. Setup an SSH tunnel for the HTTP server:

     scripts/minio_admin.sh
     

  3. Play back the hourly playlist:

     mpv http://127.0.0.1:9000/ltnhls/2025/01/16/06/hourly_index.m3u8?...(signed_url_params)
     

Prerequisites

• Rust Toolchain: Install via Rustup.
• MinIO/S3 Server: Ensure MinIO is available locally or via a container.
• Dependencies: Install libpcap for packet capture and FFmpeg (optional) for HLS segment generation.
• Ports: Open ports 9000 and 9001 for MinIO and the HTTP server.
• SSH Tunneling: For HTTP access to MinIO, set up SSH forwarding.

Usage

mpegts_to_s3 [OPTIONS]

Options:

• General Settings:
  • -e, --endpoint: S3-compatible endpoint (default: http://127.0.0.1:9000)
  • -r, --region: S3 region (default: us-east-1)
  • -b, --bucket: S3 bucket name (default: ltnhls)
• UDP Stream Capture:
  • -i, --udp_ip: Multicast IP to filter (default: 227.1.1.102)
  • -p, --udp_port: UDP port to filter (default: 4102)
  • -n, --interface: Network interface for packet capture (default: net1)
  • -t, --timeout: Packet capture timeout in milliseconds (default: 1000)
• HLS Output:
  • -o, --output_dir: Local directory for HLS output (default: ts)
  • --remove_local: Remove local .ts and .m3u8 files after upload
  • --manual_segment: Use manual segmentation instead of FFmpeg
  • --hls_keep_segments: Number of segments to keep in the .m3u8 index (0 = unlimited, default: 10)
  • --diskless_mode: Diskless mode avoids writing .ts segments to disk (default: false) requires --manual_segment arg.

Environment Variables:

• SEGMENT_DURATION_SECONDS: Duration of each segment in seconds (default: 2)
• FILE_MAX_AGE_SECONDS: Maximum age of files in seconds to upload (default: 30)
• URL_SIGNING_SECONDS: Duration of signed URLs in seconds (default: 31104004)
• MINIO_ROOT_USER: S3 username / access key ID (default: minioadmin)
• MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD: S3 password / secret access key (default: ThisIsSecret12345.)
• PCAP_PACKET_COUNT: Number of packets to capture at a time (default: 7)
• PCAP_PACKET_SIZE: Size of mpegts packets to capture (default: 188)
• PCAP_PACKET_HEADER_SIZE: Size of mpegts packet ip/eth header (default: 42)
• PACAP_BUFFER_SIZE: Size of the pcap buffer (default: 4194304)
• USE_ESTIMATED_DURATION: Use estimated duration for manual segmentation (default: true)

How It Works

1. Capture: The application uses libpcap to capture UDP multicast MPEG-TS packets on a specified interface.
2. Segment: It either:
   • Automatically segments streams with FFmpeg
   • Manually segments streams by directly processing MPEG-TS packets
3. Upload: A directory watcher uploads new .ts segments and playlists to S3 or MinIO.
4. Playback: The uploaded segments are accessible via signed or unsigned URLs, enabling HLS playback.

Monitoring and Logs

• MinIO Web Interface: View uploaded files via the MinIO web client.
• Segment Logs: Signed URL logs are stored in urls.log in the output directory.

Example File Structure

hls/
├── index.m3u8
├── 2025/
    └── 01/
        └── 16/
            └── 06/
                ├── segment_20250116-060000__0000.ts
                └── hourly_index.m3u8

Development Notes

The full source code is located in the src/ directory. Additional utility scripts for managing MinIO and HTTP servers are available in the scripts/ folder.

For questions or issues, refer to the repository's issue tracker.

Author: wizard@groovy.org Date: January 15, 2025