IPTV on UniFi OS

This document describes how to set up IPTV on UniFi routing devices based on UniFi OS, such as the UniFi Dream Machine (UDM) or the UniFi Dream Router (UDR). These instructions have been tested with the IPTV network from KPN (ISP in the Netherlands). However, the general approach should be applicable for other ISPs as well.

For getting IPTV to work on the legacy UniFi Security Gateway, please refer to the following guide.

Contents

1. Global Design
2. Prerequisites
3. Setting up Internet Connection
4. Configuring Internal LAN
5. Configuring Helper Tool
6. Troubleshooting and Known Issues

Global Design

        Fiber
          |
    +----------+
    | FTTH NTU |
    +----------+
          |
      VLAN4 - IPTV
      VLAN6 - Internet
          |
      +--------+
      | Router |  - Ubiquiti UniFi device
      +--------+
          |
         LAN
          |
      +--------+
      | Switch |  - Ubiquiti UniFi Switch (Optional)
      +--------+
       |  |  |
       |  |  +-----------------------------+
       |  |                                |
       |  +-----------------+              |
       |                    |              |
+--------------+       +---------+      +-----+
| IPTV Decoder |       | WiFi AP |      | ... |
+--------------+       +---------+      +-----+
  - KPN IPTV
  - Netflix

Prerequisites

Make sure you check the following prerequisites before trying the other steps:

1. The kernel on your UniFi device must support multicast routing in order to support IPTV:
   • UniFi Dream Machine (Pro): Multicast routing is supported natively in the stock kernel since firmware version 1.11. If you for some reason cannot use firmware v1.11+, see udm-kernel for a kernel that supports multicast routing for older firmware versions of the UDM/P.
   • UniFi Dream Machine Pro SE: You need Early Access firmware 2.3.7+ for multicast routing support.
   • UniFi Dream Router: Multicast routing is supported by the default firmware.
2. The switches in-between the IPTV decoder and the UniFi device should have IGMP snooping enabled. They do not need to be from Ubiquiti necessarily.
3. The FTTP NTU (or any other type of modem) of your ISP must be connected to one of the WAN ports of your UniFi device.

Setting up Internet Connection

The first step is to set up your internet connection to your ISP with the UniFi device acting as modem, instead of some intermediate device. These steps might differ per ISP, so please check the requirements for your ISP.

Below, we describe the steps for KPN. Feel free to update this document with the steps necessary for your provider.

KPN

If you are a customer of KPN, you can set up the WAN connection as follows:

1. In your UniFi Dashboard, go to Settings > Internet.
2. Select the WAN port that is connected to the FTTP NTU.
3. Enable VLAN ID and set it to 6 for KPN.
4. Set IPv4 Connection to PPPoE.
5. For KPN, Username should be set to internet.
6. For KPN, Password should be set to internet.

Configuring Internal LAN

To operate correctly, the IPTV decoders on the internal LAN possibly require additional DHCP options. You can add these DHCP options as follows:

1. In your UniFi Dashboard, go to Settings > Networks.

2. Select the LAN network on which IPTV will be used. We recommend creating a separate LAN network for IPTV traffic if possible in order to reduce interference of other devices on the network.

3. Enable Advanced Configuration > IGMP Snooping, so IPTV traffic is only sent to devices that should receive it.

4. Go to DHCP > Custom DHCP Option and add the following options:

   Name	Code	Type	Value
   IPTV-Class	60	Text	IPTV_RG

Configuring Helper Tool

Next, we will use the udm-iptv package to get IPTV working on your LAN. This package uses igmpproxy to route multicast IPTV traffic between WAN and LAN.

Installation

SSH into your machine and execute the commands below in UniFi OS (not in UbiOS). On the UniFi Dream Machine (Pro), use unifi-os shell to enter UniFi OS from within UbiOS.

# Download udm-iptv package
curl -O -L https://github.com/fabianishere/udm-iptv/releases/download/v2.1.4/udm-iptv_2.1.4_all.deb
# Download a recent igmpproxy version
curl -O -L http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/i/igmpproxy/igmpproxy_0.3-1_arm64.deb
# Update APT sources and install dialog package for interactive install
apt update && apt install dialog
# Install udm-iptv and igmpproxy
apt install ./igmpproxy_0.3-1_arm64.deb ./udm-iptv_2.1.4_all.deb

It may be possible that apt reports a warning after installation (like shown below), but this has no effect on the installation process, so you can simply ignore it.

N: Download is performed unsandboxed as root as file '/root/igmpproxy_0.3-1_arm64.deb' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)

This script will install the udm-iptv package onto your device. The installation process supports various pre-defined configuration profiles for popular IPTV providers. Below is a list of supported IPTV providers:

If your ISP is not supported, you may select the Custom profile, which allows you manually configure the package to your needs. We appreciate if you share the configuration so others can also benefit. See the profiles directory for examples of existing configuration profiles.

The package installs a service that is started during the boot process of your UniFi device and that will set up the applications necessary to route IPTV traffic. After installation, the service is automatically started.

If you experience any issues while setting up the service, please visit the Troubleshooting section.

Ensuring Installation across Firmware Updates

To ensure your installation remains persistent across firmware updates, you may need to perform some manual steps which are described below.

Even so, please remember to make a backup of your configuration before a firmware update. Changes in Ubiquiti's future firmware (flashing process) might potentially cause your configuration to be lost.

UniFi Dream Machine (Pro)

Custom packages on the UniFi Dream Machine (Pro) are re-installed after a firmware updates, but custom configuration is lost. To ensure your configuration remains persistent, move the configuration file to a persistent location and create a symlink:

mv /etc/udm-iptv.conf /mnt/persistent
ln -sf /mnt/persistent/udm-iptv.conf /etc/udm-iptv.conf

Make sure to re-create the symlink after a firmware upgrade.

UniFi Dream Machine SE and UniFi Dream Router

It is currently not possible to persist the installation across firmware updates (see #120). Your configuration should remain, so only re-installation is necessary.

Configuration

You can modify the configuration of the service interactively using dpkg-reconfigure -p medium udm-iptv. See below for a reference of the available options to configure:

The configuration is written to /etc/udm-iptv.conf (within UniFi OS).

Upgrading

Upgrading the installation of udm-iptv is achieved by downloading a new version of the package and installing it via apt. The service should automatically restart after upgrading.

curl -O -L https://github.com/fabianishere/udm-iptv/releases/download/v2.1.4/udm-iptv_2.1.4_all.deb
apt install ./udm-iptv_2.1.4_all.deb 

Removal

To fully remove an udm-iptv installation from your UniFi device, run the follow command:

apt remove dialog igmpproxy udm-iptv

In order to remove all configuration files as well, run the following command:

apt purge dialog igmpproxy udm-iptv

Troubleshooting and Known Issues

Below is a non-exhaustive list of issues that might occur while getting IPTV to run on your UniFi device, as well as troubleshooting steps. Please check these instructions before reporting an issue on issue tracker.

Debugging DHCP

Use the following steps to verify whether the IPTV container is obtaining an IP address from the IPTV network via DHCP:

1. Verify that the VLAN interface has obtained an IP address:

   $ ip -4 addr show dev iptv
   43: iptv@eth8: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default
      inet XX.XX.XX.XX/22 brd XX.XX.XX.XX scope global iptv
        valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
   

2. Verify that you have obtained the routes from the DHCP server:

   $ ip route list
   ...
   XX.XX.XX.X/21 via XX.XX.XX.X dev iptv
   

Debugging IGMP Proxy

Use the following steps to debug igmpproxy if it is behaving strangely. Make sure you are running inside UniFi OS.

1. Enabling debug logs
   You can enable igmpproxy to report debug messages by setting IPTV_IGMPPROXY_DEBUG to true in the configuration at /etc/udm-iptv.conf (within UniFi OS). Then, restart the service as follows:

   systemctl restart udm-iptv
   

2. Viewing debug logs
   You may now view the debug logs of igmpproxy as follows:

   journalctl -u udm-iptv
   

Getting Help or Reporting an Issue

If your issues persist, you may seek help on our Discussions page. Please keep GitHub Issues only for bugs or feature requests related to the project (no configuration-related issues).

When opening a discussion or reporting an issue, please share the name of your ISP as well as the diagnostics reported by our diagnostic tool:

udm-iptv-diag

Contributing

Questions, suggestions and contributions are welcome and appreciated! You can contribute in various meaningful ways:

• Report a bug through GitHub issues.
• Contribute improvements to the documentation (e.g., configuration for other ISPs).
• Help answer questions on our Discussions page.

License

The code is released under the GPLv2 license. See COPYING.txt.