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A Special Supplement to
In Partnership with
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The Ultimate Guide to IPTV is a supplement to the June 2006 issue of Telecommunications Americas. Copyright 2006 Horizon House Publication
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Service providers and vendors are
working collaboratively to define
the architecture, requirements and
standards for IPTV.
Maria Estefania, ATIS
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Video/IPTV-to-network linkages
are needed in order for providers
to be able to deliver a high-quality
experience to millions of customers
while maximizing resources.
David Benham, Cisco Systems
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Leveraging the power of IMS and
intelligent, content-aware optical/
Ethernet networks to deliver
innovative TV services wherever,
whenever and however your
customers want them.
Rob Piconi, Lucent Technologies
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Service providers need to look beyond
IPTV alone and bundle it as one of
many services. Adopting this strategy
will help dramatically increase
broadband service revenue.
Gary Southwell, Juniper Networks
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For service providers and OEM
players, hybrids will deliver more
reliability and fewer customer service
calls, having a significant impact on
customer satisfaction and
brand loyalty.
Kurt Scherf, Parks Associates
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Take nothing for granted,
early adopters say.
Jim Barthold,
Telecommunications Magazine
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to you The Ultimate Guide to IPTV. In this publication, you will find the latest
information supporting IPTV service deployments, by the communications
industrys leading equipment and software companies.
Over the past several years, service providers have made enormous investments
in new network infrastructure and fiber deployments, all designed to bring
unsurpassed bandwidth speeds and new services to the user. Among these new
services is IPTV, or Internet Protocol Television.
IPTV offers an unparalleled and revolutionary video and entertainment
experience. Thats because it offers much more than just live television. IPTV
offers a dizzying array of entertainment options and functions iTV, gaming
options, Video on Demand, Pay Per View, and much more. It is capturing the
imagination of consumers
whove already had the
opportunity to either subscribe,
or in some cases preview this exciting new service
in various test markets.
As IPTV matures as a technology, so does the need
for industry collaboration. Critical to the ongoing
rollout and mass deployment of IPTV service is
the ability of service providers and the vendor
community to reach consensus on critical architecture requirements, as well as standards that support
content delivery, digital rights management, Quality of Service, interoperability, and other technical
and operational considerations. It is for this reason that the Alliance for Telecommunications
Industry Solutions (ATIS) moved forward with the creation of the IPTV Interoperability Forum
an industry venue where leading service providers, manufacturers and software companies are
fleshing out the architecture and standards that will further support the delivery of IPTV into the
marketplace. In this Ultimate Guide to IPTV you will learn more about this exciting initiative, and
the path ATIS member companies are taking to fully realize IPTV service.
Also featured in this informative guide are valuable contributions from several industry leaders
in IPTV. From their articles, you will learn more about how these companies are supporting IPTV
with solutions for service assurance, middleware, service integration, billing, and much more.
Thank you for your interest in the Ultimate Guide to IPTV. We hope you find it most useful as
you give consideration to the technology and operations path and real business opportunities that
IPTV service offers to our industry and its users.
Susan M. Miller
President & CEO, ATIS
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Service providers and vendors are working collaboratively to define
the architecture, requirements and standards for IPTV
Maria Estefania, ATIS
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Functions in the home networking
environment that ware necessary for the
consumer to receive IPTV services.
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Region-Dependent
Video Content
Multicast
Traffic
Unicast
Traffic
Multicast
Traffic
Unicast
Traffic
SHE
Metro/Aggregation
Transports region-Independent video content
Transports region-specific video content
Community content, local network feeds,
distributed video servers
VHO
Core
Segment
Timing
and
synchronization
mechanisms similar to those present in
VSO
Metro/Aggregation
Segment
DNG
Access
Segment
Home Network
Segment
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allowance for transcoding and packet loss;
error link budgets; specifications for error
concealment in video codecs; and definitions
for measuring channel change latency.
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Leveraging the power of IMS and intelligent, content-aware optical/
Ethernet networks to deliver innovative TV services wherever, whenever
and however your customers want them
Rob Piconi, Lucent Technologies
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to go beyond traditional service offerings
to provide powerful, high-demand IP
multimedia applications such as:
Caller ID on TV: Displays Caller
ID information on the TV screen and
allows consumers the option to pause
programming, answer the call and
resume the video where they left off
when theyre done -- or send the call
to voice mail.
Video and data services bundling:
Enables subscribers to use their TV to
launch new applications during TV
programming, letting them browse the
web, shop, or vote in interactive programs,
or access their voicemail or e-mail.
Locator for Family Finder applications:
Locate specified friends and family
members and have their location
displayed on their TV, using their
loved ones existing cell phone presence
enablement features.
Personalized Advertisements: Users
will receive and view ads that are
targeted to them and selected based
on their preferences and viewing/
purchasing habits.
Mobile Multimedia: Access TV services
from any location, using any device, while
enjoying the same selection, look and feel
of home applications.
The examples noted above are just a few
of the service blends that IMS-enabled
TV services -- or IP Multimedia TV - can enable operators to offer. Each of
these blended services share some fairly
unique, and compelling attributes that
current-generation TV providers will be
hard-pressed to match in the near term.
Perhaps most notably, IMS enables
services to be easily personalized to
address the needs of individual users. IMS
also addresses the need for portability,
ensuring that services can be delivered
seamlessly across wireless and wireline
networks of various types, reaching
subscribers wherever they are in the form
most appropriate to their location, and
preferences.
In addition, IMS includes elements
that support dynamic allocation of
bandwidth, enable the network to
adapt to particular customer needs, and
supply the appropriate level of network
resources to ensure a given level of
quality for a particular application. The
service can thus be delivered in a way that
is compatible with the device being used
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pattern for video packets means that both
drops caused by congestion and drops
caused by bit errors on physical links
must be avoided or concealed.
Instead of allowing more video sessions
to set up than the deployed bandwidth
can handle, operators need a networkbased admission control that can
deliver a busy signal to the requesting
subscriber. While a busy signal is not
what the subscriber wants to receive,
the possibility of mass degradation of
the VoD service is much worse.
An intelligent solution could support
more sophisticated busy signals. For
example, if a service knows that streams
are ending soon, busy messages could
give subscribers choices such as a
delayed start of a VoD or an alternative
service offering.
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Innovative
video
service-to-network
linkages, plus enough bandwidth to support
a successful launch of VoD and HDTV,
can enable service providers to provide
video/IPTV services with a high quality of
experience to their subscribers.
David Benham is Senior Manager, Video/
IPTV Solutions Development, Cisco Systems
From page 11
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Further
down the road,
consumers will
be able to view
programming
from the guide in
a smaller picture
within the guide
itself.
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IPTV is an underlying technology that
creates a whole new range of services to be
delivered to homes. The goal of entering
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this market isnt just to provide a package
of TV services. It is really to provide
a connected TV experience. Weve all
heard about the triple play of voice, video
and data, but the real value comes when
service providers can deliver converged
services running seamlessly across a
unified service delivery environment.
There are a wide variety of converged
services that can be created as you mix
and match the underlying elements. And
since were thinking big, we should stretch
into new territory, like the integration
of commerce, communication and
community. Combined with content,
these are the four Cs.
An example: As your customer comes to
the end of a great movie they have rented
from your service, you can give them
the opportunity to buy the DVD or the
soundtrack, right from their TV. You can
offer them the opporutnity to record a
program from the cell phone service you
provide them while they commute home,
and then watch that recorded show from
any TV in the house, with advertising
appropriate to their interests. Today, as a
provider, you can connect people using
PCs and phones. With IPTV you can turn
the TV into a two-way communication
vehicle that provides your customers
a rich window into the lives of their
extended family and friends.
And as a provider you can link all these
together to help cement your relationship
with valued customers. Your customers
can send a home video of their children
straight to grandmas TV set from across
the country, or take a picture from their
cell phone while at the beach and send it
to their TV screen for immediate viewing
and they can even talk about it. These are
examples of converged services, and it is
one part of the think big vision of IPTV.
For the service provider, IPTV is an
opportunity to transform the business
model from bandwidth-based to
content-based services and applications.
It is a chance to deeply entwine voice,
video and data into rich experiences.
It is a chance to complement existing
pay TV experiences by monetizing
new commerce, community and
communications experiences.
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As IPTV
evolves,
consumers
will be able to
get caller-ID
on their TV
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Take nothing for granted, early adopters say
Jim Barthold, Telecommunications Magazine
broadcast content;
The home networks and set-top boxes.
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hoping that some of the new compression
technologies will get you the coverage,
he said.
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starting to throb: getting MPEG-4 content
from satellite providers and mixing that
with formatted off-air signals. At the very
least this is going to require several hundred
thousand dollars of headend investment.
Were looking to NRTC (National Rural
Telecommunications Cooperative) and
SES Americom. Theyre going to do all the
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Using IMS and IP convergence to deliver what the customer wants
Andrea Sorensen, Amdocs
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Figure2isagoodrepresentationofintegrated
customer management. By adopting an
integrated customer management approach,
a service providers resources are aligned
around the customer, providing visibility
across all services supported by the IP
platform and insight into how and when
customers use their services as well as their
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personal preferences such as payment,
billing features and services. This creates
unlimited opportunities to leverage
the customer experience to maximize
value for both the service provider and
the customer, particularly in the area of
personalization.
Marrying IMS and IPTV to deliver
bundled services in the future is
perceived to deliver greater value
and empowerment to the consumer.
However, these technologies need to
be implemented and rolled out in the
context of the BSS/OSS supporting
customers. Consider that the majority
of customers have had less than optimal
bundling experiences. For example, a
leading North American service provider
recently offered a highly attractive service
bundle that included fixed voice, wireless,
satellite TV, and high-speed Internet with
a common monthly bill. An independent
sampling of this service found that for one
customer, it took a total of three weeks to
switch from his existing service to this
bundle. During this three-week period,
the customer had over 21 interactions
with the service provider, including four
technician visits, more than six hours on
the phone with CSRs and seven different
welcome letters!
The problem: The service provider
operated along line of business silos
in which the organization structures,
business processes and front- and backoffice systems were all network-centric
and operated in isolation. As a result,
each line of business interacted separately
with the customer to configure, provision
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Serviceprovidersarenotonlyrollingoutnew
services and capabilities based on enabling
technologies like IPTV, IP convergence
and IMS, but they are also recognizing
the impacts on BSS and OSS, as part of
the overall delivery of true convergence.
Without this overarching strategy, ultimate
convergence will elude all parties.
Take the example outlined earlier the
consumer watching television. When the
phone rings, they pick up and miss some
(or all) of their show. In a truly converged
environment, enabled by IMS, ubiquity
will be achieved across the IP network,
and an integrated customer management
approach will deliver options to the
consumer. Firstly, the consumer may
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Helping service providers redefine the end-user service experience
Jim White, Alcatel
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an end-to-end customer engagement
process that includes three critical pillars:
services definition, reference solutions
and integration services.
Whereas a
systems integrator focuses on closing the
gaps between various systems, a services
integrator focuses on the services providers
service and provides the critical resources,
tools and experience to bring a strategic
new service, such as triple play to market.
Redefining the end-user service experience
with the right services definition includes:
Application development which focuses on
packaging the most important user attributes
Trend and service evolution analysis
to describe and shape long term service
requirements for reference solution
development
Market-entrystrategy(pricing,segmentation,
business case modeling)
Technical service description or the
translation of user requirements into viable
solutions
Reference solutions that anticipate the
services definition and network design
relationship to deliver the right service
experience comprise:
Flexible reference architectures
Product portfolio breadth to bring new
technology, standards and economics together
Specific technical knowledge to ensure
that the reference solution delivers on
expectations
Technology ecosystem leadership to align
partners around a common plan
Integration services accelerate and manage
the reference solution implementation and
include:
Program management (plan of record,
technical requirements and specifications)
Vendor management and leadership
(critical project deliverables, managed
proactively)
Service delivery expertise that brings
important implementation know-how to a
project
Portfolio integration to ensure that
the services integrator has leverage over
important solution aspects
Combined, these critical elements define
the services integrator role making the
services integrator the service providers
focal point for an end-to-end project.
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troubleshooting and impedes CSPs ability
to isolate root causes and network hot spots.
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providers facing
competitive threats from multiple sources,
IPTV promises to increase the average
revenue per subscriber, helping offset
diminishing residential voice revenues
and possible market share erosion. An
IPTV service alone, however, will not
differentiate one provider from another
in the long run. Rather, the ability to offer
a range of flexible, customizable services
will enable true differentiation, opening
up the opportunity to potentially double
service provider revenue.
By deploying a flexible, intelligent network
infrastructurefromthestart,serviceproviders
will be able to offer IPTV immediately
without compromising the ability to offer a
range of flexible and customizable services
in the future. A shortsighted architectural
decision may be acceptable for IPTV, but will
limit differentiation and hinder future service
development opportunities in the long term.
Network architecture decisions can
minimize the risk associated with
implementing and offering IPTV alone
and also potentially double revenue by
increasing service choice; improve time
to market; decrease cost; and reduce
customer churnall without resorting to
price competition.
Entertainment
ONLINE GAMING
Downloads
Real-Time play
Multiplayer hosting
Streaming music
Streaming Audio
Radio
Concerts
Productivity / Reference
SECURITY
Anti-Virus
Firewall
SPAM
URL Filtering
Home Monitoring
INFO SERVICES
Financial, News, travel
VIDEO
IP/PC TV
Video on Demand
Pay per View
Digital Video Recording
PERSONAL STORAGE
Images, Video, data
INFO SERVICES
Sports, Games, hobbies
Dinamic Bandwidth
Upgrades
Distributed Printing
Photos, Etc
Communications
Voice (VoIP)
Tiered VPN
Personal Video
Email
Fax Services
Instant
Messaging
Video Telephony
Online Collaboration
Wireless Backhaul
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The challenges of a distributed architecture are: entertainment services at night.
Managing numerous distributed devices
The centralized BSR approach makes
in every CO (instead of having fewer BSRs such service segmentation possible and
centralized at Metro POPs) significantly manageable, as the policy is applied at fewer
increases complexity to plan, provision and points rather than at thousands of DSLAMs.
operate the network. For example customizing The BSR, by queuing each subscriber
each device, capturing network usage separately, can keep subscribers from
statistics, and assigning QoS parameters for interfering with each other.
each service is far simpler when performed in
The dynamic bandwidth management
fewer devices in fewer locations.
capability of the intelligent BSR approach
Adding the required intelligence to every differs from todays more simplistic
DSLAM and switch adds considerable cost distribution overlay approaches that treat
and complexity to configure new subscribers each service separately and force the carving
or modify the services packages to which out of bandwidth to support each priority
they subscribe.
service. This limits the number of offered
Most smart DSLAMs will take years to priority services to just a few, limiting the
mature to provide the advanced service revenue-per-subscriber potential and forcing
management functionality.
all subscribers to take a one-size-fits-all
Any intelligent IP
DSLAM and aggregation
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switch solutions require
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ESS/OSS
systems for provisioning
and management. This
locks
providers
into
single-vendor solutions
that prohibit mixing
best-of-breed access and
aggregation products.
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service providers throughout the world
are offering IPTV services and other home
entertainment content to stand out from
the competition, boost revenues and retain
customers. The pressure for new revenue
opportunities is at a fever pitch as cable
companies are now offering competitive
telephone services in addition to expanding
cable entertainment packages.
IPTV, according to telecommunication
experts, is the new battlefield for gaining
the residential customer base of the
future. More interactive entertainment
and communication options pay-perview, high-definition programming,
video conferencing and distance
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customers for services. For example, they
need to configure bandwidth for subscribers,
put in place set-top boxes in customer
homes, set up the in-home cabling, provide
and manage the necessary gateways and
provision the package of services selected by
the subscriber.
To simplify the process, providers should
be able to manage subscriber, service and
set-top box provisioning from a single API
toward the IPTV solution, so they dont have
to deal with several workflow provisioning
processes in different network elements.
This way, providers can easily assure the
consistency between their IPTV offerings and
their Operational Support Systems/Business
Support Systems (OSS/BSS) databases.
subscription process.
Set-top boxes also need to be simple to
configure. Set-top-box auto-provisioning is
an increasingly relevant feature as it enables
the subscriber to activate automatically all
his services with the first STB connection,
without manual intervention from the
service providers customer care assistants.
After the box is installed at a subscribers
home, the subscriber is able to immediately
access services on his TV after inserting a
personal identification number (PIN) using
the remote control. The subscriber can
use the PIN number issued by the service
provider to automatically provision the settop box, but also to rent movies, set parental
controls for TV programs and movie ratings,
and perform other personal configurations.
When problems arise with the set-top box,
the service provider must be able to perform
diagnostics and, if possible, fix the problems
remotely using a software tool that performs
this function. This eliminates the need for
the service provider to retrieve the box from
a subscriber home, make the necessary
repairs and then return the box to the
subscriber each time a problem comes up.
Set-top box remote diagnostics and repairs
can help providers keep operational costs
extremely low and simultaneously provide
better customer service.
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who ventured into unknown IPTV territory
were extremely beneficial in pinpointing
the crucial issues for the success of future
deployments.
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distribution? If so, the exclusive distributor
may have to front some money to cover
costs or guarantee a minimum revenue
stream. Obviously that means figuring out
how revenue can be generated.
The industry has had two distinct
models of revenue generation for content:
the pay-as-you-go model and the adsubsidized model.
Motion pictures traditionally have followed
the former strategy and television the latter,
though both groups have shifted somewhat
over time into the alternative space (e.g.,
HBOs popular Sopranos series and studio
release of films to broadcast television, paid
by ad revenues).
For the pay-as-you-go producers, the key
issue is getting in front of more potential
payers: That means getting more service
providers to offer for-fee content delivery
or more use of the Internet as a means of
getting content downloaded.
What the content providers would like to
see is a war between cable and carrier, with
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From page 17
In the future,
consumers
who have
IPTV via
their service
provider,
could enjoy
multiple
camera angles
of a sporting
event at once
From page 20
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an absolute necessity.
Other service providers havent yet defined
their throughput requirements, other than
to indicate that a home-networking solution
should be able to handle multiple streams of
data, voice and video.
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The market for providing next-gen, homenetworking solutions is wide open, and Parks
Associates is evaluating the prospects of a
number of different solutions, both wired
and those with no new wires that are vying
for market share as backbone solutions.
The wired solutions include the high
quality, reliable cabling systems being
installed in newly built and renovated homes
as structured wiring systems (which typically