Stream publishing and distribution capacity testing

A method comprising

• discovering streaming server capacity under a first test scenario of a plurality of test scenarios, wherein said discovering comprises generating a first load on the streaming server by (i) emulating client-side operation of a first set of clients simultaneously publishing to and downloading from the streaming server, a first set of content streams using a first set of streaming protocols, (ii) increasing the first load until achieving a failure or performance degradation associated with each saturation point of a set of streaming server saturation points, and (iii) recording a load at which the first test scenario achieves each saturation point of the set of streaming server saturation points;
• discovering streaming server capacity under a second test scenario of the plurality of test scenarios, wherein said discovering comprises generating a second load on the streaming server by (i) emulating client-side operation of a different second set of clients simultaneously publishing to and downloading from the streaming server, a different second set of content streams using a different second set of streaming protocols, (ii) increasing the second load until achieving a failure or performance degradation associated with each saturation point of the set of streaming server saturation points, and (iii) recording a load at which the second test scenario achieves each saturation point of the set of streaming server saturation points;
• and
• producing a grid with each particular saturation point of the set of streaming server saturation points and a corresponding load of the first test scenario and the second test scenario achieving the particular saturation point.

A dynamic load test system comprising:

• a network interface communicably coupled to a streaming server under test (SUT);
• a memory storing a plurality of test streams;
• a processor dynamically load testing the SUT by generating a plurality of different test scenarios from the plurality of test streams and determining a load at which each test scenario of the plurality of test scenarios saturates the SUT,
• wherein determining the load at which each test scenario saturates the SUT comprises gradually increasing a load imposed on the SUT by each test scenario of the plurality of test scenarios until SUT performance degrades or fails and recording to said memory, the load at which each of the plurality of test scenarios causes SUT performance to degrade or fail,
• wherein the plurality of test scenarios comprises (i) a first test scenario generating a first load on the SUT by uploading to the SUT, a first set of the plurality of test streams using a first set of streaming protocols while simultaneously downloading from the SUT, a second set of the plurality of test streams using a second set of network protocols and (ii) a second test scenario generating a second load on the SUT by uploading to the SUT, a third set of the plurality of test streams using a third set of streaming protocols while simultaneously downloading from the SUT, a fourth set of the plurality of test streams using a fourth set of streaming protocols.